dizzy":3auhodpm said:
Sure, but a wholesaler/distributor going out of business isn't likely to encourage/discourage a new hobbyist. And so doesnt' seem like it should have too much impact on the demand. Fish having a repuation for dying in the aquariums and being difficult to keep will. Fish dying enroute seems to me like it is removed enough from the hobbyist (at least the entry ones that would be the source of increased demand) that it won't have too much of an affect.
It may cause a price shift, but a new keeper is probably buying relatively inexpensive fish anyhow, and so the price shift isn't likely to affect there decision.
It may also put some retailers out of business, but I doubt there are that many peopel who aren't a reasonable drive form a fish store of some sort taht woudl ahpppily sell them a "beginner setup". And so I doubt even teh retailers going out of business has much affect other than perhaps in pricing.
Time for another made up example:
Johnny Newbie has decided to start a saltwater tank. SO he goes to his LFS, buys all the equipemtn they want to sell him, wet/dry filteer. acrylic sump, miracle mud,skimmer, tank, stand, salt, pumps, etc, etc etc.
Then he buys a bunch of live rock.
At this point he's out a *lot* of money. THe price of the fish themsleves is such a small protion of his total budget that it would take a substantial bump in price to change his mind.
/end made up example
Now if he's buying fish that have just arrived at teh LFS tank, then what you say seems to make more sense. As then *he* will be the one to get a dying fish due to whatever stress you care to name. Be it cyanide/poor shipping/handling/etc.
But if the fish has been in the LFS tanks for a while, they end up with the dead fish if it was in the process of dying from shipping.
So if one buys fish reasonably intelligently, the capture/transport/handling stress is seperated (mostly) fomr teh ease/difficulty in caring for the fish.
If the fish isn't in the store for very long, that seperation is not present, and what you say seems to make a lot more sense. But an experienced aquarist will leave it in the store (with a deposit if required) and so will insulate themselves to a much larger extent from the fish mortality associated with poor capture/shipping. So mortality in the experienced tank is further removed from shipping stress anyhow.
And mortality in the Johnny Newbie's tank form the example is likely to be more due to a new tank and lack of experience regardless of how healthy the animal was when he purchased it.
So you have two rough classes of people. Experienceed and new.
The experienced aquarist seperates himself form shipping mortality by leaving dead/dying fish in the store. Over the course of his aquarium keeping lifetime, he will kill many more fish. But by forcing the supply chain to eat the cost of short term shipping moortality his spending dollars should lead to teh supply chain doing its best to minimize DOA's to a large extent because shipping a fish that doesn't make it into an aquarist tank is an expensive waste of somebody in that chain's money. And as you said, it's these guys that are responsible for many more fish.
The new guy will buy the fish with less of an eye for healthy fish, proabbly won't pay to have them held, etc. and will in all liklihood have a tank that isn't ready for whatever fish he's putting in it. These guys are going to see high mortality regardless of capture/fishing stress.
So I don't see how capture shipping stress (as opposed to improved ease of care) has much influence on demand. Some, certainly as the less stressed fish will survive better to a degree. But the ones benefitting from that are going to be the experienced keeprers more often than not, and they should (though don't always) know enough to not purchase an animal until in demonstrably healthy and eating if at all possible. And as the experience guys aren't likely to bail on the hobby due to a fish loss here and there, teh longer it lives in there tank, teh fewer fish they end up removing (multiplied by some factor based on how many fish are collected to get one fish to the aquarium).
