An open letter to the aquarium industry

[Friendly]

so copper only suppresses issues and once removed, whatever infections they have will flare up?

[pokerdobe]

2 minutes ago, Friendly said:

so copper only suppresses issues and once removed, whatever infections they have will flare up?

Only if the copper is below therapeutic levels. 

 

If treated at therapeutic levels for the appropriate time period, it will eliminate parasites such as ich or velvet. I am unfamiliar with copper's viability for bacterial or fungal infections.  

[Tamberav]

There is one LFS here that does really well, the prices are cheap, salt MUCH cheaper there than online, even beating amazon.

 

They have all the big name brand items, you can buy a 2016 apex, vortech, prime, ect. 

 

The fish sell out fast, like 2 days, you won't be 'watching a fish for two weeks' before buying. I am jealous people get to do that. So the fish are hit or miss. Corals are from $8-$100's of dollars and a local online coral vendor supports them so they have frags of things like Walt Disney, ect.

 

They order weird shit like cold water nems, cuttlefish, ect so thats kind of neat. 

 

One of the main girls that works there has her own reef tanks and is knowledgeable. 

 

It's not uncommon for the place to be busy and a line at checkout. 

 

They have a FW side they probably make more on but the local reefing community gives that fish store support and the LFS sponsors the local forums and sets up group buys, ect. And that is just the salt side, idk maybe the FW side is banded together to support them too, I am not sure since I am not part of their forums.

 

Stores like this are an exception and I would love to see more of them. 

 

 

 

 

[Friendly]

43 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

There is one LFS here that does really well, the prices are cheap, salt MUCH cheaper there than online, even beating amazon.

 

They have all the big name brand items, you can buy a 2016 apex, vortech, prime, ect. 

 

The fish sell out fast, like 2 days, you won't be 'watching a fish for two weeks' before buying. I am jealous people get to do that. So the fish are hit or miss. Corals are from $8-$100's of dollars and a local online coral vendor supports them so they have frags of things like Walt Disney, ect.

 

They order weird shit like cold water nems, cuttlefish, ect so thats kind of neat. 

 

One of the main girls that works there has her own reef tanks and is knowledgeable. 

 

It's not uncommon for the place to be busy and a line at checkout. 

 

They have a FW side they probably make more on but the local reefing community gives that fish store A LOT of support and the LFS sponsors the local forums and sets up group buys, ect. And that is just the salt side, idk maybe the FW side is banded together to support them too, I am not sure since I am not part of their forums.

 

 

that's awesome Tam...to have good local access is important. I'm glad they seem to have found a balance that lets them show they care about their wards and their customer, not just the buck to make, no matter the consequence.

 

I live in an armpit community, we're very remote...closest major city centre (about 100K ppl) is a 9 hour drive. we do have a well respected pet store here though, but their focus is on cats/dogs/rodents/lizards and fw fish. they do have a single sw tank going, but the only thing in it when I looked last was a grown clown...about 3". I will support her in every way I can though, but for a few things as she only carries Marineland and Hagen/Fluval and prefers acrylic over glass, while I'm glass over acrylic, LoL.

[Humblefish]

2 hours ago, pokerdobe said:

Only if the copper is below therapeutic levels. 

 

If treated at therapeutic levels for the appropriate time period, it will eliminate parasites such as ich or velvet. I am unfamiliar with copper's viability for bacterial or fungal infections.  

+1 Copper treats ich + velvet. You have to add metronidazole to the mix to also address brook + uronema. Copper + metro combination treats most parasites.

 

Fungal infections are pretty rare in SW fish; for bacterial diseases you would need to treat with antibiotics.

[StinkyBunny]

22 hours ago, seabass said:

You'd think that ORA would be pushing for exemptions for captive livestock.  Plus, it wouldn't necessarily take away from wild collected specimens.  Just seems a little short sighted to me.

It's not an issue to trade in corals here in the US once they've come through USF&W. Trading in US bred corals is the same. All the US gubmint wants is their fees and taxes and to make sure what you have listed on the import manifest is what you have in the box.

5 hours ago, seabass said:

With wild collection bans in several areas pushing up prices, maybe people will gravitate more towards aquacultured products.

 

I get the arguments, but it's not like we're keeping an endagered rhino.  I'm talking about easily cultivated livestock (fish and corals) which will inevitably, someday have protected status.  And unless regulations change, they will become illegal to keep.

 

There are ways to reduce illegal collection, importation, and sale of wild species.  All in all, our hobby has a relatively small footprint; but it wouldn't hurt to make it even smaller.  Excluding captive specimens from the ESA would relieve a lot of the push back arguments for protecting more species.  Really I'm talking about eventually having a near zero impact on wild reefs (while keeping our industry robust).

The problem with captive propagated coral producers is they were on such a small margin before that now that they know they have a product you can't get anymore they're going to get their price or you won't get it. It's not going to get better if Indo opens back up, more fees on their side means more money on our side. The days of cheap corals are done for unless we get an exemption for hard corals out of Vietnam.

 

Captive bred corals aren't governed by anyone that I know of, it's only imports that are. I'd love for there to be more captive bred marine fish, but it takes a lot of money and a lot of space. It's also a hell of a roll of the dice with an uncertain return.

[Beer]

When these regios get shut down, the mariculture facilities get shut down as well. It would be helpful if the regulations had excpetions and oversight for the mariculture facilities.