Ethics- Buying Large Fish...
- Thread starter rsandelius
- Start date
You have to realize the situation with pacus. These fish are farm-raised for food markets. The excess is what we find available in pet shops and department stores. Excess fry, beyond what these 2 markets can absorb, are destroyed at the farms and used for fertilizer. The pacu is a VERY prolific species with females producing up to and over 400,000 eggs each per spawn. With virtually no predation in a farming environment, the pacu farm populations must look like cockroach infestations. If even a few out of a hundred wind up living fairly well in home aquaria, that's still better off than the ones left behind.
They have a firm, flaky flesh with a very mild (unfishy) taste. I either grill them with a rub of spices or wrap them in foil along with butter, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, dill weed, and thin-sliced orange sections. Yummy!!
thats how i cook catfish that i catch around here that sounds awesome but i dont know if i could kill any of my tank kept fish
It really depends on the fish, I used to trade out larger redhooks and balas (10"+) all the time as there is usually a market for them, but it is harder to find homes for big catfish, pacus, other fish that exceed 3'. If you are looking for store credits or don't mind not getting full price you can usually find a taker for most healthy fish on up to around 18", esp. if they max out at 2' or less, large clowns can always find a home as can royal clowns and nice dats but a 2' marbled goby would be difficult to place. I had a steady buyer for almost everything.
