So, a lot of you are familiar with my Panther Crab Breeding Project, so you probably know what this poll is about. However, I'd like to delve deep into why I'm doing this and what i hope to accomplish with these breeding projects (yes, plural. More coming when I start making a profit).
I was researching Sahyadria denisonii (denison's barb, http://www.aquaportail.com/aquabdd/photos/puntius-denisonii.jpg) one day after seeing it in an old magazine. I saw it was endangered in the wild due to overfishing for our beloved hobby after it suddenly became popular. That's what started it all.
After that, I developed a rudimentary plan (I do know how to breed the denison's barb, but like most people $ is an issue and the primary barrier to overcome), and fell in love with crabs. I wanted to become a conservation biologist, so I went to school for my AS in Biology (accomplished), and am currently working towards my BS in Conservation Biology & Ecology (expected spring 2017). After that, I may or may not get my PhD since I hope to have a family and I'll have to discuss that with my significant other when I get one. However, I desire to travel the world one day to study, collect, breed, raise, and sell/release organisms in the hobby. This includes rare, endangered, uncommon, or currently unavailable organisms that may not currently be in the US hobby but are available in the European hobby.
So, if populations decline, I hope to release organisms from my collection (more of a mini-population itself) into the wild to support those populations and help them recover. I'll be talking with the US Fish & Wildlife Service to ensure my organisms don't cause inadvertent ecological harm since one of my professors mentioned sometimes organisms released from aquariums have parasites and end up decimating the populations rather than helping.
Here's a short, rough timeline of what I hope to do:
My main goal right now is to reduce demand for wild-caught organisms within the aquarium hobby. I'll sell online/locally first, but will hopefully become a major wholesaler in the future (5-20 years). However, if needed, I would like to be able to release some individuals into the wild to help restore the populations using the concepts in my Conservation of Biodiversity class. If I get my PhD, I'll use it to study the population dynamics and travel (see bolded text two paragraphs up).
I was researching Sahyadria denisonii (denison's barb, http://www.aquaportail.com/aquabdd/photos/puntius-denisonii.jpg) one day after seeing it in an old magazine. I saw it was endangered in the wild due to overfishing for our beloved hobby after it suddenly became popular. That's what started it all.
After that, I developed a rudimentary plan (I do know how to breed the denison's barb, but like most people $ is an issue and the primary barrier to overcome), and fell in love with crabs. I wanted to become a conservation biologist, so I went to school for my AS in Biology (accomplished), and am currently working towards my BS in Conservation Biology & Ecology (expected spring 2017). After that, I may or may not get my PhD since I hope to have a family and I'll have to discuss that with my significant other when I get one. However, I desire to travel the world one day to study, collect, breed, raise, and sell/release organisms in the hobby. This includes rare, endangered, uncommon, or currently unavailable organisms that may not currently be in the US hobby but are available in the European hobby.
So, if populations decline, I hope to release organisms from my collection (more of a mini-population itself) into the wild to support those populations and help them recover. I'll be talking with the US Fish & Wildlife Service to ensure my organisms don't cause inadvertent ecological harm since one of my professors mentioned sometimes organisms released from aquariums have parasites and end up decimating the populations rather than helping.
Here's a short, rough timeline of what I hope to do:
My main goal right now is to reduce demand for wild-caught organisms within the aquarium hobby. I'll sell online/locally first, but will hopefully become a major wholesaler in the future (5-20 years). However, if needed, I would like to be able to release some individuals into the wild to help restore the populations using the concepts in my Conservation of Biodiversity class. If I get my PhD, I'll use it to study the population dynamics and travel (see bolded text two paragraphs up).
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