Well said Julie. There is one thing though which I cant understand. Many of
the natives display a certain amount of colour even when their not getting
dressed for the big occasion. Take Signifers for example, surely they are
much more appealing, even to the uneducated, than many of the Tetras sold
commercially. The problem is though, where does one go to buy them? If I am
Mr first time aquarist my choices are fairly limited to one of those boring
unidentified, bunched together silver fishes in the Aust native tanks or one
of these colourful varieties held in a species only tank. Which would you
choose? I am sure that the majority of people involved with natives are only
involved because at one stage in their life they looked at a nice picture of
a colour enhance Trifasciata and decided to buy one. The interest is then
developed from that point.
I also think that aquarium store owners are also to blaim as to why natives
are not more widely stocked in their stores. How many times have you gone
into a fish shop out of curiosity to see what they have and find that the
rainbows are very dull and often pricey? I look into the tank to see some
very cramped and unhappy bows, then I look at what is suppose to be in that
tank and find over a dozen varieties of bows. Now, whos going to tell me
which one is which. Most shop owners would not even be able to tell the
difference between completely different rainbows, let alone determine those
which have geographically induced differences. In my opinion it should be
easy to sell a native. Take Empire Gudgeons for example. These fish have the
potential to exhibit more colour than those little feeder fish they call
Neons. Sure the fish wont disply its bueaty whilst in the store but one only
needs to put a picture of these fish in colour next to the tank they are
kept in with a note to say this is what they CAN look like. Even blind
Freddy couldnt resist this temptation.
Thirdly, I often wonder wether or not I really want the world to know about
our hidden little treasures. Ignorance does discriminate, it is there for a
very good reason. The majority of fish keepers just keep fish. They are not
interested in learning, its what I call the 'goldfish syndrome'. No offence
to those who keep Koi. Although its not up to me, I would feel more
comfortable knowing that those who generally keep natives do it because they
are curious and interested in a particular type of fish and what this
country has to offer. Whos backyard do you look into when you first wake in
the morning (O.S. subscribers excluded from this).
Ill get off my soapbox now, sorry for being so long winded.
Andrew Hamilton