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Flag Fish and Reef Tanks

Dwight the Ebay Plant Specialist who knows much about plants wrote:

<Snip some excellent info on FFF>

>>As for reef tanks, your arguement about artificial coral/live rock
reproduction is sound, but who has a salt water tank w/o the fish and
fancy
fauna?  Unless you are talking about a damsel fish tank, I'll have to
say
marine aquaria are still more destructive than planted aquaria since
the
"beast must be fed" w/ new live wild specimins each year to fill
hobbyists
aquaria.

My fish and corals do not die on a yearly basis.
I have over 40 fish in  my tank.
I have cardinal fish in my tank that are 5yrs old and spawn on a
monthly basis
I have a pair of mandarins that do their lovely ballets like spawning
rituals monthly.
I have a pair of percula clowns that are 3yrs old and mature enough to
begin spawning.
They live in 4 gorgeous pink bubble tip anemones. I started with one 4
yrs ago and
have had them asexually reproduce yearly.
I have a 3 yr. old pair of yellow watchman gobies that I am pretty
sure are spawning.
I have a Naso tang over 5 yrs old.

Even back in the early 80's when I set up my first salt tank, with the
undergravel filter
and the fluval, I kept a show Queen angel and a Snowflake eel for
three yrs until I had
to move across country and sold the entire tank.

>>Should we so the same to the trade in reef fish/fauna that were not
bred in captivity...I'm sure you'll agree that would be the end of 90%
of
the trade in marine animals since they cant be bred.>

Almost all clownfish and psuedochromis species can be captively reared
as well as a few species of gobies. They are making inroads into
larval rearing
of many species of angels, butterflies and tangs. There are reports
out of Asia of raising angelfish
spawns in ponds.

>>Its the fancy fish in saltwater aquaria that gets to me though.  No
one
will spend much time ogling rocks w/o fish.  Contrast that to an Amano
or a
European tank w/o fish .. you don't even notice fish if they arnt
there!

The look of the dead coral tanks is gone. You can get live rock that
is quarried on land and
put in the ocean to cultivate and is now being sold on the market.
All soft corals and lot of the reef building acropora species are
actively traded amongst
hobbyist for a number of years as well as several other species.

It is only within the last 6-8 yrs that the marine aquariums has
really begun to flourish.
Remember it wasn't that long ago that people had a hard time keeping
plants alive in a
tank as well.

The marine side of the hobby is coming into its own and is painfully
aware of the problems that have
happened in the past and hopefully is on a path to sustainability.

I sure don't want to turn this into a pissing contest as so often
these threads do
I just hate to see so much disinformation.

You are more than welcome to come check out my reef anytime.
Bring your snorkel!   :)

Peace out
.¸. , . .·´¯`·.
 ><(((º>     `·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><(((º>¸
          ><(((º>             ·.¸¸.·´¯`·...
Keith and Lisa
www.leafandpaws.com
Natural products for the life of your pet.

Aquariums
www.net-link.net/kandl/