Pure Trimac?

Ogertron3000

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You answered your own question - people do it in AU for the same reason as elsewhere the $$$$$$.

Considering the difficulty in importing wild fish into AU, hybrid cichlids have become rather common over the past 25 years. Numerous crosses can & have been found in AU LFS, many marketed as something they are not. Sometimes there are nice stories attached, but when you dig deeper there is never any actual provenance to back up the stories.

Even here in NA, where trimac with real provenance back to the wild can be acquired relatively easily for those that are willing to source them, a boat load of hybrid flowerhorn crosses can be found being sold as either trimacs, or a flowerhorn of quality, to unsuspecting buyers. Flowerhorns that most serious FH keepers would flush, sold for $10, often far more, to folks new to the hobby. With hundreds of fry produced on a regular basis, even at $10 a pop the money adds up fast. Those looking for cheap trimacs, typically don't know the difference either, and genetics being what they are, sans some kind of provenance from a reliable breeder or importer, no telling what one is buying at your LFS, or backyard breeder. Hybrid trimacs were and still are a real problem in cichlid circles.
Unfortunately I am probably being naive and you are most likely correct. Id like to think since we cant import lots of fish here that people would try to keep the bloodlines pure but I guess at $160 each for a fish the temptation is there to cash in.
 
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stiker

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Unfortunately I am probably being naive and you are most likely correct. Id like to think since we cant import lots of fish here that people would try to keep the bloodlines pure but I guess at $160 each for a fish the temptation is there to cash in.
There is pure A. Trimaculatus in Australia. It all comes down to sourcing them from a trusted breeder (which there are few).

Juveniles also go for $50 or less depending on size. As I mentioned in a post above, anyone spending $160 for juveniles of this species is majorly getting ripped off
 

RD.

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And any trusted breeder should be able to supply some form of provenance back to the wild. If they cannot, then that should answer any question regarding purity.
 

Ogertron3000

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There is pure A. Trimaculatus in Australia. It all comes down to sourcing them from a trusted breeder (which there are few).

Juveniles also go for $50 or less depending on size. As I mentioned in a post above, anyone spending $160 for juveniles of this species is majorly getting ripped off
My LFS has now dropped the price to $120 each. I think if I was going to invest in such a pricey and long lived fish a breeder would be the way to go.
Hybrids of all sorts are very popular now for some reason, another shop has blood parrot x flowerhorn and they sell heaps of them at $40 each. Not my thing but each to their own.
 
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RD.

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I would imagine that your LFS purchased those juvenile trimac from a local breeder, who convinced the shop owner on how rare that species is in AU. If the original fish indeed have provenance back to the wild, then they would be a somewhat rare fish in AU. If the shop owner was the breeder, it wouldn't make sense to attempt to sell tiny juvies for $160. $120 for a 4 cm fish still seems rather ludicrous.

Are these uber rare fish listed with a collection location? At those prices one would expect them to be labeled as Amphilophus trimaculatus Rio Niltepec, or A. trimaculatus Rio Nanrajo, A. trimaculatus Rio Sarabia, etc. Fish simply listed as pure A. trimaculatus seems pretty lame, at least to me, whether they are $40, or $400. Simply adding the term pure to a label means zero to hobbyists that are serious about their fishes lineage.
 

Ogertron3000

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I would imagine that your LFS purchased those juvenile trimac from a local breeder, who convinced the shop owner on how rare that species is in AU. If the original fish indeed have provenance back to the wild, then they would be a somewhat rare fish in AU. If the shop owner was the breeder, it wouldn't make sense to attempt to sell tiny juvies for $160. $120 for a 4 cm fish still seems rather ludicrous.

Are these uber rare fish listed with a collection location? At those prices one would expect them to be labeled as Amphilophus trimaculatus Rio Niltepec, or A. trimaculatus Rio Nanrajo, A. trimaculatus Rio Sarabia, etc. Fish simply listed as pure A. trimaculatus seems pretty lame, at least to me, whether they are $40, or $400. Simply adding the term pure to a label means zero to hobbyists that are serious about their fishes lineage.
Ha! you must work at this shops marketing department. They are labelled exactly as you said "Pure Trimac. RARE"
I wonder how the catch location would work here in Australia. As we havent been able to import them for a very long time its possible they would be pure but many generations and owners/breeders have passed through time and no one would have the original pairs details any more.

Who knows, a customer should be assured its a pure Trimac if thats how they are labelled, especially at that price and if they are planning on breeding them and selling the fry as pure but if you just want a big impressive fish as a pet then the provenance isnt so important. In that case they should be more up front and say "most likely"or äs far as we can tell"pure trimac.

I might drop into that shop next week so will try for a sneaky photo so you can see what we have to put up with here.
 
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RD.

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As we havent been able to import them for a very long time its possible they would be pure but many generations and owners/breeders have passed through time and no one would have the original pairs details any more.
No doubt there are plenty of aquarium, or domestic strains of fish circulating in AU. Unfortunately, overall that doesn't always fair well for the species. A classic example are the millions of crosses between another couple of now common Amphilophus species, labiatus, and citrinellum, that are now circulating in the hobby. That cross has become so common they even have their own name, Midevil. I have a single large very impressive male Amph in one of my tanks, no plans of ever breeding, but I still wanted to know the fishes provenance prior to purchasing it. And it was cheap, almost free. lol But you are right, probably not a big thing to a lot of hobbyists, but personally I like to know what I am keeping.
 
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