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Sustainable fish - but what species, and for how much?

Joined
12 Nov 2008
Messages
426
Location
Kendal, Cumbria
PFK is running a story about a sustainable fish project in Brazil, the Mamiraua Project, supplying fish to the UK later this year - hopefully, it says. Great, that'll be the last piece in the jigsaw letting me set up a planted tank with a clear conscience.

But what fish will I be able to purchase? The story suggests a limited number of species will be available, including "Discus, Symphysodon aequifasciata, various cichlids including Satanoperca and Aequidens, hatchet fishes, tetras and pencilfishes."

Can anyone suggest what subspecies of tetra might be coming out of that area? Can we expect any of the planted tank favourites, like cardinals and rummies? And what sort of premium might we be paying for these fish, bearing in mind we should be able to trace "who the fisherman was, where and when the fish was caught and even what the water conditions were like at the time"?
 
Themuleous said:
That's good to hear, might help protect whats left of the rainforest as well.

I can't help on the species that will be produced but I thought a high proportion of tropical freshwater fish were already captive bred, making them sustainable anyway?

Sam

Captive breeding may well be less sustainable in many ways than collecting fish sensibly and under management from the wild. Captive bred fish need to have lots of water for changes (which is often returned to natural watercourses loaded with nutrients altering their flora and fauna), need lots of feeding (which may be collected, processed and shipped in from abroad) and then they there will also inevitably be escapees which may then breed in the local environment and harm the local biotopes too!
 
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