Pet Fish, Home Aquarium Hobbyist, and the Aquarium Trade – Why it’s Cruel and Unethical

“The mortality rates of fish for home and business aquarium owners are 99% within one year from the point of capture.”

“But you are taking away the fish’s most precious possession – their freedom, and where they belong—the ocean.”

Fish are strikingly beautiful. Especially colorful coral reef fish. And fish tanks are pervasive—they are found in Chinese restaurants, doctor’s offices, corporate headquarters, and most of all, in people’s homes around the world in all sizes. Some studies show that watching fish swim can calm nerves, relieve stress, reduce anxiety, reduce blood pressure, and distract us from our suffering. 

But whether they are large fish tanks or small, sterile glass bowls or home aquariums, the fish are confined in a completely unnatural setting, captive and caged in a small home compared to the ocean, and enslaved in a prison that was not their choice or where they want to be—only where they are forced to be. There are ethical and ecological implications of taking fish from the ocean to keep them in captivity that causes their suffering and a very early death, where they do not belong, and is entirely unnatural for them. And most salt-water fish are completely unsuitable for aquarium life, since they require such specific conditions and feeding regimens, and simply cannot survive in aquariums.

Some Statistics

95 percent of marine ocean fish in the aquarium trade are collected from the wild, from coral reefs around the world. It is estimated that over 1 billion ornamental fish (freshwater and marine) from some 5,400 species are traded annually for the aquarium industry. This does not include the invertebrates, crustaceans, live rock, corals, and plants that are also part of the ornamental fish trade. The United States is the number one importer of coral reef tropical fish, followed by the European Union and Japan. In the U.S. alone, 10.5 million tropical fish from over 1,800 species were confiscated from coral reefs in the ocean and imported into the U.S. in one year—2004-2005. In 2014, over 10 million tropical fish were imported to the U.S., and 1.3 were exported from the U.S. Roughly 83 percent of these fish were wild caught and forcibly removed from the ocean. This number does not even include the domestically raised fish for the U.S. (Source: Animal Welfare Institute)

The Impact of Capturing and Trafficking Reef Fish for Hobbyists’ Fish Tanks

Captive tropical fish forced to live in aquariums live sad, lonely, often sick, and very short lives. Fish the live on coral reefs in the ocean normally live up to 40 or 50 years naturally, although many of them live between 10 and 30 years. But the vast majority of fish taken from coral reefs in the ocean by the aquarium trade industry—die within one day, one week, or months of capture. More than 99 percent of all ornamental fish taken from the ocean die within one year of capture. And up to 90 percent of saltwater fish imported to the U.S. are caught using poisonous, toxic Cyanide. Additionally, 98 percent of saltwater fish cannot be bred in captivity on a commercial scale, which means millions upon millions are taken from the ocean each year for home and office aquariums to replace the fish that died.

Fish taken from the ocean’s coral reefs die from being handled roughly, from toxic sodium cyanide that is used to stun them, from the explosives that are used to stun to capture them, from the shock of transporting them, being out of the ocean water too long where they cannot breathe, from the needle used to puncture their fish swim bladder to get rid of the air inside of them, from being put in a cooler for transit, from being trucked a long distance, from being starved, from being kept in polluted water with defecation, from finally reaching the fish tank where they often are sick and are shocked by the improper water temperature, improper water quality, improper food, improper amount of food, improper frequency of the food, inadequate space, inadequate aquarium conditions, and are often neglected. Basically, everything a human does to a wild fish starting with the action of removing them from their home—the natural environment of the ocean—is traumatizing to them, and killing them. 

Up to 90 percent of the 11 million tropical fish that come into the U.S. each year are caught with the use of toxic Cyanide—used illegally. Mostly from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Hawaii. The use of cyanide poisoning not only kills the target fish, but also kills non-target fish and marine life, as well as destroys the coral. By killing the coral, the fish lose their home and protection, as well as their food that sustains them. Equally as destructive a practice, is some fisherman physically destroy the coral to capture the fish.

Millions of wild-caught fish can spend days or weeks in transit before finally arriving at the pet store. More than 80 percent of all the wild caught fish die from this stress, injury, sickness or mistreatment. 

What Are the Consequences of Captivity?

Full-size home or office aquariums do not provide fish with the diversity of habitats and conditions that are found in the ocean, inside coral reefs, and in their natural environment. Not only are their physical needs not met, like improper water temperature, poor water quality, improper or poor quality of food, inadequate tank, or aquarium size, and improper enrichment—their psychological needs are not met. Fish are sentient, intelligent, and fully conscious animals, they feel pain, suffer, have desires, feel, have emotions, mate, nurture young, just like humans do. Yet are artificially confined and put into tiny, unnatural bowls or tanks, and live miserable, short lives. Basically, they die within one year, instead of living their natural 10 to 30 years. Then are quickly “replaced.” This creates a constant demand that feeds a cycle of collection, production, acquisition, and death. Again.

Sadly, most captive fish live short lives of suffering and are easily replaced with new “stock”— creating a constant demand that feeds a cycle of collection/production, acquisition, and death.

But what about the fish? Don’t they have a right to their own lives? To live in the ocean where they are born? Where they belong? With their fish families? We cannot ask what they want. Do we humans have the right to take fish from the ocean–for money, causing all of these millions of fish to die within one year of taking them? It’s time we all speak up for them, do the right thing, and raise awareness about the injustice and cruelty done to them by people in this aquarium trade and buyers of fish supporting the trade. 

Greedy Pet Stores Are Irresponsible, Care Only About Profit

Retailers selling aquarium equipment and fish, like PETCO, are also responsible and complicit in the cruelty done to these fish. They sell tanks that are far too small for even the smallest ornamental fish species, that hold only one-half gallon of water. Even a larger full-size aquarium for a home or office cannot provide the diversity of habitats, plants, and conditions that are found in the ocean. These small tanks or aquariums also neglect meeting the psychological and physical needs of these fish. Aquarium owners often are not even knowledgeable about how to properly care for these fish, and they overstock the tanks, provide poor quality water, do not clean the water properly, provide the wrong water temperature, and provide improper or inadequate food and improper feeding times. All of these contribute to an exceptionally high mortality rate for fish relegated to tanks that are ridiculously too small for their physical and psychological needs. In addition, ignorant marketing done by retailers targeting young people or apartment renters, advertises how small fish bowls and tanks require little space on a table or counter so fit into small apartment or spaces. However, small tanks are completely inadequate for these fish, and contribute to the animal cruelty, irresponsibility, immorality and mortality done to the fish by retailers, and by hobby aquarium owners.

Fish Are Sentient and Fully Conscious

Most people recognize that cats, dogs, horses, and our pets are sentient and conscious. And many people agree that whales, orcas, and dolphins are sentient and do not belong in cement swimming pools inside marine aquariums because they suffer in confinement in an unnatural environment for them. But most people don’t even think about the smaller animals, like fish. It is no different for small fish. All fish are considered sentient—they have the capacity to feel fear, pain, distress, suffer and feel pleasure. They have emotional needs and desires. They have cognitive abilities and think. They have families and “schools” of community fish who they enjoy being around and feel safety in numbers. They are conscious and have sensory perceptions responsible for reflexes and impulses. Like all animals and humans, fish enjoy their freedom and to swim freely in their natural environment—the ocean. But evidence suggests that fish feel pain and suffer as a consequence of humanity’s ignorant and selfish actions. Confining small fish is also psychologically tormenting to them and physically cannot meet their needs. A small glass tank is nothing like the open ocean, the natural salt water, the coral reef, the marine food that is available to them, and everything that comprises their natural home where they can swim freely and be a fish. 

Science shows that fish have memories and recognize themselves in a mirror reflection and also recognize people that visit them. Fish are also able to sing to each other, they develop complex social structures, they develop cultural traditions, they can even talk to one another. But most people don’t know this about fish, and diminish or minimize their lives, and objectify them by removing them from their natural home, to put them in aquariums and fish tanks, so they can look at them. Unfortunately, these people don’t respect animals or sentient beings. “The thinking by some people is that fish are infinitely replaceable, like they are some type of object for our personal satisfaction and gratification.” (Source: The Dark Hobby)

In the past 15 years, Victoria Braithwaite and other fish biologists around the world have produced substantial evidence that, just like mammals and birds, fish also experience conscious pain. “More and more people are willing to accept the facts,” Braithwaite says. “Fish do feel pain. It’s likely different from what humans feel, but it is still a kind of pain.”

Quote: “We are objectifying fish when we remove them from their natural home where they belong—the ocean. The thinking by some people is fish are infinitely replaceable, like they are some type of object for our personal satisfaction. But they have families out there.” (Source: The Dark Hobby)

Bred in Captivity, The Factory Farming of Fish for Aquariums

Freshwater fish are bred in captivity for aquariums as well. Mainly by industry breeders, or sometimes by hobby breeders. When you buy a freshwater fish, you are supporting an irresponsible, cruel industry. Goldfish being bred for fish bowls, are typically bred in giant tubs in facilities that produce millions of fish per year, then are sold to profit-centered pet stores. Buyers of goldfish and domestic-bred fish from pet stores typically have no experience with fish or how to be responsible for them, and often are completely ignorant of an animal’s needs. They confine the fish to a completely inadequate small bowl that is not large enough for a fish to swim, provide improper light conditions, improper feeding, improper water filtration, improper cleaning of the water, and subject the fish to very unhealthy overall conditions—all is fundamental animal cruelty. 

Fish Have Zero Legal Protections

Despite this large industry, there are virtually zero protections afforded these fish. Very few aquarium species are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Without international restrictions on trade, the fate of many thousands of fish species is controlled by country laws only which, in many countries, are completely inadequate.

And humans kill more fish than they do any other invertebrate at 2.7 trillion per year. It is mind-boggling and unfathomable. In the U.S., the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) offers minimal protections to most warm-blooded animals used in research, sold as food, and sold as pets, but it excludes fish, amphibians, and reptiles. Yet the sheer number of fish killed for food and bred for pet stores far surpasses the corresponding numbers of mammals, birds, and reptiles. Annually, about 70 billion land animals are killed for food around the world. By comparison, an estimated 10 to 100 billion farmed fish are killed worldwide every year, and about another one to three trillion fish are caught in the wild. The fact is, that more fish are killed each year than the number of people that have ever existed on Earth. And they are sentient animals. Just because fish live in the ocean, and we cannot see them, and we cannot see what is happening to them when being fished—does not mean they don’t deserve legal protection, animal welfare protection, and respect as sentient animals. 

When we consider the sheer scale of the number of fully conscious, sentient fish that are being deliberately killed, in addition to the painful, horrible way they are being slaughtered or left to die, the suffering experienced by each and every fish is likely greater than that of any other group of sentient beings.

Learn More About Fish

It’s Official: Fish Feel Pain, Smithsonian Magazine

Fish Sentience, Fish Feel

The Horrific Way Fish are Caught for Your Aquarium—with Cyanide, National Geographic Magazine

Ethical and Ecological Implications of Keeping Fish in Captivity, Animal Welfare Institute

Do Fish Feel Pain? The Science Behind Fish Sentience, Sentient Media

Why Fish Welfare Matters: The Evidence for Fish Sentience, Compassion in World Farming

Fish in Fish Tanks? No, Thanks!, PETA

Is Fishkeeping Ethical? Medium

Nine Reasons Why Fish Are Really Sad “Pets”, PETA

Learn more about fish from fish expert, scientist, author Jonathan Balcombe

Is Fishkeeping Ethical?

Aquariums Are Animal Prisons

Why Goldfish Bowls Are Bad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LokWc_mZLE4

What You Can Do

1. DON’T BUY OR HAVE AN AQUARIUM – Help make others aware of the cruelty of aquariums to fish, by sharing on social media. 
2. Don’t support the tropical fish trade – by purchasing fish or tanks. 
3. Don’t support businesses – that buy coral reef fish and sell aquarium fish.
4. Don’t support contests or promotions – that give fish away, contributing to animal cruelty and neglect
5. Become a “Reef Advocate” – Take this pledge never to buy reef wildlife – Sign the Petition!
6. Speak Up! – Sign up for Action Alerts to bring change and awareness to toxic and ecologically disastrous tropical fish stolen from our oceans.
7. Share the film – The Dark Hobby with your family and friends and on social media.
8. Read this article – Fish in Tanks, No Thanks! To learn more about this industry.
9. Read the book – What A Fish Knows, by Jonathan Balcombe.
10. Spread the Word! Share this and speak up about the dark truth about aquariums.
11. IF YOU HAVE AN AQUARIUM – Buy the biggest tank you can afford; provide 3 gallons of water for every 1 inch of fish (the standard rule). Read this list of things to do by PETA. 

Credits: Cover Image by Amanda Higgins from Pixabay / Goldfish Image by Narcis Ciocan from Pixabay