I am not trying to navigate the "high" seas of the primary literature to discover some information about some exotic animal. I am trying to learn all I can about the captive care of common and prolific North American species without forcing some unfortunate series of fishes to pay the price for my experience. I guess I am trying to crack the code of the secondary literature, but am not having great success. Shouldn't basic information about captive care be readily available? For instance, when I see some Ilyodon whitei available on AquaBid and think about buying them, where can I go to discover basic information about caring for them? Right now, I look up the entry on fishbase.org and find a temperature range and pH range. After that I email and ask the seller to share his/her experience (which they are normally happy to do). I see sections on the NANFA website for Conservation, Fishwatching & Collecting, and Captive Care, but they all say Information Coming Soon.
Is there anything that I could do to help get this basic information in a form that would be readily available to everyone interested? Does anyone have any suggestions on other resources that I might utilize to learn things the easy way versus paying my tuition-in-the school of hard knocks? Thanks and I apologize if this is off-topic or not of interest.
Joel Healy
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org [owner-nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org]On Behalf
Of Todd D. Crail
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 9:48 AM
To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- California Natives - They're All Threatened or
Endangered
----- Original Message -----
From: "njz" <njz-in-clevelandmetroparks.com>
> Ross Socoloff once said that the way to make a small fortune in the fish
> business is to start with a large fortune....
I believe it was actually "small profit"... And that's about the most sage
advice you're going to find about making money in this hobby :)
To provide something a little more on the original topic and make a
suggestion, hopefully add some insight to the day...
A lot of people would like to get ahold of more imperiled species with the
premise that they're out to do some good in the world. I believe that, and
I believe they believe that. I also believe they're quite capable of adding
to the human consciousness by possessing and working with the animals.
But if nothing is written or documented about the experience, then-in-least
in these academic and professional parts, it's said "If it ain't
published... It doesn't exist". If nothing exists, and you're honestly
objective... Why should an individual get the stuff that may be crucial to
that organism's continuing existence?
I think this is the scenario that gets under the amateur's dander because
they feel second rate and out of the loop to folks who have equal or even
less aquaria experience and ability. The amateur isn't familiar with how
the primary literature process works, it's freakin' intimidating, and
perhaps worst of all... can really reek of elitism.
And now for my positive punch :)
This is where NANFA comes in and is the beauty of this organization... The
editors of American Currents are willing to work with most any information
you can provide about the captive husbandry of North American fishes. This
is everyone's chance to participate and share the intelligence of the
collective of native fish enthusiasts from husbandry, to collection, to
grammar, to the publishing process.
Say you wanted to work with Santa Ana Speckled Dace... If you were the
person granted control of those animals (the "control" being right, wrong or
indifferent) and Joe Fishguy walks in off the street and asks if he can be
permitted to keep these animals because:
** He has "many years of experience breeding aquarium fishes and wants to
try and do some good with his experience"
- or -
** He has "successfully captively bred blacknose and longnose dace, which
are other species in the genus Rhinichthys, and here are photocopies from
his two breeding account articles he had published in American Currents"
Who would you consider? Heck, the guy in control might have been a NANFA
member and contacted YOU because he saw your address and email!
The presentation of the material? Yeah, in AC it might look like something
you'd see out in the primary literature, and that also may be intimidating,
but that may not be the way it started. If you struggle with grammar or
what data to collect, there's plenty of people to help compensate... I've
seen some _really_ rough copy go into the Chris Scharpf and AC Editor
machine and come out looking like it was hot off the keyboard of a seasoned
academic.
That's just one angle... There are some NANFA amateur fellas in the
Southeast who're working with US F&W, state agencies, professional
zoological aquarists and academics literally showing all these professionals
the ropes about certain species they've come in contact with in the wild,
their personal experience working with other species in the genus in
captivity, etc etc. I'll give them the opportunity to relay their
experiences, as they will obviously give the experience a much better
treatment, and hopefully they have time to write a bit about it.
So, that's my 2 cents on this topic. Seriously consider it... There may not
be as much instant gratification as we may want. However in the long term,
the multiplicity of benefits will greatly outweigh the cost of a little
extra time and a little extra work...
...and those other Rhinichthys dace are darned cool to keep on their own
:)
Todd
The Muddy Maume Madness, Toledo, OH
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
http://www.farmertodd.com
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