I think this contrasts with Bob's experience back in the day, when it was
viewed as economical to make your own fish. But with the comparative
_inexpense_ of transporting wild fish globablly compared to the 60's and 70's,
there is really no point in having any females involved with your trade or
hobby.
I've actually had people _ticked off_ that no one warned them Poecilids would
continue to bear young. It's too cheap to ship from Florida and Indonesia for
a shop to buy them from the hobbyists. The hobbyists are too "ethical" to
kill the juveniles. It's almost the fact that the fish CAN breed is a
liability!
Me... I say get a grass pickerel :)
I don't think it has anything to do with anything else besides the market
pressures-in-large.
I mean really... Who wants to keep female chipokae mbuna besides a total fish
geek (and a real cichlidiot-in-that! ;)? What's the point? Ugly fish that'll
kill everything else... But they'll pay 10 bucks for the male because it's
purple-blue and is cute when small.
OR why keep a darter that's not going to come into color ever, or even if its
a male, when it spawns or is-in-55 degrees with a high protein diet? This
comes into our territory too, when you want to understand why AC isn't flying
off the shelf-in-a retail store.
To answer your "what happens to the females" question... They get culled from
the market by the people who don't get tied up that it's cruel to kill it
because it's ugly. That's about that :)
And... Gouramie females are colorful too (reading as I type lol). Even
still... My local shop is schweet, always has female bettas for sale, and
_never_ sells any. Why? Because when someone asks "what is that" and they
say "female betta" and they go "like those fish on the counter?" and they say
"yeah." and then the perspective of the would be female betta buyer just
changed.
Now the female is ugly.
Todd
The Muddy Maumee Madness, Toledo, OH
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
http://www.farmertodd.com
________________________________
From: owner-nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org on behalf of Hoover, Jan J ERDC-EL-MS
Sent: Sun 12/11/2005 4:47 PM
To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
Subject: RE: NANFA-L-- OT: Sales of Males
>>>I know that for a long time only male blue or red crayfish were being sold
so no one could breed them and undersell the people who were breeding
them.<<<
That might be true with a specialty item like crayfish, but the overwhelming
majority of customers likely to breed guppies are home aquarists and teachers
with a few small tanks. The likelihood that they could cost-effectively
produce and distribute a sufficient number of fish to significantly undercut
established breeders is hard for me to imagine.
- Jan Hoover
Vicksburg, MS
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/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
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/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml