Universal Web Site, Houston, etc

[Erik Olson <eriko@wrq.com>]

Hi guys,

We just got back from a mega-weekend (or was that mini-vacation) in
Houston.  First off, gotta say, _Village Tropical_.  Great store. They
have a dwarf corner with about 12 10-gallon tanks turned on end with
apistos and pelvicachromis.  We brought a box home with A. cruzi, A.
"four stripes", and a male P. subocellatus.  They have the nicest plant
display I've ever seen too, with four or five tanks of varying tech and
types of plants, one of which had a couple pairs of D. maculatus (which
weren't for sale, unfortunatly).

So I'm catching up on the mail from the past week.  Let me put in my 2
cents on the "master apisto picture" site, from the perspective of someone
who's maintained a site with species pictures.  First off, if it's going
to reference outside links, it's going to be a pain to maintain.  When Uwe
Romer personally goes down to Taiwan and pulls that person's plug for
stealing his pictures :), zap, there's 100 links to be fixed.  When I move
the Krib to a new home and decide to re-arrange all the pages again, same
deal.  This is also based on presumed permission given by the original
sites for you to link there.

The alternative (which is the direction I chose in '94 or so for aquatic
plants) is to concentrate on having the information available ON SITE
instead of linking.  This is tougher, because you have to either take the
pictures yourself or convince others that your site is not just good
enough to let link to you, but worthwhile enough to "give them" your
pictures (thanks Ken). 

Bob (I think) mentioned that this would be better than a picture book of
apistos because it can be more complete and up-to-date.  The latter is
true, but the former is not.  At least at this time, there are far more
photos available in print media than what we have on the net so far; I
seriously doubt this will change in the near future, but I am fairly
content to stick up original photos every couple of months to go with all
the great articles you're all writing.  I like that because of this list,
we had photos and spawning tips on A. panduro months before any
publication.  

Anyway, bit of rambling, sorry.  Oh yeah, one other point, about the
asking people to link stuff.  Take it seriously, irregardless of the legal
issues.  Ask first, and listen.  I've been on both sides of this coin. 
Egos can be heart, nerves tweaked, ire raised just for not including (or
including) someone's name without asking.  That person may be standing
across from you at the next ACA convention with a bag of Apistos you just
gotta have... :)

  - Erik

PS: If you have photos or articles on any dwarf cichlid, send 'em my way; 
I will *always* put them on the Krib. 


- ---
Erik D. Olson					         amazingly, at home
eriko@wrq.com