CA/NA cichlids more popular than SA?

[Mazan]

What part of Ecuador are you in? Im in the US but have family that lives in Atuntaqui. On one of my last visits I was excited to see what was listed as a 'fish store' in nearby Ibarra. Well on getting there it turned out to be a hard core hobbyist who wanted to start a tank building business. He had some awesome looking oscars, green terrors and even some African cichlids but you would have thought some nicer stuff would have been available to him. He did have some young oscar fry that looked very interesting, likely from a wild caught source based off their pattern. Visiting a small pet store in Quito was very disappointing to say the least. Very common little fish with nothing of any interest. My dentist in Ibarra has a tank in his waiting room. He has angel fish and some neon tetra and thats about it. I had hoped that my Visit to South America would lead to seeing different fish but just the same old stuff you see offered to typical fish keepers.

I am further South, in Cuenca. There are a couple of quite good fish shops here that occasionally have some interesting wild caught fish from Colombia and Peru, I just have to keep checking. Apparently it is too difficult/expensive to get permits to collect fish commercially in Ecuador. Otherwise there are some potentially interesting species here. But I think most of the fish sold here come from Indonesia or China.

 

[DMD123]

Ive visited friends in Cuenca, very nice city! I didn't visit any fish stores but stopped at a large store that sold tanks, cant remember name of it...



Reminded me of Walmart here in the US. I believe the JAD brand are Chinese tanks?

 

[DMD123]

Getting back on to original topic. I wonder for every one of us hardcore fish keepers keeping CA/NA fishes how many others out there have nothing to do with fish forums or can barely properly care for a fish are keeping SA fish like Oscars? The cute little things seem to fly out the stores on a regular basis and I see tons being brought in to local fish stores and being rehomed on Craigslist. I think there are a high number of improperly kept SA fish out there...

 

[Mazan]

Coral RIo

Ive visited friends in Cuenca, very nice city! I didn't visit any fish stores but stopped at a large store that sold tanks, cant remember name of it...
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Reminded me of Walmart here in the US. I believe the JAD brand are Chinese tanks?

Correct. That would be Coral Rio, in the Mall del Rio (or one of the other Coral hipermercados). I have one from there as well as my canister filters. But the rest of my tanks are home made.

 

[Mazan]

Getting back on to original topic. I wonder for every one of us hardcore fish keepers keeping CA/NA fishes how many others out there have nothing to do with fish forums or can barely properly care for a fish are keeping SA fish like Oscars? The cute little things seem to fly out the stores on a regular basis and I see tons being brought in to local fish stores and being rehomed on Craigslist. I think there are a high number of improperly kept SA fish out there...

Yes I agree, I have often thought that. How many people who buy baby oscars have tanks big enough to keep them long term I wonder.

 

[tlindsey]

I wonder for every one of us hardcore fish keepers keeping CA/NA fishes how many others out there have nothing to do with fish forums or can barely properly care for a fish are keeping SA fish like Oscars?

It's sad but true that fish like Oscars are in a bad situation with uneducated owners. I try to get people to join the forum but they don't.

 

[neutrino]

Last year I sold a 50 gal tank to a guy who wanted it for his Oscar, which was in a 20. Must be a baby one, I said. Nope, 8, 9 inches already.