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Re: species maint.....
There have been many good points brought about from this discussion. I have
been in the Tropical fish hobby for over 18 years now. And sadly I have had
some rare fish come and go. Especially when we begin in the hobby we are
looking for that "rare fish" I've done that , hey I still do. Its what makes
things fun. At the same time I have some dwarf Cichlids which I have had
lines going for as long as 5+ years. I have my favorites and these I will
always maintain. I can relate to some of the "old hands" out there because I
have distributed fish and then come back to that person a year later and
poof gone, I let them go , I bred them, then sold all the fry kept a pair or
two and then they get neglected etc..... It can be very frustrating. The
bottom line is their are always going to be a core group of hard core
hobbyists and a group that comes and goes.
Yes people want rare fish, yes they will lose interest in that fish once
they breed it etc.. its human nature for folks to do that. But its these
people who come into the hobby all enthusiastic, full of new blood and
energy to them its new, its cool. There is nothing wrong with that we need
these people! It is, in my opinion the responsibility of the "old hands" to
foster, mentor and teach these new comers. We shouldn't worry about people
wanting the rare fish and then not maintaining them, this is what keeps
people interested in our hobby. I attended the AKA convention 2000 and I was
struck because I was one of only maybe 2 or 3 30 years old or under! My
point is the "Hard core" group should take a leadership role, use the
newcomers enthusiasm for that rare fish and channel it, teach them, lead by
example the rest will follow. We can increase the size of the "hard core"
group this way and hopefully maintain species and not just breed them. One
thing we could do is have a Species or Genus coordinator. this could be an
"old Hand" this person could mentor and educate the group and make sure
things are done well. The one thing we must remember is that new people join
a group like the AKA to get the Rare fish so dont discourage this but rather
use it, so that we can have Killie keepers for the next AKA convention and
hopefully they wont all be the same faces!
Dave Sanchez
Orlando, FL
-----Original Message-----
From: "Tony Terceira" <terceira at ride_ri.net>
To: <killietalk at aka_org>
Date: Friday, February 02, 2001 2:35 PM
Subject: Re: species maint.....
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>>"We've got the necessary takers, but we need the necessary
>>suppliers."
>>
>>If we get this well organized I wouldn't mind putting an order to Germany
>>and
>>getting some rare stuff and then distributing them accordingly to folks
for
>>the species maintenance program.
>
> One has to be very careful here, I have been lurking and I
>keep reading about people wanting the rare fish for this and that. People
>will always want the rare fish and far to often over the years the
>collection and breeding of rare fish is just that, not maintenance.
>
> I first think there has to be an individual's
>responsibility to not be "the one" with this or that, Over the past 30+
>years, I have seen many species come and go and am really concerned that we
>do actively maintain many species; however, there are initial first steps
>that most people can take if they are concerned. Some of the best advise
>given to me by some great fish breeders still guide me today. I keep
>thinking about "don't be the only one with a fish".
>
> I have taken this to heart and have gotten to be quite
>fanatical about it. If a fish is new to my fish room the first thought is
>to divide the group into two different locations in the fish room until I
>have fry. If I only have one breeding group, then the first fry are given
>to someone in the immediate area to raise away from my fish room and insure
>the fish are in the area. When hatching annuals that are rare ( not in
>quantity anywhere near) then as soon as they sex out, I call a fellow
>killie keeper in the area and ask if he.she would like some young pairs to
>raise so that they are again a distance apart. I have lost total spawn and
>total groups of breeder to often not to take this simple precaution.
>
> Sharing and spreading killies around is the first step in
>insuring a viable group and I have not met killie people who would not be
>willing to act as the "back up" for a species in case of a disaster. I
>have also received young fry from "rare" fish or shipments and raised
>them as a part of insuring someone else would have access to fish should a
>hazard strike his fish room.
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> This is a forever problem with our Killifish hobby, we
>have made some advances and need to work more on flushing out ideas, but
>everyone of us can adapt some simple ideas like sharing so we are not the
>only one with a species. A friend doesn't have to like a fish to serve as
>a backup for a species just agree to feed them until their is an
>established group to work with, and I mean group, not pair or trio.
>
> It is a lesson taught to me long ago when just finding a
>killie was a major effort and keeping them established was the only way to
>insure they would be around. You know when "clown killies" appeared in
>Aqua Stock Aquarium in New York as pencil fish. and all Small South
>American fishes arrived in New York wholesalers in one bag labelled
>"assorted cichlids".
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> We have made some progress .......... Tony
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>>The first step would be to determine which
>>species. The second would be how to coordinate the shipment and then
>>distribute them all over the country. Perhaps one of the larger regional
>>Killie clubs could handle holding the fish and then distributing them.
Just
>>thought I would put that out there. I am open to suggestions.
>>
>>Dave Sanchez
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