Should You Buy An Aquarium Fish?

With the release of Disney’s animated adventure, Finding Dory, we want to discuss some important aspects of the aquarium trade and help everyone educate themselves before making a decision on whether or not an aquarium fish is the right choice for you.

Our personal choices matter. Not all fish in the aquarium trade are taken sustainably, and sometimes, our choice to buy a fish can harm or even endanger wild populations of fish in the ocean.

At Ocean Futures Society, we want to protect the ocean, and we need your help!

Please take some time to review our PDFs on whether buying an aquarium fish is the right choice for you. Generally, freshwater fish are good choices for beginners because they require less time, money, and care than saltwater fish. However, sometimes it’s best to let the natural world live as it was meant to: free in the ocean.

This is especially true of Dory – a blue tang – a beautiful tropical fish found in oceans around the world. Blue tangs cannot be raised in captivity, and instead must be taken from the ocean. A high demand for blue tangs could harm wild populations of blue tangs. Instead, let’s keep Dory in the ocean, where she belongs!

Instead of going out and buying a fish, YOU can help protect the ocean in many ways by making small, but important decisions every day that help protect the planet. Reduce your use of plastics – like plastic straws and bottles – and choose not to use a straw or drink from recyclable containers instead! You can also help the ocean by educating yourself about it. Talking to family, friends, neighbors, and classmates is a great way to spread information about how important our ocean is to the quality of our lives – no matter where we live! The more we know, the better we can be at protecting our ocean home, and ourselves.

Click HERE to download a copy of the PDF below and share with family and friends!