Aquarium Fish Myanmar

25/04/2024

25/04/2024

𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 is the most diverse genus of sisorid catfishes, with 119 species presently recognized as valid. Here researchers provide an in-depth study of 𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 species in the Mae Klong River Basin, Thailand, with taxonomic implications for several other Southeast Asian species.

Paywall - https://bioone.org/journals/ichthyology-and-herpetology/volume-111/issue-2/i2022045/Catfishes-of-the-Genus-Glyptothorax-Siluriformes--Sisoridae-in-the/10.1643/i2022045.short
50-day free access -https://static1.squarespace.com/static/570d1ea37da24f381ca53c95/t/64775d436630dc22de5d38ba/1685544262797/10-IH-111-02-07_302..328.pdf

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲
Catfishes of the Genus 𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 (Siluriformes: Sisoridae) in the Mae Klong River Basin, Thailand, with Taxonomic Implications for Several Southeast Asian Species

𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
David A. Boyd, Sampan Tongnunui, Lawrence M. Page. Catfishes of the Genus 𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 (Siluriformes: Sisoridae) in the Mae Klong River Basin, Thailand, with Taxonomic Implications for Several Southeast Asian Species. Ichthyology & Herpetology, 111(2):302-328 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1643/i2022045

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
Five species of 𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 are identified from the Mae Klong River basin in western Thailand, only one of which, 𝐺. 𝑏𝑢𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑖, was previously reported from the basin; others are 𝐺. 𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑠, 𝐺. 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎, 𝐺. 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑜𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑠, and 𝐺. 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑚𝑖𝑑𝑡𝑖. The morphological differences delineating species of 𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 in the Mae Klong were visualized using principal component analysis of data taken from 105 specimens, and the latitudinal range and number of river basins over which all occur were found to be greater than previously recognized.

𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑜𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑠, recently thought to range only as far north as peninsular Thailand, occurs in the Mae Klong and Chao Phraya basins in western and northern Thailand. 𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑚𝑖𝑑𝑡𝑖, thought to occur only as far north as the Tanintharyi River, Myanmar, was found to be much more wide-ranging, with the inclusion of populations in the Mae Klong, Chao Phraya, and Mekong River basins. 𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎 was found to occur outside of China in lower portions of the Salween River basin and in the Mae Klong basin. The presence of 𝐺. 𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑠 in the Chao Phraya is questioned and its southern distributional limit was extended to the Tapi River basin.

Phylogenetic reconstruction of COI sequence data for 127 individuals from across Southeast Asia revealed strong BI and ML support for recognition of 14 species in Thailand and suggested deep-rooted clades that are discussed as corresponding broadly to body coloration. 𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑢𝑠 was found to be genetically distinct from 𝐺. 𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑐𝑢𝑠 and is resurrected from synonymy. A key to all species of 𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 in Thailand is provided.

𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁
𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 𝑏𝑢𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑖
𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑠
𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎
𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑜𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑠
𝐺𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑥 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑚𝑖𝑑𝑡𝑖
Photos by Zach Randell, Florida Museum of Natural History.

Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Ichthyology & Herpetology journal.

25/04/2024

A new species of dwarf goby, 𝐸𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑡𝑎 𝑡𝑎𝑒𝑖𝑎𝑒 is described from Nuusafee Island, Samoa. The new species is a member of the 𝐸𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑡𝑎 𝑔𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑎 complex that includes 𝐸. 𝑔𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑎, 𝐸. 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑎𝑒, and 𝐸. 𝑎𝑙𝑏𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑎.

Open-access - https://oceansciencefoundation.org/josf40c.html

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲
𝐸𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑡𝑎 𝑡𝑎𝑒𝑖𝑎𝑒, a new dwarf goby (Teleostei: Gobiidae) of the 𝐸𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑡𝑎 𝑔𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑎 complex from Samoa.

𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Erdmann, M.V., Greenfield D.W. & Tornabene, L. (2023) 𝐸𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑡𝑎 𝑡𝑎𝑒𝑖𝑎𝑒, a new dwarf goby (Teleostei: Gobiidae) of the 𝐸𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑡𝑎 𝑔𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑎 complex from Samoa.. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 40, 37-47.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8011284

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
A new species of dwarfgoby, 𝐸𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑡𝑎 𝑡𝑎𝑒𝑖𝑎𝑒 n. sp. is described from Nuusafee Island, Samoa.

The new species is a member of the 𝐸𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑡𝑎 𝑔𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑎 complex that includes 𝐸. 𝑔𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑎, 𝐸. 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑎𝑒, and 𝐸. 𝑎𝑙𝑏𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑎, and is characterized by a complete cephalic sensory-canal pore pattern (pattern 1); a dorsal/anal-fin formula of 9/8; the first 7-10 pectoral-fin rays unbranched, the remainder branched; the fifth pelvic-fin ray 10-12% of length of the fourth ray; pelvic-fin-ray branches short, broad, and connected by membranes; distinct dark spots present on ventral side of head; the eye with four to six white spokes radiating outwards from pupil and separating red-orange on iris; rectangular blocks on the ventral half of the body taller than wide and separated from each other by narrow yellow bars less than a pupil diameter; and a red-orange blotch behind the eye connected to a red-orange spot at the back of the interorbital area.

𝗘𝘁𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆
The specific epithet is named for Sue Miller Taei, a passionate and highly respected marine conservationist who dedicated her career to the reefs and peoples of the Pacific “Oceanscape”, and especially to her native Samoa. Sue tragically passed away shortly after this beautiful new species was discovered, and it is an honor to name the species in her memory.

Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Ocean Science Foundation. This paper is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

19/10/2023

Fresh Studio မှ လက်ရှိပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်လျှက်ရှိသော PAP Project (Powering Aquaculture Progress Project) သည် De Heus Myanmar Ltd မှ ဦးဆောင်ကာ Fresh Studio၊ Myanmar Department of fisheries၊ Myanmar Fishery Federation ၊ Pathein University နှင့် Golden Fish World ကုမဏ္ဏီတို့ပူးပေါင်းကာမြန်မာ့ငါးမွေးမြူရေးလုပ်ငန်းများဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်စေရန်အတွက် အတူလက်တွဲပူးပေါင်းကာအကောင်အထည်ဖော်ဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်းပဲဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

ငါးသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏အဓိက အသားဓာတ်ရရှိသော အစားအစာအရင်းအမြစ်ဖြစ်သောကြောင့် ယခုစီမံကိန်းကို လုပ်ဆောင်ပေးခြင်းဖြင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏အာဟာရနှင့် ကျန်းမာရေးဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်မှုကိုပါ ထောက်ပံ့ပေးနိုင်စေရန်လည်း ရည်ရွယ်ထားသည့် စီမံကိန်းတစ်ခုလည်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။

ငါးမွေးတောင်သူများနှင့်ငါးမွေးမြူရေးအလုပ်သမားများအတွက်အကျိုးအမြတ်ပိုမိုရရှိစေရန်ရည်ရွယ်ကာပြုလုပ်ခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ငါးမွေးမြူရေးဏ္ဍရေရှည်တိုးတက်ဖွံ့ဖြိုးစေရန်လည်း မျှော်မှန်းထားပါသည်။

ဒ့ါအပြင်မြန်မာ့ငါးမွေးတောင်သူများအတွက် အရည်အသွေးမြင့်ထုတ်ကုန်များရရှိစေရန်နှင့် ပိုမိုထိရောက်သောနည်းစနစ်များကိုလည်း နားလည်တတ်ကျွမ်းစေရန်ရည်ရွယ်ကာလုပ်ဆောင်ခြင်းပဲဖြစ်ပါသည်။

အဆိုပါ စီမံကိန်းနှင့်ပက်သတ်ပြီး ပိုမိုသိရှိလိုပါက ယခု page မှတစ်ဆင့်ဆက်သွယ်စုံစမ်းမေးမြန်းနိုင်ပါတယ် ။

19/10/2023

19/10/2023

စွမ်းအားမြှင့် ငါးမွေးမြူရေး ဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်မှု စီမံကိန်း (PAP) မှ ပြုလုပ်မည့် “ငါးသန်မွေးမြူခြင်းဆိုင်ရာ ဇီဝလုံခြုံမှုနှင့် ငါးကျန်းမာရေးဆိုင်ရာ စီမံခန့်ခွဲမှုသင်တန်း၊ ထုတ်လုပ်မှုစောင့်ကြည့်စစ်ဆေးခြင်းနှင့် မှတ်တမ်းတင်ခြင်း သင်တန်းများ” စတင်ရန် (၂) ရက်သာ လိုပါတော့သည် !

ထို့ကြောင့် ရန်ကုန်တိုင်းနှင့် ဧရာဝတီတိုင်း ဒေသကြီးများမှ စိတ်ပါဝင်စားသော ငါးလုပ်ငန်းရှင်များအနေဖြင့် အောက်တွင်ဖော်ပြထားသော သင်တန်းအချိန်ဇယားအရ မိမိတို့နှင့် နီးစပ်ရာ သင်တန်း ပို့ချမည့် တည်နေရာများ သို့ တက်ရောက်နိုင်ပါကြောင်း လေးစားစွာဖြင့် သတင်းကောင်းပါးအပ်ပါသည်။

သင်တန်းတက်ရောက်ရန် စိတ်ဝင်စားသော ငါးမွေးမြူရေး လုပ်ငန်းရှင်များ အနေဖြင့် page chat box တွင်မေးမြန်း စာရင်းပေးသွင်းနိုင်ပါသည်။

26/06/2023

The Mexican blind cave tetra (𝐴𝑠𝑡𝑦𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑥 𝑚𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑠) a popular aquarium species is also an outstanding freshwater fish model (model organism) to study regressive evolution. Multiple cave populations across northeast Mexico have evolved from independent surface-dwelling lineages.

Open-access - https://www.zoores.ac.cn/en/article/doi/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2022.481

Here, researchers perform the first census of the El Pachón cave population since 1971 and document a population decline from approx. 10,000 individuals to hundreds in their current survey, raising serious conservation issues for this important population of cavefish.

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲
Genetic identification and reiterated captures suggest that the 𝐴𝑠𝑡𝑦𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑥 𝑚𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑠 El Pachón cavefish population is closed and declining

𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Laurent Legendre, Julie Rode, Isabelle Germon, Marie Pavie, Carla Quiviger, Maxime Policarpo, Julien Leclercq, Stéphane Père, Julien Fumey, Carole Hyacinthe, Patricia Ornelas-García, Luis Espinasa, Sylvie Rétaux, Didier Casane. Genetic identification and reiterated captures suggest that the 𝐴𝑠𝑡𝑦𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑥 𝑚𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑠 El Pachón cavefish population is closed and declining. Zoological Research, 2023, 44(4): 701-711. doi: https://doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2022.481

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
The sizes of 𝐴𝑠𝑡𝑦𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑥 𝑚𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑠 blind cavefish populations of North-East Mexico are demographic parameters of great importance for investigating a variety of ecological, evolutionary, and conservation issues.

However, few estimates have been obtained. For these mobile animals living in an environment difficult to explore as a whole, methods based on capture-mark-recapture are appropriate, but their feasibility and interpretation of results depend on several assumptions that must be carefully examined. Here, we provide evidence that minimally invasive genetic identification from captures at different time intervals (three days and three years) can give insights into cavefish population size dynamics as well as other important demographic parameters of interest.

We also provide tools to calibrate sampling and genotyping efforts necessary to reach a given level of precision. Our results suggest that the El Pachón cave population is currently very small, of an order of magnitude of a few hundreds of individuals, and is distributed in a relatively isolated area. The probable decline in population size in the El Pachón cave since the last census in 1971 raises serious conservation issues.

𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁
Map of the Pachón cave (top view), adapted from the 2003 survey map drawing by Espinasa, Jeffery, and Yamamoto describing the Maryland extension galleries (in addition to the original galleries mapped in 1965 by Fish, Raines, Calvent, Evans, Alexander and Dunlap). Fish-containing pools are in blue, their names (and letter codes) are indicated. The back circle indicates the position of the pipe pumping water in the Main pool (M). The black dotted line indicates a rock arch that prevents human view and access (except through diving) to the part of the Main pool that leads towards the Maryland extension galleries. Circulation of the water flow from the Maryland extension into the Main pool is indicated by arrows. A’: a summary table of sampling numbers and dates, with hydrological conditions encountered. B: Illustration of the changing topography of the sampling site across years. Top panels show the sizes of the Lateral pool (L) and the Main pool (M) and their connectedness, depending on the water level (compare size and form of pools with the map above). Bottom panels show corresponding pictures. Blue letter codes identify the pools photographed. White arrows point to the pipe at the back of the Main pool. Labels * and # point to the same geological formation across photos for orientation and comparison. The yellow vertical arrows illustrate the dramatically low water level in the Main pool in 2022 as compared to 2016 and 2019. Photos of the 3 individuals sampled in 2019 that were re-captured in 2022 are shown. Their ages were estimated from their size according to Simon et al. (2017).

Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Zoological Research journal.

26/06/2023

Researchers focused on the Nerophinae (trunk brooders) freshwater pipefishes of the Indo-Pacific undertake a revision of this group, based on an integrative taxonomy approach and present a new species - 𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑒.

Open-access - https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/advance-article/doi/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad007/7190493

For their study, six genera of freshwater Nerophinae were available 𝐵𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑡ℎ𝑦𝑠, 𝐶𝑜𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑢𝑠, 𝐷𝑜𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑡ℎ𝑦𝑠, 𝐿𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑢𝑠, 𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑠, and 𝑂𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑢𝑠, finding 31 valid species are part of the same genus, 𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑠. Therefore, genera 𝐵𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑡ℎ𝑦𝑠, 𝐶𝑜𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑢𝑠, 𝐷𝑜𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑡ℎ𝑦𝑠, 𝐿𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑢𝑠, and 𝑂𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑢𝑠 become synonyms of 𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑠.

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲
Why several when one can unite them all? Integrative taxonomic revision of Indo-Pacific freshwater pipefish (Nerophinae)

𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Vincent Haÿ and others, Why several when one can unite them all? Integrative taxonomic revision of Indo-Pacific freshwater pipefish (Nerophinae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2023;, zlad007, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad007

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
The family Syngnathidae (seahorses, sea dragons and pipefishes) is a fascinating group. Species are mostly distributed in marine coastal waters, but about 30 species inhabit Indo-Pacific tropical island rivers.

There are currently six freshwater genera of Nerophinae (trunk-brooders): 𝐵𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑡ℎ𝑦𝑠, 𝐶𝑜𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑢𝑠, 𝐷𝑜𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑡ℎ𝑦𝑠, 𝐿𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑢𝑠, 𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑠 and 𝑂𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑢𝑠. Unlike other Syngnathidae, freshwater pipefish have been little studied; the taxonomy of Nerophinae is unclear and only based on morphomeristic data.

The purpose of our study is to undertake a revision of this group based on an integrative taxonomy approach. By combining molecular data from four mitochondrial markers (5415 bp), morphomeristic data with a character mapping study and ecological data, we now recognize a single genus as valid, 𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑠, as opposed to the six previously accepted.

Our results also reveal one new candidate species, 𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑒 sp. nov., and the resurrection of two others: 𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑢𝑠 and 𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑖. This study shows the relevance of integrative taxonomy for higher taxa delineation, using data integration by congruence.

𝗘𝘁𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆
The new species is dedicated to the author’s grandmother, Nicole. Indeed, V.H. would like to thank her for the interest that she has always shown for his work, as well as for her kindness during many years.

𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁
𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑒 sp. nov. Upper: holotype, MNHN-IC-2019-0082 (tag 19193), male, 110.7 mm SL. Vage River, Kolombangara (Solomon Islands), 18 November 2015, Keith coll. Lower: paratype, MNHN-IC-2020-0336 (tag 14961), female, 83.3 mm SL. Ovana River, Ranongga (Solomon Islands), 25 October 2016, Keith et al. coll. (photo: V. Haÿ).

Copyright © 2023, Oxford University Press. Published by Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

26/06/2023

Updated (see below) - Interesting new research published in the Journal of Fish Biology - "The environmental impact of keeping a tropical aquarium in Northern Europe". Great to see research like this that only adds to the argument for fishkeeping being a sustainable and positive hobby.

Paywall - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.15478

Spoiler alert - keeping a tropical aquarium in a northern country is more environmentally friendly than keeping a cat or dog.

In today's climate (no pun intended) where a small number of vocal "organisations" and activists are trying to stop fishkeeping across the globe, research like this, methodically presenting positives of the hobby can only be good news and demonstrates that ornamental fishkeeping can be a more environmentally conscious pet choice.

Update - a follower of the page sent me a preprint copy of this paper. There has been a lot of discussion on Facebook and other forums about whether this study took into account the impact of the transportation of livestock. Below is an extract from the paper on the methodology used.

"Estimating the CO2eq from biotic inputs began with the transport of the ornamental fish. The blue-green Chromis (𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑠 𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑠) was used as an example. The blue-green chromis is one of the most popular ornamental marine fish and are heavily imported from South East Asia, from countries such as Indonesia (Biondo, 2017; Rhyne et al., 2012). If fish were transported from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, to London Heathrow, UK (not including transport to and from the airport), a 5kg package will have accumulated an estimated 50.93 kg of CO2eq (Freightos, 2022). What also needs to be considered, however, is that the addition of livestock is not reoccurring in a properly operated aquarium, and so the CO2eq incurred should be spread over the lifetime of the livestock. Blue-green Chromis have a life expectancy in captivity of around ten years (Yang, 2020), therefore, the annual estimates of CO2eq from the blue-green chromis example and divided by ten."

The researchers go on to discuss the difficulties in measuring transport emissions dependent on species, exporting country, packing density, lifespan, etc, and so settled for the reasonable example of the blue-green Chromis. As well as making a good environmental argument for more locally-bred livestock.

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲
The environmental impact of keeping a tropical aquarium in Northern Europe

𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Perry, W.B. (2023), The environmental impact of keeping a tropical aquarium in Northern Europe. J Fish Biol. Accepted Author Manuscript. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.15478

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
Tropical fish keeping is a popular practice in societies across the globe and involves recreating and sustaining an entire ecosystem in an aquarium within a domestic setting. The process invariably has environmental impact, yet an assessment of this impact has previously been limited to the ecological consequences of harvesting fish from the wild, or release of non-native fish species.

Provided here are the first estimates of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) emissions produced from running a tropical aquarium across multiple countries in Northern Europe (France, Poland and the United Kingdom), along with water consumption.

Estimates were produced in silico and are discussed in the context of freshwater and marine aquariums, and are calculated using example aquarium sizes of 50L, 200L and 400L. Using estimates from the United Kingdom, depending on size and running conditions, a tropical aquarium produces an estimated 85.3-635.2 kg CO2e per year, equating to 1.6-12.4% of the UK annual average household CO2 emissions, and uses 156-31200 L per year, equating to 0.2-30.1% of the UK annual average household water usage. Despite this, when compared to the CO2eq an average size dog (127-1592 kg CO2eq per year) or cat (121-251 kg CO2eq per year), estimated from meat consumption alone, it demonstrates that ornamental fishkeeping can be a more environmentally conscious pet choice.

In addition, the majority of CO2eq produced from tropical fishkeeping is generated from the energy consumption of aquarium equipment, and as more national electricity grids begin to decarbonise, this estimate should decrease.

𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁
© Shutterstock

Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Journal of Fish Biology.

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Petitella bleheri?
A new exotic species occuring in French Guiana, in a artificial lake.
We keep working on invasive species
In case you haven't read our article (in collaboration with scientists), here is the link
https://www.limnology-journal.org/articles/limn/full_html/2021/01/limn200035/limn200035.html
Do you agree it is the right species?