got this message in my pm from whoever the hell this guy is...
- Thread starter the animal guy
- Start date
fish that lil are also caught as by catch. Collectors dont go out to the river thinking "Im going after just baby festae today" They may be looking for better fish or more specific fish but i doubt they throw that many back. Its their way of feeding their families. They will prolly catch whatever they can sell.
Interesting topic!!!! the vendors on this site mainly have to take the word of the people in that country catching the fish....it would be very difficult to catch fish this small but let us think of different senerios,
if you catch a female that is ready to lay eggs and they are layed in the boat and the fisherman gets these to hatch and raises them until shipment....are these still wild caught?
if the fisherman decides to keep a pair and breed them, then are the fry still wild caught???
What do we consider to be wild caught (F1's)....the senerio can go on and on, but if you find out about the fishing ways then it is not problable in my opinion......
if you catch a female that is ready to lay eggs and they are layed in the boat and the fisherman gets these to hatch and raises them until shipment....are these still wild caught?
if the fisherman decides to keep a pair and breed them, then are the fry still wild caught???
What do we consider to be wild caught (F1's)....the senerio can go on and on, but if you find out about the fishing ways then it is not problable in my opinion......
No...that's exactly what they are looking for...juvenile fish. Think about the shipping. It's harder to bring back large fish. Anyone that's "feeding their families" collecting and selling fish are probably starving if they are relying on large fish. Bring back one or two adults...or fifty juveniles?? One other point... RESPONSIBLE collectors respect the natural environment. I can remember when our group went into Taninul Springs to collect blue labridens. They didn't go in their like some strip mining company and grab whatever they could find...they only took a limited number of the fry that were there, made sure not to chew up the terrain and absolutely didn't grab any of the adult breeders.
O.K. you have a point there......I am just trying to make a statement that a number of senerios could occur and would be very interested as to how they or anybody could catch fry in a river or lake.....seems very unlikely.....IMO.....it's easy to fool people!!!!
If only all collectors were so responsible. I dont mean they go after big fish. I just mean if they are after say silver aros and net a few dozen baby festae I doubt they throw them back.
Maybe...maybe not. Regardless, taking a few dozen "baby Festae" does nothing to upset the ecosystem. As mentioned somewhere here, in the wild maybe 1% of the fish that are borm may make it to adulthood...survival of the fittest. In fact, one of the biggest threats to the fish populations are the people who live in and around the countries. Either because they are catching them as adults as food or destroying their environment. Hericthys steindachneri is a classic example. In Mexico when we went looking for them they were just NOT around. Why? Because they were being eaten as food fish. H. labridens "Media Luna" is another example. With hybridization and the slow destruction of their water shed that fish is fighting for survival. Bottom line is yes, not all collectors would be as responsible. But if you look overall, there really isn't thousands, or even hundreds of people collecting fish....and of that number only a handful are actively selling fish...and of THAT number maybe a couple turning a profit...to feed their family. Anyone else selling (or claiming to sell) wild fish buy stock. They don't get their feet wet.
