apisto availability

[Neil Groves]

Since these fish are small, colourful and for the most part non aggressive, why do so few fish stores stock them? I hate buying fish unseen from an online dealer, I just wish they were more freely available so I could go look at them and purchase at the store so I can see the colours in person so I would know what I was getting.

Neil.

 

[Cookie Monster]

I have really never understood the madness behind dealers that seem to never stock fish that would obviously increase their sales. But a shop owner friend of mine says that the bread and butter fishes are what puts meat on his table and he generally gets stuck with the more desireable species because the tend to cost more, and people in general dont buy them. So im sure its simply a money issue.

 

[Neil Groves]

Yes that's a good point, I always see plenty of tetra, danio, plec etc, all the sub $5 fish, I guess cuz the pet shops are where mum takes the kids and buys them a couple fish cuz they won't shut up till they get them lol

 

[JIM]

And, they will most likely not last til the weekend. sadly.

 

[Mike Wise]

You could ask the same question about killifish. They're rare in your LFS too. I think both groups have the same problem. Neither are as prolific as tetras or common cory cats when bred domestically. Apistos tend to take too long to 'color up', be marketable to the average hobbyist and have the incorrect PR of being very delicate. Killies have a reputation for not being long-lived, incorrectly too. Collecting wild fish, apistos are more time intensive than schooling fish. One sweep of the net can yield hundreds of tetras, but it might take hours to collect enough apistos to make it economically worthwhile.

I don't like buying sight unseen, too. My solution has been to go to national and larger regional cichlid convention - or go to South America and collect them myself. Either of these is expensive.

 

[JIM]

Whats a few dollars to a dedicated hobbyist ?

 

[Darkstorm1976]

I've seen some beautiful Apistogramma over the last year, and it's taken me nearly as long to get a successful pair up. I now have a beautiful male and he gets on well with his mate.
Out of 4 different lfs, only 2 have ever stocked them, one even mislabelled a species.