Posted Thursday, July 17, 2008, 5:57 p.m., EDT

The Responsible Fishkeeping Initiative (RFI) seeks to voluntarily limit the retail sale of pacus, iridescent sharks and red-tailed catfish due to these species' propensity for attaining huge mature sizes, putting them beyond the capacity of most fishkeeping hobbyists.

When desperate owners who can no longer care for these huge fish find out that public aquariums and local fish stores cannot accept their "donation," they sometimes resort to releasing these fish into local lakes, ponds, etc. This can result in environmental concerns.

The RFI is not a legislative effort, but simply an effort on the part of the aquarium industry and hobby to stop these problems before they get out of hand. Any fish store that joins the RFI agrees not to sell the three species mentioned, as well as to euthanize any fish that have outgrown their owners' tanks, at the owner's request. We really have to stop having aquarium fish released into local waterways.

We are surveying what fish store owners and others in the fishkeeping industry think of this idea. Please be sure to take our poll (located below our navigation bar, halfway down the left side of our Web page).

Send any comments to PPNEditor@bowtieinc.com. If you are a retailer who would like to become involved in the program, let me know. <HOME>