Can someone confirm if these guys are being bred for food? My gut tells me they are.
Reason I ask is to once again highlight the dispensability of fish. They are, in a way, really meant to be harvested, both by other animals or people, as is everything on the food chain. Want to argue that the fish is better off dead than in a small tank? Okay, let's get into the assisted suicide debate. But for now, let's try to look at the shear statistics. How many arapaima fry make it to adulthood in the wild? Is there a greater chance that that arapaima would have survived longer in the wild than in someones aquarium (minus shipping/collecting casualties)? I highly doubt that. Does every arapaima in a habitat that is appropriate size live it's full life? Highly doubt that as well.
Before I am called heartless, I get attachment to pets, and I get not being cruel to animals in general, believe me I am the one that catches spiders and throws them outside. I am quite attached my aquarium fish. Would I have rather seen them in the wild where they could live in a river and a better home? Not really, they eat better than I do, their water is pristine, and they do not have any natural predators. Would I be upset if they came to an untimely end? Yes. Would I feel bad watching a fish getting eaten by a bear in the wild? Yes and no, if not the bear goes hungry, which I would also feel bad for. Point I am trying to make is context. You can't feel bad for each and every molly and guppy in the aquarium trade. I feel they have a better chance then elsewhere, but that aside there are tons of fish. Short of the wild endangered one, there is no shortage. Humans have to derive pleasure from something, they also have to sustain themselves with some sort of business, so really casualties in this hobby/business along the way is no different of a fact of life than a small arapaima being swallowed whole by a large red tail catfish. People like the bleeding heart thing, but if they were really sincere why not go out and rescue all the fish that get mistreated? Otherwise even your Oscar in a 180 gallon tank contributes to the problem you are fighting against, to a lesser degree, but still just as hypocritical. Let people learn from their mistakes, hopefully the arapaima bites them or takes away all their beer money for the month due to their appetite and that will teach them not to keep fish they can't handle. I find this lesson to a human being to be more valuable across the board than the life of one arapaima. It sucks to see things with any degree of emotional intelligence be mistreated, hell or even massive trees getting cut down, but it is an everyday occurrence and better them than you, as humans I truly do believe we require more to our survival and (this is where I might get flamed hard) our lives matter more than that of a fish or a cow. I would like to go eat some bacon now.
