From Wild Waters to Home Aquariums: Tracing the Journey of Our Fish
We might not always want to think too hard about it but can be strange to imagine that our fish (or maybe just their ancestors) once came from the wild, but the chances are that the fish in our tanks at home are likely captured from the wild, or bred in captivity.
It's been reported that over 90% of the tropical fish in the ornamental fish trade are bred in fish farms across the world in South East Asia; whilst for many freshwater species, it has been reported that an estimated 90-95% of the livestock are from Asian and Eastern Europe fish farms. Here, Ruth McDonald explores the journey of fish from their origins to our homes.
Words by Ruth McDonald
I have new fish and they’ve done more travelling than I have this year. A week ago they were in a tank in a high rise building in Singapore 7000 miles away. Then they were carefully packed and put on a plane to the UK, through the red tape at Border Control, then either taken to a wholesaler, or direct to the shop, and finally I went and looked at them in the tank, paused over the price, and decided to buy a small group. Now they’re exploring their new home. It’s all pretty impressive when you start to think about it.
One tank has some wild caught fish, the next the sole occupant was bred in the depths of Derbyshire, he’s moved about 25 miles in his life, and now these new guys. We may think about the natural range of our fish, but where do those individuals come from? What can we do to ensure we do our best for our fish, the environment, and future stocks of the fish in the wild.
Wild Caught Fish
I was first introduced to the wild caught trade as a child, watching the fishermen pull up their traps from coral reefs in the Caribbean. On some days they took care of the fish they caught. Transferring them to water filled holds on their small boats, checking for signs of illness, going into shore earlier to minimise the time the fish were in the boat. The rest of the week they hauled traps up faster. Tossing those same fish into a dry hold, taking far more, and taking no care to keep them alive.
Some fish were caught for the pet trade. Others as food. In the same way corals are collected and carefully shipped for the aquarium trade, or for jewellery and trinkets for the tourist trade. Pulling fish out of the wild is a complex subject, but dismissing it out of hand is as bad as embracing it without any thought or caution.
Trade not aid
Have you heard of Tongareva in the Central Pacific? Sailing there is stepping back in time. The low lying coral atoll is hidden until you are almost upon it. This isolated community is one of those that depleted fish stocks and changing weather are hurting.
There used to be pearl farms on the island providing jobs, but algae blooms and a virus wiped them out. This is one of many islands the world over that need some form of trade, and the stocks of reef fish that teem in their lagoons could provide that. Right now increasing restrictions on wild caught fish, driven by rhetoric not science, means no one is willing to put the investment into this sort of project. So the islanders eat the fish and rely on foreign aid to keep them alive.
Project Piaba
“Buy a fish, save a tree.” It’s a great phrase, and the work Project Piaba are doing on the ground backs that up. Working with Brazilian communities they gather data, work on developing protocols on how to handle the fish to minimise stress, and any damage to the ecosystem overall. Their decades of research has shown that seasonal collection of the fish has not harmed wild stocks.
The trade in fish allows remote communities to earn a living in a sustainable way, gathering the fish from the flooded forests. These communities live in areas at risk from logging and mining. But this industry is under threat itself. Between 2006 and 2015 the number of fish exported from Brazil plummeted from over 26 million, to less than 3 million.
Cheaper captive bred stock, and a bad image of wild caught animals are driving factors, alongside the seasonal nature of this industry. But surely we can wait for a good thing?
How many?
Less than a quarter of UK aquarium fish are marine, but 90% of those are wild caught. About 5% of fresh water fish are wild caught. This data is the freight weight of fish being imported, so there may be some differences depending on weight of the actual fish and the amount of water they need.
Wild caught isn't just for the aquarium
The number of fish caught for the aquarium trade is tiny compared to that caught for food. For fish there are much larger threats than being captured for the aquarium. Habitat loss is driving many species to extinction.
Take one of the worlds rarest fish, the Red Handfish (Thymichthys politus), Dr. Tyson Bessell from the Handfish Project was nice enough to answer a few of my questions.
I asked about the risk of the fish being poached for the aquarium. He said that yes that was a risk, but the real threat is sea urchins munching their way through natural habitats and breeding grounds. Those urchins are multiplying unchecked because their natural predator, the lobster has seen a population decline due to fishing.
In situ conservation is so complex that you have to be there to understand all the aspects. But there are people on the ground in various areas saying that by purchasing some sustainably wild caught fish, we can make a real difference. Equally we need to steer clear of these ultra rare species, for whom 10 or so individuals being removed can be a huge chunk of the population.
The bad side of the debate
We don’t get to pretend that the hobby is entirely innocent. The Banggai Cardinal fish is a small black and white marine fish that is threatened with extinction. Collecting for aquariums is one of the main reasons, with millions of fish taken from their native range since the 90s.
However the loss of sea urchins and sea anemone populations are also contributing factors. The hobby needs to take the blame where needed, but the picture is never as straightforward as we’d like.
Fish bred in captivity
Three quarters of all the fish in our shops are captive bred, and most of these are fabulous testimonies to the work of the breeders and farmers to produce stock. But there is also two sides to this story.
If you take a fish from the wild it has a certain fitness that comes from having survived. That’s not the case with captive bred species. Hybrids, balloon fish, extreme morphs, and even genetically modified species are available. A friend was looking to buy a betta, and her first concern. Could it swim. A sad question about a fish.
10 countries dominate the imports to the UK, comprising 88% of the total value of fish imported, those are Singapore, Japan, Israel, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, USA, Maldives, Philippines and Colombia. Of those Singapore dominates the entire market, especially the captive bred fish, considering how small a nation it is, that comes as something of a surprise. But this in my opinion is one of the real success stories. Singapore wanted to clean up their heavily polluted rivers. They made it easy for pig farms and other such industries to make a switch to a cleaner form of farming. Now tropical fish are a thriving business. Rivers are cleaner and healthier, and wild otter populations are back. The industry is regulated heavily, and whilst any farm will have issues, there is no large scale farmer out there that is making a huge profit from sickly and diseased fish.
That's not to say that captive bred fish will all be healthy. A small percentage will be coming in from producers in less regulated nations that use antibiotics rather than good husbandry to keep the fish alive. Some studies showed that 27% of guppies from a single farm were infected with camalanus worms, and there are some species of fish that are always treated as if they might be infected with Mycobacterium. It pays to pay that bit more in many cases to ensure healthier fish.
Escapees
Imagine you are diving in a river in South Africa, you’re worried about Bull Sharks, crocodiles, and hippos. A cichlid swims past you, for a moment you watch it before you realise there are fish surrounding you, all from the wrong continent. This African river is teeming with fish from South and Central America.
This was exactly the position I found myself in 1999. Decades of no exports meant that there was no investment available for the fish farm upriver. One year a storm had marched in from the Indian Ocean, washing out the ponds of various tropical fish, now they were thriving.
In May of this year, a dam burst on a fish farm in Malaysia, releasing a reported 15 000 arowana. Those that were recaptured died in a few days, but there are reports that some made it to the junction of the main river. In this case they might be a native species, and might restock the area, or 15 000 predators may be a disaster for the local ecology. Only time will tell.
Locally bred fish
For me one of the real highlights of the hobby is having a nice cup of tea in someone else’s fish house. No, we’re not in a position where all of our fish can come from a fish house just down the road. But some can. Join your local club, or specialist society and you will have a great chance to get some more unusual fish.
On the face of it breeding locally is a good thing. Avoid the cost and the stress of shipping the fish across the world. Be more responsive to the local market, keep costs, both monetary and environmental, to a minimum.
I wish it were so. It is cheaper to fly fish in from tropical climes and not have to worry about paying the heating bill.
Do I need a licence to sell fish?
The line between a hobbyist and a business is just £20 a week turn over. That’s a total of £1000 a year. Once you’re legally a business, you need a licence to breed fish, and that means insurance, and a licence fee, and jumping through the hoops set out by your local council, and your landlord or mortgage company may not like you running a pet breeding business from a residential property. Are you going to allow people to come to your house to collect the fish? Now you may be seen as a fish shop and need all the safety aspects that goes with that. You will need regular inspections, to keep detailed records about your water quality, and make sure you attend regular training, oh and you may need to take a qualification.
How do I know where my fish come from?
Ask the shop before you buy, they should be able to find out. Research the species and check if there any know issues. Are they being collected from the wild in an unsustainable way? Are they known to be carriers of particular disease?
Does the care matter?
Evolution isn’t that fast, so the myth that captive bred can be kept in any old water, whilst wild caught need keeping in very precise conditions is just that, a myth. Yes captive bred will tend to be a little more flexible, and wild caught may need some more specialist care whilst they recover from the changes that have happened to them, but we should be providing any fish the conditions they need to thrive.
It’s is crucial to quarantine any fish you buy, and I would say to worm any new comers, not just wild caught fish.
Sustainability is key
Sustainability just means that generations into the future these fish will still be available. Be that from healthy wild stock, carefully controlled captive breeding, or locally bred specialist stock.
With thanks to OATA for supplying the data and numbers, and Dr. Bessell from the Handfish Conservation Project for taking the time to answer a lot of questions.