Mini Rant

I found out this morning that Ralph Nader is running for president again. I wanted to go bang my head on something. Why oh why? I mean, you try, you fail, you help screw the country over for 4 years...do you really need to do it again? I have nothing against the guy really - but had it not been for the votes he took, we wouldn't have ended up with the asshat we have in the White House today. My boss joked that he must be getting money from Republicans somewhere. I wish he'd use that money to buy a clue.

Fishy Thoughts

So when we started out with this little aquarium project, all I'd really thought was that saltwater fish looked cool, and I wanted to have a saltwater tank. It wasn't until I started researching on the Internet and going on message boards when I started realizing the seriousness of the hobby.

I don't mean the money or anything like that (although it's serious money!). Rather, I'm talking about how the hobby impacts the environment, and how important it is to respect and value the fish you care for. It was never something I gave much thought to when I had a freshwater tank - I killed my fair share of guppies then. But at least with freshwater, the environmental impact is less, since most freshwater fish are tank-bred and raised. A lot of saltwater fish, on the other hand, still come from the ocean. There's a few tank-raised breeds, like our two clownfish are, but most are still wild-caught, like our puffer is. In the past, most of these fish were caught by blowing up coral reefs with TNT to "stun" the fish to make them easier to catch. Nowadays, more are using humane methods, but you're still removing animals from the wild.

Since I've started learning more about this hobby, I've come to have a lot more concern for our fish. If I'm going to take these guys from their homes, then I'd better take good care of them. Hopefully as time goes by they'll be able to raise more fish in captivity. It doesn't mean I won't care for them less, but it'll make me feel a little bit more comfortable about this hobby. When we start to do a reef tank, I'm going to make a concerted effort to buy tank-raised corals or fragments from other people's corals, rather than purchasing new wild-farmed ones. And I'm making sure to research the fish we buy, so we don't buy ones that really shouldn't be removed from the ocean, either due to fragility, or importance to the ecosystem.

Anyways, I never thought I would care this much about fish! I'll be pretty sad if we lose one, and upset with myself personally. I'm sure it's gonna happen, but hopefully we can keep it to a minimum. :)

And that's enough seriousness out of me for one day!