Bangaii Cardinals Face Extinction

texasmetal

Active Member
http://www.iucnredlist.org/
The Banggai Cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni) is a rare example of a marine fish with an extremely limited geographic range. This Endangered fish is endemic to the Banggai Archipelago in Indonesia; its total range area is around 5,500 km2, however the maximum potential habitat available within this range is about 34 km2. The Banggai Cardinalfish is highly prized in the aquarium trade and has been heavily exploited since 1994, resulting in an 89% reduction in population size from the start of aquarium fishery in 1995-1996 to 2007. The present total population size is between 1.8 and 2.2 million individuals, but an estimated minimum of 700,000 to 900,000 fish are extracted every year for the aquarium trade. Significant destruction of its habitat due to dynamite fishing, recently discovered diseases and algal blooms which affect extensive areas of the species. coral field habitat are also major threats. Photo © B. Jones & M. Shimlock / NHPA / Photoshot. Photo provided by ARKive.
 

texasmetal

Active Member
GOOD! Everyone and their mother-in-law needs to know.
STOP BUYING WILD-CAUGHT BANGAII'S or there will be none left in a few more years. There is no excuse, they are easy to breed.
 

dawman

Active Member
Originally Posted by TexasMetal
GOOD! Everyone and their mother-in-law needs to know.
STOP BUYING WILD-CAUGHT BANGAII'S or there will be none left in a few more years. There is no excuse, they are easy to breed.
I guess late is better then never , but this is kinda old news .
No retail store is allowed to sell wild caught Bangaiis anymore , now that they are on the endagered species list .
 

texasmetal

Active Member
Originally Posted by Dawman
I guess late is better then never , but this is kinda old news .
No retail store is allowed to sell wild caught Bangaiis anymore , now that they are on the endagered species list .
If only that were true. Some fish stores with responsible, conservation-minded owners may quit selling them, but they aren't illegal to sell.
Practical Fishkeeping online:
CITES has rejected a proposal to protect the Banggai cardinal, a species believed to be under threat from aquarium fish collectors.
The United States of America presented a formal proposal to the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) at the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in The Hague last month, which asked for the Banggai cardinal to be afforded protection under Appendix II of CITES.
CITES rejected the proposal and claimed that recent evidence had showed that the trade in the species appeared to be sustainable, and that with proper management and exploitation the species could be a valuable resource for which listing under a CITES Appendix would not be necessary.
Collecting pressures
The US proposal claimed that regulation in the trade of Banggai cardinals was required in order to ensure that the collection of wild fish was not reducing the size of the wild population to a point at which its survival might be threatened through over-collecting or other pressures.
The species is endemic to a group of islands in the Banggai Archipelago in Eastern Indonesia and part of Sulawesi, and first became a target for aquarium trade collectors in 1995.
Since then, the number of fish harvested has risen to 700,000-900,000 specimens per year.
But unlike most other marine aquarium fish, Pterapogon kauderni is a paternal mouthbrooder, and produces small broods of 50-90 eggs, rather than releasing thousands of eggs into the plankton.
The proposal's authors claim that this low fecundity - and the estimated population size of just 2.4 million - means that the species is at risk.
Rejection
The IWMC (International Wildlife Management Consortium) World Conservation Trust recommended to the CITES Conference of the Parties that the proposal be rejected because it believed the species was not threatened by the trade and because Indonesia did not support the move:
"Properly managed it may be sustainably exploited without the need of a listing in CITES Appendix II.
"From information not presented in the proposal, it appears that management measures for this species have been adopted by the Government of Indonesia, in cooperation with NGOs and local communities.
"The trade level has been significantly reduced and is not threatening the survival of the species."
The IWMC said that in addition to protective measures introduced to ban destructive fishing methods, such as dynamite and cyanide, and fishing by non-local people, management methods had been introduced by the Indonesia government, NGOs and the local community.
Captive-breeding
The IWMC said that captive-breeding was being experimented with in some places which helped to complement wild harvest, and that protecting the species from international trade could cause more harm than good.
"It appears that a listing in Appendix II is not necessary and, on the contrary, could be counterproductive as favouring illegal activities.
Therefore, IWMC does not support a proposal that would have appeared more convincing when submitted by the only range State."
Sources present at the hearing told Practical Fishkeeping that research methodology used in the proposal came in for criticism and questions were raised over its rigour, which led to the proposal for protecting the species being dropped.
The species is now unprotected under both CITES Appendices and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals.
Despite being one of the easiest marine fish species to breed, the vast majority of specimens are still taken from the wild.
 

texasmetal

Active Member
Originally Posted by Dawman
I guess late is better then never , but this is kinda old news .
No retail store is allowed to sell wild caught Bangaiis anymore , now that they are on the endagered species list .

Also, I have been reading threads on here lately about people wanting to buy Bangaii's and they should be informed before they buy a wild-caught one, old news or not, some people don't know.
 

jpc763

Active Member
Originally Posted by Dawman
I guess late is better then never , but this is kinda old news .
No retail store is allowed to sell wild caught Bangaiis anymore , now that they are on the endagered species list .
This site has Wild Caught on sale for $1.99 each so that cannot be true.
 

mweezy05

Member
I am begining to think something is wrong here as stated above, this site is selling "Wild" caught Bangaii for 1.99. How can they do this if the Bangaii is facing extinction???
Someone please enlighten me.
 

grabbitt

Active Member
Originally Posted by yerboy
because a dollar earned is better then a fish saved
A dollar and 99 cents, you mean.
 

xdave

Active Member
Endangered species cannot, are are not, being sold here.
Anyone familiar with the economic concept of supply and demand? How much is a living creature who falls into the catagory of "the last on Earth for the rest of eternity" going to cost? It's hard to say but a buck ninety nine doesn't come to mind.
 
N

nereef

Guest
how about a false endangered species scare, causing panic to aquarists everywhere and driving demand low enough to cause a surplus of cardinalfish? now they can't get rid of em...maybe.
 

zeke92

Active Member
eveyrone that may have them should try breeding them.....just a thought

btw texas are you animal mother on tonmo?
 

fmarini

Member
A few points, er facts.....
The IUCN redlist of endangered species does NOT mean that fish can't be sold or collected. It is a recommendation that this animal (fish in this case) are in peril.
Ergo, banggais are still being collected, and sold everyday to the tune of over 10 thousand/week
Next, only CITES protection will stop their collection and import, or limit the collection of these fish, so while its cool they are now considered endangered, it does nothing to protect this fish.
Next, the CITE folks made this into a political issue.
After you read what Texasmetal posted you can see that the data for CITE protection was ignored and that a political powerplay happened. The US proposed the CITES protection, Indonesia is where the fish is from, & Indo wanted to do it on their terms not the US's terms.
Lastly, the ICUN took the EXACT
same data submitted to the CITES folks and determined the fish is endangered, but the CITES folks said NO and infact allow collection of this fish.
Unfortunately the biggest loser here is the banggai cardinal fish
frank
 

mike22cha

Active Member
I'm going to bump this because I was not aware of them having such low numbers. I was planning on buying some, but now I'm going to be looking for some captive bred ones. I was thinking of breeding them, and this just makes me want too more. Hopefuly this thread will create some more awarness with members and guests of swf.com
 

jhawk

Member
Originally Posted by MIKE22cha
I'm going to bump this because I was not aware of them having such low numbers. I was planning on buying some, but now I'm going to be looking for some captive bred ones. I was thinking of breeding them, and this just makes me want too more. Hopefuly this thread will create some more awarness with members and guests of swf.com
I agree with you time to start reading more about breeding these guy.
 

mike22cha

Active Member
Originally Posted by jhawk
I agree with you time to start reading more about breeding these guy.
Yep. They seem fairly easy to breed because you don't have to worry about small fry and eggs, etc. A lot of people have been breeding them and there is definetly a lot of information out there about them.
 
C

calvertbill

Guest
Originally Posted by MIKE22cha
Yep. They seem fairly easy to breed because you don't have to worry about small fry and eggs, etc. A lot of people have been breeding them and there is definetly a lot of information out there about them.
Where do I learn about breeding them?
 
Top