this is probably more of a rant than anything else, but I'm sitting here shaking my head.
I go into my local store and look around, and they have a small section where they have stuff like plattys tetras and those glowfish things, then they have a pretty good marine section, then there's the rest. now, by rest, I mean anything not a small tetra or danio.
the problem comes when you look at the Cichlid assortment. there's usually a tank or two with assorted Africans, and several tanks dedicated to new world cichlids. the issue is, almost all they carry are the murderous giants. nothing against Dovi and Butterkoferi and the Festae, but really? the owner claims that's what people want. it seems, just like owning a Pit Bull, there is a certain aquarist group that only wants the hardened killers in their tanks. so, you can get a juvenile red terror for $9.99, but a green severum is $29.99, and they almost never have them. don't even ask about something like rams, or Kribensis, the don't have anywhere to put them. they have one tank with a few convicts, and firemouths, but that's about it.
a world full of beautiful fish, and they carry only the most violent ones.
even ask about other cichlid and you get blank stares, they've never even heard of most of them.
I go into my local store and look around, and they have a small section where they have stuff like plattys tetras and those glowfish things, then they have a pretty good marine section, then there's the rest. now, by rest, I mean anything not a small tetra or danio.
the problem comes when you look at the Cichlid assortment. there's usually a tank or two with assorted Africans, and several tanks dedicated to new world cichlids. the issue is, almost all they carry are the murderous giants. nothing against Dovi and Butterkoferi and the Festae, but really? the owner claims that's what people want. it seems, just like owning a Pit Bull, there is a certain aquarist group that only wants the hardened killers in their tanks. so, you can get a juvenile red terror for $9.99, but a green severum is $29.99, and they almost never have them. don't even ask about something like rams, or Kribensis, the don't have anywhere to put them. they have one tank with a few convicts, and firemouths, but that's about it.
a world full of beautiful fish, and they carry only the most violent ones.
even ask about other cichlid and you get blank stares, they've never even heard of most of them.