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A Great Fishy Tale...
May . 18 / 2018

We'd like to share one of our favourite reads of the past couple of years - "The Dragon Behind the Glass" by Emily Voigt - a self proclaimed 'true story of power, obsession, and the world's most coveted fish'. Although not strictly marine, this epic story of a woman's quest to understand the asian trade in arowana was a book that we just couldn't put down!

Voigt (a New York Times journalist), picked up on the story of the arowana whilst researching the illegal trade in exotic pets in New York, and her interest then took her to far-flung locations around the world including the Amazon, Borneo and Myanmar. On her travels, she encounters many eccentric people, some of whom are fairly well known within the aquatics industry.

This is an exciting read, but it is also a stark warning to us aquarists - the red arowana is now a rarity in the wild due to overfishing. It really drives home the importance of sustainability within our industry, which is a topic very close to our hearts at Tropical Marine Centre. If you wish to support the hobby that we all enjoy, whilst also protecting the environments that you are trying to recreate in your homes, then you must ensure that your livestock is coming from reputable supply lines. You can have peace of mind when buying livestock from TMC as every one of our suppliers (both fisheries and hatcheries) are carefully vetted and regularly audited to ensure best practice, keeping our animals as healthy and ethically sourced as possible. Reefs are turned into resources that the locals must look after and nurture as it is their source of income. In this way our hobby can continue and coexist with reef conservation. 

So please go out and buy this book - we promise you won't regret it! Even non-fishy people will enjoy!

Do you have any good hobby-related reading recommendations? Let us know in the comments!