relax bro.
you will never be able to prevent the collection. but you can certainly reduce the importing of them to as low as we possibly can.
this is how it works. the collectors will catch all the different fish species (including obligate coralivores) and list them out in a stocklist. this stocklist will be sent to the LFS as an invoice.
The lfs will order the fishes they want from that said invoice, and wether or not they order the obligate coralivores, it does not matter. here's a couple of scenariors.
1) the LFS did not order them, and so they will not come. this is good. but this still does not stop the capture of the fish.
2) the LFS did not order them, but they still come anyway. the supplier just put them in the fish shipment.
i've placed many orders for different LFS before and i understand how the importation work. and the above 2 scenarios i've seen many times.
we can only play our part by not buying them and hope that over the years, the collection will stop.
but to be honest, it all boils down to ignorance. ignorant divers who don't know that these fishes are impossible to keep, and ignorant reefers who don't know that these fishes are impossible to keep. it's up to us ultimately, as the consumer, who have proper education and comprehension to learn and read up on not to buy this fish. it is not the philippine and indonesian collectors fault because most of them are uneducated and cant comprehand english. so expecting them to learn this on the internet or books is not going to work. instead, they will stop catching from experience if the fishes cannot sell. this is where the hobbyist come in.
butterflies are always the unpopular bunch.and if ever they are going to be bought, sadly, i've seen hundreds of reefers jump at the opportunity to buy an ornate butterflyfish when it is deemed impossible. yet, the longnose butterflyfish which is so so easy to keep and reef safe, are always left to die because ppl they are not reef safe and difficult to keep.
the internet is full of resources but the truth is, many people simply too lazy to research before they buy. then they bring the fish home, and then all the complaints start streaming out.
and also global warming will probably kill these fishes faster. at the rate at which our acropora corals are dying, these obligate coralivores will die along with the acropora.
and FYI to any hobbyist reading this. i'm sure some of you may say "oh, so and so manage to get his feeding on pellets and survive 2 months"
well just a reminder. for every one obligate coralivore that survive, hundreds more die. you think it's easy and it's luck but it's not. when you go down into the behaviour and the overall physical adaptation of these species then you will understand that it's impossible.
anyway if it's any consolation, these obligate coral eating butterflies are generally unpopular in the states and japan where people do research before buying. it's only in asian countries that people don't do research and generally buy for fun. perhaps because it's so cheap here that people take forgranted. and these butterflies are very abundant and common in the wild.
ok sorry for the off topic. cheers and if i offended anyone in my speech, well don't be. i'm not targeting any reefers and if anyone here is guilty of buying them before, well, they died right? so learn from there and don't buy them anymore