Captive bred or Wild Caught?

[GrayBunny]

I'd like to now what the feelings are in the community regarding whether or not the fish we select are tank bred or wild caught. Being new to the hobby, I had initially assumed that the fish were bred for sale and didn't realize that many of them were wild caught.

What are. The general thoughts about this? Do you buy tank bred fish if they are available?

 

[prattreef]

Very few species of marine fish are bred in captivity and even fewer are available commercially at the hobbyist level. Clownfish, dottybacks, a few gobies and not much else. The list is slowly growing, but slowly, and sadly it is still cheaper to catch and import a fish from the wild than it is to breed one domestically. That said, there is no reason to buy wild clownfish unless you are a serious breeder.

 

[GrayBunny]

I bought my clownfish at the lfs and didn't know one from the other, after I learned some are wild caught vs tank bred I asked and they said mine were wild caught and I felt kind of bad. That being said, there have been no eggs :fish:

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

For most of the fish we keep this is not a problem. Clownfish and sea horses are two exceptions. Clowns are always found in anemones in the wild and sea horses are on the verge of becoming endangered last I read on the subject. (But this is mostly due to high demand from certain markets that use dried sea horses in traditional medicine)

Alfred