I too prefer CB fish whenever I can find them, and I completely understand in-breeding problems
I am guilty of buying fish when I see them as they are only available as WC
Then I have to try to feed them ....

I disagree with the thoughts of CB fish being more susceptible to diseases, or WC fish being more immune

It's all about our husbandry

Yah. I would also prefer to get captive bred but upon no other option, the wild got surplus for our hobby :P

my husbandry sucks if i was a good husband id be in bed with my wife instead of up watching movies and lurking canreef just sayin..

ontopic .. do as you wish and that which you are comfortable with. everyone has an opinion one way or the other. the fact we take these creatures from an ocean and into our tiny tanks in itself is wrong. but it is wha it is. and has been since before i was born

Everything has good sides and bad sides :D

Yup, me too

Later ...

Now a lot of my fish (all my clowns for example) are captive bred and others are "ethically" net caught (most of my fish from Island Pets' Vanuatu suppliers). Currently I am raising 8 Bangaii babies (largest is 2cm+ including tail) so I hope to contribute to the pool of CB fish in the future, especially fish that can easily be overfished like the Bangaiis. And yes, it is a lot of work, time and hassle to raise the live food every day and try to convert the babies over to frozen or eventually to pellets.

Around here, CB clowns are often a little bit more expensive than WC, but Bangaiis are the same price for CB and WC, which I don't understand. There is a premium on CB clowns, especially the morphs, but no premium for Bangaiis. Hard to encourage more hobbyist breeders of Bangaiis if all they are paid is $12.50 or less per fish at the LFS and the broods are small and take months to raise on live food. Financially, not worth it. BUT baby Bangaiis are sooooooo cute. I will probably end up keeping most of this first batch just because the offspring are worth more to me than $12.50 at the LFS. Yes, privately can sell Bangaiis for $20-25 (one or two at a time) but for larger scale breeding, selling to LFS makes more sense.

From my own experience with clowns, at least with Ocellaris species, the CB are waaaaay hardier than the WC. I currently own 6 CB Oc., 2 CB True Percs, and 2 CB Black Oc. (all bred locally by Timbits - a Canreef member).

I do not oppose tank bred at all, but the wild caught would be less susceptible to inbreeding.

Tank bred has come a long way, but consider all the designer clowns. It's not natural. May look cool but it's s defect to me. I have no interest in owning them. To me it's a fish with imperfections.

My clowns are wild caught. Beautiful. Perfect. Healthy.

But again, it's an argument I have no scientific backing for.

Wild caught hurts the reefs over all. So personally I'm torn on the issue.

I can attest to the pro's and con's of CB fish.

As a store that tries to get as much CB fish in the store, there are a few factors that we have to consider. We deal with the likes of ORA and such, and have our own local breeding facility for a few species of clownfish, gobies, and seahorses


These are some of the things we have come accoss.
-CB fish are more expensive than wild caught
-CB take a lot of time and work to get to sellable size.
-CB are used to man made water
-CB seem to see less disease, but that could be due to the lack of pathogens in our water, doesn't prover they are more or less immune.

WC are cheaper, but mortality rates are lower
WC have more selection, and there are not as much selection of CB fish.

Mortality rates are lower in WC?:neutral:

packaging, shipping times, etc.

especially stress.

from shipper to retail mortality rates are lower, if you buy from a fish farm (ORA) much higher.