Marine Fish Tank And The Law

[Baan Kiki]

I am about to put a large fish tank into my bar and was thinking of stocking it with marine fish I catch at sea.

I have had conflicting advice, one saying certain reef fish are protected, with stiff fines and the other saying, as long as I'm not doing it commercially it's OK. I have kept fish most of my life and always dreamed of a marine tank. Now I don't know what I can put in a tank and what I can't.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[leisurely]

What an intersting question. I certainly wouldn't have ever considered the law in relation to catching fish for my tank. I would have been thinking more logistically - how could I get them home without fatalities?

Why not go down to Cape Panwa to the Dept of marine and fisheries and ask them. The man I once spoke to whose name I forget (he has a little dog if that helps ) was extremely fluent in spoken English.

Good luck and kudos for being responsible.

[sbk]

Baan Kiki, my husband knows the names of quite a few of the prohibited fish, as well as the allowed, but only the Thai names. And those might be Southern words too

If the Fisheries guy doesn't work out and you are still interested feel free to PM me and I'll ask him.

[leisurely]

It's amazing what a couple of hours will do. I've just remembered his name: Khun Pyat/Pieat/phyat - you should get the drift of the pronunciation from that.

Good luck

L

[bkkmadness]

I think you'd just be better off buying the fish from a shop. Surely cheaper and less hassle than going out and catching them yourself isn't it?

[sbk]

bkkmadness is obviously not into fish, regardless of the title under his avatar

Talked to my hubby about this thread and buying them from a shop didn't even occur to him. In fact, his first response was, "what a great idea"

[bkkmadness]

Hey hey hey, I love the idea! I think it's great, in fact I am trying to convince my friend to drive me to Mahachai where I can go collecting Betta fish.

Thing is collecting Betta fish is easy, I just wander out into the fields and start looking for fish (or more than likely will find a couple of local kids to go collecting while I sit on dry land having a ciggy).

Collecting Marine fish, that's gotta be hard work though right? You'd have to go out on a boat, it's even then gonna be difficult to catch certain species, and this is after he finds out what's legal and what isn't.

Also surely there are some potential problems with collecting wild fish for the tank as oppose to buying fish from a shop, the introduction of disease is one of the first things to look at, though you could set up a seperate quarantine tank for them first.

You don't want a lovely tank full of fish only to end up introducing some parasite that wipes them all out. At least with tank fish from a decent shop they have been through some kind of quarantine period first.

Just things to think about...

[Baan Kiki]

I think you'd just be better off buying the fish from a shop. Surely cheaper and less hassle than going out and catching them yourself isn't it?

That's like playing with yourself, instead of having the full blown experience.

[Baan Kiki]

What an intersting question. I certainly wouldn't have ever considered the law in relation to catching fish for my tank. I would have been thinking more logistically - how could I get them home without fatalities?

Why not go down to Cape Panwa to the Dept of marine and fisheries and ask them. The man I once spoke to whose name I forget (he has a little dog if that helps ) was extremely fluent in spoken English.

Good luck and kudos for being responsible.

As you know, there are ways and means to getting, anything done here in LOL . including the fatalities.

No guess's - I am friends with people who actually eat parts of the reef.

Why not let them do what they have done for centuries? I have tasted "what I will not name" and its great.

Why not descourage them? How, by giving them a decent living. EG by letting prohibited fish be caught?

They do it anyway, often its accidental, AND they throw away and destroy many good specimens, by dragging a hook out its mouth and throwing it back, annoyed, with no care.

It could easily have been brought ashore for sale, alive, healthy.

World wide there is a great/profitable trade in these fish, but they are caught, buy all the horror stories you have heard.

This is different, they just casualy throw them back, mostly dead.

I love my friends, and with a bit of luck, May alter their thinking, BUT IT NEEDS HELP!

What do I get? A good feeling and a couple of fish

BKK

Co-incidentaly these fish are the food source of all the big fish, which we the hypocrits have almost eaten to extintion, even here.

Sorry cant find spell check

[Orion76]

In Thailand taking pretty much anything from the ocean for ornamental purposes, incl. rocks and shells, is illegal. In some marine parks in the South the navy will shoot coral poachers on the spot.

Plenty of nice marine fish for sale in JJ tho, many of them imported from the Philippines and Indonesia.

[Nienke]

In Thailand taking pretty much anything from the ocean for ornamental purposes, incl. rocks and shells, is illegal. In some marine parks in the South the navy will shoot coral poachers on the spot.

Plenty of nice marine fish for sale in JJ tho, many of them imported from the Philippines and Indonesia.

Specially bred or poached? I'm afraid it's the latter and, thus, one who buys helps with the destruction of the corals and the ocean.

Nienke

[Milo]

I assume as you have always dreamed of a marine tank you haven't actually kept one before? Problem being you can't use the seawater (too many pollutants that can quickly screw up your filter), must mix up your own saline, and that MUST exactly match the HG, temp, alkalinity etc of the water they've been removed from. I've been led to believe the commercial operations use a kind of 'hafway house' idea slowly changing the fish from natural seawater to the commercially produced salt mix to acclimatise them.

Not really sure about the licenses and stuff, or fish that you couldn't legally take, all I do know is you can't go hacking off lumps of coral!!

Remembering how much trouble my 6'x2'x2' reef tank was for the first couple of years back in England until it really settled down, still had the odd spike in one or another value, marine fish and especially corals are just so bloody touchy. Can't use copper based medications for the fish as they're highly poisonous to the corals etc, etc. I'd advise don't even think about it unless you can get your hands on the correct marine testing equipment here and have a great deal of spare time to begin with!

That being said, that tank of mine was worth every penny of the (probably over!) 10,000 pounds I spent on it over the years. Don't foget you'll also need a larger filter and protien skimmer before you set up than for a freshwater system.

[Okidoki]

It is fully possible today, to breed marine fishes and even corals. Actually a quit big business in Holland, Germany and US.

For many, many years ago, I owned an wholesaler of marine fishes and invertebrates. At that time it was very messy to keep saltwatertanks. At that time, they used poison and explosives to catch fishes. Most exported and "acklimatized" in Singapore which resulted in probably 90% death of the animals. Nowadays the authories, airline companies and importers regulate that. It is too expensive to buy fish with such high mortality.

Today? Nope. There has been soo much evolution in how to keep and breed marine fishes, that it is not much harder to keep marine then freshwater tanks. Check amazon.com, read about it and talk to some good shops and you will do fine.

Good luck!