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The question is since there is now a rush to take advantage of the great increasc in the price of Zebras. Is there any attempts to police the quality of the breeding probrams.
Concerns:
I have seen "Puppy Farms" ruin many breeds of dogs and other popular pets by selling inferior stock. I fear that that has happening in the aquarium hobby by giving deformed stock cute names and promoting it as something great and unique.
The phrase "New and rare Buldog Zebra Pleco" comes to mind.

I highly doubt the so called new names are the result if poor breeding practices but rather of unscrupulous sellers try to use the common name to jack the price up on other fish.

Given the cost of breeding stock, the difficulty of getting them to breed, I doubt that inexperienced fish folks are going out, buying fish, spawning them "poorly" and then selling culls as a new variety. There are much easier ways to steal a buck.

For my part I either sell to folks who pick up and can inspect the fish before they take them or if I am shipping I segregate the exact fish the buyer will get and then take numerous pics for their approval before I ship.

Sam, you cannot make a Zebra breed faster or put out more fryes...besides people in for a fast buck won't have the patient it takes to breed Zebras. What I've seen & it is people falsely advertising "Zebra Plecos" for sale in Aquabid....as we speak the label is being used for L316 and L333's...just check it out. Remember that L046's are very distinctive and nothing looks like it...exception being L173's and L098's. Just my 2 cents worth. Dan

What the others have said.


Are you actually seeing bulldog fry being sold as "Rare"?

I am thinking about starting back into the hobby after 40+years. My questions and concerns were prompted by the thread trying to determine the causes of 'bullnose' deformitys in captive breading populations.
As far as I could see there wasn't any conclusions. I did see a desire to sell the bull nose but "not for breeding. However well intentioned that puts defective stock into the market and some one will evernually breed them. Breeding will become more commonplace as more information becomes available. There are always people will try to take advantage of situations that will provide quick money. How high will the price rise in the future? A spawn with 10 healthy fry and 2 bullnose, $400 for regular and $800 for the "rare bullnose". No I havent seen this ad. Yes I have seen simular things happen in other breeding situations.

My memory is slipping. Substitute Bulldog for Bullnose in my previous post. I guess the answer to my origional question is no.