VRWC;3745698; said:
Wow...thats a lot of conspiracy theorist, socio-political pessimism to take in all at once.
I disagree wholeheartedly. LFS will be going out of business because, for the most part, they dont know what the sell, mislabel everything and hire people that dont know jack. Only the strong will survive and Im perfectly happy with that. Weed out the weak and keep and support the strong.
That being said, I would like to thank all the LFS's that gave me wrong info my whole life, hardly ever had what they said they had and sold me sick fish. It forced me to read every bit of literature I could get my hands on regarding aquariums, fish, illnesses associated with them and everything else related to keeping fish. It has turned me into an MFK addict, an anal retentive walking h20 parameter meter and an expert at finding live critters to feed my cichlids...so I guess I owe them that.
The hobby is bigger than its ever been and growing. Technology and the internet has only helped get more people into the hobby and enables those of us that work long hours, an out at the end of the day with something interesting, beautiful and real.
Oscar in the basement? C'mon now...thats a bit overboard, dontcha think? The cold war is over...
The hobby isnt in endangerment or even close to it. There is more being done to preserve species, locales etc worldwide than theres ever been.
Nothing personal, but your post makes it sound like you dont know MFK exists and that there is no place to talk about fish and the hobby. Its what this place is about...just dont go expecting everyone to express their knowledge/concerns/opinions/experiences like you do. It aint gonna happen, in case you havent been able to tell that already.
I will agree with a few things you mentioned, although I was not referring to the random LFS's you're obviously referring to. You seem to be pointing out businesses like Pet Smart, or something similar in the form of mom 'n pop. I spoke of the "true" LFS's and breeders that know what they're doing--believe it or not, there are some around which do not sell sick fish with unknowledgeable staff members.
Regarding the decline, if you don't believe me, speak to the supply dealers, breeders and business owners directly and get your hands on the information floating around from their perspective. I discovered that lingering fear directly from them--it's not something I conjured up myself as theory. I was just discussing this topic with the Hikari sales rep for the Southeastern region of the U.S. when he visited Mobile, AL, not long back, and he said many of the top brands are cutting supplies, foods and products worldwide due to the decline in business and demand. He said many dealers he's worked with for years are shutting their doors or even resorting to selling to different markets (such as the internet) due to sales declines.
Also, don't be naive regarding opposing forces working against our hobby. Go read this post for an example, right here in the MFK forums:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230852
Most of what has been done for preservation and engineering ways to prolong the lives of many species has been done within the past 20-30 years. The internet hasn't exactly boosted hordes of new people into the hobby, but instead, has assisted those existing in the hobby with becoming aware of each other, and giving us immediate information necessary to master the hobby based on other's experiences and advice. Internet also has boosted our communication levels, and allowed us access to information and species we'd had no way of obtaining prior. So, I will agree that the internet has helped us by far from where we once were.
What I am pointing out, however, is the importance of keeping the hobby going after us. Children these days seem to have little interest in the hobby, so what happens when we're gone? Who will care, as much as us, with keeping things like HR 669's off the table, and keeping the hobby alive?
Monster Fish Keepers has 65K members, and a few other forums are similar in magnitude (most hover around the 10K-15K member range)--primarily made up of the same people utilizing multiple forums. That is the same as the population of Santa Fe, New Mexico--you guessed it, not that much. Compare that to Facebook, which has 350+ Million members--9 Million of those users play the Facebook Fish World game online with their friends.
It is impossible to know the amount of aquarists in the hobby worldwide, but using those figures alone, it would suffice to say that using world population, only 1 in 103,000 people are as invested in the fish hobby as the rest of us. Even on facebook, only 2.6% are even interested in Fish World--out of which only 0.7% are actually, physically in the hobby itself if using the internet as the tool for tracking active hobbyists.
Like most of the modern world, more people everyday are satisfied with a computerized counterpart to reality because it is less work and headache. How many people playing Farmville are actual farmers? How many people playing MMOPRG games are actually adventurous in real life? Not many, because the fantasy world is much easier to contend with than reality--and that is the truth of what the computerized era is facing, and why declines are taking place worldwide in many types of hobbies.
My only point is that it should be our endeavor and goal to place a large amount of emphasis on educating the public on our wonderful hobby, and making sure we pass it down to the next generation as an important part of life. Perhaps nothing as catastrophic as I mentioned is going to take place, and by us taking action now, we can make sure it never does.
I can tell you, however, that such fear is wavering over the heads of those being impacted by tough economy and watching steady decline in numbers and business, and all you really need to do is ask around. The market isn't booming as much as we'd hope, and government support and funding is getting even worse.
There are marine biologists everywhere with Ph. D's who cannot even get a job in the field due to lack of demand, and it's even worse that the fields you can go in to with such a degree are the lowest paying incomes of the top paying career fields. Yes, there's a decline, but it's not noticeable with the naked eye or on the surface. It's something you got to dig a little deeper into to discover the truth about, but as long as we keep the hobby going strong the best we can, we can prevent--or at least postpone the pressures weighing against our beloved hobby.
