[Charlie97L]

you make some good points, and i totally understand where you are coming from with your arguments.

i'll have to disagree with you on a few of them.

FW notwithstanding... it's like comparing apples to oranges. tank bred marine animals are always hardier than their wild caught relatives. 100% of the time. this has been proven, time and time again. seahorses, clowns, etc. all hardier. captive breeding of seahorses and training them to eat frozen from birth has led to them being relatively moderate animals to keep, as opposed to nearly impossible. this is mostly due to the fact that the capture/transport process is so traumatic, for all marine animals. aquacultured corals are also a lot hardier and adapt to tank life much better.

second, while the morphs are a cause for concern, I guess, it does attract people to buy tank bred, as opposed to captured fish, which is ALWAYS a good thing, conservation wise. and there will be no shortage, ever of standard clowns. to be quite honest, the best thing for the marine industry would be to move to 100% aquacultured... and let the reefs recover. and there are many places working on this... making progress every day.

as far as the anemones are concerned... i haven't read up on that... i do know that for captive raised clowns, the picture method has worked well. ie. tape a picture of a clown in an anemone to the tank, and the clown will imitate it. but i know many many people with tank bred clowns that have them hosting. i mean, it's really a personal preference when it comes down to it. even wild caught clowns aren't guaranteed to host. sometimes they just don't.