>Some species need certain water conditions; others are very adaptable. Many of
>the replies to Greg's inquiry said "you can't do this" or "you can't do that" or
>"this fish is difficult" etc. What I wanted Greg to see was that each reply
>should be taken to mean for THAT person these things are true. "I FIND WERNERI
>DIFFICULT", is very different from "WERNERI ARE DIFFICULT".
Most people forget that and try to generalize their experience. "I have bred
the fish under these conditions and thus these are the only ones suitable
for the fish". Never use these fish!
>In response to Bruce's stirring of the pot ;-) let me ask these questions:
>Are we hobbyists or conservationists? I am a hobbyist. I keep fish that grow
>reproduce etc in my water. There are varying degrees of hobbists too. If I had
>to mess with water the way Cary does, I'd be keeping dogs!
>Am I to NOT keep a species because I choose not to create water like that of
>it's natural habitat?
A very important question. Although we are hobbyists (and this includes me
for most of my hobby), we also can do something for conserving the
species. One important (and often overlooked) contribution is that
hobbyists may report about their breeding efforts under their special
conditions. It is really important to know the conditions a fish can be
bred even if it are extreme conditions.
The following facts are often forgotten (or unknown). Basically there are
two kind of fish: Those, which are adopted very closely to their conditions
(sorry, I don't know the English term, in German it's stenök) and can be
kept in aquaria only if you realise their natural conditions as close as
possible. Examples are cardinal tetras which can only be spawned with
very soft water. However, the majority of fish (aquarium fish) belong to
some other kind which in German is called "euryök". These fish can
adopt very well to different conditions. The guppy is a very good example
as it occurs from very soft and acid water to seawater. Also nearly all of
our rainbowfish seem to belong to this kind of fish. So it seems not
to be necessary to have exactly the same conditions for our rainbowfish
as they have in nature (do we know more than the parameters of a few
days of most of our rainbowfish???) as long as it works. If you can breed
your bows in your tap water and they do fine, why change just because
you think you have to change? Don't do so!
>If we must create it's natural water conditions shouldn't we then provide it's
>natural diet? It's natural predators etc., ad infinitum? What do we really know
>about the natural water anyway. I speculate it's in a constant state of flux.
Of course! If we know about natural food, we often know about natural food
on a few days! We should try to find the best way to keep our bows and one
major attempt should be to find the best food to feed them. But we have
to start at the most easily available food and if this doesn't work (and
hopefully you report about that!) you have to choose another, more difficult
to get one. Fish are opportunistics (hope that word exists, just translated
from my German Latin) and eat what they can get. If you find ants in a
fish's stomach, How can you be sure they prefer that food?? It may just be
that it is the only available food and that the fish prefer anything else if
they have the choice!
>If I can't provide these things should I be even removing these fish from the
>wild??
I showed that it isn't necessary to provide these conditions, so also keep
wild caught fish!
>Will the fish I have in my tanks for my enjoyment be called upon to return to
>the wild? And would any SERIOUS conservation project even consider them?!!
No, not if you aren't in a scientifically controlled Species Maintainment Program.
>I'll agree that if you were running a program to maintain stocks that could
>someday return to the wild then, all parameters should met as closely as
>possible.
Why? That's not necessary! If the fish can adopt to your conditions, why
shouldn't they be able to the natural conditions again?
> But by God if I can
>manage to keep Rhads with DGs and everybody grows and flowers then WHY NOT?;-)
You're doing a fine job! But what's God having to do with that??
Harro