Aquariums and Ornamental Fish: How we can Act in Favor of the Conservation of Freshwater Life?
Danilo Araujo Soares Pereira*
Postgraduate Program in Aquaculture and Fisheries, Fisheries Institute – Government of the State of São Paulo, Brazil
Submission: August 24, 2019; Published:October 01, 2019
*Correspondence author: Danilo Araujo Soares Pereira, Postgraduate Program in Aquaculture and Fisheries, Fisheries Institute–Government of the State of São Paulo, Av. Francisco Matarazzo, 455, São Paulo, 05001-970, Brazil
How to cite this article:Danilo Araujo Soares Pereira. Aquariums and Ornamental Fish: How we can Act in Favor of the Conservation of Freshwater Life?. Oceanogr Fish Open Access J. 2019; 10(4): 555794. DOI: 10.19080/OFOAJ.2019.10.555794
Abstract
Between the demands of human society, economic interests, and environmental pressures, the aquatic life faces multiple challenges not only in the seas but very heavily in freshwater ecosystems in efforts to preserve their species. In this direction, an accessible and still neglected path draws attention: the maintenance of living organisms in aquariums. But how could an activity – commonly known as simple entertainment activity involving a glass box and a little “Goldfish” – influence the conservation of freshwater life? This brief review aims to answer this question through aquarium hobby characteristics from different perspectives: I. Socioeconomics, II. Technical/ Scientific, and III. Environmental/ Politic. From the Socioeconomic viewpoint, this activity generates multidisciplinary information sharing among publications and social media, jobs, massive monetary flows, movement of billions of specimens each year, encourages the protection of wild populations through captive breeding of threatened species, sustainable aquaculture and income generation alternatives.
In the Technical/ Scientific approach, this activity boosts the description of new species, studies in zoology, systematics, morphology, ecology, climate change, ecotoxicology, and zootechnics - serving as a tool for environmental education and biogeochemical cycles teaching. From the Environmental/ Politic scope, the activity associated with complex problems such as misguided legislation, informal commerce of potentially invasive species, environmental impacts caused by the introduction of non-native organisms, evidence of unsustainable fisheries, and international wildlife trafficking and illegal trade of endangered species. Conclusion is the usage of aquariums and freshwater species should focus on scientific and economic development to aim its maximum efforts to protect aquatic life.
Keywords: Aquatic Biodiversity Fishkeeping Hobby Socioeconomics Technical/Scientific Development Environmental/Politic
Introduction
Aquatic environments around the world have been suffering from environmental and climate change – largely associated with the activities of human demands – which can affect all life in water [1,2]. Popularly known as hagfishes, lampreys, sharks, stingrays, chimeras, and numerous forms of bony fishes, these vertebrates form the most diverse group on the planet: more than 34,000 species, or in other words, half of all vertebrate diversity [3,4]. Consequently, there are many organisms that can directly suffer these impacts, including taxa no less important than fish. Not only the oceans and the marine biodiversity in their numerous saltwater ecosystems and their very important niches have been threatened, mainly by overfishing, habitat loss, pollution, invasive species, eutrophication, and acidification [1]. Rivers and many other freshwater ecosystems have been threatened by changes in terrestrial environments, deforestation, sedimentation, urbanization, hydroelectric construction, mining, and other issues [5]. Moving in this direction, freshwater species represents roughly half of all species of fishes [4] and experience more than the double in population declines when compared to vertebrates living in marine or even terrestrial environments [2,6].
Activities from different perspectives act in favor of water life protection: of social and economic importance, such improvements production technologies of aquatic organisms in captive through aquaculture [7,8] and in developing strategies for greater accuracy in other activities, like fisheries [9]; in the execution of scientific research that brings new information about the interactions in this ecosystems [1,2,4,5] and environmental education raising awareness about these particularities [10,11]; or even through environmental policies linked to laws and movements of the use of natural resources [1,9]. However, there are very ignored, and neglected ways present in our daily lives that can act, directly and indirectly, positively and negatively, in the conservation of aquatic life not far from these activities mentioned: the aquariums and their ornamental fish. But, how could we influence the conservation of aquatic life through “simple aquarium fish”? This brief review aims to answer this question through the definition of aquariums and ornamental fish, addressing their historical, potentialities, and issues in socioeconomic, technical/scientific and environmental/political perspectives.
Definition: Aquarium and Ornamental Fish
The maintenance of plants, invertebrates, fishes and even other aquatic or semi-aquatic vertebrates in aquariums, ponds, water gardens, and other spaces is popularly known as fishkeeping or aquarium hobby. This activity may involve exposure, reproduction, and movement of organisms between and in multiple regions [12,13], involving a series of variables that may influence the conservation of these and other specimens and their ecosystems observed from different perspectives.
Socioeconomics
This activity by requiring advanced knowledge from their practitioners promote the constant search for general and specific knowledge of the reared species and their biological and ecological aspects and even about their habitat’s dynamics. Initially, in the previous decades, such information was observed in publications of books and magazines, followed for discussion online forums, and nowadays there are increasing numbers of groups and profiles aimed at promoting and exchanging knowledge about these organisms and aquarium technics in electronic social networks, besides the online negotiation of live organisms [14]. Unlike terrestrial and marine animals that may require large spaces and many expansive resources, much ornamental fish of great commercial value – including critically endangered species such as loricariids or even large carnivores such as the osteoglossids – can be bred in captivity in small spaces [12,15]. Thus, the activity presents sustainable income generation potential with aquaculture systems possible even in residential rooms or inactive spaces in urban centers, as well as a tool for the protection of aquatic life, by discouraging the fishing of littleknown populations through the offer of captive animals, which may still be an alternative family economy [12].
The international ornamental fish market creates jobs, directly and indirectly, related to the activity, including professionals with multidisciplinary qualifications, as well as generating income by selling resources and providing services related to the activity [15,16]. The ornamental fish trade makes movements that are hardly measured. Around US $ 2 billion was moved in estimates between importation and exportation of live fish for ornamental purposes in the period 2015–2018 [17], with previous projections of 2 billion specimens annually transported per year, every year [13]. However, economic interests also raise problems. International wildlife trafficking stands out as another threat to aquatic species, in addition to the informal commerce associated with the introduction of invasive species, which can lead to serious environmental damage [14].
Technical/scientific
The rapid dynamics of fishkeeping led to the discovery of new species, their natural characteristics, and zootechnics before they were explored or described by science. In this sense, the aquarium hobby has boosted and further drives taxonomic studies, including popular fishes known as “Plecos” [12,18,19], “Arowanas” [15], andDiscus” [20]. Keeping and breeding aquarium fishes has allowed worldwide the formation of true living stocks of endemic and endangered species, including populations already extinct in the wild, as can be widely observed among Cyprinodontiformes [21]. Found in small aquatic environments like puddles, the popular “Killifish” and “Annual Fish” experience constant description of new species and destruction of their habitats, where aquarists try different efforts to keep these fish alive, in both natural and artificial environments, without economic interests.
Species that rearing techniques were developed in aquariums and had only ornamental importance in the past – as the “Zebrafish” (Danilo rerio) – today are the subject of important research in zoology [22], climate change [23], ecotoxicology and several other sciences [24]. Recent research attests that aquariums are also important tools for high precision photography for morphological and taxonomic observations on live aquatic fauna, and differently from the classic images found in database and literature that include dead and fixed specimens, and other issues, these images of live animals can be used in conservation campaigns due to their aesthetics [25]. Aquariums, oceanariums, zoos, museums, and various institutions can act directly on environmental education and measures to preserve and conserve aquatic life [10]. It is also known that for decades aquariums – including other low-cost options like jars – have been used as a science teaching tool in the understanding of biogeochemical cycles of aquatic ecosystems and their species [11].
Environmental/ Politic
The fishkeeping is responsible for introducing invasive species in different locations. The causes of the introduction include the release of organisms that usually have a high reproductive rate, aggressive species, and large animals belonging to the freshwater megafauna, which may imply technical and financial imbalances [26]. Like the environmental degradation and fragmentation of natural ecosystems, the establishment of non-native species impacts freshwater ecosystems through competition, predation, stunting, genetic degradation, the introduction of disease and parasites, and other effects [27]. Although some authors mention that electronic media are the main vectors of exotic species [14], this occurrence is not only related to advertising channels but linked to disinformation, bureaucracies and legal obstacles that hinder strategies for a well-delineated activity. Policies focused on raising awareness of their environmental risks and trades control can be interesting since legal obstacles and prohibitions can encourage secret practices [12].
Banning activities on threatened species can be a sensitive issue when considering their economic impacts. South America, for example, is known for having the largest freshwater biodiversity on the planet and several species of ornamental interest, including endangered animals [4]. Policies that restrict activities related to endangered species – including captive breeding and economic exploitation – to protect these species may be restricting effortsthat could act as conservative alternatives [12,15,21]. Activities such as ornamental fisheries have existed in the Amazon since the last century as an economically viable activity and do not match current threats such as the construction of hydropower dams, as examples [18]. However, the activity can be complicated by considering high animal mortality rates in capture, quarantine, transport, and commercialization processes as observed with stingrays (Potamotrygonidae), with unsustainable fishing evidence and social inequalities issues [28].
In some cases, the ban may value wild specimens and improper exploitation. The ban on activities with Amazon “L46” (Hypancistrus zebra) by the Brazilian government in 2004 has led to a noticeable increase in its market price due to low market supply, generating high acceptability of wild specimens by aquarists due to the desperate need for a brood stock before was considered critically endangered in 2014 – now a born captive can cost up to US$500 outside the country of occurrence [12]. In another case, the aquaculture of the also critically endangered “Asian Arowana” (Scleropages formosus) draw the attention of governmental policies: the industry can promote protection of wild populations, job opportunities, and generate economic development – a juvenile can cost US$400–500 and an adult can reach US$100,000 [15]. Another curious case is the “Batik Arowana” (Scleropages inscriptus) that was inserted in the Appendix I of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in the same year of the formal description [29]. Environmental policies targeting scientific research by public entities – universities and environmental authorities – and private entities – fisheries and aquaculture sectors as example – producing accessible information for the whole population could be important tools for more sustainable practices with aquariums and aquatic organisms, collaborating with the conservation of freshwater life.
Conclusion
Socioeconomic, technical/ scientific and political/ environmental issues are intrinsically interlinked and inseparable when talking about aquarium fish. Consequently, the management of these freshwater animals should consider scientific discovery and economic development focused on maximum efforts to effectively protect aquatic life.
Acknowledgment
The author deeply thanks the Federal University of Pampa (Aquaculture) and the Institute of Fisheries of the Government of the State of São Paulo (Brazil) and their respective members, for supported research on this topic. Special thanks to Suellen Lopes Frescura and Denise Martins Lumia for the textual revisions.
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