The future of the saltwater aquarium hobby

Interesting but he really didnt go out on any limbs with his predictions...

 

my 10 year prediction is we will have tangs and angels captive bred as much as clownfish.

 

Nice article thanks for sharing

 

I think we will have cloned fish coming out of probably China in the next 10-20 years. If it will make financial sense to do so. When fish populations decline and they get difficult to wild catch combined with import and endangered species laws then China will start cloning them. It will then take another 5 years or so to convince lawmakers or the EPA to permit importing Chinese cloned fish as an exception. Some US distributor will be found to have bought some from an outlaw fish seller that still catches them wild and sells at a cheaper price and then the clone exception will be removed.

I went out on a limb for Dave. Hope the last part is wrong but bring on the clones otherwise.

 

I think cloning is a next logical step too.

 

And I'll add that it might not be a just clone the entire stock type thing. It may be combined with captive breeding. If a pair of difficult to breed fish is found to be shamelessly promiscuous, those two could be cloned several times and then you have perfect fish for breeding. We do this now but with less precision. Find a breeding pair and hope their offspring have those same traits. Some will and some wont. Cloning will ensure multiple copies of a breeding pair proven to reproduce in those conditions. So by removing the variables of dominant/recessive traits it may be possible to turn difficult to breed fish into guppy level breeders.

 

Good article putting together the future trends in the hobby. The point about young adults and teenagers not being able to afford to get into the hobby is all too true. Unfortunately the cost aspects hit far beyond those groups. I think we all know or know of somebody who got out of the hobby because of the costs and/or the time and discipline involved.

 

Even at 19 this is an extremely expensive hobby. I thought freshwater was bad but this is making me cut back on my other tanks to fund it instead (because I'd like to see my corals flourish)