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Should I Drip Acclimate My Fish?

Sep 26

posted by Segrest farms in Marine Fish, General, Fish, Broad Issues, Care Information, Beginner Topics | 1 Comments Bookmark and Share

Should I drip acclimate my fish?

Should You Drip Acclimate?

We all want to keep our fish as healthy as possible, and so we develop certain habits to help with this. We perform routine aquarium maintenance to prevent a buildup of harmful substances. We carefully consider tankmates in order to reduce aggression. We use quarantine tanks to monitor new arrivals and avoid introducing sick fish to a healthy tank. We make every effort possible to keep our water parameters stable and avoid pH swings.

Most methods of keeping our tanks healthy revolve around one concept: trying to reduce the amount of stress our fish are exposed to.

Like people, fish have robust immune systems. Also like people, when they come under stress, fish’s immune systems can become suppressed, allowing pathogens that would normally be fought off to overwhelm the fish. By keeping our fish comfortable and happy, they are less likely to become ill.

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This entry was posted on September 26, 2017 at 6:57 PM and has received 12611 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

Urgent Alert - Hawaii Fish Collection Has Been Stopped

Sep 7

posted by Segrest farms in Marine Fish, General, Broad Issues | 0 Comments Bookmark and Share

Urgent Alert on Hawaii Fishery Closure

Urgent Alert On Hawaiian Fish

If you’ve paid any attention to news surrounding that aquarium hobby, there have been many challenges over the years designed to stop the collection of ornamental fish from Hawaiian waters. Despite the fact that the West Hawaii fishery has been determined to be among the best managed in the world, it has to overcome continuous attempts to shut it down.

The most recent challenge in the Hawaii Supreme Court has centered around whether or not permits for ornamental fish collection should fall under the regulations outlined by the Hawaii Environmental Protection Act (HEPA). Last night, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that commercial aquarium collection is, in fact, subject to HEPA’s requirements.

What This Means For Aquarists

What this means for aquarists is that as of today (9/7/2017), all collection of fish in Hawaii has been stopped. These fish, most notably yellow tangs, will not be available from Hawaiian sources.

Unfortunately, it is still unknown how to successfully aquaculture many reef fish, and the work that organizations such as Rising Tide Conservation can do will be greatly diminished as a result of there being more limited sources of fish to work with.

What Can You Do To Help?

The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC), who has been working with legislators and Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources to keep the fisheries operating, is already looking to develop strategies on how to move forward in order to get the fishery reopened.

There are potential paths forward. For example, the ruling by the Hawaii Supreme Court moved the case back down to circuit courts and left open the possibility of aquarium collection qualifying for an exemption to HEPA regulations should sufficient evidence be presented. There are likely other avenues that might be explored as well.

Unfortunately, the legal process that will be required to overturn this ruling is immensely challenging and, subsequently, highly expensive. We encourage every retailer and hobbyist to contribute to PIJAC’s Aquatic Defense Fund in order help with this process. PIJAC continues to be the first, and sometimes only, line of defense against rulings such as these. The work they do is invaluable and your contributions can truly make a difference.

Additionally, we highly encourage both retailers and hobby clubs to become PIJAC members. PIJAC plays a pivotal role in the health of the entire pet industry by working with legislators to shape the laws that affect pet ownership, developing resources to promote animal welfare, and creating initiatives to help preserve the environments our pets come from.

To learn more about PIJAC’s Aquatic Defense Fund and make a donation, go to http://pijac.org/aquatic 

To learn more about PIJAC and become a member, go to http://pijac.org 

To read the Hawaii Supreme Court’s ruling in its entirety, go to http://cases.justia.com/hawaii/supreme-court/2017-scwc-13-0002125.pdf?ts=1504728111 

This entry was posted on September 7, 2017 at 7:14 PM and has received 4689 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Aquarists CAN Promote Conservation

Sep 12

posted by Segrest farms in Marine Fish, General, Fish, Broad Issues | 0 Comments Bookmark and Share

The aquarium hobby often gets a bad rap. The few times that the media ever looks at us they’re either claiming we’re raping the environment of its wild animals or they’re blaming us for the release of a species that has become invasive.

Occasionally we will get a positive mention, such as recent press on the importance of the ornamental fishery to communities on the Rio Negro and articles on the first ever tank raised blue tangs. But those stories are rarely told.

On top of these, there are more stories of the aquarium community driving conservation. We’re breeding species that are otherwise extinct, protecting wild ecosystems, and restoring lost habitats. We have supplied zoos and aquariums as they create survival plans for critically endangered species.

Check out our infographic for just a few of the ways the aquarium hobby has promoted conservation.

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This entry was posted on September 12, 2016 at 3:39 PM and has received 7584 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Should You Find Your Own Dory?

Jun 17

posted by Segrest farms in Marine Fish, General, Fish, Broad Issues | 0 Comments Bookmark and Share

Regal Blue Hippo Tang

As Disney/Pixar's Finding Dory hits theaters today, the conversation around ocean wildlife, aquariums, and the collection of fish for the aquarium hobby is growing increasingly loud. Anti-aquarium voices are loudly decrying that the movie will create a mass rush of people running to their local fish store to buy their very own Dory, arguing that this skyrocketing demand will spell the end of wild tang populations and that ornamental fisheries need to be shut down to protect the reefs. Industry and hobbyist sources such as The Pet Leadership Council, MASNA, OATA, and others are releasing messages encouraging hobbyists and would-be fish keepers to do their due diligence and only buy fish that they can responsibly care for. 

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This entry was posted on June 17, 2016 at 1:54 PM and has received 4716 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

201 Species of Salamanders and Newts Listed As Injurious

Jan 26

posted by Segrest farms in Reptiles, General, Fish, Broad Issues | 0 Comments Bookmark and Share

For over a year, Segrest Farms and other industry leaders have been working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to develop and implement testing and treatment regimens to address concerns over a chytrid fungus from Asia named Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (frequently shortened to Bsal).

For several months we have had in place, and encouraged other suppliers to do the same, a voluntary moratorium refusing to carry certain species including the Fire Belly Newt (Cynops pyrrhogaster) and Paddletail Fire Newts (Pachytriton brevipes).

The USFWS has decided to put in place an interim ruling listing all species from 20 genera as injurious, making it illegal to import these species into the United States or transport them across state lines. The ruling goes into effect Thursday, January 28th 2016.

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This entry was posted on January 26, 2016 at 10:08 AM and has received 4305 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We Support Project Piaba

Jan 19

posted by Segrest farms in General, Fish, Broad Issues, Behind the Scenes | 0 Comments Bookmark and Share

Cardinal Tetras, the jewel of the Rio Negro

If you follow us closely, you will have heard or seen us mention on occasion Project Piaba . In our blog post on Environmental Sustainability in the Ornamental Fish Industry, I discussed the benefits of sustainable wild collection operations. There are several existing operations that are performing vigorous research into the best methods of collection and carefully monitoring fish populations in order to ensure they are operating sustainably. The fishery in West Hawaii, for example, is arguably the most heavily researched and monitored fishery in the world. But when I was writing the post and discussing the benefits of a sustainable fishery, Project Piaba is what I was most closely thinking about.

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This entry was posted on January 19, 2016 at 7:05 PM and has received 4795 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

A Look At Invasive Species

Nov 13

posted by Segrest farms in General, Broad Issues | 0 Comments Bookmark and Share

Green Anoles, Anolis carolinensis, is a native to the south that is being displaced by Cuban Brown Anoles, Anolis sagrei.

A Look At Invasive Species

As much as many would like to deny it, the fact that invasive species are one of the greatest threats to native ecosystems is no big secret. As one of the hotbeds for invasive species, here in Florida we have invasions ranging from the highly publicized reports (often bordering on fear-mongering) of invasive giant pythons (primarily the Burmese Python, Python bivittatus) in the everglades to the ubiquitous and often overlooked Cuban Brown Anoles that live in virtually every yard across the state. Across the country, there are invasive populations of many species of animals and plants that receive various levels of attention. With the seemingly never ending list of non-native species that have been able to gain footholds in new areas, we have to ask how this happens, how do we stop it from continuing, and what role have we as pet hobbyists played?

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This entry was posted on November 13, 2014 at 6:10 PM and has received 4534 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

The Lionfish Ban

Aug 1

posted by Segrest farms in General, Fish, Broad Issues | 0 Comments Bookmark and Share

Pteroin mombasae, one of the banned species that has not become invasive.

The Lionfish Ban

What is it and what does it mean?


On August 1, 2014, regulations put in place by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will make it illegal to import any lionfish from the Pterois genus from any out of state source into Florida. This limits hobbyists, retailers, wholesalers, and research institutions here to only being able to keep or transport those lionfish that can be collected from waters within the state of Florida. There are widespread implications of this ruling ranging from the concrete and immediate to the hypothetical and theoretical. Below, we will take a look at why this ruling was passed, how it affects us now, and what it could lead to in the future.

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This entry was posted on August 1, 2014 at 2:36 PM and has received 5994 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Environmental Sustainability in the Ornamental Fish Industry

Jul 14

posted by Segrest farms in General, Fish, Broad Issues | 1 Comments Bookmark and Share

As our access to a world-wide pool of knowledge and information grows, so does our awareness of the global implications of our choices and actions. This has led to an ever increasing focus on sustainability and eco-friendliness. Increasingly, we are needing to examine our impact as consumers as well as our impact as an industry. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer or solution to the problem of being sustainable, but let's take a look at where the ornamental fish industry currently stands, and where it appears to be headed.

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This entry was posted on July 14, 2014 at 3:04 PM and has received 4972 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

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