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Contains articles regarding fish and aquariums in the news.

Queen Triggerfishes are being Reared in Captivity

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  Aquarists from the New England Aquarium and Roger Williams University reported the first ever captive rearing of the queen triggerfish, Balistes vetula.  Announced in September of 2009, this is considered a significant step forward in marine fish conservation, as this species, much in demand in the pet trade, is listed as threatened by the IUCN.

Conservation Implications

Queen TriggerfishThe gorgeous Queen Triggerfish, which approaches 3 feet in length, is the one of the most sought after of the triggerfish species regularly sold in the US pet trade.  Despite numerous captive breeding records, young triggerfishes have proven impossible to rear in captivity.  This situation, and the high prices (to $500) commanded by adult specimens, fuels an unsustainable trade in wild caught queen triggerfishes.  Read More »

Destructive Blast Fishing in the Indo-Pacific

At this point, most people are aware of how important the coral reefs are to the world’s oceans and the world itself. With this knowledge, you would think that we would show more respect to this fragile environment. However, this is not the case, specifically in the Indo-Pacific region. This area is infamous for their destructive fishing techniques, using cyanide and dynamite to collect stunned fish. The use of cyanide has been banned for quite sometime, but is still being used by some to collect fish for the aquarium hobby. Cyanide fishing can damage or kill corals that are exposed during the catching process, not to mention that the fish that it was intended will most likely die days or weeks down the road. Blast fishing is just as bad if not worse, a battle that has been fought for decades. Read More »

Another Environmental Catastrophe Averted on the Great Barrier Reef

Blue Starfish (Linckia laevigata) resting on hard Acropora coral. Lighthouse, Ribbon Reefs, Great Barrier ReefThe Great Barrier Reef is the largest and most diverse coral reef in the world. The aquarium industry over the past few years has seen a growing list of fish and corals that have been made available from the Barrier Reef, and they’ve been some amazing specimens. The last thing anyone wants is anything damaging the pristine natural wonder, especially something so devastating as to restrict collection of fish and corals from selected areas again. Read More »

Fantastic New Captive Bred Fish Coming Soon to TFP – Highlights from Global Pet Expo 2010

ORA Global DisplayHi, Dave again. This past week I attended the annual Global Pet Expo in Orlando. Global is the biggest pet trade show in the U.S., where many vendors show of their new products for the year, as well as show off some prototypes for thing to come down the road.
When you think of new products, fish don’t exactly jump to mind, after all we don’t make fish…or do we? Captive bred fish have been the driving force in freshwater aquariums for many years, with many manmade fish on the market, freshwater and saltwater. Fish like the many types Fancy Goldfish, Bloody Parrots, Flowerhorns and more recently the bioengineered “Glo Fish” are common to the freshwater aquarium hobby. Selective breeding and hybridization have resulted in many manmade fish over the years. Read More »

Decline of Apex Predators – Why Shark Finning Needs to Stop

Shark Fin SoupHello, Cory here. Almost every day you can find some piece of news involving sharks, and in many cases, the news is another instance of someone, somewhere discovering mutilated shark carcasses or that a commercial fishing boat has been found throwing finless carcasses overboard. Just the idea of shark finning is terrible, I’m not sure how anyone can support and/or participate in the shark fin trade. Shark finning has been banned in many countries such as the US, but remains a problem in European and Asian countries. Despite the concern over shark populations and environmental impacts, shark finning continues, even growing from year to year in popularity, all to cater to a taste for an expensive bowl of soupRead More »