Last chance for L14?

[Taratron]

So in 2018 Brazil is banning the export of L14, and many other plecos, if I read it right?

My question is, I've always liked L14 but my largest tank is 90 gallons, and I don't know when I can upgrade to, say, a 125 or larger in the future. I do have a chance to get a few 3 inch L14s, and I'm on the fence because on one hand, they do grow so large, and on the other, they may be wiped out soon.

[Fundulopanchax76]

Interesting if they ban export, will they forbid their local population to eat them ! Because if they eat them these plecos will extinct too !

[Jools]

For the record, large Scobinancistrus are not common enough to be regularly eaten. Fisherman know they're worth more to sell.

Of course, Brazil is restricts the export of fishes to control what they see, loosely, as bio piracy. Habitat destruction is what will wipe these things out if/when the current trends continue, consumption by humans isn't an issue for L014.

Jools

[Ltygress]

Bio Piracy??

[Narwhal72]

Bio Piracy is the smuggling of animal/plants from one country to another.

The most famous example of which is the taking of 70,000 rubber plant seeds from Brazil by the Englishman Sir Henry Wickham in 1876. At the time, Brazil had a monopoly on the production of natural rubber (synthetic rubber had not been invented yet) and was enjoying a period of unmatched prosperity (think Saudi Arabia and oil) because of it. Sir Henry dispatched the seeds throughout the British empire (Africa, Ceylon, Malaya, Singapore,etc..) and effectively ended the Brazilian monopoly on rubber.

Needless to say, it's a sore spot for Brazilians and they have a strong desire to protect their economic interests.

Of course, banning the export of a species only to turn around and destroy their habitat with the construction of a dam baffles all logic to me.

Andy