The issue of hybrids is a never-ending one. The internet has had some great positive impacts on the hobby – but also some real negatives.
These days its soooooooo much easier to contact people and locate those rare fish etc. We share information, have research material about new fish and equipment at our fingertips, network with others with a common interest, share in our disasters and triumphs . . . . . .
But in my view, it’s also come with a HUGE downside. In the main, hybrids are bred and sold by people new to the hobby who don’t understand the issues these fish cause. Back in the “old days” before the advent of the internet, people traded fish they bred through shops, or through clubs. In both cases there was a degree of “mentoring” of newbies to the hobby by knowledgeable retailers and old-hand fish keepers. These experienced people were able to provide a degree of filtering of many/most of the hybrids. They were able to advise newbies of the problems hybrids caused to the hobby, how to choose tank mates to reduce risk of accidental hybridisation, etc, etc.
Today we have a SIGNIFICANT issue of hybrids in the hobby. I look at “for sale” ads on many local Facebook groups around Australia and find a sea of “look alikes” and “wanabies”. I see post after post of people asking for IDs on fish, and response after response from people with limited or no real knowledge.
So many species have been lost in this country to hybridisation, and I suspect many species are at real risk of being lost within the next few years. The majority of the cichlid species can no longer be imported into Australia. What we have here is what we’ve got. I know – I’m preaching to the converted here, but it’s obviously something I’m passionate about.
So – the question is how do we combat the problem?? As has been said, I don’t believe that buying up hybrids is the answer. It’s just fuelling the problem. If someone sees that they sell, then its incentive to breed another batch. Nothing more off-putting to that new breeder than to be landed with a tank of hungry mouths that nobody wants. And with the quantity of hybrids out there – I’m guessing that nobody’s pockets are deep enough to make any real impact on the problem.
I suggest it needs to be a multi-pronged “attack”
1. Education – we all need to help spread the message about the damage hybrids are doing to the hobby. That message needs to be repeated over and over again, as there is a continual influx of new people into the hobby. Newbies buy poor quality fish and hybrids because they don’t know better, and that’s what fuels the market.
2. Promotion – we need to be promoting the quality fish that are still available in the hobby. We need to be sharing photos of our pure fish on Facebook, in forums, etc, etc, to show what people are missing out on by chasing Gumtree and Facebook “bargains”. There aren’t too many people who wouldn’t prefer a tank full of colourful, healthy fish over a tank of insipid grey, poor quality ones. There aren’t too many people who wouldn’t prefer to have good looking fish without having to resort to using “colour enhancing” products. There aren’t too many hobbyists who get the breeding bug and wouldn’t prefer to breed fish that actually have a market value and are sought after by others. Once people realise there are decent fish available with a real wow factor, they hunt them out rather than buying the hybrids.
3. Don’t be a part of the problem! – For anyone breeding fish, we all need to be super critical of what we have in our tanks. We need to be critical of the fish when we buy them, and as they grow. We need to be critical of them when they reach maturity and breed. We need to be critical of how we manage those fish, and house them. And we need to be particularly critical of the fry we breed as they grow, as this is one of the best opportunities for assessing the purity of parents! We need to be critical of the fish we keep IRRESPECTIVE of where they came from!!! We need to be critical irrespective of how long we have kept a species, and how well we THINK we know it. We need to do thorough research of the species we keep, hunting out photos of fish in their natural habitat, and examples of wild caught fish. We need to look at photos from credible websites with info peer-reviewed by experts in their fields. If our fish don’t look like the photos – we need to not make excuses! No, speciation DOESN’T occur in our tanks in a couple of generations! We ALL need to be careful we aren’t contributing to the problem!!!!!
I’m hopeful. We have seen a significant rise in the number of hobbyists seeking out good quality fish in recent times. Not sure if it’s as a result of the latest round of import restrictions, or if the message is starting to take hold, or if it’s just that enough people are becoming dissatisfied with the offerings of crap fish from Gumtree, Facebook groups and the lesser aquarium shops and chain stores. All I can say is that there is certainly an increasing demand for good quality fish!!!
Edited by humbug, 28 November 2016 - 09:51 AM.