ID'ing Cichla

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
To put it plainly, we are at the mercy of the sellers. I feel cichla as a whole is a market where prices are dictated by sellers 100%. These guys are a hot ticket and they know that. Some choose to charge extraordinary prices with hopes that people will buy into the craze. More often then not, people line up :(
 
Tainted Glory I agree with you also, but as far as being at there mercy. This perticular Cichlid has taught me Patience and satisfaction in a short amount of time. Patience because if you want top notch then you can't buy everything or anything. Satisfaction because I made some very good decession's and have what I wanted and have been able to make my dream come true. So the waiting game is the control you have over the vendors. You really don't have to buy you can wait. When I came into the game (and many have heard me say this) "there will never be Kelberi in the hobby again". I heard outragous prices also in the beggining. For a full year I went to every LFS and basicly demanded that they got Cichla into there stock right now if they wanted to make some money. So in turn when I see a $50.00 Orino I don't get in rush to buy but I am glad that we are seeing more rare Cichla in the LFS for what ever price even if it is on the high side for most. Were paying chump change compaired to what we would pay for a rare Sting Ray, or Catfish, or African rarities. So truthfully we can control what power the vendor has over us with making the right choices. Like T.I. said if you believe anything I got a bridge I can sell ya. Thats the mind set of any buisness man MONEY first and then we'll talk.

Tainted hang in there bro it get's better the more people you meet and positve contacts you make the better the Cichla get. Trust me. Look at it like this I started this thread as an eye opener and some will read and some wont. But out of the people only a few are truely worthy of owning $500.00 Cichla. Not bashing them or anything but it doesn't take much to kill a $1.00 guppie.
 
High City Rida;2582590; said:
Tainted hang in there bro it get's better the more people you meet and positve contacts you make the better the Cichla get. Trust me. Look at it like this I started this thread as an eye opener and some will read and some wont. But out of the people only a few are truely worthy of owning $500.00 Cichla. Not bashing them or anything but it doesn't take much to kill a $1.00 guppie.
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Many good points man. I agree with just about all of what you've said, especially about the patience part. I have no problems with this little niche in the hobby. Personally, I'm intrigued and fascinated with the who-you-know, mafia style of getting your hands on the super nice cichla. I've made a ton of friends through MFK so its nice to know I've got a lengthy list of people to call when it comes time to score some rare cichla.
 
Haha I wish I had a list. But yea it is a MAFIA style type situation. I wish I could get some of there connect's. To tell you the truth I would just take a few and no more. But it really is about who you know! Or at least that's what I have come to find out in my short time. I would say I got lucky and timing was the key for my collection, I hit this addiction running and haven't looked back since. But I did my homework so I got what I wanted. I started off with some cheap Ocellaris. I had been offered my Mono's on more then a few occasions but I kept turning them down until I knew I was ready and seriously ready to dedicate the time and money to a True Monster. I walked away from my Pinima's so many times it wasn't even funny at least 6 months of going back and fourth. Just wanted to make sure I did everything right. I even grabbed the tank before I even considered owning these beast you see in my Avatar.
 
High City Rida;2582703; said:
Haha I wish I had a list. But yea it is a MAFIA style type situation. I wish I could get some of there connect's. To tell you the truth I would just take a few and no more. But it really is about who you know! Or at least that's what I have come to find out in my short time. I would say I got lucky and timing was the key for my collection, I hit this addiction running and haven't looked back since. But I did my homework so I got what I wanted. I started off with some cheap Ocellaris. I had been offered my Mono's on more then a few occasions but I kept turning them down until I knew I was ready and seriously ready to dedicate the time and money to a True Monster. I walked away from my Pinima's so many times it wasn't even funny at least 6 months of going back and fourth. Just wanted to make sure I did everything right. I even grabbed the tank before I even considered owning these beast you see in my Avatar.
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I hear you man. I've had cichla here and there for the last few years, but never really got into them until recently. I have a pretty clear cut picture of where I ultimately want to go with my tank, so that frees me from impulse buys. I can just stay focused and pick and choose what I want as it becomes available.
 
Why not just blame Petsmart..Start telling the age old store nobody could tell me what it was,it didnt say it got this big,pass the responsibility to the store you bought it from. I just buy whatever i see and dont bother to even ask questions...LOL how funny! WOOO what a hooot!! What store should i Flame next cuz i was too stupid to see what i was buying DUUUH
 
IMO what you have in the Cichla nation are dabblers that sparkle and fade, and ballers that go all in. I have only been in the cichla game about 8 months and in that short amount of time things have changed drastically. I think that alot of people dont truly understand just what they are getting into when they venture into Cichla keeping. It starts out as a "oh those would be cool to have" and ends up in a "damn this is alot more fish than I thought it was" sort of thing. To be real about it, most people in this hobby simply cannot afford to take it to the level that these fish require. The fault there lies with the buyer for not doing the proper research. Lets face it, these fish are not for everyone. Sure everyone would like to own a Ferrari, and might even possibly be able to get financing, but when its due for brakes 3 months after its purchased and they find out only Ferrari will do them and its a $7000.00 deal every 3 months, the magnitude of the machine starts to make itself known. Its kind of the same with Cichla. A guy goes out and buys a few $30 fish to stick in his 100g only to find out later that fish now needs a $5000.00 upgrade to live in. I also see alot of "Hes in my 75g now but I plan on buying a 210g in a few months" posts. Some will follow through with it and realize the 210 really needs to be 300+ and pull the trigger, others will vanish and never be heard from again. Sparkle, and fade. IMO alot of the ID threads come about from guys new to cichla that havent done much research and are basically wondering if they got taken for a ride or not on pricing. Some of those will sparkle and advance, some of those will fade away. Cichla keeping takes a special kind of person. These fish cant be half assed. They demand pretty much all or nothing. With these guys you go hard, or you go home. Simple as that :naughty:
 
Venom SS;2582869; said:
IMO what you have in the Cichla nation are dabblers that sparkle and fade, and ballers that go all in. I have only been in the cichla game about 8 months and in that short amount of time things have changed drastically. I think that alot of people dont truly understand just what they are getting into when they venture into Cichla keeping. It starts out as a "oh those would be cool to have" and ends up in a "damn this is alot more fish than I thought it was" sort of thing. To be real about it, most people in this hobby simply cannot afford to take it to the level that these fish require. The fault there lies with the buyer for not doing the proper research. Lets face it, these fish are not for everyone. Sure everyone would like to own a Ferrari, and might even possibly be able to get financing, but when its due for brakes 3 months after its purchased and they find out only Ferrari will do them and its a $7000.00 deal every 3 months, the magnitude of the machine starts to make itself known. Its kind of the same with Cichla. A guy goes out and buys a few $30 fish to stick in his 100g only to find out later that fish now needs a $5000.00 upgrade to live in. I also see alot of "Hes in my 75g now but I plan on buying a 210g in a few months" posts. Some will follow through with it and realize the 210 really needs to be 300+ and pull the trigger, others will vanish and never be heard from again. Sparkle, and fade. IMO alot of the ID threads come about from guys new to cichla that havent done much research and are basically wondering if they got taken for a ride or not on pricing. Some of those will sparkle and advance, some of those will fade away. Cichla keeping takes a special kind of person. These fish cant be half assed. They demand pretty much all or nothing. With these guys you go hard, or you go home. Simple as that :naughty:
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the truth ^^^
 
i'm just sitting back and observing.. interesting and a good read ;)
 
Venom SS;2582869; said:
IMO what you have in the Cichla nation are dabblers that sparkle and fade, and ballers that go all in. I have only been in the cichla game about 8 months and in that short amount of time things have changed drastically. I think that alot of people dont truly understand just what they are getting into when they venture into Cichla keeping. It starts out as a "oh those would be cool to have" and ends up in a "damn this is alot more fish than I thought it was" sort of thing. To be real about it, most people in this hobby simply cannot afford to take it to the level that these fish require. The fault there lies with the buyer for not doing the proper research. Lets face it, these fish are not for everyone. Sure everyone would like to own a Ferrari, and might even possibly be able to get financing, but when its due for brakes 3 months after its purchased and they find out only Ferrari will do them and its a $7000.00 deal every 3 months, the magnitude of the machine starts to make itself known. Its kind of the same with Cichla. A guy goes out and buys a few $30 fish to stick in his 100g only to find out later that fish now needs a $5000.00 upgrade to live in. I also see alot of "Hes in my 75g now but I plan on buying a 210g in a few months" posts. Some will follow through with it and realize the 210 really needs to be 300+ and pull the trigger, others will vanish and never be heard from again. Sparkle, and fade. IMO alot of the ID threads come about from guys new to cichla that havent done much research and are basically wondering if they got taken for a ride or not on pricing. Some of those will sparkle and advance, some of those will fade away. Cichla keeping takes a special kind of person. These fish cant be half assed. They demand pretty much all or nothing. With these guys you go hard, or you go home. Simple as that :naughty:
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I agree 100% Very well put Venom. ;)
 
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