[Announcement]: Ceph Care Ethics

[Thales]

I hope so. Mostly I would worry about the people who just glance at the magazine and get the idea that keeping a ceph is cool now. IME, for every person who reads an article about any animal in the aquarium hobby, there are 10 that glance at it and take away impressions, and 100 who more who don't even know there are places to read articles.

I do think that it is important to realize that going more 'mainstream' with ceph keeping will have both good and bad effects.

Some people will read the articles and get more educated, and some wont.
As Greg says, we are already seeing a bump in ceph interest, and 'exotic' cephs will be brought in because some stores will think 'if people want the ugly ones, they will really want the pretty ones'. Even having more of the 'plain' cephs collected will result in more moralities - its the nature of the industry.

Seahorses are a good parallel to cephs. There is great info easily available about them, and more captive bred ones available than ever before, however there is still a booming trade in both 'plain' and 'exotic' wild caught ponies. I suspect the same will be true of cephs.
Thats how an industry based on volume sales of live animals works, and will continue to work until there are tons of cheap, beautiful, captive bread animals always available (or until the industry is shut down).

Is it something we should be concerned about? Perhaps...I do think it is something to keep in mind.

 

[zyan silver]

i did'nt say it first but---In the end, we conserve only what we love. We love only what we understand. And we will understand only what we are taught. -- zyan

 

[Nancy]

There will be a rash of new members this time of year that has nothing to do with the TFH ceph issue - about the time that school lets out, we get lots of younger members interested in keeping a ceph for the first time.

Nancy

 

[Thales]

John, that's a totally fair observation, but I will try to explain why I don't think this is a problem:

The reality is that the TFH initiative was a completely parallel effort, driven by Nancy and Carol to completion. Nancy was careful to stipulate "no pictures of mimics" in the magazine, and I believe her article speaks to which species are best for keeping, and which to avoid.

snip...

The staff (and community) all seems to be in alignment that in the end, the right decision was to require member registration in order to view topics related to exotic and rare species. So, we created that forum with those access requirements, and moved relevant posts there.

So, in that regard, I think we've been consistent -- our forum policies and structure essentially matches the article content and approach taken with TFH.

On the other hand, yes, our stated sensitivity to "sensationalizing" cephs (or at least my own sensitivity to it) would seem to be a bit compromised by supporting and promoting an all-ceph issue of TFH. My response to that is this: this edition was assembled with the highest of integrity (which is par for the course for TFH itself), and prospective owners are being directed to TONMO.com, where I feel we help make the world a better place for cephs -- so in the end, it's all upside.

What's the feeling about the nautilus article in TFH in terms of their being in the 'exotic and rare species' forum on TONMO?

 

[cthulhu77]

I know most of you disagree with me about captive cephalopods. To be honest, the nautilus article bothered me a bit...as has the sudden influx of people wanting to keep cephs at home.

Yes, it is my paranoia at work, and I am doing my best to just be as helpful as possible, and keep my big yap shut.

 

[tonmo]

What's the feeling about the nautilus article in TFH in terms of their being in the 'exotic and rare species' forum on TONMO?

My personal view is that perhaps TFH and/or the authors could have done more to emphasize that keeping nautilus should be reserved for scientists or the very very experienced, due to their status and challenges with care. To their credit they didn't couch it as a walk in the park, either. Their approach and philosophy is exemplified through their use of the Jacques Cousteau quote, "The impossible missions are the only ones which succeed."

I'm not trying to fault TFH, in fact I'd rather not even pass any such judgement during this exciting time for the community when they are heavily promoting our site and showcasing member articles. Obviously the magazine is not as motivated to highlight all the problems with the trade as we are, because they are more dependent on their advertisers than TONMO.com is.

The bottom line is that I understand what TFH offers and who their audience is, and I'm very grateful that they have dedicated this issue to cephalopods, and that they so warmly embraced the TONMO.com community in the process!