FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I have been a keen fisherman for a few years now, and kept aquarium fish for about 2 years.

The thing that i'm wondering is do people not see that as a contradiction of terms?

I probably have around 40 adult african cichlids and 150 fry in 6 tanks (need to update profile) and admit that latly when going fishing i have been reluctant to keep any fish unless that are real big or well worth eating.

What are peoples thoughts on this? are there other fishermen/aqarists out there?

Is a prerequsite of fish keeping that you need to be an animal rights activist and vegitarian?

there is no wrong answer, just wondering what people thought?

people on the site periodically talk about this. Seems people run the gamut of options. Some don't go fishing at all and others have always enjoyed it and continue to do so in tandem with aquarium keeping.

Enjoy what you do. Sounds like you are doing what is comfortable for you already.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Ive seen this arguement kicking around for a while now, so ill try the best answer I can muster.


I suppose technically theres no difference in eating aquarium fish that you catch yourself to choosing one to eat in a restaurant, as long as its tried and tested for consumption. Problems arise however when you start eating fish intended soley for the pet market that are not a common food fish. If you keep long term captives and use meds on them you also reduce their suitability for consumption.

On a moral note I think perhaps its a fairly western point of view that pets are pets and arent considered food animals. In a way despite having no personal inhibitions about eating anything much,( im a confirmed predator )its my personal opinion that an animal only has to endure so much in its life. I kind of consider that the priviledge of my observing any given fish in its daily life is countered with the benefits of captivity, ie: safety, regular feeding, perhaps mates, nice surroundings etc. Almost an extension of "not playing with your food".

Fish often learn to trust their owners, come to them for food and pay attention to them. I find euthanising them difficult enough, and would rather perpetuate hobby species by breeding them rather than ending their lives by eating them. I certainly wouldnt eat a such fish because i will inevitably have tried to save its life and will probably have treated it with meds, possibly making it toxic. For me there is too strong a connection between pet and pet owner to violate simply for food, although if i were genuinely starving and came from a culture where the hardships of life were more apparent I might think differently, but even then I doubt it. Im kind of made of different stuff and food will for most of my life always be easy to obtain elsewhere. Consequently I may form a deeper bond with a fish and never view it as food. Friends are friends be they fish or human,friends are family and by complicity I will do nothing to harm them. Thats how I see it anyway. In the uk most fish are imported or captive raised and it seems a shame to eat something that has survived thus far, or had love and attention lavished upon it. From that point of view it could be extrapolated that the way your fish are sourced and obtained, and whether they suffer transit alive or dead is important.It would be complicit in more suffering than is strictly required. Your situation may be different. Eating pets in a westernised society is wasteful and inappropriate, even potentially dangerous, and is often viewed as more than a little creepy, but if youre a bit hard up for luxuries and living outside of westernised society your pets might be food first, friends second.Theres a whole array of traditional arguements, religious ethics, and philosophies that may dictate to you whether you feel it is a wrong to eat fish or indeed your divine right to do so, but the way I look at it is this.

I think for those who live rich lives in rich societies eating your pets is a horror you can live without, but hardship makes many distasteful actions seem more appropriate.It is not for me to judge who is right and wrong. Suffice to say if its appropriate for the way you live - its right, and if it seems wasteful then it cannot be so.We owe our pets a small debt for their lack of freedom, and that is to ensure they come to no harm, unless there is truly great need.

I do eat fish , but I wouldnt eat my pets. Every animal is an individual and if you arent starving you have the option not to eat it. It would seem to be the nicer option, and frankly if I ate a beloved fish, I would miss it. It depends how strong your emotional connection is to your pets. Technically dogs , cats, horses, reptiles, birds, rodents, and fish are all edible. But I wouldnt expect to be eaten by those I trust as individuals and they should be able to think the same of me. There is no real morality to be pounced upon for which species you choose to eat, but there are animals with which you can enjoy a relationship of a different kind, so why not experience that instead. We are an intelligent , uncompulsive predator, and as such we can exercise through our sense of control a whole world apart from that of predator and prey, a whole new intellectual process from the everyday, and it can be explored for a lifetime. So why not do that instead , if you have the means?

It is my perogative to exercise an intellectual process beyond that which purely governs my need for sustenance, much in the same way as it is to choose friends , allies, or enemies, and a whole host of higher brain functions, and in this, as in all things I avoid the needless, and go for the more interesting option as is my priviledge to do.

It is completely without irony that I say I find that being a human, my survival is irrelevant to the ecosystem , and as such some of my pets have more potential for positive contribution to the earth than I do, because of this, I have an urge to protect them that has worked its way into my moral code.Learning to keep fish over the long term, observing their habits and health over a lifetime , combatting disease, acheiving breeding success are things that require time, and is a process all too quickly cut short if you eat them. A hobbyist wishes to learn about all fish related things, the very least of which is surely how to cook a fish and taste its flesh.So i suppose eating a pet fish is kind of contrary to the hobby, although learning how to sustain a large breeding colony for a food fish might not be.The point is , the average hobbysist isnt about to start a fish farm , so its a fatuous exercise. This is the distinction between a hobby or a pet and a food fish. To be a hobbyist and eat pets is counterproductive,as it limits qualititive observation and long term achievement, but to be a hobbyist and eat fish from other sources is not.

So I guess thats it. Theres nothing to say that you cannot eat your fish except for health reasons. Animals should be taken on an individual, not a species basis, and your morality on that position should be tempered by waste, the potential for learning, and a respect for the the things around you versus the absolute neccesities in your life, rather than abstract concepts. It is for you to decide whats appropriate on that basis, although you must be aware, that for many people eating your pets is always going to be a highly emotive issue. I would say that a pet destined for the table is not truly a pet.You have not acheived the emotional bond that translates a fish by definition to be a pet , and that as such your fish remain food fish, no matter how long you keep them in captivity. Thusly you cannot be called a pet owner, but more accurately someone who confines fish for the purposes of consumption. Fishing is however sufficiently different from petkeeping to not be in the same league of discussion, its a form of hunting. Animal collecting for hobbyism is distinctly different from hunting in intent, and if you eat an animal intended for the pet trade you have done nothing except perform the unecessary, the definition of which is nothing if not needlessly semantic.

I don't see any contradiction in this. I keep fish but am certainly no vegetarian! I personally don't like fishing, but that is due more to an incident as a small child where a fishhook went up my nose as my father was trying to teach me to cast.
Ummm....plus I hate being in a boat on water deeper than I am tall.

Indeed. I have fished, and probably will do so again. I would however not fish for sport, (i would hardly consider it exciting enough to be sport, and people who fish for marlin etc actually anger me), I would fish to eat, fish only for non-endangered , common species, and spend a quiet day enjoying the tasty spoils of a rather calm evening by the sea or a river.I would also not litter,or leave lines, weights,and rubbish nearby.

I don't fish for sport, but at the same time I'm not fishing because it is my only source of food. A lot of the time i'll even fish for interest's sake at wharfs etc, and check out a few local species.

If i was a sheep farmer or a cattle farmer, I may well develop a relationship with a certain animal and be unwilling to let it go to meat, however just because I love Buttercup or Baaaaart doesn't mean I won't slaughter something or eat something that has been slaughtered should I want meat.

BTW, you can just have off-limits species if that helps I don't eat any species I have kept. Wouldn't touch a yabbie if you paid me. They still look too much like a pet when they are served up on a plate. I can't eat fish with heads either, it has to have its head chopped off pre-cooking I know, completely precious aren't i



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I do fish mainly for sport and have done so most of my life. I primarily fly fish for trout here in Idaho, and I'm fortunate enough to have some of the world's finest fly fishing waters within a two hour drive from where I live.

I can't remember that last time I kept a fish that I caught. I fish with barbless hooks, bring the fish to the net as swiftly as possible and in most cases the fish never leaves the water prior to release.

I do eat fish, but prefer to eat those that are farm raised primarily, like Tilapia which I really enjoy.

Jim

---

Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Personally, I don't fish, but growing up I had takin a tour of a fish hatchery. That was a little tramatising.

Anyway, I eat fish, but not very often. I would never eat my pets though. Unless you are eating the african chichlids, I don't really see a conflict of interest.

Inky

I don't like the taste of anything out of freshwater. LOL Most of it tastes like mud/dirt/lake/worms....too me, so I wouldn't even be half tempted to munch on any of my finned pets. I do like saltwater fish, but the fish from "the darkside" that are considered edible are rarely, that I know of, kept in aquariums at home. Tuna, salmon (I know, they go fresh too), swordfish, flounder, halibut, cod....all very tasty...raely, if ever, seen in home aquaria. That's how I justify it. Also, I like fishing, but only in the ocean....lake fishing is sooooo boring! I've never been ocean fishing any where that I might catch something that I have seen in somebody's tank. Very few prized aquarium species swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.

Great, now I'm hungry!

---

~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

I love fishing. Love keeping fish. I don't see any problems, but then my family raised calves from bottles and then slaughtered them. Never had any problems eating the meat!!

"Constant vigilance!"
Mad-Eye Moody

But I've got 3 pet flounders, crazAY

Seriously, I do...they're cute

Btw, I don't really see any problems with eating fish and keeping fish...

interesting points of veiw,

firstly i'd never eat my own fish for any reason, the'd probably taste like black worms and colour bits anyway.

if i was raising quail on the other hand, mmmm bbq quail.

i agree that fresh water fising is boring and that most fw fish taste crap (redfin, trout and salmon excluded)

i see many are oposed to "sport fishing" maybe you can elaborate on why? personaly if i had a spare $1000 bucks lying around i'd be on a boat in bermagui catching me some marlin! (or tuna! i love tuna, noting is beter than albacore caught fresh and eaten raw, sushi style in olive oil within howrs of capture)

if you will excuse me i have a puddle of drool to mop up (mmmm... tuna)

interestinly enough there was a "law suit" (american culture seeping into australia "lets sue everyone" between one of the "activist groups" and a sports fishing group attemping to ban sport fishing. i dont think it got far but this grop plans on disrupting sports fishers and the like, green peace vs the japanease style.

keep the opinions coming, its a large and interesting set of issues.

Why am I opposed to sportfishing? I'm not really, I just think its more like luck fishing as a 3" bream hardly gets the blood pumping.

A lot of the classic sportfish are also the breeders of those that are threatened species etc, so I don't really like the thought of stressing them out too much in case because of my actions they get offed by a shark.

Of course, if we were outside and hooked up, I'd take my place and fight for a while, but it is not something that I would seek out. And I'd want the fish to be eaten or tagged, it'd need to be for a purpose.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Poison...you're a nut! Don't flounders get huge? and you have 3??? What size tank? I kinda figured them to be tank busters. Just don't eat them.

I haven't been fishing since I started keeping fish, but I seriously doubt I would have a crisis of conscience in doing so....most species that would hit my hook wouldn't be viewed as pets in my eyes. I do get a little squeamish when I remove the hook....it makes that weird "crunching/popping" sound coming out of their flesh.....blech

---

~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

I'm a veggie, and i haven't butted in yet!
Personally, i don't like fishing and stuff, and i would never eat my pets, but i don't really see the difference in eating them, and eating a fish that has been caught in the middle of the atlantic. I suppose really, if you eat your own, you know they've had a good life before.

I've been fishing since i was a little kid, and i've always practice catch and release, no matter how big or "special" the fish was.

If your a real big sport fisherman, and you have fish mounts on your wall, and you truly love the outdoors, you measure the fish in several dimentions, weigh it and take a picture, and release the fish.

Fishing is a hobby that has been around for awhile, the way i see it, fishing is one of those things that a dad takes his son out to do, its one of those bonding activities.

I wouldent really say that theres a contradiction, especially for catch and release.

just because you eat fish doesn't mean you dont have respect for aquaria, or vice versa.

now if someone was to go fishing in one of my tanks, i might get a little angry.

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

I know I'm a nut

They're technically brackish/SW fish, but they do alright in FW for a while while they're young...

I'm guessing I'll have them for a few years...some of them may die off (or all of them) because of the improper salinity, but I hope to have a rather large SW tank by then. So I could probably throw 'em in a 10 or 20 gal tank for a few weeks while I would increase the salinity a little tiny bit at a time (like 0.001 at a time)... or something like that...

BTW, I've kept a pumpkinseed (sunfish) before He was in the 10 with my 2 adult ACFs... just fed 'im cichlid pellets...

I never would have had the heart to eat Punkin'head (as I so named him)

I love to fish. There is more to it than just fishing for me though. I also love the outdoors and I find fishing with a good friend very relaxing, also the serenity I find in the mountains helps me to relax as well. Different strokes for different folks life goes on.