Re: NANFA-- wintering fish

Steffen Hellner (steffen_at_hellner.biz)
Fri, 02 Jan 2004 20:47:11 +0100

This is an absolutely unsatisfying situation but I doubt we will ever be
able to even change it a little bit. I know this from killis. I was
apostolizing them for years but people in general want to have easy fish
(what ever that means!) with nice coloration all around the year or
impressive body size or both. But never ever fish needing live food,
alternating conditions and even less those which need frequent water
changes. I am into annual killis for 30 years and whenever I give a talk on
them, people are enthusiastic about colors and proportions. But as soon as
they hear words like live food, short lifespan (though some live for 3 years
- longer than 99% of all petfish really do!), and frequent water changes,
they tend to stick with what they have. Joy and fun without ambition or
work. That4s it from my point of understanding. Same over here with natives
(I swear, one day I will have a huge tank with big, big pikes or pearch!) or
NANF. But those who are into OUR fish are special persons. From my
experience, they are more interested, more open, more close to each other.
And way less commercial. That4s what I like in addition to the fish. Same
with my salamanders and newts. Many people keep dartfrogs (they sell good,
don4t eat much, are active all year). Salamanders just hang around, eat a
lot, sleep over the winter and are not that easy to propagate. Think I (we)
have a mutated gene for these outsider animals.

Steffen

> Von: "Bob Muller" <michiganfish_at_wideopenwest.com>
> Antworten an: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> Datum: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 12:10:27 -0500
> An: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
> Betreff: Re: NANFA-- wintering fish
>
> I believe that there are many things that keep native out of the pet
> trade. After breeding 10 sp. of darters and many native minnows and
Killi's
> I find that it takes at least one year to reach full size sometimes two.
> Most tropicals are marketable size in as little as 3 months. The flagfin
> shiners I spawned last summer are still only half grown. A good many
> natives have a spawning season while tropicals usually breed year round. I
> have collected in Peru and the amount fish is unbelievable compared to
here.
> We often had 8 to 10 sp. of catfish in one net pull. People in South
> America that collect for the trade are paid a fraction of a penny per fish
> and that's if it something like a cardinal. If there was a heavy
collecting
> trade in North America fish it wouldn't pay enough and you would have to
> sort for the marketable fish. Many of our colorful fish in the south have
> very small ranges and heavy collecting might do them in. People always
> think that the grass is always greener fish from far off places are more
> interesting to them. Look at NANFA of all the people that keep fish in
this
> country and are members of aquarium clubs only about 400 belong to NANFA.
> Leo Long and myself have been giving talks on native to the Detroit area
> fish clubs for years. Two people have shown an interest. When we hosted
> the convention in Ann Arbor we sold the convention hard to the locals for
> over a year one attended, and these are people very interested in fish.
> Regardless of how great or interesting native are there will never be many
> interested in keeping them. The best I believe we can do is get as many
> people in the general public to know these great animals are here and what
> to make sure we don't lose them.
>
> Bob Muller
> ----
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/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org