reeffirstaid
Active Member
You arrive home with a new fish, or coral. The bright colors light up your tank, and you can’t wait to showcase a reel of exciting pictures with friends, or online. Within a few days, something is off. The new species isn’t eating well, or suddenly tissue is turning pale, and slowly withering away. Within a week, the situation is dire, your new animal is dying. Why? Your water quality is good, filtration and lighting are both top notch. You spent thousands, upgrading to the latest and most powerful LED fixtures, and a new bio-pellet reactor is making nitrate spikes a thing of the past. Why, is this beautiful new specimen dying? Was it something you did, some unknown compound in your water? How was it collected, what were the practices of the facility you ordered it from? As you watch your specimen take its final gasps of air, or the last thread of colorful flesh pull away in your aquarium’s currents, what led to this painful, and albeit, expensive loss.
If this is your introduction into the marine hobby, after your first coral purchase, are you likely to continue?
The chain of responsibility:
Even today, many of our fish and corals, come from the wild. Responsible outlets aren’t shy about telling us where they came from. Often places like Palau, Bali, Indonesia, Tonga, are listed just below the name of a species offered for sale. These represent the geographic location where something was collected from, and some islands have a better reputation of shipping out healthy, sustainably collected livestock, than others. For example, French Polynesia is famous for strict regulations when it comes to the export of marine life, hence livestock from this area is often healthy. On the other side, the Philippines are famous for using cyanide collection, shipping out weak and dying animals. While these locations represent our species natural home, they also represent the first link along the chain of healthy, colorful, long-term livestock.
There are lots of ways to collect live fish. Some of them result in a healthy specimen, which adapts to aquarium life and given the right conditions, can grow, reproduce and thrive in captivity. Others result in a new acquisition that grows dull in coloration, and listless, eventually perishing in a matter of weeks, for no apparent reason. Hand net capture is probably the safest, and best way to capture live fish for marine aquariums. If someone skilled in net capture works quickly, and effectively, the amount of stress on the individual animal can be reduced. If the collector is responsible, the fish makes its way into a proper short-term environment, until it is exported off to an outlet, likely somewhere in the U.S. or Europe.
Corals, like fish, are collected in a variety of way. Some are busted off the large parent colony in a blunt manner, shredding tissues and causing irreparable damage to both the fragment, and the parent colony. Others are removed with surgical precision, using the proper sterile tools, and the fragment and the parent colony have a near perfect chance to recover. They are inspected for parasites, and treated with dips to not only help heal the damage from collection, but also kill any undesirable hitchhikers. Like fish, a responsible collector houses newly acquired species in proper conditions, so that they are healthy at the beginning of a long and vast journey, which eventually ends in our aquariums.
This first link will ultimately decide not only the animal’s long term health, but our success as marine aquarists. It used to be a coin toss, as most retailers and collectors had few standards, or regulations, when it came to the acquisition of marine livestock. With a sea change among retailers, (look to Pacific East Aquaculture as a perfect example) and organizations like MAC (Marine Aquarium Council) collectors have been trained, abandoning crude techniques in favor of science based methods. Today, we actually have power over where our aquarium livestock comes from, and we can learn how it is collected, simply by information a responsible retailer openly shares. When all goes well, and an animal is properly collected and exported, the chance of success goes up.
A good retailer should have healthy, beautiful tanks on display, even where livestock for sale is kept, minus the layer of cyanobacteria, slouched soft corals and overall unhealthy looking animals.
Aquaculture facilities, a concurrent first link:
Since some corals, and even marine fish, are raised in captivity, suddenly a large bulk of the chain of responsibility is snapped off. No longer present is the fear of poor collection techniques, and shoddy exporting. The concern now, focuses on the aquaculture facility itself. Is it a home hobbyist, working from their parent’s basement, snapping away at corals and tossing them into bags for shipping? Or is the facility run by a group of dedicated aquarists, who keep their outlet under strict conditions, managing species offered for sale with the care and dedication you would expect from a skilled aquarist.
Whether from the ocean, or a retailer somewhere in the U.S., if this link in the chain isn’t sound, the other links simply break, and fall away.
Aquarium livestock outlets:
Today, there are more livestock outlets than can be named, and more pop up every year. Some of these outlets are managed by a single aquarist, while others employ a group of people, working in a large facility with a variety of departments. Who are these people? Are they minimum wage workers with little experience regarding marine life? Are they trained, managed over by experts? Or are the corals crawling with bugs, and the fish infested with parasites? Again, it used to be bad. Many local fish stores along with online retailers were famous for selling sick livestock, and giving out poor advice. Even now, with all the knowledge and technology poured into reef aquariums, there are some retailers who value a quick buck, over a successful marine aquarium hobby.
Like the first link in the chain, if this one is rusty and loose, all the rest falls apart. Again, we have some power over whom we buy livestock from. Places like Pacific East Aquaculture and Unique Corals wear their dedication to excellence on their sleeve. They care not only about natural coral reefs, but our individual success as aquarists, and take the time to offer advice from experts, not some sixteen year old chatting up her boyfriend, as you place your order. If an online retailer or shop is good, it doesn’t take much to speak with the owner. If the owner is up to snuff, they are as enthusiastic about reef life as a full blown reef geek.
"No sir, that clownfish doesn't have pop-eye, it's simply a cross with a bubble eyed goldfish."
The individual aquarist, where do they come in?
Our tanks are just that, ours. Yes, there are instances where a retailer, exporter, collector; someone along the chain has failed to hold their share of the responsibilities’ weight, and the outcome is a dead specimen, wasted money and the anguish of losing a potential gorgeous fish or coral. Snake oil sellers aren’t much better, promising to cure any reef ailment with a few drops of this, or a couple milliliters of that. Then there are retailers who Photoshop a fingernail size frag, ship it the day they get it, and haven’t even inspected the coral very well, let alone searched for hard to find parasites. They take a fish riddled with external parasites, and tell you it’s sand, sticking to the fish’s slime coat as they swipe your card.
In the end though, the buck stops at us. Quarantine can’t always save a sick, or dying specimen. It can, 100% of the time, make sure your healthy livestock doesn’t get sick. It’s tough enough to fight for your hard earned cash back, when your only loss is the dying new arrival. It’s heart wrenching to fight for your bucks, with a devastated, previously healthy, reef aquarium, trampled by the wake of someone else’s, along with your own, irresponsibility. We have to first, only keep species we are comfortable with, and do all the necessary research, making sure that our system is suited for that, “must have,” animal. There is no reef aquarium that can support everything, and some animals require aquariums tailored solely around their specific, and often delicate, requirements. Making smart choices for our system, in our budget, is solely our responsibility. I’ve worked with aquarists who made huge assumptions regarding water quality, tank size, and species compatibility; ultimately they paid for it.
"Salt, we don't sell it, but you can get some from your grocery store. I recommend Morten brand."
We need to understand how nutrition works in reef dwellers. Very few corals can survive and thrive, solely off clean water and light. Very few fish can survive and thrive, solely off well formulated flake food. Again, no one food works for everything. No one approach fills all the gaps.
We need to adopt up to date, every changing methodologies. In SCUBA, we say a good diver is always learning, and this translates perfectly to aquariums. No one person, even Bob Fenner, knows all there is to know about marine aquariums. In 50 years, we still won’t know all that’s out there. Part of our responsibility is being able to adapt, change, and offer our reef tenants the very best that technology can provide.
The most important, and often most faulty link in the chain of responsibility, is the home aquarist. An instant reef aquarium is a pipe dream, so is one that can keep any animal under the sea. In the end, picking up a book, or logging onto a forum, is a far better first step then picking up a bag of salt mix. We have to face it, while it stinks that the possibility exists that we will get a sick fish or coral, or even be misled into buying one, once the specimen is ours, healthy or not, it’s ours. At that point, it’s only a matter of what we do with it.
A thriving reef, it's all aquarists shared goal, though we have to be responsible, if we ever want to get there.
If this is your introduction into the marine hobby, after your first coral purchase, are you likely to continue?
The chain of responsibility:
Even today, many of our fish and corals, come from the wild. Responsible outlets aren’t shy about telling us where they came from. Often places like Palau, Bali, Indonesia, Tonga, are listed just below the name of a species offered for sale. These represent the geographic location where something was collected from, and some islands have a better reputation of shipping out healthy, sustainably collected livestock, than others. For example, French Polynesia is famous for strict regulations when it comes to the export of marine life, hence livestock from this area is often healthy. On the other side, the Philippines are famous for using cyanide collection, shipping out weak and dying animals. While these locations represent our species natural home, they also represent the first link along the chain of healthy, colorful, long-term livestock.
There are lots of ways to collect live fish. Some of them result in a healthy specimen, which adapts to aquarium life and given the right conditions, can grow, reproduce and thrive in captivity. Others result in a new acquisition that grows dull in coloration, and listless, eventually perishing in a matter of weeks, for no apparent reason. Hand net capture is probably the safest, and best way to capture live fish for marine aquariums. If someone skilled in net capture works quickly, and effectively, the amount of stress on the individual animal can be reduced. If the collector is responsible, the fish makes its way into a proper short-term environment, until it is exported off to an outlet, likely somewhere in the U.S. or Europe.
Corals, like fish, are collected in a variety of way. Some are busted off the large parent colony in a blunt manner, shredding tissues and causing irreparable damage to both the fragment, and the parent colony. Others are removed with surgical precision, using the proper sterile tools, and the fragment and the parent colony have a near perfect chance to recover. They are inspected for parasites, and treated with dips to not only help heal the damage from collection, but also kill any undesirable hitchhikers. Like fish, a responsible collector houses newly acquired species in proper conditions, so that they are healthy at the beginning of a long and vast journey, which eventually ends in our aquariums.
This first link will ultimately decide not only the animal’s long term health, but our success as marine aquarists. It used to be a coin toss, as most retailers and collectors had few standards, or regulations, when it came to the acquisition of marine livestock. With a sea change among retailers, (look to Pacific East Aquaculture as a perfect example) and organizations like MAC (Marine Aquarium Council) collectors have been trained, abandoning crude techniques in favor of science based methods. Today, we actually have power over where our aquarium livestock comes from, and we can learn how it is collected, simply by information a responsible retailer openly shares. When all goes well, and an animal is properly collected and exported, the chance of success goes up.
A good retailer should have healthy, beautiful tanks on display, even where livestock for sale is kept, minus the layer of cyanobacteria, slouched soft corals and overall unhealthy looking animals.
Aquaculture facilities, a concurrent first link:
Since some corals, and even marine fish, are raised in captivity, suddenly a large bulk of the chain of responsibility is snapped off. No longer present is the fear of poor collection techniques, and shoddy exporting. The concern now, focuses on the aquaculture facility itself. Is it a home hobbyist, working from their parent’s basement, snapping away at corals and tossing them into bags for shipping? Or is the facility run by a group of dedicated aquarists, who keep their outlet under strict conditions, managing species offered for sale with the care and dedication you would expect from a skilled aquarist.
Whether from the ocean, or a retailer somewhere in the U.S., if this link in the chain isn’t sound, the other links simply break, and fall away.
Aquarium livestock outlets:
Today, there are more livestock outlets than can be named, and more pop up every year. Some of these outlets are managed by a single aquarist, while others employ a group of people, working in a large facility with a variety of departments. Who are these people? Are they minimum wage workers with little experience regarding marine life? Are they trained, managed over by experts? Or are the corals crawling with bugs, and the fish infested with parasites? Again, it used to be bad. Many local fish stores along with online retailers were famous for selling sick livestock, and giving out poor advice. Even now, with all the knowledge and technology poured into reef aquariums, there are some retailers who value a quick buck, over a successful marine aquarium hobby.
Like the first link in the chain, if this one is rusty and loose, all the rest falls apart. Again, we have some power over whom we buy livestock from. Places like Pacific East Aquaculture and Unique Corals wear their dedication to excellence on their sleeve. They care not only about natural coral reefs, but our individual success as aquarists, and take the time to offer advice from experts, not some sixteen year old chatting up her boyfriend, as you place your order. If an online retailer or shop is good, it doesn’t take much to speak with the owner. If the owner is up to snuff, they are as enthusiastic about reef life as a full blown reef geek.
"No sir, that clownfish doesn't have pop-eye, it's simply a cross with a bubble eyed goldfish."
The individual aquarist, where do they come in?
Our tanks are just that, ours. Yes, there are instances where a retailer, exporter, collector; someone along the chain has failed to hold their share of the responsibilities’ weight, and the outcome is a dead specimen, wasted money and the anguish of losing a potential gorgeous fish or coral. Snake oil sellers aren’t much better, promising to cure any reef ailment with a few drops of this, or a couple milliliters of that. Then there are retailers who Photoshop a fingernail size frag, ship it the day they get it, and haven’t even inspected the coral very well, let alone searched for hard to find parasites. They take a fish riddled with external parasites, and tell you it’s sand, sticking to the fish’s slime coat as they swipe your card.
In the end though, the buck stops at us. Quarantine can’t always save a sick, or dying specimen. It can, 100% of the time, make sure your healthy livestock doesn’t get sick. It’s tough enough to fight for your hard earned cash back, when your only loss is the dying new arrival. It’s heart wrenching to fight for your bucks, with a devastated, previously healthy, reef aquarium, trampled by the wake of someone else’s, along with your own, irresponsibility. We have to first, only keep species we are comfortable with, and do all the necessary research, making sure that our system is suited for that, “must have,” animal. There is no reef aquarium that can support everything, and some animals require aquariums tailored solely around their specific, and often delicate, requirements. Making smart choices for our system, in our budget, is solely our responsibility. I’ve worked with aquarists who made huge assumptions regarding water quality, tank size, and species compatibility; ultimately they paid for it.
"Salt, we don't sell it, but you can get some from your grocery store. I recommend Morten brand."
We need to understand how nutrition works in reef dwellers. Very few corals can survive and thrive, solely off clean water and light. Very few fish can survive and thrive, solely off well formulated flake food. Again, no one food works for everything. No one approach fills all the gaps.
We need to adopt up to date, every changing methodologies. In SCUBA, we say a good diver is always learning, and this translates perfectly to aquariums. No one person, even Bob Fenner, knows all there is to know about marine aquariums. In 50 years, we still won’t know all that’s out there. Part of our responsibility is being able to adapt, change, and offer our reef tenants the very best that technology can provide.
The most important, and often most faulty link in the chain of responsibility, is the home aquarist. An instant reef aquarium is a pipe dream, so is one that can keep any animal under the sea. In the end, picking up a book, or logging onto a forum, is a far better first step then picking up a bag of salt mix. We have to face it, while it stinks that the possibility exists that we will get a sick fish or coral, or even be misled into buying one, once the specimen is ours, healthy or not, it’s ours. At that point, it’s only a matter of what we do with it.
A thriving reef, it's all aquarists shared goal, though we have to be responsible, if we ever want to get there.
