# Extent of threats to marine fish from the online aquarium trade in the United States

## TL;DR

This study reveals that the U.S. online aquarium trade heavily relies on wild-caught marine fish, with many species of conservation concern.

## Contribution

The paper provides the first comprehensive assessment of the U.S. online marine aquarium trade's impact on wild fish populations.

## Key findings

- 89.2% of the 734 species sold online are sourced exclusively from the wild.
- 45 species for sale are of conservation concern, with 38 sourced solely from the wild.
- Aquaculture fish are 28.1% cheaper than wild-caught for 58 species.

## Abstract

The global marine aquarium hobby is a multibillion‐dollar industry, largely driven by demand from the United States. Much of this trade occurs online. We web scraped 4 major US‐based e‐commerce platforms selling marine aquarium fish to determine the retail price and source (wild capture, aquaculture, or both) of 13 families of ray‐finned marine fish (Actinopterygii). We supplemented this with ecological and economic trait data from FishBase and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Across all platforms and 13 popular fish taxonomic families, we found 734 unique species for sale, 89.2% (655 species) of which were sourced exclusively from the wild. A total of 45 species were of conservation concern (20 threatened species and 25 additional species with decreasing population trends), 38 of which were sourced solely from the wild. Retail price was significantly correlated with source, body length, minimum occupied depth, and schooling behavior. A further 100 species for sale were not listed as being in the aquarium trade in FishBase or by the IUCN, indicating incomplete information on this fishery in 2 important databases. For 58 species (encompassing 71 variants) with both wild‐caught and captive‐bred individuals for sale, aquaculture fish were a mean 28.1% (95% confidence interval 15.3) cheaper than their wild‐caught counterparts.