Re: Apisto ID

[Randy or Deb Carey <carey@spacestar.net>]

If we could get some code on all of our new imports, that would be
great.  But I'm skeptical that the commercial community will do that. 
For it to work, you'd have to get the all parties involved:  collectors,
exporters, importers, wholesalers, shopkeepers, and hobbyists.  This
involves cooperation and the patience to learn and apply the new scheme.

Perhaps a more serious problem is getting aquarists (Apisto keepers) to
know how to identify a species.  Shop keepers often mislabel
(ignorance?, apathy?) the species the way it is, so we keepers ought to
know how to keep them honest--or at least how to correctly identify the
species ourselves.  

What I'm saying is, the important thing is correct identification of the
genus and species.  The addition of collection location and other info
is subserviant to this correct identification.  (If we can get location,
et. al., great.)

Since I'm skeptical that the commercial industry will reliably
cooperater, I lean toward a hobbyist effort.  That means we use
collection info if we know it, but if not, we who are knowledgeable add
(and register) a code as we obtain and identify an Apisto which we have
just obtained (if it doesn't already have it).  By registering, I mean
some central organization of hobbyists (Apisto. Study Group?) would
acknowledge identification criteria, would register identifiers, and
perhaps even registered the particular identification.

Under this scheme, if I buy a bag of Apisto's without the code, I know
that their identity have not yet been made by the Apisto circle.  I
would then id them and attach the correct code as I distribute them.  If
I do see the code, I know they had been id'ed by someone using the
standards (and could learn who identified them in some previous
generation).  This scheme would also allow hobbists to know if a newly
offered batch of Apisto's ultimately come from the same source.

I could go on about this scheme as I have been thinking about it for a
while, but I'm writing e'mail, not an article.  In short, I believe we
can't rely on the commercial end so it's up to us hobbyists.

- --Randy