In all seriousness.
1) Has anyone sent a letter or an email to Department of Primary Industries
Queensland, letting them know that the person that worked "so hard" to get
these fish, and a proper license, after only 2 years is willing to let them
go for only $575,000 AU. Even in $AU that's a lot of jack :-) Indeed I
wonder just how much effort and money did Gordon put into this effort to get
them from the state or did he just nag enough to obtain the license and now
wants to cash in, even before viable fry have been produced? Why wouldn't
the proper authorities come in now and put these fish in the hands of
someone else who might be qualified to handle them instead of letting them
be sent out to the highest bidder? Assuming that he was able to find a fool
that would buy them for this price didn't the government check out the
people who applied for this license? If such a fool buyer would exist is
there any guarantee that they could properly care for the fish? Isn't that
what all of the government red tape was about in the first place?
2) Really haven't had the desire to keep Nile perch in my aquarium either.
Is there some sort of "real" market out there for lungfish? Maybe a
rhino-horn replacement for the far east??? That would be the only thing
that might make something like this pay off. Are there really that many
stupid people that would want to have a lungfish in their aquarium? I got
an email yesterday for a photo request for a Grinnell, bowfin, otherwise
known as Amia calva. Not only did I let them know that, no I didn't have
such a picture but I would wonder about the sensibilities of an editor that
would be wanting to publish an article about such a fish for an aquarium
magazine. So if you really want a really large fish that doesn't belong in
an aquarium give me a blip and I'll go out to the swamps of MO and find you
a Grinnell. They're really excellent fighters on light tackle and really
stomp the heck out of artificial lures.
3) How many cars would Gordon have to sell to make $575K?
It's a shame that we don't have a way to post messages to this board without
knowing who the real author is. I'd love to loosen up the tongues and hear
who "got burned" on the Melanotaenia praecox thing. I heard that "someone"
brought in some of the fish (to Oz) and someone paid $10-20K for a breeding
group. Right after that they found that someone else brought them in and
was breeding "the little guppies" like there was no tomorrow. Hmm was
Gordon involved in that one too?? Anyone want to comment on this one or
"what they heard"?
I guess someone can get passionate even about a fish like the lungfish,
Lionel certainly was. I just can't see anyone being so willing to give it
all up that fast (like Gordon) if you were TRULY interested in the fish
instead of the profit motive. Hey if there is something that you all in
Brisbane can do to let the proper authorities know about this scam please
give them a call. Maybe you can get this fish put in the hands of a
responsible person. They are going to be even less willing to issue permits
if they think something like this is going to happen everytime.
Gary Lange
gwlange at STLNET.com
-----Original Message-----
From: PETER.UNMACK at ASU.Edu <PETER.UNMACK at ASU.Edu>
To: rainbowfish at pcug.org.au <rainbowfish at pcug.org.au>
Date: Sunday, December 03, 2000 12:35 PM
Subject: Re: [RML] Lungfish
On Sun, 3 Dec 2000, Bruce Hansen wrote:
> I am still in a state of shock - 2 phone calls from Gordon Hides in one
> week. He tells me he has bred his lungfish in captivity under controlled
> conditions and he has put details on the web at www.lungfish-breeders.com
if
> anyone is interested.
Yer, and you can buy the whole lot for 575K. I notice he only has eggs at
this stage.....be more impressed when he gets them to 3 months.
Tootles
Peter