His company supplies live reef fish to a hotel chain over the Chinese new year period, a time of many banquets and much consumption of live reef fish. This year, he said, the hotel chain ordered 40 per cent fewer fish than it did last year at this time, anticipating a major slump in demand because of the plummeting Hong Kong stock market. Another paper given by Lida Pet-Soede and Mark Erdmann at the workshop provided a lot of food for thought. They also speculate that repeated use of cyanide by aquarium fish collectors in an area is more likely to cause serious damage to reefs than typical live reef food-fish cyaniding operations. Improper decompression of fish brought up from deep water continues to damage fish unnecessarily.
Fish are often much too crowded in holding pens.
Diseased fish are not quarantined. Antibiotics are not used properly. Feeding is often haphazard and feed quality is poor. Water quality is poor. Because the industry is made up of many small, competing companies, there is little incentive for good operators to disseminate their knowledge.