General Aquaria Discussion • Don't buy these if you see them!

[trimac]

Honestly your thoughts are noble-but it will be almost impossible to stop the sales of these fish-there will always be an ignorant newbie who is looking to buy something odd or different-and no matter what you say they won't listen-the other day a LFS had some Parrots with a dyed heart on them-I tried to explain to the customer on why not to buy the fish and how they are injected with dye-"But they are so cute I'll take three!"-some people are either ignorant or just don't care-I tried to explain to a pal of my who owns a LFS why it was a bad idea to sell Red Tail Cats every week-you think he listened-NO-the next day he ordered 3 more and they were sold within two days-as a matter of fact one of the customers who purchased it put in a 55 gallon tank and has no plans of upgrading-I have gotten to a point in my life that I just quit-nobody listens or cares-they think "it's just dumb fish, Art what do you care"

[dwarfpike]

It's not just newbies though ... look how popular blood parrots are with even some experienced keepers.

[CDMOK]

I would like to know the story behind blood parrots. How are they altered? What species are they originally?

[dwarfpike]

According to an old interview with one of the lab techs in asia (circa 1992ish) they are a test tube mix of gold severum, red devil, and either vieja bifasciatus or Vieja fenestratus ( can't remember which of the two viejas it was atm) so technically they aren't a hybrid, but a trispecific fish (I refuse to call them cichlids )

[MetalHead06351]

the most common thought is that they are a hybrid between a midas and red devil, although I am sure that there is something else in there. Alot of them get dye injected into them to make them bright and shiny and easy to sell. The reason fish like this are no good is because it is hard enough to find a fish that does not have a little bit of another species in it, and eventually it could be almost impossible to find pure fish if things keep going the way they are.

[sickchild]

I have feelings like this towards those who keep flowerhorns as well. And the prices people pay for those mutants? You know, as long as these goof balls keep breeding all of these contourted animals (cause they do it with Dogs too) we eventually never may be able to enjoy quality fish again in the future. Seriously, imagine those cat fish in a show tank? Imagine trying to explain to someone what the #%$& a camel catfish is? "Uh, well it's kinda like a desert sand fish, that kinda like looks...or lives like..." BS! These "breeders" who do this for money seriously are in the fish trade for the wrong reasons. Makes me wonder sometimes if there is a higher organization funding breeding experiments of animals for possible profit...

[xalow]

Are these "camel catfish" for sure something that was man made? If so, is it done through breeding, or some other method? A person on the other forum suggested rubber bands were used (If so thats pretty awful). Either way they certainly leave something wanting in the beauty department. It should win the photocontest next April 1st.

[F8LBITEva]

eeeeew poor things

[Narwhal72]

Those catfish are atrocious but I don't think we will have to worry about seeing them in the U.S. Those fish appear to be Clarias sp. which are illegal to import into the U.S. Unfortunately that doesn't stop them from being popular in the Far East. Asian tastes in fish are somewhat different than the U.S. and are far less regulated.

Andy

[LED]

Even IF the process is genetic and isn't painful they shouldn't be creating those things. You can't tell me that they can function and perform like mother nature's normal catfish of that species.

[JL15219]

Man what kind of #%$& is that!!!!! Poor fish...where did you see those fish?

[chefkevin]

Not surprised though ... catfish version of the fake parrot cichlids. It was only a matter of time given how popular deformed fish are.

The thing that bothers me is that everyone gets all bent out of shape over the blood parrot but no one ever really raises a fuss about all the different fancy goldfish, that have far more debilitating deformities.

-Kevin

[trimac]

My beef is that in 10 years the Trimac will be non-existent due to all the Flowerhorns!

[dwarfpike]

The thing that bothers me is that everyone gets all bent out of shape over the blood parrot but no one ever really raises a fuss about all the different fancy goldfish, that have far more debilitating deformities.

Despite the deformities, the main fuss over the fake parrots was the fact they are a test tube created mix of several differant species ... where as goldfish are always the same species.

But that being said, I've never owned anything but regular comet goldfish.

My beef is that in 10 years the Trimac will be non-existent due to all the Flowerhorns!

And lyonsi too ... as much as I'm morally against hybrids, if they want to keep to the more common cichlids that are found everyone in their natural range, that's okay for them ... but leave the rare cichlids alone else they will disappear!!!