Look guys it is definatly getting much Harder to get wild fish Imported and as always venders are trying hard to get the perspective buyer what they want ..Exactly what they want !!!! If it was easy and cheap would we even want to buy the fish ????most likely not this discussion is a good thing for sure makes us sit back and be thankful for what we do have!!!!!
Cichla Sao Francisco
- Thread starter DammitKhoa
- Start date
??? Like how many percent are you sure? Thats what got you $150 and $100 per piece right? You have sao frans and piquiti sao frans right? What about the philippines?
Thank you Hulon for your comments. I agree, getting wild peacock bass has never been easy. On the desired lists:
cichla intermedia- Venezuela, all peacock bass are banned from export, and we don't have a supply of Venezuelan fish, period
cichla thyrorus,vazzelori have not been exported on any commercial basis, and from Brazil all peacock bass are banned for aquarium trade. Only allowed to be catch and release, eaten, and collected by natives.
cichla melaniae, most of all are captive bred now from a few Michael Bottner, from wild fish he collected himself. There were a few smuggled out into asia earlier this year and shipped out. As with anything else
There are also a couple of reports of breeding in the US as well
Cichla orinocensis, and temensis, ones from Colombia are a staple, and orinos are bred now
Cichla kelberi found all over Brazil, in many places, are mostly all captive bred, as the "bahia" ones, and then some Araguai ones in Singapore. Then there were some sneaked out here and there in the past few years. Realize that cichla kelberi is one of the most wildly distributed species in Brazil. However due to the ban from export there will not be any regular commercial export of thousands at a time.
Cichla merianae-found in Brazil, matto grosso, which the area is nature preserve, very protected, not likely anyone will be collecting fish, and transferring 3 flights to get the fish out, alive, fish or fisherman. You can go and fish for them, about $4000 for 7 days of fishing, not including flight. Trust me, I've contemplated this...for a long time.
cichla piquiti-azul, are being bred in Brazil, which makes them legal for export, and rumors in Asia on a few occasions also. So this is becoming more available, hopefully
cichla sp. "brokopondo" these are only found in Surinam, and only one exporter, ships to 3 suppliers in North America only, with no regularity and no guarantee on the supplies. I just received a shipment of 150 pcs, all came in dead, not one alive. That could be one of the reasons of the high cost of the fish, as I'm still stuck with the 2500 shipping cost of the shipment, with nothing to sell.
cichla pinima, rarely exported from Brazil, again, snuck out of somewhere, no regularity, and expensive, how many do you know of in the US?
cichla occelaris, guayana, monoculus, etc. are not banned from export, and also many farm raised hybrids and what not. Also Florida peacocks are similar, some are caught there and sold as "wild".
cichla pleizona, I'm not familiar with...
cichla mysteries...
I just posted and explanation on the peacock bass. Sometimes prices are dictated by the supply and demand, and methods fish are obtained. Initially the bahia's were over 200 dollars each retail and the supplier that bred them would only sell them in lots of 100 fish each time at 100 usd each! do the math. that was not to me, that was to the middle man, then he had to sell them to people like myself, adding more shipping costs, death, and profit.
as for these sao francisco azuls, I let the customers make their own judgement, the color if its blue, then they're happy right?
as for the cichla sp. sao francisco, I've seen your post on them, and picture and think that my fish is the same with same supply, and same label sold. I do not have more information beyong that. once I do, I will update.
awesome discussion going on here. Although the thread has diverted, I certainly appreciate any input; it helps to test the theories we know. I'll update periodically when I think the bass has progressed.. or when I get bored 
yeah they're happy that its blue but will they be as happy if they weren't sao frans like you say they are? if you are not sure why tell guys they are from sao francisco? they may as well be taiwan farmies right?
about the sao fran, if my sao frans are the same as yours, i honestly dunno. as far as i know we didnt get them in asia. where did you get yours again?
about the sao fran, if my sao frans are the same as yours, i honestly dunno. as far as i know we didnt get them in asia. where did you get yours again?
Who cares if its Sao Francisco or WC!!! If you really questioned where the fish is from then don't bother buying the fish. A few years ago people used to question Wes about Kayo congicus bichir. Guess what, those were some of the nicest congicus ever introduced to the hobby. For 150$ it's a great deal to own a kelberi. About 5 years ago you could not get a kelberi for under $400. These are nice cichla even if it's not sao fran. Wes puts an enormous amount of effort to bring in rare cichla and I will repeat business with him.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Once my wedding is past I plan on picking some fish up from Wes. The guy has a great reputation, but just like he said he can only go off what his suppliers tell him. It's tough IDing these young cichla, so you take the risk buying them.
Also, I don't see the infatuation with "wild caught" opposed to captive bred? Mass bred at petsmart sure, but I'd rather someone raise 2 gorgeous bass, breed them, and repeat the process to find the best looking fish. Lets be honest, most captive fish fed a healthy diet and taking care of look WAY better than any wild caught fish. That's not to say that wc can't look good, but not nearly as good as a fish adequately cared for.
For someone to say an entire country mislabeled fish to make profit, I'm curious as to where you got your information from? Lol that's a pretty serious accusation?
Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Look up cichla in Singapore and look up cichla vendors from Singapore. If you know anything about cichla, then you will know most of the cichla from there are wild caught from there rivers. A mass mix of this and that bass, but calling them a pure bred??? Is bs to me. But not some seasoned cichla keepers.
You can keep your second hand bass bs. Captive bred better then wild. It's obvious you haven't kept wild bass before.
Prime example: bahias.
The wild ones out of Taiwan looks nothing like there offspring's with their duck billed faces.
As for me saying that a country miss labels there bass, I get countless email, pm from Singapore asking me/us to ID there bass. I'm not bounded just to mfk, I'm also a active member to other forums to.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
You can keep your second hand bass bs. Captive bred better then wild. It's obvious you haven't kept wild bass before.
Prime example: bahias.
The wild ones out of Taiwan looks nothing like there offspring's with their duck billed faces.
As for me saying that a country miss labels there bass, I get countless email, pm from Singapore asking me/us to ID there bass. I'm not bounded just to mfk, I'm also a active member to other forums to.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Hey Darboy,
I respect your comments and input. Not sure if there is some misunderstasnding due to internet communication. The previous imports to Phillipines on the xingu were fish that originally came from me. The ones you recently posted, I'm pretty sure are the same ones that I got this time, but if not that is ok too. You have a nice collection, keep us posted and I'm curious to see what my fish will turn out to be also! On top of that, I have something else that I'm cooking, I expect to release them sometime around Christmas
I respect your comments and input. Not sure if there is some misunderstasnding due to internet communication. The previous imports to Phillipines on the xingu were fish that originally came from me. The ones you recently posted, I'm pretty sure are the same ones that I got this time, but if not that is ok too. You have a nice collection, keep us posted and I'm curious to see what my fish will turn out to be also! On top of that, I have something else that I'm cooking, I expect to release them sometime around Christmas
