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Effect of aquariums on the environment - some issues - Page 3

© Winston Vaughan Schoenfeld

The other issue is that of live rock and coral. This is a very difficult topic since coral reefs are diminishing. Luckily, live rock and coral can be maintained in an aquarium for years. Again, it is our responsibility to make sure that we are able to meet the living requirements of the specimens. Probably the most useful thing we can do is to utilize live rock in a way such that we reduce our consumption. How can this be done? Well, rather than purchasing many pounds of live rock for your aquarium, consider using only a fraction of live rock to seed "dead" rock.. By doing this you not only reduce your consumption of live rock, but you also offer a way to create new live rock. This should also be a practice in aquarium stores. Living species in live rock from the wild thrive under good conditions in an aquarium. By harvesting only a small amount of live rock and using it to seed other rock in aquariums we can help to promote coral growth, thus reducing the loss in nature.

If you gain nothing else from this article, please realize this....as aquarists, it is our duty to do all that we can to reduce the loss of natural systems. By staying informed of the requirements of species in your aquarium, and knowing the sources for your aquarium inhabitants before you purchase, you will do a lot for the environment. Each day I look at my fish and see their excitement when I am around the aquarium, I realize that they are happy. Fishing has taken similar tolls on the environment in the past, and thanks to regulation, the environment is slowly recovering. I am confident that similar conservation and regulatory laws will be able to do the same for aquariums, however we must help to speed the process and do our part.

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