Re: NANFA--list content restrictions?

Steffen Hellner (steffen_at_hellner.biz)
Tue, 30 Mar 2004 15:35:19 +0200

Not neccessarily - but I don4t think collecting fish simply to let them dye
in a tank has to do anything with conservation. That is consumption. But it
is easier than to breed the fish. I accept for most people that they simply
want to keep the fish. And why not take them from nature if there are
enough. I think the fish would be prefer that rather than becoming a bait.
But how many of the NANFA members do breed fish other than Sunfish or some
of the easier Fundulus? We had the discussion on this list already. Instead
of arguing how difficult e.g. a Pteronotropis welaka or hubbsi is to breed
why not try it seriously. Or support others trying. But then there comes a
kind of "exclusivity" thinking and all of a sudden the fish should better
not be taken from the wild (though they are taken in lots regularly!). This
has nothing to do with conservation either.

My point of view is a very private one: I want to keep and breed the fish
and study them to clear what they need to be propagated. And to support
other people with the information and experience I can forward. This is only
one attempt to support conservation and there are many more others. I cannot
work on field conservation of NANF from Germany, of course. But I have
contact to authorities in the USA who are interested in being supported in
their work by propagation studies on fish species which are not (yet)
covered by restoration plans but might need that in the nearer future. This
would/could be a great field for many NANFA members. I wonder why there is
so little engagement in this. Perhaps I have missed information on that. I
don4t intend to tell other people what to do, just what I think is right
from my personal view. And this I have to follow, whatever it is developing
on the way. So I will go on collecting, breeding, and publicating the fish I
am interested in and leave other things to others.

Steffen
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