[BlueWinterWaves]

OK, that's better.

If you want to talk about depriving animals of their "natural and free" environments, you could make a very good case against the ENTIRE aquarium hobby -- not to mention the keeping of many other kinds of pets.

Marine coral reef fish have vast expanses to roam free, corals have a constant supply of new, trace-element-rich water from which to extract chemicals to build their communities, filter feeders have a continuous plethora of tiny animals upon which to feed, the sun provides the light for the photosynthetic xoozanthellae better than any metal halid aquarium light could ever provide, and the entire, teeming, magnificent, vast underwater expanse is theirs to behold and to live out their lives in.

Home aquariums, frankly, are pathetic attempts to "duplicate" this environment (but how can you duplicate an ocean? a coral reef?) Even with modern reefkeeping methods, we are still talking about keeping animals that come from environments that stretch endlessly, with thousands upons thousands of gallons of water at the animals' disposal, and with the myriad interactions and relationships between animals that will be for the most part lacking in a captive environment, and we're putting these creatures in...what?....75 gallons, 100 gallons? 200? It is a much bigger step down to put many of these coral reef animals -- such as angelfish, butterflies, wrasses, etc. -- in a 100 gallon tank, than it is to put a betta -- which is used to small, muddy, oxygen-depleted environments -- into a clean, small "cube."

Diving is a hobby that constantly reminds me of that fact. While diving recently, I had a friendly Queen angelfish follow me inquisitively for most of the dive. How many 100 gallon tanks worth of water did I and my curious angelfish friend traverse in our travels that day? You get the idea.

The only truly positive things you can say about the aquarium hobby, and reef aquariums in particular, are:

1. IF the aquarium hobbyist chooses animals properly so as to avoid conflicts and predator/prey situations, and IF the animals are properly cared for (which many times, they are not, through either the aquarium keeper's ignorance or neglect), then they will most likely live longer in an aquarium than in the wild, simply because they have a greater chance of getting caught and eaten in the wild. On the downside again, though, most of these animal species will most likely never breed -- even if you have male/female pairs in your tank. There is something about the tank environment that is just not quite suitable or "right" for these animals to want to breed. There are exceptions -- percula clownfish and banggai cardinals, for instance -- but try breeding a lionfish or a batfish in your aquarium. They won't. It's not right for them. Therefore, you are depriving them of this natural activity. But hey, at least they won't get eaten.

2. An aquarium provides a very small window to a world that most people can't see otherwise. It is extremely interesting and educational to keep an aquarium, especially a reef tank.

I won't even get into the common practices of catching reef fish by poisoning them with cyanide (and thereby killing a lot of other reef animals like corals and inverts in the process), or the hell that these animals have to go through, being packed and shipped and so on, before even winding up in an overcrowded, usually underlit dealer's tank. Or the fact that most of these animals will never again see their natural diets or live corals, or mysid shrimp, or vast, green gardens of macroalgae -- instead feeding on frozen food, or live food that is not native to their locations, or flake food, or clip of lettuce or dried nori instead of fresh, natural algae.

So you could certainly make the case that the entire aquarium hobby is an inhumane one, or at least has quite a few inhumane elements. Yet, like you, I still keep aquariums and I love the hobby. Why? Because it affords me a way to study and enjoy these beautiful, interesting animals in the comfort of my own home.