Registry for private sector (exotic animals & fish)
- Thread starter Bsixxx
- Start date
Despite scientific breakthroughs or new information being important, I can't see myself supporting a system that enables the keeping of illegal species. Maybe I am extra critical due to the blatant ignorance of aquarists in South Africa who continue to bring in illegal species such as crayfish and snakehead that risk doing tremendous damage to ecosystems. Most fish that are illegal (apart from those illegal due to endangered status such as Asian arowana) are not allowed because they tend to spread easily in various ecosystems and also breed readily in aquarium conditions and are often already bred en masse for the trade IE some snakehead species in Asia.
New information is dribbling up, people just need to take charge and write it up. Heck if a 16 year old high schooler could rewrite the care guides for African knives then there are plenty of others who can contribute. If you have good information, write it up. New stickies are always valued. I'm busy formatting and writing a new guide on Polypterus 13 years after the original guides are written.
What I would definitely stand behind is a breeding registry like that on PlanetCatfish, that's an easy way to add quality information to the hobby and anyone can contribute!
C Chicxulub thoughts?
New information is dribbling up, people just need to take charge and write it up. Heck if a 16 year old high schooler could rewrite the care guides for African knives then there are plenty of others who can contribute. If you have good information, write it up. New stickies are always valued. I'm busy formatting and writing a new guide on Polypterus 13 years after the original guides are written.
What I would definitely stand behind is a breeding registry like that on PlanetCatfish, that's an easy way to add quality information to the hobby and anyone can contribute!
C Chicxulub thoughts?
Well after having read this entire thread, the first thing that pops into my head is... Why?
What purpose would this serve? If your fish is legal, start a thread. I'm not going to go around building this database. I won't expect any of my mods to do so, either.
And to that point, the Staff would have to make, maintain and control the database, because if it's open access, even if encrypted, then what's the point? It's literally just what we have now. Hell, we're already https anyway. The next step down from that is to go ip.tor, and you can kiss what traffic is left goodbye if we go that route.
It's impractical and illegal. I won't risk the wrath of Uncle Sam for this, and I couldn't in good faith ask any of my mods to do so either.
And all of that is before we consider just how thoroughly monitored this website is by US government agencies (and other countries) for illegal activity. Wels catfish in the US were banned based on evidence collected from MFK and people talking about releasing them. That's on us. We did that.
This is why we have a zero tolerance policy on the solicitation of illegal species. This activity is a clear and present danger to our hobby. MFK will not be a part of it.
Bsixxx
I've been around long enough to have seen the same craziness as you. I noticed the sharp decline when the economy tanked in 2008, pittering out until MFK had the Great Server Crash in 2015. Ever since, it seems as though people just aren't willing to dump money into the hobby like they used to do. Thoughts?
What purpose would this serve? If your fish is legal, start a thread. I'm not going to go around building this database. I won't expect any of my mods to do so, either.
And to that point, the Staff would have to make, maintain and control the database, because if it's open access, even if encrypted, then what's the point? It's literally just what we have now. Hell, we're already https anyway. The next step down from that is to go ip.tor, and you can kiss what traffic is left goodbye if we go that route.
It's impractical and illegal. I won't risk the wrath of Uncle Sam for this, and I couldn't in good faith ask any of my mods to do so either.
And all of that is before we consider just how thoroughly monitored this website is by US government agencies (and other countries) for illegal activity. Wels catfish in the US were banned based on evidence collected from MFK and people talking about releasing them. That's on us. We did that.
This is why we have a zero tolerance policy on the solicitation of illegal species. This activity is a clear and present danger to our hobby. MFK will not be a part of it.
Bsixxx
I've been around long enough to have seen the same craziness as you. I noticed the sharp decline when the economy tanked in 2008, pittering out until MFK had the Great Server Crash in 2015. Ever since, it seems as though people just aren't willing to dump money into the hobby like they used to do. Thoughts?
In nearly every country in the world there are people who keep species of non native creatures, under the radar, and have done for years. Do you think for one minute that any of these people would all of a sudden join a registry, (it will be really private, no one will ever know!) so they can share care details, breeding information and the like with other like minded people? They're most likely a very paranoid bunch as it is getting away with illegal activity so there's not a chance on earth they'd put themselves on the radar, whether the registry is encrypted or not.
Wait governments actually track stuff on the internet i thought that was a conspiracy theory??? My whole life had been a lie.
Well after having read this entire thread, the first thing that pops into my head is... Why?
What purpose would this serve? If your fish is legal, start a thread. I'm not going to go around building this database. I won't expect any of my mods to do so, either.
And to that point, the Staff would have to make, maintain and control the database, because if it's open access, even if encrypted, then what's the point? It's literally just what we have now. Hell, we're already https anyway. The next step down from that is to go ip.tor, and you can kiss what traffic is left goodbye if we go that route.
It's impractical and illegal. I won't risk the wrath of Uncle Sam for this, and I couldn't in good faith ask any of my mods to do so either.
And all of that is before we consider just how thoroughly monitored this website is by US government agencies (and other countries) for illegal activity. Wels catfish in the US were banned based on evidence collected from MFK and people talking about releasing them. That's on us. We did that.
This is why we have a zero tolerance policy on the solicitation of illegal species. This activity is a clear and present danger to our hobby. MFK will not be a part of it.
Thanks for adding in on this and
Hendre
also, appreciated. My idea wasn't to focus on the banned or illegal species, I mentioned that in a later post about just getting attention. But, I think despite current legislation around our hobby in the usa and abroad I think we should understand living in the shadows and not producing any valid information does more harm on the entire hobby than the few idiots who release non natives into the wild.
Keeping quiet on break through breedings and private research going undocumented leaves everybody in the dark.
The stickys on this forum are awesome and a lot of them very well written and documented, but a lot of them are also outdated and messy to follow.
I know this forum hasn't recovered from a lot of previous issues, and a lot of people left the hobby from just normal life events, it's all understandable. I just am trying to think outside the box here, every single hobby has some type of uncle same agency breathing down its neck waiting for some idiot to slip up and say something dumb so they can write a report and drop it on the desk of some no name politician trying to make a name for themselves by bringing the hammer down and writing some bill to ban and eventually generate a strong hold and new revenues in enforcing those laws. But, if we had a global list.... idk a board of ideas of better care and true documentation rather than a tiny underfunded group of scientists trying to find the next CNN headline of fish walking on land.i think this hobby would see a nice bounce back.
Example of what I am thinking here...
Someone is keeping some rare catfish species, which is now on the endangered species list, some how this person is able to breed this fish for the first time, even when zoo's and private programs fall short, with this individual living in a current situation of fear around this now federally banned fish, they produce no notes, no documentation, and now fast forward this particular species never recovers and perishes all together.
I know this is far fetched idea, but I am sure it happens more than people think or know.
This type of research could be used as leverage create federal Grant's or programs for private keepers to try and breed other species or lift some laws surrounding keeping that species.
But, then again maybe this quarantine has gotten to me and I've lost touch with reality.
I'm on another forum that is 100% legal but looks highly illegal from the outside looking in. We were a public forum up until today. Someone didn't like the content on the site, made a complaint, the publicity was bad for the place that hosted the site, they basically deleted the forum.
All it takes is one person to see something, complain, and now you're screwed. That forum was several years old but now because of someone who didn't like the content posted on the site we are now a private forum and we were lucky enough to have other domains which had the same content and a video uploading domain which everyone just linked the videos from.
Last edited:
As we discuss this there are countless species worldwide who are knocking on extinctions door. In fact many scientists believe we are going through a mass extinction right now. How fantastic would it be if somebody, somewhere in the world, not only had a pair of a critically endangered species, but were breeding them, with great success. Now that would be something.
Now for the big question. If this guy came forward and shared everything he knew, what would happen to him under current worldwide legislation. He'd be stuffed for illegally keeping a rare species without a licence or anything.
Your plan would only work if governments worldwide were to have a rare and exotic animals amnesty. People could then come forward without fear of prosecution.
I'm not aware if any such plan even exists, or is even being discussed at boardroom level at the WWF.
I will say this though, your idea is a brilliant one, but without the big wigs at the very top well on board with it nothing will ever come of it.
Now for the big question. If this guy came forward and shared everything he knew, what would happen to him under current worldwide legislation. He'd be stuffed for illegally keeping a rare species without a licence or anything.
Your plan would only work if governments worldwide were to have a rare and exotic animals amnesty. People could then come forward without fear of prosecution.
I'm not aware if any such plan even exists, or is even being discussed at boardroom level at the WWF.
I will say this though, your idea is a brilliant one, but without the big wigs at the very top well on board with it nothing will ever come of it.
They do check yes. And rightfully so, it's a good way to pick up on illegal activities.
Go check the polypterus forum. I have made major changes there. Once I've done some research the other ancient fish forums will also get a makeover.
