fountain darter on aquabid

Never say never. Since the 1950's, nearly half of all of the fish species in Lake Victoria, endemic creatures found nowhere else, have gone extinct. The individuals of those species that still exist are in people's home aquariums. If people hadn't caught and bred the cichlids in Lake Victoria before the Nile Perch was introduced and wiped them all out, then they wouldn't exist now. Read the "Biology and Ecology" section here: http://en.wikipedia....i/Lake_Victoria

I believe those species were collected before they became endangered. I hope so, at least.

Have you seen this:
http://www.aquabid.c...tive
"Fundulus rubrifrons & Public Service Announcement"

I quote:

"First for the public service announcement, I made the mistake of joining an organization recently that I thought was dedicated to the keeping, breeding and study of north American native fish. We'll call them NANcy FArted here. I soon found that I was sadly mistaken. It seems that the "forum" is frequented by a bunch of "professionals". During a recent discussion about the possible loss of the Alabama Spring Elassoma I made another mistake. I suggested a maintenance group be formed, stating up front that I wasn't interested either. Well you would of thought I was talking about going over the fence at Devils Hole! I was eventually "dismissed" from the thread by one of the "professionals". Well Initially I was a bit offended, but being thick skinned just forgot about it. Then came another recent thread about someone offering Fountain Darters here. Now I don't believe in the trafficking, buying or selling of endangered or protected species but the thread went on it's way and someone mentioned seeing what was supposed to be the only tank of a Pupfish that was supposed to be left in existence on display. They were obviously upset about the fact that swordtails were also in the display. Well one of the "professionals" took it upon himself to explain that they do the real conservation work behind the scenes and how she probably gave the staff a good laugh when she mentioned her concerns over the swordtails. Basically the "professional", who we'll refer to as Hagfish is a "professional' aquarist (?) at a public zoo and proclaimed that they used to display "piranhas with endangered goodieds"HOW RESPONSIBLE, HOW SENSATIONAL. I was really offended by his treatment and posted a response that was deleted and got me banned. Now I could honestly say that I don't care but took the stance that If they were going to ban me and delete one post they should delete all of my posts. It still has not been done. There are other "professionals" there too, and they are watching!

"In all fairness I have met some nice folks that are members, but I can't say that about many of them.

"Ok now for the real public service announcement, they monitor these auctions and I suspect have reported some sellers, you need to be very careful if you are buying and selling native fish here. There is a thread in a protected forum there entitled "Beware Illegal Sales on Aquabid, Ebay, etc", it was really like a bunch of little old ladies gossiping. The king of NANcy FArted even chimed in that and the words are not exact on purpose, "hangin's not good enough for em" or some other nonsense. They probably have reported some of the sellers here, so if you are buying and selling native fish here you need to make sure they were legally obtained and that you can legally buy, sell and own them. "

A public service announcement about making sure you are within the laws set forth by the country or state, surrounded by mostly bashing and ranting. And we're the gossiping old ladies? Puhlease. I didn't realize we were oppressing people by advocating for and protecting the rights of individuals to legally collect, obtain, import, export, etc. native fish that are not protected by state, federal, and international laws. The off topic nature of the pupfish and swordtail things is completely trivial when considering the important content of this topic.

From http://www.aquabid.c...tive
"Then came another recent thread about someone offering Fountain Darters here. Now I don't believe in the trafficking, buying or selling of endangered or protected species but the thread went on it's way and someone mentioned seeing what was supposed to be the only tank of a Pupfish that was supposed to be left in existence on display. They were obviously upset about the fact that swordtails were also in the display. Well one of the "professionals" took it upon himself to explain that they do the real conservation work behind the scenes and how she probably gave the staff a good laugh when she mentioned her concerns over the swordtails. Basically the "professional", who we'll refer to as Hagfish is a "professional' aquarist (?) at a public zoo and proclaimed that they used to display "piranhas with endangered goodieds"HOW RESPONSIBLE, HOW SENSATIONAL. I was really offended by his treatment and posted a response that was deleted and got me banned."

I agree with them. Displaying piranhas with endangered goodieds is not okay, and neither is having swordtails in the endangered pupfish tank.
What kind of place is this, where we get banned for saying logical things? Ban me if you want to, NANFA. But I gotta say I think this person was right in protesting housing endangered fish that way.

Edited by Okiimiru, 27 August 2010 - 07:36 PM.

Okiimiru, I wouldn't put much stock in what he says. NANFA members don't grow horns and that guy quit the forum. I will tell forum participants though....If you quit and then come back to start flame wars, we will be forced to prevent you from posting.
Can we just get back to talking about fish already?

Oh geez sounds like someone hold a grudge on NANFA. I give him that he's gutsy to post something like that on public forum which is kinda immature and childish for that seller through. I hope that Aquabid needs take care of this issue.

Can we just get back to talking about fish already?

When in doubt, that is always the best advice to follow.

I agree with them. Displaying piranhas with endangered goodieds is not okay, and neither is having swordtails in the endangered pupfish tank.
What kind of place is this, where we get banned for saying logical things? Ban me if you want to, NANFA. But I gotta say I think this person was right in protesting housing endangered fish that way.

Okiimiru. I think you are missing the point. The point of a display like this is to demonstrate that these goodieds are endangered by the spread of piranhas. The aquarists surely are propagating thousands of these endangered fish behind the scenes, and feel secure with the numbers that they are producing. If they are producing 10,000 endangered fish per year, what are they going to do with them all? They can't just give away fish that people cannot legally keep. So they do the best thing that they can with their surplus fish. Set up a tank demonstrating why these fish are threatened, to educate the public as to why it is not a good idea to relocate fish species to other bodies of water. I do not know the history on this particular tank, but I would bet that I am close to on target. So the aquarists in question are putting the surplus fish to a great use. Public education.

Lotsofpets was not banned for saying logical things. He apparently quit, and then managed to get himself banned for his actions, not his opinions. The moderators do not ban many people. You really have to cause a lot of trouble to get banned. I am certain much more went on than you realize. Likely much of this content was removed before you read it, or went on via PM.

Oh, that public service announcement is hysterical! NANcy FArted!

Edited by Skipjack, 28 August 2010 - 11:51 AM.

I feel like I gotta open my big mouth here.
We can "Ark" hundreds of species but what good does it do if they have no place in the wild to live?
Protecting the water is far more important than "Arking" in my opinion.

Protecting the water is a big challenge, and you're right, without that we are releasing bodily fluids into the wind in most cases.