Game fish are illegal

[sandtiger]

im not bashing you guys that keep natives. its just my personal mentality.. i cant physically take a fish from the wild, but ill buy wild caught fish. its all about my personal ethics. my parents raised me to keep wild animals wild so thats what i do.. being buddhist probably helps out with that..

im not against keeping natives.. i just dont support the idea.

I think you're anthropomorphizing a bit to much here. By that I mean applying human traits to a non-human animal. Fish aren't humans, just because you wouldn't want to be taken from a large habitat and put in a small one does not mean its also true for fish. Fish don't think like we do. For a fish happiness is safety, food, clean water, breeding partners etc. Assuming fish even feel happiness. If there is one cruel thing about this hobby it is restricting a fish to do what drives it to survive in the first place, pass on its genetic material.
As for where LFS fish come from? If not the wild you can rest assured that most come from large man-made ponds in Florida, Southeast Asia etc. Technically they are still being taken from a large body of water. If you don't support taking fish from the wild stand by it and don't keep fish, otherwise you're just being hypocritical. No offense, just sharing my views with you like you did with us.

 

[KaiserJeep]

With the exception of Florida, the North American native species are all cold water fishes. Florida can and does support many tropical species, including those introduced from aquaria, such as Oscars.

But there are some terrible diseases afflicting some of the cold water fishes, such as the "whirling disease" that afflicts salmonids (trout and salmon). This is caused by a myxosporean parasite , a segnmented worm, that causes up to 90% mortality in the fry of infected fish. The 10% survivors are carriers although they often appear completely healthy. The transporting of live fish is forbidden in many Western states to prevent spreading the parasites into new fisheries. Many Western US fish populations would collapse if not supported by fish hatcheries using parasite-free stock. The worms can survive the death of the host and enter the water from the decomposing carcass.

So the practice of seining (capturing bait fish that might include infected fry of salmonid species) is forbidden, as is transporting live adult fish that might be asymtomatic but yet are infected with parasites.

Whirling disease was first noted in Europe about 300 years ago, and was probably introduced into North American trout species by bringing Brown Trout from Europe. But the NA species have much less resistance to the European parasites.

There are many fisheries attempting to crossbreed trout to find a strain resistent to the worms. But I for one like to catch wild trout of the original species from the area whenever possible.

 

[hotsauce]

well once again im just adding my non-meaningful points of view, like a presidential vote! haha! well anyway, once again as a native keeper i really dont think any animal put in captivity is wondering about how it use to be, i.e. lil' nemo, looking out the window finding ways to escape our glass cages of terror! well maybe some of the aros that try and jump away to freedom! ok sorry, to those who have lost jumpers. ok back to it again, as we supply our fish and other pets with all that they will need for the rest of their lifes, i really doubt they would rather do it all themselves. ok bye. I LOVE MY NATIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND ALL MY OTHER FISH THAT WERE "NATIVE" TO OTHER WATErs before i bought them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sandtiger]

With the exception of Florida, the North American native species are all cold water fishes.

Are you implying that Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona, Texas and every other southern state with the exception of Florida is within a cold climate? NA is a continent of diverse habitats, climates and thus animal life. I can think of plenty of North American fish that would be considered warm water that don't occur in Florida and some who's population extend to the northern extremes of the United States.

 

[KaiserJeep]

Are you implying that Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona, Texas and every other southern state with the exception of Florida is within a cold climate? NA is a continent of diverse habitats, climates and thus animal life. I can think of plenty of North American fish that would be considered warm water that don't occur in Florida and some who's population extend to the northern extremes of the United States.

No argument about that. But Florida is the only place I know of where tropical freshwater fish dumped from aquaria are thriving in the canals. But perhaps that is a problem in the states you mention.

 

[sandtiger]

No argument about that. But Florida is the only place I know of where tropical freshwater fish dumped from aquaria are thriving in the canals. But perhaps that is a problem in the states you mention.

Perhaps I misunderstood what you were trying to say then. Either way yeah, Florida definitely has a good deal of invasive species. Other states do have them though. I don't think the problem completely lies with individual aquarists in Florida but also with the fish farms and escapees. Florida has tons of fish farms.

 

[Robbwilder]

Alot of what does thrive from released fish only thrives in the southern half of Florida because we do not get the extreme cold weather.

 

[midnight]

No argument about that. But Florida is the only place I know of where tropical freshwater fish dumped from aquaria are thriving in the canals. But perhaps that is a problem in the states you mention.

Alot of what does thrive from released fish only thrives in the southern half of Florida because we do not get the extreme cold weather.

how is there snakeheads up north then?

and i think
cali has tropicals
hawaii has tropicals
texas has tropicals

 

[id10t]

Invasives are still problematic here in N Florida, especially in the springs and spring fed rivers (Silver River, Rainbow River, St Johns, etc) since they are at a pretty constant 72 degrees year 'round...

Alot of what does thrive from released fish only thrives in the southern half of Florida because we do not get the extreme cold weather.

 

[USMCtanker]