DRAS Aquariama 2007

[Zoban]

Our 39th Annual show and Auction is coming up on the 15th of April 2007 in Ajax Ontario.

You do not have to be a member of DRAS to show, sell or buy Fish!
Come on out and participate!


For more information and a Map follow the link below.
http://www.dras.ca/aquariama2007.html

[Zoban]

Big Bump..

Just a reminder that Sunday is coming fast.

http://www.dras.ca/images/aquariama2007map.jpg

Hope to see you there.

[steve-o]

Will be there, hoping to find a used 55-75, filters, and heaters

[CanadaPleco]

DAMNIT... I'm in the freakin states!!! aghhhhh... why do I miss all the good events! BAH this stinks.

[klc]

I can't go to these type of shows. Too much neat stuff to buy and no will power. My wife would kill me afterwards.

[CanadaPleco]

haha I am the same way! I guess its for the best :( THe show at the end of the month out london way I cant get to either, BAHHH the speaker sounds great too!

[Zoban]

Well the day is now done and man was there a lot of fish there.

Several L066 King Tigers, L201 contradens, bushy this and that, whiptails etc etc

The surprise was an L046 That I figure was about 3/4-1 inch in size and went for the minimum it was tagged at ..... 70bucks.

Very tempted to bid on the lil guy but I knew who made the initial and that his breeding setup was better suited then me trying to home a solo fry at the time being.

Did snag some gold spot bushy, couple red lizard whiptails, and a few snails.

[CanadaPleco]

sounds like a good show and auction!

[Zoban]

Add to the whole thing with the L46 that was there .. the wife give me crap for not buying it as my reason of tank etc and her not really wanting me to setup tank number 8 became invalid "for a Zebra I would have no problem with another tank, you shoulda called me if you were not buying because of that" was basically her response..

And I have an empty 15 in the garage that I coulda setup too and used breeder trap in the interm of it's setup.. GRRRRRRRR

Win some lose some.. :(

[Zebrapl3co]

Heh ... the zebra's price was a bit disappointing. I was hoping it would hit at least $100. But it fizzled instead. As for the size, it's 1"+ and it's either 7 or 8 months old.
I heard some one say a gold nugget pleco went for $69 ...! what kind of pleco was that? Was it a goldy pleco (L14)?
If it was, it must have been a fair size 4 - 5". I must have mist that.

[Rush2112]

Hi,
It was very nice to meet you yesterday. That pleco was about a 3-4" gold nugget. I was bidding for it too but I was not going to pay $70! I think a similar one went for about the same price. I have seen pretty nice gold nuggets for half that price.

All the best. I will try to keep in touch.
Gino

[Zoban]

The Nugget was indeed a Nugget though unsure the L# it was .. If I remember right it was on table 10. and was a good 4" I think.

The price on the Zebra was dissapointing specially for the seller but worked out somewhat luck of the draw as the table orders being random made it very clsoe to the end of the auction. May yet have to chat with Doug and see if he wants to sell it hehehh

Some of the Ancistrus were fetching a pretty good price too, even the common BN's.

[Zebrapl3co]

So it really was a gold nugget. That is insane. A gold nugget is a gold nugget. I've seen at least 4 kinds of gold nugget and never did it cost that much for 1. Even at the stores.

[bob]

For what its worth, I auctioned it off and I don't believe that it was a gold nugget. I think it was likely a young scobiancistrus sp. It was a nice fish but I was surprised at the final price.

As for the zebra, the biggest problem was the bag it was in. It was an opaque bag that made it very difficult to view the fish. I think a better bag would have easily brought the price into the $100 range. Hell, if I had a good view of it, I would have paid $100 and it was in my hands.

[Zoban]

On pricenetwork the seller mentioned that the bag was one of the breathable bags and thus why he choose it.

Doug added it to one of his Zebra tanks and far as I know at this point hasn't seen it since.. Not sure if that is a good or bad sign yet though..

[Zebrapl3co]

Does Doug have an account here? Ask him to check all the caves with a flash light. It's possible that one of the zebra adult might have adopted the little rascal. Zebra pleco is a community fish, they take it other zebra fry. Althogh there are a few that are inexplicably rejected and kicked out of the cave.

As for the gold nugget. No offens bob, if it's the same gold nugget that I remember seeing. I don't think it's a scobiancistrus sp., it has some yellow on this rear fin. For a starter, scobiancistrus sp. have no yellow, only spots. That's why I didn't think much of it and pass it by. It was the rare gold nugget type though, not that standard $25 ones you see at the store.

[steve-o]

I was one of the guys bidding on the GN, never see healthy ones around here and this one looked good. Didn't win it tho, oh well, time. got a couple nice angels though :D

[Canadiancray]

It didn't go any higher because not many people would risk paying that much for a single Zebra of that small size. It might have been 1" IF you include the fins & not just body. IMO its kinda silly to put a single L046 in an auction & expect to get more than the min. There are VERY few people keeping these fish & only breeders with an already setup L046 tank are going to even look at a single fish.

If you put 2 or 3 fish in the lot you would have gotten more $$ per fish IMO.

[Zoban]

Very much agreed !!

[Zebrapl3co]

Huh, CC, when you measure a fish you don't measure the fin? I always thought that you include the fin when you measure it!
Anyway, I never did intend to make a killing with the zebra pleco. The only reason why I auctioned the zebra pleco was so I can break even with the stuff I bought at the auction. I know that there'll be stuff I can't resist. So that's why I only auction just one. Also, I just want to let out the news that there is a zebra pleco breeder in Ontario. It's more of a promo then an actual sale.
Also, from this experience. I'll know where my market lies. Sadly, that market won't be from the auction, so that means either I sell them to the stores, which will be resold at around $399, or it's private sales and over sea private sales.
Also, thank you for all the feed backs. I really appriciate it. Now I know it's too small to let go, I'll have to raise the zebra to a bigger size before set them up for sale.
Thanks,
Peter

[Rush2112]

Peter,

You did the right thing getting the news out there that someone in the Toronto area is breeding zebra plecos. I don't know one single other person!
I must congratulate you on your success. Hopefully you will be able to continue breeding these beautiful fish. I can't afford to buy any right now but hope to in the near future.

Regards
Gino.

[Zebrapl3co]

Thanks Gino.
I still think I have quite a few things to learn.

[Canadiancray]

Huh, CC, when you measure a fish you don't measure the fin? I always thought that you include the fin when you measure it!
Peter

Most well known breeders will give length based on body size not including finage. There are too many variables when it comes to fin length. You could have a fish with small body & very long fins. This could really upset a buyer who was expecting a larger fish. If you are going to include fin length in the measurement make sure to state that.

[Zoban]

Just as an update about the wee stripey bumb Doug shot me an email other day that the lil guy has re-appeared and seems accepted by the group and doing well.

Figured for those that were curious and the mind of original seller I should update ya'll that all is well and good.

[steve-o]

Sweet, good to hear.

[Canadiancray]

Interesting. I was told last night that the fish died not long after the auction.

[Zebrapl3co]

The zebra was though to have died, but Doug found him/her swimming with the group recently.

Thanks Zoban. I was a bit upset that my one of my zebra became expensive fish food. I did spent 1/2 a year doing water changes and slaving to raise them up. Alot of heart went into that little one because only 3 have survived from his/her batch.

Believe me, if you're in it for the profit, you'll be in for a big supprise. I mean, you'll make some money. But with the skills you've obtain. You're better of with the other pleco that laid 50 eggs a batch.