The Ethics of Aquariums

[Kelly_Aquatics]

I will start this by saying I am not against fish keeping or pet ownership, but I do believe it is important to question and debate the norms that generally go unchallenged. I have owned countless fish, dogs, cats and several reptiles and I have recently had an internal dilemma with the morality and ethics of keeping exotic animals specifically fish. I challenge you to create a list of justifiable reasons why keeping fish is a morally sound and just hobby. Outside of breeding facilities that aim to preserve dwindling species I have struggled to find a logical reason for keeping fish in a home aquarium. I may not have done a great job of explaining my question so I will try to simplify it. Is it ultimately ethical to keep fish at home or is it cruel? Why or why not.

 

[esoxlucius]

Thankfully, being on a fishkeeping forum, the responses you're going to get here will obviously be extremely biased in favour of the hobby. I'd hope so anyway!

I'd be interested to hear though if anyone has actually come out of the hobby purely because they could no longer justify keeping fish in the confines of a box.

Personally, my simple take on it is, no, it's not ideal, but I sort of try and balance it up by thinking that, well, if I'm going to keep fish in a box, then I'll do my utmost to ensure they're cared for in the proper manner.

Plenty of freshwater, a good diet, and no crazy stocking plans which would cause no end of stress to the "inmates".

I have a feeling this one's going to be an interesting thread!

 

[jason longboard]

Everyone is so so different, that's gonna biggest thing here. Spiritually, morally, maturity, scientifically, look at who eats what in different countries, who lets their dogs run wild with no tags, stray cats all over vs indoor pet cat vs outdoor pet cat. Dogs chained up in yards sleeping in the cold vs sleeping snuggled up in bed like mine.

I've had to grab teenagers on the pier for throwing seastars like frisbees. People taking tons of fish while fishing that are undersized. Ppl shooting turtles in the water for fun or spearing frogs, but when our water shortage hit, tons of ppl hit the river beds and ponds to rescue everything from frogs to fish to tadpoles.......the city shut the water off.

Here's my biggest thought on fish.

If your giving them good space to thrive, not letting any get picked on, you know and match the water best you can, not letting them be scared by kids, other pets, loud noises, crazy lights, no predators, good food, and again, plenty of room.....

then I see absolutely no issue..............bad part is it takes awhile to learn all that for some people, so it's up to us to preach. Or else the world sees bad tanks, conditions, compatibility issues, live feedings and so on and the haters are going to think that's how we all are.

I feel like if you don't love them like pets then your in this for the wrong reason.

 

[jason longboard]

Thankfully, being on a fishkeeping forum, the responses you're going to get here will obviously be extremely biased in favour of the hobby. I'd hope so anyway!

I'd be interested to hear though if anyone has actually come out of the hobby purely because they could no longer justify keeping fish in the confines of a box.

Personally, my simple take on it is, no, it's not ideal, but I sort of try and balance it up by thinking that, well, if I'm going to keep fish in a box, then I'll do my utmost to ensure they're cared for in the proper manner.

Plenty of freshwater, a good diet, and no crazy stocking plans which would cause no end of stress to the "inmates".

I have a feeling this one's going to be an interesting thread!

As a long time reptile breeder, we are finally waking people up from keeping hundreds of ball pythons in shoe boxes for life in breeding racks.

So some have indeed stopped, then you see who was in it just for the money, no care for the animals.

Others still agree with keeping them that way, we shall see if they are eventualy turned or canceled.

Otherwise we are good with reptile keeping with the same rules as fish, it gets a bit more complex though.

Others just stop breeding and just go back to a basic collection.


With fish though, you can see my above post.

 

[RyanScanner]

Surely it’s the same as the ethics of eating meat, we do it because we can.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; To the OP, do a search of this site. The topic has been exhausted many times. Outside of commercial shops the keeping of pets is for our personal gratification. Doubtful if even 1% of home aquariums begin to approach natural wild conditions. Hundreds if not many thousands of gallons of water per fish in natural settings. As a Mod duanes posts often, natural waters have zero nitrates while we think staying at or below 20 ppm is good enough.

The pro home aquaria bits include our fish do not face predation nor hunger in out our glass boxes most of the time. Our fish do face too many bad fishkeepers. Have seen too many fish keepers with bad conditions so that I no longer encourage new fish Keepers to the hobby.

The worst conditions appear to be on the commercial side of the hobby. I do not know the extent of things which happen during collection, transport and all , but the parts i do know are not often good. Take the male betta trade as example. Ever consider how much culling of individual fish goes on. I have not seen it lately at the local Wal-Mart but not long ago there were cups of male bettas for sale at the service desk.

But the big issue is who gets to set the standards other have to follow. Will it be my take on what is ethical. I currently have a 55 gallon tank with four zebra danio fish + one rasbora and at that know they have too little water per fish. On the plus side the power can go out and the fish will be fine for weeks or months. Should it be someone who stocks densely and whose tanks will be in trouble in hours if the power goes out?

we do it because we can

Hello; this showed up as I was typing. I started keeping fish around 1959 when i was maybe 12 years old. I saw some in a flower shop for sale and just wanted them. No ethical questions for years.

 

[Backfromthedead]

All of the fish i keep had wanted to leave the wilderness and join civilization. They volunteered to come here as long as i covered room and board.

When confronted with ethical conundrums, just distort the facts to agree with your opinion.

 

[Cal Amari]

The thing with ethics and morality is that they are decided on an individual basis, and are conditional and situational. If you dig deep enough into most ethical statements that something is right or wrong, eventually you'll get to the "unless..." part of it.

As for my opinion I see keeping fish as no different than keeping a dog or cat. I like animals. They bring me joy. Interacting with them, watching them, and learning more about them is a part of my life I like. That doesn't mean that keeping them is ethically right, because I don't think everyone should have them. It's the conditional part, if I want to keep an animal in my care then I have an ethical responsibility to keep it in safe, healthy conditions.

I like teaching my kids about them, and hope they grow to appreciate and respect animals, wildlife, and the environment. I also like teaching them about responsibility and personal accountability, again, if you choose to have this in your life then you are also accepting the responsibility to put in the work to to give them a fair home.

At the end of the day you have to do what you can live with believing is morally acceptable and no one else can decide that for you.

 

[esoxlucius]

I currently have a 55 gallon tank with four zebra danio fish + one rasbora and at that know they have too little water per fish. On the plus side the power can go out and the fish will be fine for weeks or months. Should it be someone who stocks densely and whose tanks will be in trouble in hours if the power goes out?

It's admirable keeping such a low stock in case of a power outage, I understand the benefits of that.

But keeping such a low stock of shoaling fish, especially a single rasbora, which can get stressed if not in adequate numbers, seems very odd.

If low stocking is your thing, why not opt for fish that do ok as singles?

 

[ken31cay]

No it's not morally right to keep fish or any other animal in an unnatural confinement and separated from its natural habitat unless to aid in their protection. I suppose part of the way I justify fish keeping is that I strive to provide larger aquariums and lower density stocking for the fish I keep than is the norm according to what I see being done.

For example, I personally wouldn't feel right about keeping any fish larger than around 18 or 19 inches in my 750gal or any fish larger than 14 inches in my 450gal, while fish in my 180 gallon need to be 10 inches or smaller. I know the scaling is not proportionate. But anything less than this and I don't feel that the fish have enough room to live 'properly' in what is still a simulated habitat.