[Killietalk] N&R

["Ron Schulz" <ron_schulz at gmail.com>]

Hi  guys,
   One of the simplest ways to help get new and or rare fish into the hobby
would be  for the AKA to formally engage the very few importers of wild
killies into this country. ........the two most well  known being Atlantis
Hatchery in NY and Rehoboth Aquatics in Texas. By engaging, I mean
contacting, offering free AKA membership,  promoting their importations with
free advertising on the AKA web site, killietalk, BNL, etc,  help in the ID
of all imports, assigning  collection codes,  negotiating an AKA discount
for AKA members, etc. etc. Note that this would
cost the AKA virtually nothing as all the costs, hassles, risks are  borne
by the importer. Both importers advertise their fish on maintained websites
and will sell to anyone with little or no minimum orders. I guess the
question is whether this even minimal AKA involvement will result in more
regular importations of a wider variety of wild fish. My hope is that it
would. For both importers mentioned, wild killies currently represent a
very  small % of their total business. In fact, when killies are included in
an order,  they represent a small % of the individual order as well. So,
even a doubling or tripling of the order frequency would be just a small
additional commitment by the importer. Now... in the case of Atlantis, I've
seen maybe 5 importations of wild killies in the last two years.
Include in these shipments were at least 6 species of Epiplatys, several
Chromaphyosemions,  maybe a half dozen Aphyosemions,  3 species of
Procatopus, Scriptaphyosemions, etc.
All  were desirable fish....from various collecting areas
Guinea/Cameroons/Congo/Nigeria..... some common/some rare..... very
reasonably priced and available to  anyone. If the AKA can show some good
faith to these importers  with the results being maybe a half dozen
importations a year by each, I think a steady supply of at least West
African killies could become available  to the membership. I have contacted,
at various times, and to varying degrees, 4 current and past BOT members
regarding this issue. So far, I have had no meaningful reply.
...........Ron Schulz.........UNYKA, MAKA, Dutchess County NY
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