porcupine going back home

[baldomero]

sad to say i bought an ocean caught porcupine and its just a little to big for my 90 gallon,i really like em cause hes like a puppy he knows when im gonna feed em and he goes wild.i just dont like it when he doesnt let my other fish eat,and i think hes eaten a couple hermits too.i came to the decision today when i go to puerto rico jan,4 im gonna bag em up and let him go in the ocean i think hell be happier there.may the fish gods forgive me.

[reefergeorge]

Releasing a fish back into the wild is a bad idea.
If he by chance picked up a virus or parasite from a fish from a different part of the world. He could bring this unknown parasite back with him, witch could cause problems.
I would bring him to a lfs and get some credit.

[coast2coast7390]

i think releasing a fish back to the ocean is illegal

[Blown 346]

I agree, also the fish might be dependant on food, the best thing to do is bring it to your LFS.

Where are you located?? I am lookign for a large puffer for my 125.

[baldomero]

the thing is the fish store guy caught em in a beach near my house hes about 5 inches long i paid ten dollars for him the porcupine will be released in the same beach he was caught from. my tank is in puerto rico the puffer is native to puerto rico,so there shouldnt be a problem.the LFS wont take him back because puffers are worth almost nothing in puerto rico.i wish i can give him to somebody but .........

[reefergeorge]

Was the tank set up with only native fish, rock, corals?
If so then their is no problem. If not then I would not release him.

[baldomero]

i had my tank set up in new york and just recently moved to puerto rico and set it up there its been running for 5 months now its a fowlr tank no corals. but all the fish i have in my tank either the fish store guy caught or i caught on the beach.

[kau_cinta_ku]

either way it is still a very bad idea. 1 little parasite on that fish that is not native to that area and your gonna be killing "ALOT" of fish.

I would find someone else to take him. just don't release it back into the ocean.

[Blown 346]

I agree, its for the health of the fish. Also collecting livestock, rock, sand etc from the ocean without a permit can land you in jail and huge fines without a permit. Plus collecting items from the beach can and most likely contain pollutants that you do not want in your tank.

[greenbean36191]

Reefergeorge is right on. Even if all of the fish are local nothing should be released unless everything in the tank is local including the rock and sand. Since LR collecting has been banned in PR for about 10 years now I would guess that that's not the case.

I know it seems very unlikely that one little fish from an aquarium could cause any real problems, but keep in mind that about 25 years ago what seems to be an introduced disease wiped out around 97% of the longspine urchins in the Caribbean in under a year. They were the dominant herbivores at the time and without them the reefs suffered major damage and the urchin populations and the reefs still haven't recovered.