The ornamental fish trade involves enormous mortality during capture, transport, and retail, with welfare implications that are poorly regulated and largely invisible to consumers.
The suffering implicit in the ornamental fish trade is staggering in scale but almost entirely hidden from the consumer who purchases a colorful fish in a retail store. The fish may have been caught using destructive methods, transported in overcrowded bags with inadequate oxygen, held in stressed conditions at wholesalers, and subjected to multiple disease exposures. Improving fish welfare in the ornamental trade requires action at every level from capture methods through transport standards to retail husbandry practices.