Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
[ originally posted by coralbandit]
Is Fla. water really that different?
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( Picture this: A little boy in school, with his hand raised high and waving yelling out " Ooh OOh, Pick me, pick me.... I know why!!!!!!)
So here's some inside information for ya.
While all your guesses were amusing, they are not close to what's happening. It's called "product protection". The only way a breeder can protect his/her business is to not let others duplicate it. It's just that simple. Right wrong or indifferent, that's what they do. In the case of the females, most are bred until they are bred out. Keep in mind that males can breed faster than females can so in the case of the Dwarfs, a single male may be bred to a number of females. Also keep in mind that since all the fancy dwarf colors are all from the original dwarf gourami, it may take a number of females to actually get enough of the fancy colors to sell. Since males are the more colorful and therefor more desirable, that's the bonus for not selling the females. So Brennae, you may want to consider this as you sell your fish to the LFS. Someone just like you can easily take a pair of your Guppies, breed them and start selling them to the same store at a cheaper price and then you will either have to drop your price to compete or lose out on the business all together. If you don't think that will happen, it happens all the time. How come no one has ever been able to match KFC's original recipe or Coca Cola's syrup? It's because of product protection. There are other fried chicken companies and cola producers yet no one has successfully matched
their formulas. You want your fish to be the same way. How? By not letting females go to reproduce them.
As for FL's water, yes, it is different. I was at Seagrest many years ago and was one of their suppliers at the last big wholesale house I worked at. No, I don't believe they breed anymore but there are many smaller farms in their area that supply them. All using the same water. Most are species specific farms as well ( ie live bearers only, rainbowfish only Anglefish only etc.) One of the big differences in water where they are versus where you are is that the PH is high but the hardness is lower. I see that here at my place as well. What's different between where I was down in S. FL and here in Central FL is the hardness of the water. It's because of the lesser amount of time the water is exposed to the calcium rock base that FL sits on PLUS, the area was effected by the pine trees which also softens the water. I was told that with the pine needles on the ground, the water trickles through them to the underground so it changes the chemistry some. It's a bit more involved than that but for the purposes of this post, that's all you really need to know. YES, the water is different.
Hope that answers your questions.
