>Some of the aussie people that are on this list will know that I have had
>a thing about maintaining fish stocks in good genetic condition. Last
>year at the ANGFA convention I made the prediction that praecox had
>already been inbred too much and that deformities would appear. I was
>thought to be a bit strange for saying that, unfortunetly it is now true.
Peter - from my memory of the time (which is faded by my current lack of
sleep) I seem to remember agreeing with you...
>Yesterday I went to our local aquarium store in the ACT and had a look at
>the praecox tank. There were some of the most miserable fish I have ever
>seen in this tank, they were not the disk shape that praecox should be,
>but thin (more like a nigrans or exquisita) and bent like a banana
>through the spine. Unfortunetly the dealer has the attitude that he will
>sell any fish, personally I would have sent the fish back pickled.
Like I have said before, several times, the trade is there to trade - not to
worry about trivial things like piscine conformation and structural
integrity ;)
>This I think goes to show that having a fish commercial does not
>guarantee its long term vialbility without continued effort on
>everybodies part to maintain them properly.
Again, a point I have made before, myself... (a) the trade sells what sells,
and if rainbows aren't selling next week then they will not be carried in
shops and (b) what they do sell may not be worth owning owing to "shoddy
workmanship" as you detail above or lack of identifiable provenance (proven
point of origin).
>Hopefully this problem will not get worse and people will not breed the
>things from this stock.
*We* may not breed from them, Peter, but obviously someone is somewhere,
otherwise these fish would not have surfaced in the shop. Which is why I
feel that if one is serious about obtaining fish for long-term maintenance,
they should come from a trusted fishroom of an ANGFA/RSG/IRG member, not a
pet shop... Not to say that fish shouldn't be bought from shops, heck, I
even own three Kuhli Loaches that I don't plan on ever breeding, I keep them
just for fun. I obtained them from an aquarium shop. BUT, if I felt the
need to own, say, M. trifasciata Goyder R. I'd be after them from a trusted
ANGFA source. They would at least have the good grace to feed deformed fish
to their cat, or catfish, as appropriate.
Just on a personal note... this could be quite a "hot" thread, Peter...
Like Little Johnny said to Alexander Beetle the other day in parliament:
"Another fine mess you've gotten us into!" ;-)
Regards, Andrew
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Andrew Boyd - andrew at pcug.org.au - http://www.pcug.org.au/~andrew
"A running man may cut 4000 throats in a single night" - Klingon Proverb
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