American Dream in Turkey

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Thank you all !!

The main problem here in Turkey is fish importers are importing the American Cichlids from far east. There are some great fish available from far east but sometimes importers receive hybrids and all we can do is trusting their claims since we are not that experienced on the new species (I mean new to Turkey). As you would agree, it is not easy to differ a hybrid when the fish is 1''. This is quite disappointing when the fish reaches 4'' size and comments turns out to be an hybrid.

As an example, we were not 100% sure that the first fish (BB) that agorkemt posted above was a pure BB until it reached to 5-6''. It was selected among hundereds of imported fish, and all the other fish in the same pack were hybrids. This is why we changed the direction.

Since you are closer to the source, I do not think you face such hybrid fish problems as much as we do, correct?
 
You might be surprised, cenk. While you guys in turkey have not had many of these fish in the hobby long, some fish over here have been in the hobby so long that you run into issues of weak genetics due to generations of inbreeding and hybrids certainly aren't uncommon. For example, you cannot go to a local store and expect a pure A. citrineullus or labiatus or trimaculatus. We must order from speciality cichlid suppliers and place trust in them.
I thought it was interesting that almost all the fish you listed as common in your country are common here as well. For a general local fish store, you might be hard pressed to find more than convicts and midevil hybrids far as CA cichlids go.
Also, have you ever thought about placing a large order with an exporter here in the states? I would think the minimum would be pretty hefty, maybe $500 USD or more, but might be worth looking in to.
 
Aclockworkorange, I think the reason of finding convicts and midevils at any fish store is they are more than ready to breed regardless of water conditions and tank size.... and I do not know if this is the case there as well but here people exchange the convict midevil fries/juveniles with fish food at the fish stores.

Absolutely agree with you in placing order with an exporter in the states and we are trying to find out a fish store which has an alive animal import license. Unfortunately the ones that we have contacted are not interested in so far... but we keep trying. Around 5 months ago I contacted with an importer in the UK and he is periodicially importing fish from J. Rapps and D.Conkel. Due to the heavy tax on alive animals our original order was around 1200 USD and the import cost was around 9 fold of the cost of the order and there were still unclear points that were not answered. Since this hobby involves alive animals it is not easy take risks of delays at the customs.

By the way, is the BB on your avatar one of your fishes? If so, is there a link where we can see more pictures of that BB? I love the red on it.
 
Yes, I think you're right with your first paragraph and people do that for sure.

He is indeed my fish. Here's a big pic of him:

cdd04679.jpg
 
Aclockworkorange i think there is variety differences among BB's. mine tail is all red, and the belt is not complete with the dorsal fin. If he is not angry or is showing attitude you cant see the black dot on the tail. Really good shape he has here. congrats. Like Cenk told, mine was a big luck. we spend almost 1 hour to select that guy.
 
Aclockworkorange, thank you for the bigger picture you posted and I am now addicted to BB's after I saw your guy. As said I love the red stains. I went to agorkemt's home last night to see his BB and decided to have BB's in my tank..... they are great!!!!

reallybigfish, Festae has always been a legend for us .... we are looking forward to breeding and delivering the fries. We even know the total amount of Festae's here !!!
 
We should underline the fact that the Festae population in Turkey is not more than 20, but nearly 15 of them are F2. Which means we will have a slightly wide gene pool. This is a good fact i think.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom