The base of the issue here is that people are going to have different opinions about things. How you handle your difference of opinion with another person speaks volumes. It's okay to attempt persuasion in a cause or thought you feel you are right about. It is only normal to want another person to see things from your point of view. We all do it.
However, the key is not to do so in an overly aggressive fashion. Name-calling and words used specifically to make that person or their beliefs seem ridiculously inferior isn't going to make them want to try to see things from your perspective. It doesn't open their minds, it shuts them down and puts them on the defensive, hurts their feelings, and angers them. So in the end you prove nothing to them except that now they think your a total *****.
So what does this prove to anyone? What does this resolve? Nothing. And the next time that person enters into a conversation of a similar kind, they are more likely to be overly defensive and closed toward changing their mind on the subject. This does nothing for anyone involved.
People come to this website not only for accurate information, but for the fun and pleasure of swapping stories, pictures, and advice with other people who share their love of all things aquatic. We preach about proper care and educating the masses so that there is a better quality of life for the fishes, invertebrates, etc that are being bought and sold in this industry. But a GOOD 80% of that process is getting people to be open and willing to receive ideas, opinions, and experiences other than their own.
We must all learn to do this by taking a deep breath sometimes and learning to word ourselves properly and politely. So we can bring our point to light without turning what was supposed to be an intelligent conversation about differences of opinion into a flame war.
Now on topic, guppies, mollies, bettas, platies, corydoras, cichlids, and countless other species show evidence of tampering by man's hand. Longer fins, albinoism, specific color traits, larger or smaller sizes, or even brand new hybrids. If you were to throw out all species that were ever tampered with, you'd eliminate what makes some of these specimens in our everyday aquariums unique.
As stated before, fish are a pet purchased because they are ornamental. Less like food animals and treated more like garden flowers. Think about roses. There are thousands of colors, leaf and petal types, different fragrances, and different levels of hardiness for different climates. All designed by someone who looked at the rose as it was and imagined it being a little more to their liking. More to the way they imagine it would be if only they were to improve upon it. I imagine the first person who came upon wild endlers and guppies did much the same thing. "It's so lovely and colorful, but what if I did this and that and gave it longer fins and richer colors?"
Blood parrots are just an extension of this attitude. Lets make an interesting looking fish that has this and that trait from this parent while maintaining this and that trait from that parent. Sure, they are funky-looking... but it makes them cute. They are personable little fishes and the natural (non-dyed) ones seem hardy enough. No different from the massive tails on fancy male guppies or sailfin mollies or bettas, all of which look hardly anything like their original wild-born relatives.
Fish cross-breed to create new and stranger-looking hybrid in the wild. Large-mouth bass with cross with bluegill to create a funny-looking hybrid commonly called a shell-cracker. They have a big head and a squat body... and a uniquely sweet flavor unlike bluegill or bass. Highly desired by the fisherman who eats his catch.
So to call BPs an abomination is just silly. Shell-crackers can't reproduce, but they happened in nature and if fishermen had their way, they'd have a lot more of 'em happen. Some think that's a horrid idea. The only difference with BPs is that people regularly have a hand in it, but if it was marketable and as easy to do with large species like bass and bluegill, don't you think people would make shell-crackers and harvest them for their flesh?
It just seems amusing to me that people can get so worked up about blood parrots when probably a good half the stock in their own tanks were probably altered and purposely bred for its looks and behaviors to be just so.
To me, blood parrots and glofish are just an extension of where science and technology continue to play a part in our everyday lives. We now know more about how genetics and DNA work than ever before and moreso, we have better knowledge of how we can manipulate and alter these basic structures. Not that I approve of ALL the changes we're making to anything and everything. Again, as above-mentioned... until it is proven that glofish are unhealthy and incapable of a quality existence, I don't mind seeing them in stores and buying them if I decide to do so.
The blood parrot, when not tattoed or dyed, is a unique-looking and personable cichlid with qualities that are worthy of it having a status in the aquarium hobby. It, like any other fish in this hobby, will have it's fanciers and admirers and it will have those who think it is ugly or strange.
I personally don't care much for live-bearers. I especially can't stand mollies and think they are an unappealing fish. I rarely voice this because it's an opinion that has everything to do with the addage that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' and I don't expect everyone to agree with me or support my thoughts. I'm not going to lead a rally to boycott sellers of balloon mollies or dalmation or sailfin mollies because they are making what I think is an unattractive creature even more ugly to appeal to those who might find them 'cute'. That's just silly when some people love mollies for their own reasons.
Yes, there are plenty of natural species of fishes that are perfectly pretty all on their own... but that's no reason to bash someone for keeping something they bought because they liked it. If the animal is receiving quality care and a good quality of life overall, what's the hang-up? Or else the next time you walk by a garden and see a rose, you should complain to that home owner that there are plenty of pretty and colorful wildflowers in the world without them manufacturing that plant in a hothouse just for it's exotic scent and vibrant color. Or that their pet English Bulldog or Thoroughbred horse is a hideous abomination because it has to have assisted birth?
However, the key is not to do so in an overly aggressive fashion. Name-calling and words used specifically to make that person or their beliefs seem ridiculously inferior isn't going to make them want to try to see things from your perspective. It doesn't open their minds, it shuts them down and puts them on the defensive, hurts their feelings, and angers them. So in the end you prove nothing to them except that now they think your a total *****.
So what does this prove to anyone? What does this resolve? Nothing. And the next time that person enters into a conversation of a similar kind, they are more likely to be overly defensive and closed toward changing their mind on the subject. This does nothing for anyone involved.
People come to this website not only for accurate information, but for the fun and pleasure of swapping stories, pictures, and advice with other people who share their love of all things aquatic. We preach about proper care and educating the masses so that there is a better quality of life for the fishes, invertebrates, etc that are being bought and sold in this industry. But a GOOD 80% of that process is getting people to be open and willing to receive ideas, opinions, and experiences other than their own.
We must all learn to do this by taking a deep breath sometimes and learning to word ourselves properly and politely. So we can bring our point to light without turning what was supposed to be an intelligent conversation about differences of opinion into a flame war.
Now on topic, guppies, mollies, bettas, platies, corydoras, cichlids, and countless other species show evidence of tampering by man's hand. Longer fins, albinoism, specific color traits, larger or smaller sizes, or even brand new hybrids. If you were to throw out all species that were ever tampered with, you'd eliminate what makes some of these specimens in our everyday aquariums unique.
As stated before, fish are a pet purchased because they are ornamental. Less like food animals and treated more like garden flowers. Think about roses. There are thousands of colors, leaf and petal types, different fragrances, and different levels of hardiness for different climates. All designed by someone who looked at the rose as it was and imagined it being a little more to their liking. More to the way they imagine it would be if only they were to improve upon it. I imagine the first person who came upon wild endlers and guppies did much the same thing. "It's so lovely and colorful, but what if I did this and that and gave it longer fins and richer colors?"
Blood parrots are just an extension of this attitude. Lets make an interesting looking fish that has this and that trait from this parent while maintaining this and that trait from that parent. Sure, they are funky-looking... but it makes them cute. They are personable little fishes and the natural (non-dyed) ones seem hardy enough. No different from the massive tails on fancy male guppies or sailfin mollies or bettas, all of which look hardly anything like their original wild-born relatives.
Fish cross-breed to create new and stranger-looking hybrid in the wild. Large-mouth bass with cross with bluegill to create a funny-looking hybrid commonly called a shell-cracker. They have a big head and a squat body... and a uniquely sweet flavor unlike bluegill or bass. Highly desired by the fisherman who eats his catch.
So to call BPs an abomination is just silly. Shell-crackers can't reproduce, but they happened in nature and if fishermen had their way, they'd have a lot more of 'em happen. Some think that's a horrid idea. The only difference with BPs is that people regularly have a hand in it, but if it was marketable and as easy to do with large species like bass and bluegill, don't you think people would make shell-crackers and harvest them for their flesh?
It just seems amusing to me that people can get so worked up about blood parrots when probably a good half the stock in their own tanks were probably altered and purposely bred for its looks and behaviors to be just so.
To me, blood parrots and glofish are just an extension of where science and technology continue to play a part in our everyday lives. We now know more about how genetics and DNA work than ever before and moreso, we have better knowledge of how we can manipulate and alter these basic structures. Not that I approve of ALL the changes we're making to anything and everything. Again, as above-mentioned... until it is proven that glofish are unhealthy and incapable of a quality existence, I don't mind seeing them in stores and buying them if I decide to do so.
The blood parrot, when not tattoed or dyed, is a unique-looking and personable cichlid with qualities that are worthy of it having a status in the aquarium hobby. It, like any other fish in this hobby, will have it's fanciers and admirers and it will have those who think it is ugly or strange.
I personally don't care much for live-bearers. I especially can't stand mollies and think they are an unappealing fish. I rarely voice this because it's an opinion that has everything to do with the addage that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' and I don't expect everyone to agree with me or support my thoughts. I'm not going to lead a rally to boycott sellers of balloon mollies or dalmation or sailfin mollies because they are making what I think is an unattractive creature even more ugly to appeal to those who might find them 'cute'. That's just silly when some people love mollies for their own reasons.
Yes, there are plenty of natural species of fishes that are perfectly pretty all on their own... but that's no reason to bash someone for keeping something they bought because they liked it. If the animal is receiving quality care and a good quality of life overall, what's the hang-up? Or else the next time you walk by a garden and see a rose, you should complain to that home owner that there are plenty of pretty and colorful wildflowers in the world without them manufacturing that plant in a hothouse just for it's exotic scent and vibrant color. Or that their pet English Bulldog or Thoroughbred horse is a hideous abomination because it has to have assisted birth?
