ufcrusher
05-27-2005, 12:04 AM
The other day I was at one of my local fish stores and I heard this guy mention a species of fish that I have never heard of before. To the average person, hearing of a fish that one has never heard of may seem normal....not to me. I have always been into aquariums and pride myself on my breadth of knowledge and experience of fish keeping. So when I hear a name I am not familiar with, I start scratching me head. My immediate thought was that some store were mislabeling a fish that had been around for a long time. Its not the first time, nor the last time, that I have seen that happen.
In fact, at that same fish store, I saw a fish that I have previously reared, but didnt see the correct corresponding name. I asked one of the sales people who called it something that didnt make sense to me. I told him that I was 99% sure he was wrong...but he was being insistent so I just dropped it. WHen I went back to that store, the owner was there and I questioned him on the name of the fish. He proceeded to tell me that he didnt know, but he was sold it under this name. I told him that I was certain that it was x. species so we busted out the books. Sure enough, I was right and his exact words were, I'll be damned. (He and I have been both keeping fish for about the same length of time) The fact that I was right, further strengthened my negative opinion of his one sales person who had been rude and dismissive to me on more than one occassion. But thats neither here nor there.
Tonight, I did a search on the unknown fish, whose name I have been seeing pop up more often recently. Its called a "Flowerhorn" and when I did the search, it turned out that I was right, this wasnt a new species of fish at all. It was the result of breeding one of my favorite species with some of its close relatives. While some of the fish are attractive, many others have become almost grotesque charactures of the stong/proud species that they were derived from. I would never purchase any of them and find the fact that people are paying $100+ for them to be outlandish. It really irks me that some idiots feel the need to take misformed fry and/or hybrids and intentionally breed them. Its just wrong.
In fact, at that same fish store, I saw a fish that I have previously reared, but didnt see the correct corresponding name. I asked one of the sales people who called it something that didnt make sense to me. I told him that I was 99% sure he was wrong...but he was being insistent so I just dropped it. WHen I went back to that store, the owner was there and I questioned him on the name of the fish. He proceeded to tell me that he didnt know, but he was sold it under this name. I told him that I was certain that it was x. species so we busted out the books. Sure enough, I was right and his exact words were, I'll be damned. (He and I have been both keeping fish for about the same length of time) The fact that I was right, further strengthened my negative opinion of his one sales person who had been rude and dismissive to me on more than one occassion. But thats neither here nor there.
Tonight, I did a search on the unknown fish, whose name I have been seeing pop up more often recently. Its called a "Flowerhorn" and when I did the search, it turned out that I was right, this wasnt a new species of fish at all. It was the result of breeding one of my favorite species with some of its close relatives. While some of the fish are attractive, many others have become almost grotesque charactures of the stong/proud species that they were derived from. I would never purchase any of them and find the fact that people are paying $100+ for them to be outlandish. It really irks me that some idiots feel the need to take misformed fry and/or hybrids and intentionally breed them. Its just wrong.