International Killifish Show in Singapore

[whuntley]

Did that subject cause some near coronary failure?

You folks are getting so organized that I would suggest you set a date and start planning a "major" fish show and convention. <Flame shield just went up!>

You still have a tiny number of species, compared to the old established clubs in Britain, Germany and the USA, and I don't see a lot of wild-fish collectors from SG yet. Reciprocating with the major international clubs can be a great way to expand the hobby quickly. It's also amazing how many good friends you collect this way, too.

As a member of BAKA, I have sent my fish to Germany, Holland, Spain, both Belgian clubs, France, Scandanavia and (I think, maybe) Italy. [Since NZ abd AU are not legal, I won't mention them.] They like getting our native fishes, and I have been deluged with more species than I can believe, by the boxes they have sent back to to BAKA's WCW. [This doesn't even count my participation in AKA boxes!]

Let me know if you have an interest, and I'll try to help with advice (free, and easily worth every penny!) and commentary that may make it possible without causing club burnout with excess work. It does take a little effort, but the rewards to your local hobby can be enormous.

You would need to provide for judges (imported speakers are a great source for the first few times) and to start sending small boxes of fish entries to the other clubs' shows. Your first one does not need to be huge, and you don't need to fully match the contributions of entries you will get. We all know you are just getting organized.

Let me know what you think. If you feel I'm being presumptuous, please don't hesitate to let me know. OK?

Wright

[timebomb]

Let me know what you think. If you feel I'm being presumptuous, please don't hesitate to let me know. OK?

Your post wasn't in any way presumptuous, Wright but it damn nearly gave me a heart attack

Although we seem to be pretty well-organised in this forum, the local Killifish scene is still in its infancy stages . We spoke of forming a club once but the idea was abandoned because there's just too much hassle involved. Besides having to abide by strict rules, there's just too few enthusiasts here to justify forming a club. Ronnie Lee can tell you how difficult it is to round up new members to participate in our "mass egg-buying" exercises.

We organised a Killifish gathering sometime last year and it was quite successful. "Quite" in the sense that many people turned up but the number of serious hobbyists remains low. I've been told privately several times that our rules regarding the usage of "sms short forms and Singlish" discourage many hobbyists from joining this forum and taking to Killifish. But I make no apologies for that. When Ronnie and I set out to build this forum, one of our goals was to ensure that it does not degenerate into similar aquaria-based forums in Singapore where "mindless chattering" is the norm.

I don't know if we will ever see the day when an international killifish show/convention is held in Singapore but I would say it's highly unlikely. One reason is that the serious hobbyists here are non-commercial. Without a commercial interest, hardly anyone would bother. We have Aquarama once every 2 years and some fish clubs like the Betta and Discus clubs organise fish competitions but these are all done with commercial purposes in mind.

But what you said about sending small boxes of fish entries to other clubs' shows is definitely a feasible idea. We don't have an official club but the forum can represent us.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestion and the offer to help, Wright. We try hard but we are only a handful. There's only so much we can do to promote the hobby here. Besides family committments, almost all of us hold full-time jobs. Ronnie Lee, single-handedly has put many hobbyists on the Killifish road. We can do with more Ronnies' but he's one of a kind around here

Loh K L

[darrenlum]

Hi Kwek Leong,

That day will come!

Cheers!
Darren

[Nonn]

Same problem here in Thailand, my dear friend.

There are simply too few dedicated aquarist in this country (this region may I dare to say?)

[Madan]

Well let me chip in a bit.
I really would love to see a killie fish show in Singapore coincide with Aquarama. .

Then I can kill two birds with one stone. That said, I thought we had the same problem here in India, too few enthusiastic hobbyists.

Ravi a good friend of mine, started this webportal www.indianaquariumhobbyist.com, and we are celebrating our first anniversary of existence on 27th June 2004.

All of us actively involved with the portal Ravi, Beta and me wanted to organise a one day conference at Chennai to coincide with the anniversary. We were happy if we could get 25 people to turn up. So we did, keeping our fingers crossed.

Surprise of surprises we now have 25 from my city, Bangalore, alone who are travelling to Chennai this weekend for the celebrations. We'll have aquarists from 3-4 cities atleast coming over. We had never expected anything like this. Remember that this was purely for hobbyists by hobbyists, there is absolutely no commercial interest involved

We now have people telling us we should have
organised field trips, made it a 3 day affair etc.,

Just goes to show that once you take the initiative things will somehow fall into place. Not that you guys in Singapore are lacking in initiative, I'll never say that .

You need people like Ron in this hobby, people like him are the best part of the hobby.

Give it a thought and a try, things will fall into place, is my honest opinion.

[timebomb]

Thanks for the encouragement, Madan. But it isn't fair to compare India with Singapore . We are a nation of only about 3 million whereas India has close to a billion people.

There's also a difference in size. In countries like the USA, conventions are held in places like hotels and people fly from all over the country to attend. But Singapore is so small conventions would be meaningless. We can hold gatherings where people turn up and mingle around for a few hours but no one would want to stay overnight in a hotel when home is less than an hour's drive away.

As for Aquarama, the rent for one booth over the few days is so expensive hobbyists will never be able to afford it. One problem with Killifish is that they're relatively cheap when compared to bigger fishes like LuoHans and Aworanas. If we open a booth at Aquarama, how can we possibly hope to recoup our money when Killies are sold at such low prices? One top-grade LuoHan can easily cost more than a thousand rare Killies. If we were LuoHan enthusiasts, maybe we would be able to hold an international show

In a way, we (the regulars in this forum) are the ones who are guilty of keeping Killifish prices low. In our eagerness to spread the hobby around, we quite often give away the fish for free. The same isn't true for Betta and Discus enthusiasts. Bettas can sometimes change hands for prices of up to more than a thousand Sing dollars and rare strains of Discus can cost even more. During our gathering, there were few buyers even when we sold the eggs of the australes for only a dollar each .

Loh K L

[Nonn]

One top-grade LuoHan can easily cost more than a thousand rare Killies.

What the heck is TOP-GRADE LuoHan? I though they are all s*ck!!!!!

Sorry list, I just can't help it :P

[timebomb]

What the heck is TOP-GRADE LuoHan? I though they are all s*ck!!!!! Sorry list, I just can't help it :P

Nothing to be sorry about, Nonn. We feel the same way too .

Wright Huntley, in one of his sermons, wrote of his distaste for selectively bred Discus which he likens to pink plastic flamingos, a Las Vegas Casino or a Waikiki Hotel. I wonder what he will say when he sees a "kok" head hybridised LuoHan going for more than Sing sixty thousand dollars

Loh K L

[stormhawk]

KL, the most expensive "kok-head" LuoHan I saw for sale was going for SGD$68,888 at Pet Safari. Now that was an impressive fish but not to my taste. Paying that kind of money for just one fish is pretty much a waste of money. I'd set up a shop with that amount of money..

Anyway back to the topic, Wright, I'd love the idea of a Killie Show in Singapore but its just not possible at this moment. We don't have the resources nor the ability to hold such a show. At the most, I'd suggest Ronnie host it down at his Killie Korner at home! But for the next few years I don't think it'll be a reality for now.

[stormhawk]

For awhile, I was thinking of creating a regional grouping for South East Asian killie keepers much like the AKA or the BKA. But then again that would be a logistical nightmare for just one person!

[elmike]

I am quite surprised to see so many locally-based forums. I came to know about AQ in 2002. Since then, several such as Arofanatics.com, Petfrd.com and killies.com have come into the picture. And I’m quite sure there are more that I’m not already aware of.

I read in a fish magazine that there are some 13 million hobbyists in the U.S.A. Yet I would be quite surprised if there are more than 10 U.S.-run forums. And how many hobbyists have we in tiny Singapore, amongst a population of 4 million (take away 1 million of foreigners/ expatriates population – people who are unlikely to keep tanks in their rented apts anyway)?? Say 10,000? 50,000? Maybe 100,000?

I think we are strectching ourselves too thin by having multiple forums. I don’t think we can say they are mutually exclusive in their target, as I do see a lot of parallelism in terms of interests/ subsections and contents. If the administrators of these forums could put aside their differences and band together, we could perhaps be able to hit a critical mass with greater synergy. But that’s highly far-fetch at this point in time.

[hwchoy]

take away 1 million of foreigners/ expatriates population – people who are unlikely to keep tanks in their rented apts anyway)??

you are forgetting MrTree.

[timebomb]

If the administrators of these forums could put aside their differences and band together, we could perhaps be able to hit a critical mass with greater synergy.

Although our goals may be similar, our approaches are different. I have to say that besides AQ, I have a low opinion of the other forums. If they had been any good, I wouldn't have created this one.

The USA may have few forums but their mailing lists are the best around. Even now, I would say the APD is the place to go if you want to learn about aquatic plants and KillieTalk Digest is where the experts hang out. This forum is modelled after the APD. It's where I cut my teeth, so to speak.

Many subscribers on the APD were hit by a frivolous lawsuit but that didn't kill the list. Quite the reverse, the subscribers group together to form a defense fund to fight the lawsuit. In our local forums where people address each other as brothers or sisters, I seriously doubt the same will be true in the event of a frivolous lawsuit.

Having said that, I wouldn't mind working with the other forums if they do things our way .

Loh K L