>>I was just flicking through an old TFH and they had a "best australian/NG
>>fish" award at their annual breeders convention. It would certainly add
>>that bit at the convention to have to judge things as well and may stir
>>up some interest/debate. Just an idea really.
>That would've been one of the Florida Fish Farmer's Assn. cons - they've
>been a feature of TFHs for a long time... and yes, maybe a fish show is
>something that could well be incorporated into Native Fish clubs - not only
<at National Conventions but at monthly meetings of regional groups? ;-)
>There are arguments against this, though - Rainbows being tricky things to
>transport safely when they are large, loss of colour when stressed, who
>brings the show tanks to the pub, who mops up the water... Are there any
>Rainbow/Native clubs that do this successfully?
I just want to tell you a short story of what can happen on a show where
rainbowfish were exposed. In Great Britain fish are judged chiefly for
their length. I gave a lecture at the final judging for whole GB. A rainbow
also started in its category. I met the owner and he told me, he had one
several awards for his fish. It was called M. monticola (maximum length
9 cm). Well, I had to tell him that he had a M. trifasciata (maximum
length 15 cm, both lenghths according to the judging rules in GB).
He asked me to keep quite, as he would earn many more points if he
still could show his fish as M. monticola... So far about judging bows.
However, there are also positive examples. On several of our AGM we
showed rainbows - in excellent colours and excellent condition.
You just have to set up the tanks at least one week before you let
the people look into them. But also if you have only one or two days,
if your aquarium has enough plants and decoration, the rainbows
will feel well after about one day. We had some advertising shows
in the last months and I can promise you, the bows showed an excellent
colour and were magnets of the show (we made the third place in an all
animal show with 26.000 visitors, first was a falconer, second a hen
breeder, best aquarist society in show!). So it is possible to show bows.
Harro
harro.hieronimus at t-online.de