Eureka Reds - Hybrids?

[Honda12]

Well hopefully they let you enter your fish since they have allowed them at the other conventions.

But please do keep us posted on what you hear, cause this may affect if I go this year or not.

 

[ikevi]

crazy. Did they say they would be considering making a section just for linebreeds? Because whatever the ACA might say if they are going to be fare about what is a linebreed then they basically will have to cut out half there fish. (IE it would have to in essence be limited to wild/f1/f2 fish.)

And here I thought they were even concidering putting in hybrids.

 

[jhutch]

crazy. Did they say they would be considering making a section just for linebreeds? Because whatever the ACA might say if they are going to be fare about what is a linebreed then they basically will have to cut out half there fish. (IE it would have to in essence be limited to wild/f1/f2 fish.)

And here I thought they were even concidering putting in hybrids.

They are considering it. The ACA BOT will be the ultimate deciding group though. Ad Konings is opposed to all Albinos and hybrids and he is definately an expert when it comes to Africans and I think his opinion has a lot of pull within the ACA.

They want to allow hybrids as a teaching tool I guess. To educate people as to good care of a species as opposed to letting fish hybridize and produce mixes.

 

[ikevi]

Well I know Ken had to work hard to get any albinos allowed into the convention. I will ask Andrew about it when I get the chance.

I guess the big question is here are the ACA goals:

• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Gather, organize and disseminate knowledge of the family Cichlidae [/SIZE][/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Further the conservation of cichlids and their natural habitats[/SIZE][/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Promote fellowship among cichlid hobbyists[/SIZE][/FONT]

And I think with subjects like this the ACA is having a hard time deciding if conservation or fellow hobbyists is more important. (Obviously conservation has taken the leading role of late.) But seeing as I keep on hearing how there aren't enough younger people, I assume if the ACA wants to survive they have to start having linebreed/hybrid divitions. (And I think the ACA and the smaller clubs need to figure out a way to get my generation to realize the exsist. Though I hope forums like this tend to help out imensly.)

Anyways I am sorry to hear your fish can't be in the show. (I know we had some members with awsome German reds that couldn't show them for the same reason). I am hoping to be able to make it up to the next one, since I sort of want to see what they are like without having to run it.

 

[rallysman]

I think it's great that they might accept hybrids, but I don't think they should allow them to be shown/have their own category. Allowing hybrids into their show is going against everything that they stand for.

However, neglecting to educate about hybrids or choosing to ignore hybrids would be very detrimental.

 

[cichlidbroker]

We currently have several species within Herichthys with locality, or descriptive names--anyone know anything new as far as these species being described?

 

[dogofwar]

I agree with ikevi's approach of looking at this issue through the lens of the ACA's goals as an organization.

This is less about whether an AER is verifiably a "pure" species (whatever that means) and more about the ACA's approach to aquarium (vs. wild-type) strains of fish (line bred, hybrid, or unknown) and the people who enjoy them.

Trying to approach this from a technical definition of "hybrid", "species", etc., etc. direction hasn't worked (to date) because it doesn't take into account the reality of the hobby: that a lot of people like super-naturally colorful fish (like AER...or EBJD....or fancy discus....or flowerhorns).

To me at least, to say that one "man made" fish is OK because it probably only was derrived from fish that are currently classified (by man) as a single species...and another "man made" fish is NOT OK because it was (intentionally) developed from more than one species just doesn't make sense.

Both fish are OK. They are what they are. And they're both "cichlids".

 

[jhutch]

That is a valid argument and good. I think the main thing behind the ACA with a lot of their ideas is species preservation. Like the ACA CARES program which is mainly dedicated to endangered species so I can see why they are against hybrids.

 

[dogofwar]

What I've never understood is the link between the existence of a strain of aquarium fish (like AER) and endangering wild peacocks?

 

[jhutch]

It doesn't.