This is a big reason why marine fish are so expensive

[fkshiu]

Rare fish collector Rob Lower dies of dive-related injuries

People die all the time collecting SW fish from the depths. So the next time you see some hyper expensive marine fish at the LFS, remember that someone risked his/her life to get it to the store.

[Aquaman]

Very sad to hear that . Sounds like he had a real passion for angle fish. Sad to see such a great collectoer of fish ,die so young doing what he loved. Sad day indeed.

[darb]

Definitely a sad event, and not a pleasant way to go. But all too often, it is the "pros" in any industry who become lax and accustomed to high risk activities and start taking short cuts or pushing limits. No idea about rebreathers, but for scuba as long as you stick to a recognized dive table such as the Canadian DCIEM tables, you are almost guaranteed not to have a gas related dive issue.

[eternity302]

Awww... sigh.. so sad to hear that!

[Mferko]

aw, thats sad
for me it raises the question why we dont captive breed more species instead of risking peoples lives?
are marine fish much harder to breed or do consumers just demand wild caught?
i'd think with the prices if you could successfully breed them en masse there would be a lot of money to be made?

[fkshiu]

aw, thats sad
for me it raises the question why we dont captive breed more species instead of risking peoples lives?
are marine fish much harder to breed or do consumers just demand wild caught?
i'd think with the prices if you could successfully breed them en masse there would be a lot of money to be made?

Very few marine species have been successfully bred in captivity. Not only is very little known about many marine species' mating habits, it's just next to impossible to replicate their natural environments especially with deepwater species that this diver specialized in. For the foreseeable future, wild collection is the only option even for some of the most commonly sold marine fish such as tangs and large angels.

[fkshiu]

This guy may have very well collected this fish on one of his last outings:
Holanthias fuscipennis **SALE PRICE** - Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board

Kinda creepy if you think about it.

[Otter]

A little creepy, but very, very, cool that we could possibly trace back the origins of our finned friends.

It is a little saddening, however, to realize that many fish in pet stores were collected from the wild. I mean, it's not really an infinite resource, is it?

Are there farms, at least? Similar to how some corals are raised?

[fkshiu]

Mariculture coral farms are relatively easy to do because corals don't move around. They just sit there and grow. Ocean going fish, on the other hand, don't like to sit still. Many fish can range over hundreds of square kilometers. What's really eye opening is the power that the tangs in my own aquarium have. They can shoot across a 6-foot tank without any effort at all with one flick of the tail. So even if you were to have a massive aquarium in a public aquaria it would still probably be difficult to observe any mating behaviour. Deep water species have to added issue of trying to replicate the water pressure at depth.

In contrast, the collection and breeding of most FW is a relatively simple procuedure because they don't live at great depths nor do individual FW fish usually range over a wide area.

[Mferko]

Mariculture coral farms are relatively easy to do because corals don't move around. They just sit there and grow. Ocean going fish, on the other hand, don't like to sit still. Many fish can range over hundreds of square kilometers. What's really eye opening is the power that the tangs in my own aquarium have. They can shoot across a 6-foot tank without any effort at all with one flick of the tail. So even if you were to have a massive aquarium in a public aquaria it would still probably be difficult to observe any mating behaviour. Deep water species have to added issue of trying to replicate the water pressure at depth.

In contrast, the collection and breeding of most FW is a relatively simple procuedure because they don't live at great depths nor do individual FW fish usually range over a wide area.

if i didnt think i'd be able to provide an adequate environment for a fish to breed in i probably just would leave it in its environment where it will be happier. its different if the wild caught fish can be used to breed which can potentially save many other fish from having to be wild caught i guess.
+ i couldnt afford to get one, lol