Aquacultured vs. Wild-caught Fish - Some Potential Weaknesses of Modern Aquaculture

[blecki]

Definitely seen a difference in behavior between aquacultured and wild caught clowns. Bluntly, the aquacultured ones are dumb as rocks. They are absolutely fearless - you could just reach in and grab the pair in my big tank. Refuse to even look at any possible host. Always right under the feeding door when I'm anywhere in the room. Meanwhile the wild pair upstairs does not leave their bta for any reason ever.

Anyway how much of the apparent difference in color & quality is just that wild caught fish are subject to selection bias? Biota does not have the luxury of waiting for a yellow tang to color up before selling it, but that pale adult might also get tossed back in the wild.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Definitely seen a difference in behavior between aquacultured and wild caught clowns. Bluntly, the aquacultured ones are dumb as rocks. They are absolutely fearless - you could just reach in and grab the pair in my big tank.

Haha, I know they do tend to be more adjusted to people, but that sounds pretty extreme!

Refuse to even look at any possible host. Always right under the feeding door when I'm anywhere in the room. Meanwhile the wild pair upstairs does not leave their bta for any reason ever.

From pretty much all of the cases I've heard, aquacultured clowns will eventually take to a host, but- as mentioned - some clowns just choose not to regardless of wild-caught or cultured.

Anyway how much of the apparent difference in color & quality is just that wild caught fish are subject to selection bias? Biota does not have the luxury of waiting for a yellow tang to color up before selling it, but that pale adult might also get tossed back in the wild.

That's an interesting point that I hadn't thought of - I would guess it's not a major player in the perceived color differences, but it could be.

 

[Zionas]

The continuous stream of designer Clownfish and artificial hybridization of some Angelfish is something I’m not on board with either. The Yurple Tang felt totally pointless to me as the coloration is an awkward compromise between both parent species, when you can get a much prettier full-blooded Yellow or Purple for a fraction of the price. Just because it’s “possible” doesn’t mean it should be encouraged.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The continuous stream of designer Clownfish and artificial hybridization of some Angelfish is something I’m not on board with either. The Yurple Tang felt totally pointless to me as the coloration is an awkward compromise between both parent species, when you can get a much prettier full-blooded Yellow or Purple for a fraction of the price. Just because it’s “possible” doesn’t mean it should be encouraged.

Yeah, there are some interesting ethics issues when you get into the extreme breeding and hybridization; things like the partially blind Zombie Clownfish strains and such in particular are highly controversial for good reason.

 

[Zionas]

@ISpeakForTheSeas It’s kind of turned me away from most Clowns in general with all of this selective breeding going on. Unless it’s breeders with very good practices, and preferably using verifiable wild broodstock, I’m not really keen on the common Ocellaris and Percula and some of the other varieties.

The Skunks (Orange and Pink), Saddleback, Tomato and some members of the Clarkii complexes seem to not really be part of this abomination (with the exception of the Galaxy and Domino Clarkiis, and the Spotcinctus which are OK compared to some of the stuff we’ve been seeing in the Percula and Ocellaris but still, not really my thing) and they’re more of my preference now partially due to all the designer strains of A. Ocellaris and A. Percula and P. Biculeatus.

Used to be pretty rare and more pricey than other Clowns but if we’re just going by individuals I find A. Latezonatus to be the prettiest and I’m glad QM Labs is breeding them and I hope they can breed more.

Just my opinion.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

@ISpeakForTheSeas It’s kind of turned me away from most Clowns in general with all of this selective breeding going on. Unless it’s breeders with very good practices, and preferably using verifiable wild broodstock, I’m not really keen on the common Ocellaris and Percula and some of the other varieties.

Yeah, I know with farming/ranching livestock, responsible farming/ranching practices include keeping a breeding record that tracks the parents of each offspring animal produced - this not only allows for individual farms to prevent too much inbreeding, but it also allows them to track the ancestry of new animals they bring in to ensure they're not accidentally introducing inbreeding that way.

With responsible aquaculture, noting where the original fish are from and keeping a breeding record would be equally useful, and could likely prevent many of the issues seen with commonly aquacultured fish like clownfish.

Anyway, you can responsibly (from a genetic standpoint) culture new breeds/morphs of fish, but whether someone should or should not from an ethics standpoint is up for debate.

Just my opinion.

And that's fine - preferring wild strain/natural strain or designer strain really comes down to just personal tastes. I do agree natural strains - particularly of clownfish - should probably be bred more often than they are.