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Re: Aphyosemion arnoldi

Robert,
Two points here - big points.

First off, you missed my point about exporters entirely. Discus come in
fat and happy because discus people pay for them to come in fat and
happy. Killie people don't want to pay the market price, let alone a
premium. We are cheap. I am cheap. I won't pay discus prices for a
killie. I can't.

Everything small, from every exporter I've ever seen, comes in hungry.
Only killies come in emaciated, because of their metabolisms, and
because the African export industry is still inexperienced. Of course
the exporter was told. What would you expect from professionals?

And before you take a run at Lucanus' exporters, you might have
confirmed it WAS Oliver Lucanus who brought the fish in? He certainly
was one of the importers, but it's at least rude to take runs at people
not on the list, who aren't responsible for what you're accusing them
of. I'm sure the others in the company he was with would laugh at your
sniping at him and not them, but if you had taken a reasonable positive
tone, they'd have appreciated some credit for trying to bring in the
fish at their risk. When the arnoldi showed up on the export list, I
received a phone call. What was I asked? "If we buy these things do you
think you could get them into the AKA?" That's not a bad attitude to
hear from an importer. 

They always request a location, as well. They don't get it, for "trade
secrecy reasons".

As I noted, the IMPORTER must take a long time to bring the fish back
into health, an added cost. When you write "the importer" starves the
fish, it doesn't look like you took time to read the original message.
As for "Lucanus's guy", you buy the fish, not the guy. Turnovers in who
is shipping seem high. And, if you've ever seen an African shipment, you
realize that you are lucky to get the fish you paid for. Order killies
and you get polypterus, etc. It is not as if there are ten companies
offering arnoldi, or riggenbachi or occidentalis. Some pack well, others
don't, but if you want the fish, you take a chance.

I met a really good West African exporter when he visited this city a
year or so back. He was a very nice, knowledgeable guy, but his comment
to me was  "Why do you want ditch fish?" No one orders killies, and
since they're someone else's bait minnows, they drop down the interest
list for exporters.

Now, again, if you read what was written, I did NOT say I had given the
fish to illiterate louts for use as pirhana snacks. Of course the people
who got them were aware of how to breed the fish. Not only had they read
books like you, they had also bred fish like you. Why take such a
disrespectful tone? The literature points to difficulties getting past
F-1. This experience supports that.

I watched this list to see who was having success with related fish,
contacted them, discussed privately via e-mail and sent the fish. When
one breeder had repeated failures with them, he offered to send them
back at his cost in case I could repeat my beginner's luck and help keep
the fish in the hobby. Gotta hate those hoarders, eh?

The only person with no clue what to do with them involved was me. I did
what anyone else on this list would do. I read and asked and moved the
fish to safer quarters as soon as I could. All I had managed to do was
produce half a dozen pairs.

Maybe getting tear gassed in Quebec makes a man grouchy, and if that's
all I'm expressing, I'll apologize. But I spent a lot of time, and money
trying to get arnoldi back in the hobby. And that was nothing to what
the importer did. For me, it was worth it, even if the end result was
failure. Would I do it again? Not if I had to face armchair egg-picking
like this. 

-Gary


RuevenM at aol_com wrote:
> 
> Gary,
> 
>          I am curious. Did any of the people breeding arnoldi do any research
> on the previous experience with this fish in the hobby?
>       It is sad that the importer starves the fish.  It sounds like Lucanus' guy is behind the times or runs a rather
> poor operation. 
> Did anyone tell him?
> 
> Robert E.
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