Mushroomfarie, you make a decent point, but come on...
For every fish you get from a fish store, 10 or more die in transit, and in the initial capture. Taking fish from the wild, choosing these over tropicals in a store, means that you might lose that fish, but it doesn't mean that many, many others have to die in the process.
You're right that most children kill the animals they adopt. However, this is usually due to ignorance, forgetfulness, inadequate accomodations and cleanliness and improper diet.
Of course, the best solution of all is to buy from responsible breeders. Nowadays, I buy almost all of my fish this way. My conscience is definitely eased, and my worry about tropical diseases is assuaged.
I'm not endorsing taking endangered species from the wild! Taking mollies (introduced into American waterways in the 20th century) and gars is of little consequence to the ecosystem, and certainly hurts it less than buying the same wild-caught fish from the
LFS.
A little bit of downtoearthism.