Well going by your other thread it looks like you got burned. Please don't take this as a dig at you personally, its something I wonder every time I see a thread like this....
For someone who lives on an isolated island in at the bottom of the world having to make do with whatever fish turn up at the LFS, threads like this really make me bang my head against the keyboard. There are several vendors and retailers (like Rapps, for example) who specialise in cichlids and sell high quality and correctly identified fish. Why do so many people by "festae" from their LFS and get bummed when they turn out to be mayans, or buy "trimacs" and find out they're flowerhorns, when you have the option of buying quality stock from someone like Rapps? Do none of the specialist breeders have festae in stock? Do people not want to take the risk or pay the extra for shipping? Just thought you'd grab a bargain on impulse?
I'd give my left nut to be able to order off Rapps stock list (I've given up looking at it as it makes me jealous, so I'm not sure if festae is on there at the moment) but with out import restrictions and lengthy and expensive quarantine requirements I would be looking at THOUSANDS of dollars just in fees to Biosecurity (govt department), plus I would be highly restricted in the species I could bring in as our list of allowable imports has hardly been updated since its creating on the mid 90's, and even after all that there wouldn't be anywhere near enough of a market for the fish here to make it even remotely viable [financially].
So why do I keep seeing you Yanks making threads like this when there are quality breeders/suppliers out there you could be ordering from????
