John wrote:I think the answer would or should be in the middle, find a fellow hobbyist which you feel comfortable with and sell for a midrange price.
I wouldn't feel comfortable by selling to the highest bidder and wouldn't know if they would go to a good home.......
Things are not that simple in our opinion. The amount of money somebody is willing to pay may also be an indication of how much they want the fish, which in turn could be an indication of how much they appreciate and value it. We are all familiar with the poor treatment some fish get because they are "cheap" and easily replacable. We are not saying that this is always the case and we have ourselves been able to get some zebras for a very good price, for which we are really grateful. But we just wanted to point out that there are always two sides to a coin.
On the other hand, the prices that are nowadays commanded for L46s are more often than not extremely high. The idea of making the species available in the market via small breeders was and it is of particular importance to us. We have had hard times trying to build up our colony (to the extent we lost money to a conman and so on) and we really feel that it is worth supporting other hobbyists not to go through this when building theirs up.
Whether we like it or not, a hobbyist's ability to keep - and keep well - all the fish his/her colonies produce is limited. At the end of the day none of us owns the Amazon. So regardless of anything else, there will come the day we will all have to sell. This is reality and has nothing to do with ethical considerations, likes or dislikes.
We have long come to the conclusion that the question to who and for how much is up to each seller to decide. We can't expect everybody to share our own views or principles - and we can't condemn them not doing so. In addition, people have different strategies for ensuring their fry go to a decent home - and asking for a higher price is one of these (you wouldn't expect somebody who has paid $40000 for a red arrowana to mistreat it, or not take good care of it). At the point of sale, regrettably, we can't know the intentions of the buyer, except if we know them personally. Otherwise we will only find that out later - or in some cases never. Finally, as pointed out by smithrc above, people's circumstances change and everybody must also take into account their own - we are not sure what we would do if our choice was to sell some fry for a higher price or have to close down one of our tanks and give away the fish in it. We just hope things will not come to this.
To us there is only one more thing to consider, and that is the well being of the fry. We bring them up, we do care about them and we all appreciate that despite technically treated as a "commodity" they are animals, have rights, and need to be treated with respect, love and care. We believe nobody would sell their fry to a person who would make it known he would use them as feeders, for example, even if this person was willing to pay triple the asking price.
Regrettably there is only so much a genuine seller can do to ensure the fry they sell go to "good homes". To be more precise, we can only take some steps to prevent our fry going to clearly bad homes by avoiding suspicious buyers - but there is a difference between not going to a bad home and going to a good home. Similarly, going to a good home is not a guarrantee that the fry will have a good life either - accidents do happen.
A final remark: having had the fortune (or misfortune) to also keep very prolific tank busters (Paratilapia sp. andapa, P. dovii, P. managuensis, P. fenestratus etc) we also had the experience of trying to find homes for some 400 - 500 fry at a time and being unable to do so. This is a hard lesson because it makes you face the facts: you either try (and fail) to save everybody or you try to give at least some a fighting chance. We can't see any difference between these fry and the zebbie fry (probably the wrong forum to say this but all fry to us are equal and equally adorable) which in turn means that we feel nobody is in a position to instruct or pressurize others what to do when it comes to selling their fry. There are too many things to take into account in making a sound decision - and different priorities for different people, even for the same person at different times in their life. We can point at things to consider or suggest possible ideas, but the decision ultimately lies with the seller and this decision must be respected.
Hobbyists who keep and breed L46s are still lucky to have a choice as to where their fry go because this fish is still very much wanted. But just ask yourselves what you will do with your fry if the market changes, nobody wants them and you know you can't keep them because you reached capacity .....
Caesars and Polleni
we appreciate people being able to find the sale.
Very well said though and I can understand where you are coming from.
I can certainly vouch for your plecs, we've still got the starlight bristlenoses that we got from you last year! I will keep an eye out for your auction!
) So really, you shouldn't dismiss e-bay altogether. You might get lucky like me