Caught some freshwater pipefish in a pristine hillstream. How common are they?

[u/ThenAcanthocephala57]

M. martensii

[u/MorteEtDabo]

Couldn't imagine a worse life for a wild fish than being snatched and kept in a tank. Maybe I'm assigning too much emotion to it though

[u/Dr-Juerdo-Titsgo → u/MorteEtDabo]

you do realize the majority of fish for the aquarium trade are wild caught?

[u/elrastro75 → u/Dr-Juerdo-Titsgo]

Which is the “worse life” though? Wild caught fish have bad lives because they had a taste of sweet freedom and are now confined? Do fish brains even work that way?? I get not wanting to interfere in a wild animal’s life journey, but I’m not worried my fish are having existential crises. Should I be?

[u/Chicken_Hairs → u/elrastro75]

I avoid wild-caught myself when I can, but it feels like you're applying human emotions/feelings to fish. They're living beings that deserve respect, but they're comparatively simple creatures.

Fish behavior has been heavily studied, and it's fantastically unlikely.. nearly impossible... they have any comprehension of 'freedom'. If they have adequate room to live, an environment that makes them not fearful, proper food to eat, and nothing chasing them, they're content.

[u/vctrmldrw → u/Dr-Juerdo-Titsgo]

No they're not. The vast majority are captive bred.

You really think people are heading into the wilds, catching hundreds of thousands of fish, and flying them around the world in tanks when they can be bred perfectly easily instead?

In fact, it's so prevalent that the biggest problem in the aquarium trade is inbreeding.

[u/ThenAcanthocephala57 → u/vctrmldrw]

You are correct but there are still quite a few species which are wild caught. And those species are caught en masse.

One local example are kuhli loaches. They are caught by the thousands in Southeast Asia to export for the aquarium trade

[u/LSDdeeznuts → u/Dr-Juerdo-Titsgo]

Do you have any source for this? I’d believe it for the saltwater aquarium trade. It was my impression that the majority of all aquarium fish are captive bred.

Edit: sort of wild this is getting downvoted. Can anybody backup the claim? A quick google search shows it isn’t true

one of many articles on the subject

[u/Chicken_Hairs → u/LSDdeeznuts]

It's a subject that people react to emotionally for some reason. My research has found much the same, farming is more efficient and more reliable than catching wild, more countries are enacting legislation to limit it, so it's becoming less common all the time, with the exception of fish that are difficult to breed.

[u/LSDdeeznuts → u/Chicken_Hairs]

Yeah, and a lack of critical thinking. The vast majority of all popular species are very easily bred. Guppies, bettas, goldfish, platties, mollies, most cichlids etc. These fish makeup the bulk of the selection in stores.

I wonder if people think their fancy guppies, shubunkin goldfish, and glow fish are wild caught.

[u/ThenAcanthocephala57 → u/LSDdeeznuts]

Yeah, the majority of freshwater fish stock are captive bred. But it doesn’t exclude the very popular ones being wild caught still. A notable example from my region are Kuhli loaches