Sponsors and minimum standards

Cillian wrote:

I see this site as a place to exchange information on fish to help each other, this sort of discussion is very discouraging for both new and current members. Im not trying to offend anyone or anything like that but this is my perspective as an outsider who doesnt really know anyone from the site can everyone try and avoid this kind of thing in the future as it is not good for the hobby or the site. I know died fish and hibrids are a touchy subject but in the end of the day everyone is entiteld to an opinion, as is every shop, so by all means make a standard for shops as guideline but nothing should be forced on any shop or any individual, and i know it was never intended to be forced on anyone . I also think that infirmation regarding the process undertaken in dying/GM fish should be given on the site so people can form there own oppinion.
So for the good of the site clubs and hobby please try.
Cillian

· Cillian…well done !!! Wise words indeed from one so young…

I almost wholeheartedly agree with your comments.

What is needed is a dispassionate view of the whole situation regarding dyed fish – as well as hybrids. For what it’s worth here is my five cents’ worth, then I’ll return to ‘lurking’ again.

I loathe dyed fish, let me make this plain from the start, but it’s my choice not to keep any (“CHOICE”) being the operative word – every bit as much as it is the choice of someone else to buy and (try to) keep them…that they should never have been created in the first place is absolutely accurate, but sadly they have and we now have to face up to that fact. To insist that shops not stock them and forum members (existing and potential newcomers) only be allowed to join/retain membership if they do not keep them is morally wrong. Likewise with the Parrotfish – the abominations, not the true Parrot Cichlids – I have the same feelings entirely about them, but would defend the right of anyone who chooses to (try to) (again !!!) keep them, I cannot comment on Flowerhorns, never having seen one.

Other dyed forms of fish are more subtle, colour-fed dyed, are these acceptable as the dye is taken in intravenously? – I can recall Fr Jack telling us of dying Discus for showing purposes, my guess is that this goes on much more than is realised, not only with Discus – I’m very suspicious of the ‘Red’ Angels, as well as the proliferation of Gourami species…especially the Dwarfs – some of them are diabolical.

That brings us onto other Hybrids, where is the line to be drawn here? I recall reading (when they interested me, in a different time now…) a Discus book which stated that some of the ‘new’ varieties of Discus were hybrids between Aequafascia and Heckels and I am reliably informed that many of the more colourful Aulonacaras and Haps were developed as a result of hybridisation – if this is the case my fear is that there’s a lot more we know nothing about !!!

Then we are offered things like ‘Balloon Mollies’ they also make me cringe even to think about them but, at the end of the day, someone obviously likes all these fish, if no-one like them the shops would have no market for them and they would die the death they, and all the other abominations deserve…but to start telling people what they must and must not buy – as well as shops what they may and may not sell to be acceptable to the Forum smacks a little of dictatorship. When I first joined this Forum it was a happy-go-lucky one, as well as being a serious Fishkeeping Forum, as good as any – and better than most I had been part of before, or since.

PLEASE…let’s get back to that, the ‘pocket politics’, along with the backbiting and innuendo have no place here, I’m sure you would all agree?

The Forum needs sponsors…and new members, let’s not alienate any by telling either what they may or may not stock/keep !!!

Right, back to anonymity…Happy Christmas to you all, I hope to see many of you at the show(s) next year.

John
Ps, sorry for spelling mistakes, there are a few I’ve noticed, but it is Christmas…