eelpatrickharris

[eelpatrickharris]

it's two of you against three of them. choose your battle partner wisely.

#general tag

[eelpatrickharris]

From the chitala lopis guy: Indonesia has a law that insists on government approval for any surveying. The government wants credit for any discoveries after an incident involving a spider being found, exported, and then defined in Europe. Really strict laws on research there, it all has to be licensed and approved. The government has deemed them extinct, so it's one of those "in the hands of hobbyists" deals.

Following up on the Lacey Act expansion, I'm not as convinced it will be worse for threatened species. Aren't the number of responsible, species-saving captive-breeding hobbyists dwarfed by average-to-poor keepers who just want a unique pet? The international exotic pet trade is one of the worst contributors to species disappearing from the wild. From what I can see, this would actually benefit wild populations and encourage trade in captive-bred individuals instead.

Thanks for the question! That's a valid point and I'm glad you've brought it up. A few people have shared that sentiment when discussing this with them.

For those reading this, I want to quickly reiterate why the amendment has been introduced: it's meant to prevent any potential injurious species that could harm agriculture or the environment by implementing a whitelist of approved ones. It isn't aimed at protection of non-native organisms, it's a extreme prevention measure. (The Lacey Act itself was created to prevent poaching and illegal harvesting, so piggybacking this onto it is odd. The Presumptive Prohibition should really be its own Act.) This new amendment is likely trying to prevent any more incidents like brown snakeheads in the Potomac or micropopulations of tropical fish in Florida. However, it's perfectly fine and accepted to introduce peacock bass and clown knife fish into open waterways so fishermen can target their populations as they grow.

So, the amendment itself is meant for the safety of the US environment, but conservation is what me and others are truly concerned about here. There are two sides to the declining populations thing. On one side, we have things with stable habitats but large levels of overfishing for the pet trade. Pea puffers are a huge one here. The juveniles have a low survival rate in captivity, they're hard for the average person to feed, keeping more than one in a tank runs the risk of them killing each other (they're often recommended to be kept in groups), and they CAN be captive bred. This is a fish that we can clearly point at, say "this needs more protections and a heavier focus on captive breeding," and put on a list that states this. Same with clown loaches and denison barbs.

The other side is species with rapidly depleting habitats and wild populations. This is where it gets complicated. If an animal's native range is disappearing, the focus should be on creating the most diverse possible gene pool in captive populations. Zookeepers do a fantastic job of this with avians and mammals, but when it comes to the cold-blooded things, hobbyists are the main people driving the car. I have seen exactly one zoo with a certain species of extinct-in-wild snail and about 25 hobbyists. The wildly diverse mini-ecosystem peat bogs of Southeast Asia are being bulldozed for palm oil plantations at an alarming rate, and the rainforests of South America are also being destroyed for the logging industry and agricultural use. SEA is of importance to fishkeepers, and SA to amphibian lovers. The general consensus from conservationists is to get all the healthy specimens from areas in the line of fire while you can. If you don't, they're just going to be swept away, they don't have a chance.

I rarely, rarely ever see people keeping fish that are going extinct in the wild as solo trinket pets, unless they already have stable populations, like some species of wild bettas and asian arowanas. Their habitats are often tricky to replicate, and you'll have a tough time finding specialty fish stores offering them in anything less than breeding pairs or groups. Parasphromenus, wild bettas, obscure cyprinids, peat bog spiny eels, and tiny specialized catfish/loaches are all in those peat bogs mentioned above. Most people are aware of these in some capacity, and know that you shouldn't keep them as a unique pet. Pretty sure other hobbyists would bite your head off for that, honestly.

Then we have things such as Chitala lopis. Ever heard of them? Nope, me neither, until a couple months ago. They've been declared extinct by a few scientists due to overfishing and habitat destruction. However, I met a guy who has one that came into the USA in a shipment of clown knives as bycatch, and he's taking excellent care of it. If he can find another and there's a way to breed them, I'm sure he'll find it out. Hobbyists who respect endangered species are dedicated. The little freaks who find an unappreciated animal to obsess over are the future for that animal. See: those extinct snails.

In a sensible world, there would be a proposed committee that does risk analyses on potentially harmful fish, then bans them, and reevaluates down the line. It's incredibly backwards to ban everything and assume guilty until proven innocent. Same with species that are threatened by poaching. We have the ability to analyze what is actually declining their populations and what we can do about it.

However, the flipside to that is that once things go on the Lacey Act for good reasons, they... might just live on there forever. They're plentiful due to captive breeding, you can buy the juveniles for a $10 USD equivalent, 99% of Asian arowana are bred on farms, and any bred on farms are microchipped. There are very, very few being poached from the wild these days, and those that are are being distributed around Asia to the people who actually are willing to pay the insanely high prices for the wild-caught clout. And yet, they're firmly placed on the no-entry list with no plans for removal. The USA is notoriously bad for banning things and never accepting critique or revisions. I don't see a sweeping ban on everything going well, because a lot of those organisms will fall through the cracks and never be reconsidered.

Tl;dr: I do support stronger protections on species that can be captive-bred and have a great chance of continued survival in the wild. I would love to see this amendment revised in a more sensible manner for the sake of those species! Same with invasive species, please put together a committee to identify them and implement protocol to prevent disasters. But I do not support the current whitelist ban in HR 4521.

#long post

[eelpatrickharris]

Following up on the Lacey Act expansion, I'm not as convinced it will be worse for threatened species. Aren't the number of responsible, species-saving captive-breeding hobbyists dwarfed by average-to-poor keepers who just want a unique pet? The international exotic pet trade is one of the worst contributors to species disappearing from the wild. From what I can see, this would actually benefit wild populations and encourage trade in captive-bred individuals instead.

Thanks for the question! That's a valid point and I'm glad you've brought it up. A few people have shared that sentiment when discussing this with them.

For those reading this, I want to quickly reiterate why the amendment has been introduced: it's meant to prevent any potential injurious species that could harm agriculture or the environment by implementing a whitelist of approved ones. It isn't aimed at protection of non-native organisms, it's a extreme prevention measure. (The Lacey Act itself was created to prevent poaching and illegal harvesting, so piggybacking this onto it is odd. The Presumptive Prohibition should really be its own Act.) This new amendment is likely trying to prevent any more incidents like brown snakeheads in the Potomac or micropopulations of tropical fish in Florida. However, it's perfectly fine and accepted to introduce peacock bass and clown knife fish into open waterways so fishermen can target their populations as they grow.

So, the amendment itself is meant for the safety of the US environment, but conservation is what me and others are truly concerned about here. There are two sides to the declining populations thing. On one side, we have things with stable habitats but large levels of overfishing for the pet trade. Pea puffers are a huge one here. The juveniles have a low survival rate in captivity, they're hard for the average person to feed, keeping more than one in a tank runs the risk of them killing each other (they're often recommended to be kept in groups), and they CAN be captive bred. This is a fish that we can clearly point at, say "this needs more protections and a heavier focus on captive breeding," and put on a list that states this. Same with clown loaches and denison barbs.

The other side is species with rapidly depleting habitats and wild populations. This is where it gets complicated. If an animal's native range is disappearing, the focus should be on creating the most diverse possible gene pool in captive populations. Zookeepers do a fantastic job of this with avians and mammals, but when it comes to the cold-blooded things, hobbyists are the main people driving the car. I have seen exactly one zoo with a certain species of extinct-in-wild snail and about 25 hobbyists. The wildly diverse mini-ecosystem peat bogs of Southeast Asia are being bulldozed for palm oil plantations at an alarming rate, and the rainforests of South America are also being destroyed for the logging industry and agricultural use. SEA is of importance to fishkeepers, and SA to amphibian lovers. The general consensus from conservationists is to get all the healthy specimens from areas in the line of fire while you can. If you don't, they're just going to be swept away, they don't have a chance.

I rarely, rarely ever see people keeping fish that are going extinct in the wild as solo trinket pets, unless they already have stable populations, like some species of wild bettas and asian arowanas. Their habitats are often tricky to replicate, and you'll have a tough time finding specialty fish stores offering them in anything less than breeding pairs or groups. Parasphromenus, wild bettas, obscure cyprinids, peat bog spiny eels, and tiny specialized catfish/loaches are all in those peat bogs mentioned above. Most people are aware of these in some capacity, and know that you shouldn't keep them as a unique pet. Pretty sure other hobbyists would bite your head off for that, honestly.

Then we have things such as Chitala lopis. Ever heard of them? Nope, me neither, until a couple months ago. They've been declared extinct by a few scientists due to overfishing and habitat destruction. However, I met a guy who has one that came into the USA in a shipment of clown knives as bycatch, and he's taking excellent care of it. If he can find another and there's a way to breed them, I'm sure he'll find it out. Hobbyists who respect endangered species are dedicated. The little freaks who find an unappreciated animal to obsess over are the future for that animal. See: those extinct snails.

In a sensible world, there would be a proposed committee that does risk analyses on potentially harmful fish, then bans them, and reevaluates down the line. It's incredibly backwards to ban everything and assume guilty until proven innocent. Same with species that are threatened by poaching. We have the ability to analyze what is actually declining their populations and what we can do about it.

However, the flipside to that is that once things go on the Lacey Act for good reasons, they... might just live on there forever. They're plentiful due to captive breeding, you can buy the juveniles for a $10 USD equivalent, 99% of Asian arowana are bred on farms, and any bred on farms are microchipped. There are very, very few being poached from the wild these days, and those that are are being distributed around Asia to the people who actually are willing to pay the insanely high prices for the wild-caught clout. And yet, they're firmly placed on the no-entry list with no plans for removal. The USA is notoriously bad for banning things and never accepting critique or revisions. I don't see a sweeping ban on everything going well, because a lot of those organisms will fall through the cracks and never be reconsidered.

Tl;dr: I do support stronger protections on species that can be captive-bred and have a great chance of continued survival in the wild. I would love to see this amendment revised in a more sensible manner for the sake of those species! Same with invasive species, please put together a committee to identify them and implement protocol to prevent disasters. But I do not support the current whitelist ban in HR 4521.

#ask tag #sorry this turned into a rant #i have spent an hour writing this and will not be proofreading because i need to eat dinner before i go feral #fishblr #it's especially stupid to me that this prohibits interstate trade #oooooh it's fine for the fishermen to use chopped endangered american eels for bait to catch their invasive stocked peacock bass #but we will Get Your Ass if you ship this rare fish we do not approve of

[eelpatrickharris]

The America COMPETES Act is putting fish and reptiles at risk

Hello, friends! I'm returning from my hiatus to let people know about something very important. As of today, 2/4/2022, HR 4521 along with the COMPETES Act has been passed (mostly along party lines) through the House of Representatives and is making its way to the senate.

This matters to the fish, herp, bird, and invert communities for one big reason: there's an amendment in Division H from the Committee of Natural Resources that modifies the Lacey Act. According to this amendment, all non-native species would be classified as injurious by default until later review. There would be an import ban on non-native fish, reptiles, amphibians, and the like unless they are reviewed by the Secretary of the Interior and found to not be an “imminent threat to human beings, to the interests of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, or to wildlife or the wildlife resources of the United States.” They must also be verifiably imported or transported between state lines in “more than minimal quantities” in a 1-year period before the COMPETES Act is passed. Those quantities have not been decided yet.

We’re talking a devastating blanket ban on any species that isn’t well-known and studied enough to be proven non-threatening.

Let’s take Parasphromenus, for instance! The licorice gourami. This is a genus of fish from the peat bogs of Indonesia and Malaysia. They will likely be extinct in the wild within our lifetime, because their habitats are being rapidly deforested and converted into palm oil plantations. The key to the licorice gourami’s survival is captive breeding by dedicated aquarists. (Learn more about the Parasphromenus Project here.) Because there are very few of them left in the wild, a very tiny amount of them are being imported or distributed within the US, and you might only see 1 or 2 of a given species being moved around. These would not meet minimal quantities and would be banned. Goodbye, licorice gouramis.

And here we have spiny eels, what got me into fishkeeping. These two, Charlie and Dennis Reyneelds, are my Macrognathus aral, or the striped peacock eel. There are a good 13 different eels classified as peacock eels, and they all get lumped into 4 (usually incorrect) species in the US pet trade. Even with those inflated numbers, not many are being brought into the USA. If you’re extremely lucky, you might find a couple skinny ones hiding in the gravel at Petsmart. Say goodbye to any spiny eel that isn’t the well-known fire eel. (Fire eels do terribly in captivity and need about a 1500+ gallon tank as fully grown adults, but anyways.)

This will affect many, many species that are infrequently imported. At best, they’ll just become in the USA and continuing to sustain populations in the wild. At worst, they will be driven to extinction in the wild and lose their base of conservationists within the USA. Not only is this a hideous overstep of the Lacey Act--we should not have a “whitelist” of non-native organisms that can legally exist in the USA--but it is absolutely disastrous to threatened species being held afloat by passionate individuals. Unless you want the only fish available to be what you could find in an old Walmart fish section, please reach out to your senators. This bill has already passed the House and is moving to a vote in the Senate.

Find out who your senator is (a quick google will do this), go to their Contact page, and send them an email, a message, dial their phone, send them a fax. Whatever you do, get into contact and ask them to please oppose HR 4521′s Presumptive Prohibition on Importation amendment to the Lacey Act. If you want to write a long plea on how it will affect conservation efforts, go for it! But if you aren’t sure what to write, here’s what I sent to mine:

Dear Senator _______,

In regards to the America COMPETES Act, HR 4521, Section 71102 (d): I'm a fishkeeping hobbyist dedicated to preserving species threatened by habitat loss. To do this, I rely on imported specimens of rare endangered fish to create stable populations within captivity. Because these fish have dwindling ranges in the wild, they are sparsely imported, and already near-impossible to find.

According to the amendments proposed to the Lacey Act by the Committee on Natural Resources, these species would be classified by default as injurious and illegal to import or transport across state lines. The exception would be those imported in a to-be-announced "minimum quantity" within 1-year before the passing of the bill. Covid-borne logistics slowdowns meant that importations of fish from 2020 onward have been at an all-time low, as you cannot risk livestock getting stuck in transport and dying. Especially with endangered fish, it defeats the purpose of importation with the intent of preservation.

A "whitelist" is dangerous lip service meant to soothe those worried about invasive species, at the cost of species extinction and ruined conservation efforts. One single entity should not be able to completely prohibit harmless species unless they are known to be a hazard to the US. There are thousands of fish species with no chance of survival outside of aquaria once their wild populations are wiped out by spreading agricultural and development threats. Please, for the sake of wildlife diversity and those of us who strive to preserve it, eliminate the Section 71102 (d) amendment on Presumptive Prohibition to the Lacey Act in HR 4521. The fate of thousands of threatened species depend on it.

#fishblr #reptblr #amphiblr #petblr #bettablr #aquariums #fishkeeping #this is a very real threat and should not be taken lightly #it is a bill that both parties want and will nitpick in the senate until they find a way to pass it amicably #what we as individuals can do is be as loud as possible about it and encourage others to do the same

[eelpatrickharris]

Good evening, my dudes, here is Lifted Tonka Truck the eel being extremely upset over me placing a forkful of roasted butternut squash into the tank

#pet tag #fishblr #i'm not dead!! just been busy and finally got my tanks moved to the new place #spiny eel #Macrognathus circumcintus

[eelpatrickharris]

for anyone who is still lost, this lad is a gymnarchus niloticus, aka the aba aba, aka 4-5 feet of fuck off i have horrific teeth made for severing flesh and a documented taste for eyes and extremities and general bloodlust

you are the dancing queen, young and full o' teeth, slice your finger clean

#look up ''aba aba skull'' for a fun time #that soft puppy dog face hides horrors

[eelpatrickharris]

dancing queen, feel the beat from the bleeding spleen, oh yeah

you can maim, you can bite, having the meal of your life

ooooh, see that fish, watch that scene, eating the dancing queen  

you are the dancing queen, young and full o' teeth, slice your finger clean

[eelpatrickharris]

you are the dancing queen, young and full o' teeth, slice your finger clean

#for those who are very lost and not familiar with knifefish: #gymnarchus niloticus

[eelpatrickharris]

americans really b like ah don’t get how stick shift works ouch my noggin need to pick between park drive reverse that’s it

me and my beloved PRNDL feel a bit attacked by this

[eelpatrickharris]

do u still have bagel :0? i dont know how long ago that post was made or if uve mentioned them since!!

bagel now lives with one of the wet spot employees! he's trying to breed moklembembe bichirs, so she's in a very nice tank with other sausages of the same breed. 

[eelpatrickharris]

ur disc link is expired 💔

https://discord.gg/hNdDG3z here's a new permanent invite for Fish Tea!

[eelpatrickharris]

in case anyone was wondering "gee did sid die or something" no sid has simply grown more powerful

#i made my brother take a picture of me sitting in it and he took That One #picked up a 360g acrylic (6'x4'x2') and a 180g acrylic (6'x2'x2') last weekend #6 hour round trip to get these bad boys in two seperate vehicles but totally worth it #''what's going in a tank that big'' literally just my borneo python eels and datnoid and titanic pleco #will be posting more photos when these are set up in the new house #but that's still a couple months out #''why haven't you been posting anything at all lately'' my tanks are in a weird transitional state where they look like crap because rescap #currently have the eel tub a 125g two 75s and a 40B up as freshwater tanks #then a 20g as a saltwater FOWLR with a lil baby ocellaris clown and some hermits

[eelpatrickharris]

in the past two months of owning this creature named Jellybean, i've gone from being afraid of him to liking him to being afraid of him to just accepting that he's going to sink his hypodermic needle teeth into my hand whenever i so much as open the tank lid. growing quite fond of his little ass even if he does feel the need to give my fingers a vampire facial

life with wolf fish: a summary

#fish tag

[eelpatrickharris]

in case you were wondering, that loud thud is indeed him slapping down onto a plastic light hood and the video cuts off so quickly because i flung my phone away and ran for a net while he scrambled across the floor at a breakneck pace on his little pelvic and anal fins and snapped at my toes. anyways, i'm sure there are some nice wolves out there but this one has the bastard throttle yanked wide open to full blast

life with wolf fish: a summary

[eelpatrickharris]

life with wolf fish: a summary

#fish tag #fishblr #rainbow wolf fish #this is jellybean and he's bit me twice today #he's been poking his head out of the water when your finger approaches and that's what I was trying to capture #but today he just fuckin went for it #and accidentally flung himself out of the tank in an attempt to maul my finger #erythrinus #are horrible; certifiably

[eelpatrickharris]

hey guys! what’s up, i haven’t touched this account in a good while.

account updates:

might be a bit more active from now on since i got a new laptop after my 6 year old one kicked the bucket. mainly bought this one so i have an easier time compiling the Mastacemblid (spiny eel) database i’m writing up. my goal with that is to have a complete guide of all the recognized spiny eels with their correct pictures, descriptions, and locations.

i have no idea when any of these asks are from or where to start for the DMs. for future reference, the easiest way to reach me with eel questions is on discord. i’m eelpatrickharris #2942 on there. if you’re in Fish Tea or even Fishcord, you should be able to DM me immediately! if not, just send a quick friend request, i’ll accept it when i see the notification. if you have fish medical questions, those are best asked in an active server like the two above.

fish and eel updates:

Gregolas the borneo python eel now lives about 8 hours away with @bigtiddymegatron69, thanks to Todd’s eel transport service, since he was getting the crap beat out of him by Nikolai and Craigory. i’ve accumulated a few more Macrognathus and a Mastacembelus sp. “Nargis” eel named Lurgis, a purple Erythrinus sp. of some sort named Jellybean, a 75 gallon filled to the brim with 16+ botia sidthimunki and yoyos and kubotai and mismarked clown loaches, and an L240 galaxy vampire pleco. might throw up some updated pictures later after i scrub the diatoms and green spot algae off my tank glass.

that should be it for general housekeeping. nice to see all of you again!

#general tag #not dead just busy with work and general life activities #it's more relaxing for me to settle down with a mug of tea and a good book in the evenings than deal with tumblr drama so that's my usual #love yourself and all that

[eelpatrickharris]

briefly checking in to say that i'm now the proud owner of 11 brackish scorpionfish and also this goblin

#she's a 15-something hand 6 year old bay dun #draft x qh #prolly percheron or belgian because she's got those dapples #super fun to ride but god she has horrible ground manners #i've had her for 24 hours and she's already broken 2 of my friend's toes #beefy clumsy horses are a hazard if you aren't wearing steel toed boots