Festae- Quality VS Trash!!

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When i offer festae, they are from Peru. I am not certain if there is a ban in Ecuador or not. I do know that several wholesalers offer large wild caught festae from time to time. I do not know of any farmers in south Florida that pond raise festae. Like you, i have to take their word on their source or origin whether equador or Peru. As for the exporters I deal with, size is not as much an issue as cost of shipping is. While you can put 8 large festae in a double box, you can put 300 in a smaller box. When i buy, I buy in large quantities to last awhile. Aside from that, as hard as it may seem to believe, not everyone wants festae. There is a small group of devoted followers. In my experience, there is a bigger following for fish with personality like dovii, Umbees, midas, etc
to time.
 
Lots of things in this world are illegal, that doesn't mean that they don't take place on a regular basis. Show me a large enough profit, and I'll show you a thriving business. :)

Jason ........I found that link, it doesn't break things down at all. I'm looking for a direct reference to the ban of exporting "live fish" from Ecuador. I'm not doubting that there is one in place, but I would prefer to read the actual regulations with regards to live fish. Until then, I can only assume that no such ban exists, at least one that includes ALL fish under ALL situations.

If there is a ban in place, then perhaps Dan can explain how it is that he has a constant source of 1 inch "wild caught" fry available?

I was researching the laws awhile back because i wanted to plan a collecting trip to ecuador. I cant find the original link i saw that stated fish could not be imported. I realize that there illegal activity going on all over the world, and if it can be done, it will.That is not what im saying. Its not worth my time to come up with ways to illegally transport fish. I am looking for legal options as i would like to stay out of jail, especially over fish!!And Dans festae are claimed from Peru not Ecuador. i dont know the rules over there like stated. I think it still legal to collect and import from peru. so that has nothing to do with Dan. but the question about the constant source of 1" wild fry is a valid one.

Sorry, but you have completely lost me. What commercial farmers do you speak of? Who exactly is raising festae in "ponds", other than possibly those who export fish from Ecuador, in which case you will never know whether your fish are F0, or F?, unless you travel to Ecuador & collect them yourself.


The Farmers i speak of are the same ones your reffered to in your post at the top of page 21.I dont know anyone personally over there....And what you just stated about not knowing if theyre F1, F? unless you travel to collect yourself, is exactly my point.
 
Like you, i have to take their word on their source or origin whether equador or Peru.

And what you just stated about not knowing if theyre F1, F? unless you travel to collect yourself, is exactly my point.

Bingo. At the end of the day the only thing that any vendor can rely on is what they are being told by the people that do the exporting, who in turn rely on those that are doing the collecting.

There is no way that anyone will ever know if those 1" festae are tank raised F1's, or caught in a barrel trap in the Rio Tumbes, except those who are bagging the fish. I have already expressed my personal opinion on that subject.

There are commercial fish farmers in South America, including Ecuador, and some of those commercial farmers deal in festae. I don't speak the lingo so I have no idea what this farmer is saying in the following video, but he's definitely breeding some of his tropical fish on his farm, and his festae are far from being fry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gth1HXTkgYM

Here's a link to his website.

http://www.tropicalivefishecuador.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=1&Itemid=2

So that pretty much brings us full circle on this discussion. Bottom line, buy the fish with the attributes that you personally are looking for, because you will most likely never know exactly where they were collected, or if they were captive bred & raised in a vat. The fact that they were imported from Ecuador, or Peru, does not always equate to being wild caught.
 
Never thought i would say this,but i dont like this male,if this is wild caught,give me tank raised any day.


I dont understand..... This isn't the best pic of this guy. In fact the male you have now looks very similar to this one in build and profile. This guy is just bigger. Wait till yours packs on some more size. The colors are thrown off by the lighting and the camera. This is a very nice male and I would be proud to own and breed this guy any day:) the dad to your male looked like this guy too, just not as big and bulky.
 
Never thought i would say this,but i dont like this male,if this is wild caught,give me tank raised any day.

Maybe that's because all you've been conditioned to focus on is color. Great Festae are not built on color alone. Lighting and a Festae's mood plus substrate has plenty to do with what color they'll display. Also keep in mind that you haven't seen him in person. Nor have you seen him in his courtship coloring, so to make a blanket statement based on one glimpse is pointless.


For example, observe Archie in both of the attached photos.

View attachment 771171View attachment 771172

He's also capable of turning gold with his spangling being less visible or yellow with bold barring.
 
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