Aquarium hobby: keeping freshwater fish in aquariums now in science
“He who has fish as a pet is not an aquarist. Aquarists are the ones who take care for their biology and ecology and create an ecosystem in which fish are a part of the organisms living in the aquarium” says the researcher Alberto Maceda Veiga, from the Biodiversity Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio), and first author of the study published in the journal Fish and Fisheries –which breaks stereotypes about the world of freshwater fish farming, and highlights the important task of serious aquarists to study and preserve the aquatic biodiversity. Other authors of this study are Omar Domínguez (Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Mexico), Josep Escribano-Alacid (Association of the Scholars Group of Aquatic Ecosystems in Catalonia, AGREA) and John Lyons (University of Wisconsin, USA).
Traditionally, scientific literature and the world of conservationism regarded the aquarium hobby as something not favouring marine fauna preservation. Capturing animals from their natural environment to keep them in captivity and freeing pets when people no longer want them are basically the negative effects most linked with these practices.