- Joined
- Mar 8, 2004
- Messages
- 4,883
I've been glad to see ReefScavengers and nyaquatic and other suppliers getting more involved in IDing and recommending proper care for the octopuses they sell. Since we now have some of the suppliers participating in the forums, and particularly since we've seen a sudden rise in wunderpuses coming into the U.S. in the past week or so, I wanted to find out more of the industry perspective on these animals is.
We have a concern that while these octos are in danger of being overcollected in the wild. The so-called "zebra" octos seem particularly vulnerable to this because their lifestyle and habitat makes them relatively easy for collectors to catch, they are only known from a limited area where collectors are fairly aggressive, and they are a small-egged species so they are practically impossible to breed in captivity.
They are also not particularly interactive or interesting as octopuses go, so they seem like far more of a "trophy" animal than some other octo species who interact with their owners. Although we're concerned in general that some owners keep octos briefly, but get bored and don't take good care of them, we're particularly concerned that the zebra species are so flashy that they have an intrinsic demand among the irresponsible-but-rich crowds.
Since we're concerned about this, we'd like to act responsibly to make sure that wunderpuses and mimics aren't overcollected in the wild. Some argue that encouraging people to boycott these animals would be useful, since clearly sellers don't want to keep animals that don't sell. However, there's also a lot of evidence that the collectors don't really get much feedback from the sellers, so the collectors may well keep collecting these octos whether they're selling or not, and presumably there will always be people impressed by the "flashy" nature of them that will sell no matter what the "TONMO position" may be.
Since a lot of the fish sellers who come to TONMO seem to be interested in better understanding the species of octos they get, and how to advise customers to properly care for them and so forth, I'd like to encourage discussion of how the TONMO community, the people trying to make a living selling aquarium fish, and the general public can work together to make sure that these animals aren't overcollected or otherwise threatened because of their impressive appearance. I don't mean to say that it is (or isn't) irresponsible to sell these animals: the real concern is really at the collection end, rather than what happens to them when they get to the U.S. -- and I'd rather that they get to good homes with people who know how to care for them, unless that will feed back in such a way that it will give the collectors incentives to wipe out the wild population.
That's enough rambling from me, though, since I just want this to be a discussion-starter!
We have a concern that while these octos are in danger of being overcollected in the wild. The so-called "zebra" octos seem particularly vulnerable to this because their lifestyle and habitat makes them relatively easy for collectors to catch, they are only known from a limited area where collectors are fairly aggressive, and they are a small-egged species so they are practically impossible to breed in captivity.
They are also not particularly interactive or interesting as octopuses go, so they seem like far more of a "trophy" animal than some other octo species who interact with their owners. Although we're concerned in general that some owners keep octos briefly, but get bored and don't take good care of them, we're particularly concerned that the zebra species are so flashy that they have an intrinsic demand among the irresponsible-but-rich crowds.
Since we're concerned about this, we'd like to act responsibly to make sure that wunderpuses and mimics aren't overcollected in the wild. Some argue that encouraging people to boycott these animals would be useful, since clearly sellers don't want to keep animals that don't sell. However, there's also a lot of evidence that the collectors don't really get much feedback from the sellers, so the collectors may well keep collecting these octos whether they're selling or not, and presumably there will always be people impressed by the "flashy" nature of them that will sell no matter what the "TONMO position" may be.
Since a lot of the fish sellers who come to TONMO seem to be interested in better understanding the species of octos they get, and how to advise customers to properly care for them and so forth, I'd like to encourage discussion of how the TONMO community, the people trying to make a living selling aquarium fish, and the general public can work together to make sure that these animals aren't overcollected or otherwise threatened because of their impressive appearance. I don't mean to say that it is (or isn't) irresponsible to sell these animals: the real concern is really at the collection end, rather than what happens to them when they get to the U.S. -- and I'd rather that they get to good homes with people who know how to care for them, unless that will feed back in such a way that it will give the collectors incentives to wipe out the wild population.
That's enough rambling from me, though, since I just want this to be a discussion-starter!