Responsible Reefkeeping Debate #3- Species Suitability

[MaryHM]

As we all know, there are many species that people consider to be unsuitable for captivity that are regularly imported for the trade. But what is unsuitable? Different people have different ideas. Is it length of time it can be kept alive, sustainability issues, etc...? Should we deem any species unsuitable? Remember, it was a short decade ago that many thought Acropora and other SPS were unsuitable. But now that we have figured out their captive requirements, they not only survive but thrive and grow! Could the same hold true for goniopora, dendronepthya, etc....? Many issues here- I'm interested in your views!

[SteveC]

Well, I guess I'll bite since nobody else has, and I think it's an important discussion. I am still a newbie to this hobby so everything I say comes from that perspective and is subject to change as I learn and grow (wow, this sounds like early childhood development or something!).

First of all, as a newbie I would be really upset if I tried to keep certain corals and failed, only to discover after the fact that even very advanced reefers are unable to keep them for very long. I would feel that I should have been at least given some kind of warning about these corals--if it wasn't the case that this information is available in numerous books on the hobby. For example, the two books I have within arm's reach--Tullock's Natural Reef Aquariums and Borneman's Aquarium Corals--both warn beginners about goniopora. I bought these books at my LFS where they were prominently displayed among the other reefkeeping books, so it's not like I'm privy to top secret information here.

If importers are selling these creatures it's because people are buying them. If people are buying them it's because either A) they think they've discovered the secret to keeping them successfully or B) they don't know that they're difficult (at best) to keep. Is it really up to the retailers and/or importers to determine which it is? I think that the hobbyist needs to take responsibility for his or her actions in this case. Good books aren't hard to find and there is lots of (mostly) good information on the Internet.

I do think it is terrible that numerous animals are collected that are doomed in captivity, but why are they doomed? You could say that the importers and retailers know that they won't survive, but the person who really kills them is the hobbyist. If you were an importer or retailer, would you want to be the one who denied a sale of goniopora to the person who actually would have figured out how to keep it in captivity?

I think it's unreasonable to ask importers and retailers to save animals from ignorant hobbyists and save ignorant hobbyists from themselves. Would nano reefs have ever taken off if retailers had strictly enforced the conventional wisdom about small tanks and refused sales to anyone with less than a 30 gallon tank?

I think the retailers should not be blamed for trusting the hobbyist to know what he or she is doing. In nano-reef forums people are constantly complaining about their LFS giving them grief over their nano tanks. Do we really want that kind of preachy behavior from retailers? It's funny that retailers who only sell according to conventional wisdom are considered preachy and closed-minded by knowledgeable hobbyists, but retailers who sell to anyone with no questions asked are considered "money-grubbing" and unethical. I think what people are saying is that they want retailers to be omniscient: sell to me because I know what I'm doing, but don't sell to that guy because he's obviously an idiot. Isn't that asking a bit much?

I think the hobbyist should be blamed for not spending a few dollars on books (or borrowing them for free from the library!) before putting hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars into a hobby and risking the lives of ocean creatures. Certainly the retailer should be able to answer a question like, "Is this easy to keep?" but a hobbyist who asks a lot of questions like that or otherwise demonstrates a lack of knowledge should be (politely) pointed toward a book. Retailers are not consultants; if they were, you'd have to pay to ask them questions!

So, the point I've either A) gotten to in a roundabout way or B) beaten into the ground repeatedly, I'm not sure which, is that hobbyists drive demand. No matter what other laws or industry regulations (or "self-regulations") exist, the one law all businesses have to obey is the law of supply and demand. Educated hobbyists won't demand goniopora unless they're advanced enough to give it a try (and know what they're getting into), they won't demand tangs that get huge, they won't try to put the wrong species together.

The fact that people won't bother to pick up a book before spending a metric butt-load of money and killing off unsuspecting creatures is part of a greater social problem. Go read some of the freshwater forums if you think this problem is somehow specific to reefkeeping, and then go read some of the animal rescue forums (cats, dogs, etc.) if you think it's specific to aquaria. People buy those awful "aquababies" torture chambers, they buy puppies without knowing that the breed gets large, is hyperactive and dominant and needs special training, and so on. Then the fish die, the dog bites a kid or runs off and winds up in the pound or dead, and so on. I don't think the problem is that there are people who exploit this for money; I think the problem is that they can exploit it for money. And I don't really know what the answer is.