You can scream your heads off about all the issues and every one here is the best of breed, but ultimately it will be the educated customers who will determine issues like cyanide and the USL and cleaner wrasse, cleaner wrasse, cleaner wrasse
Oh how I wish this was true. REALITY is, that only a very FEW hobbyists ever choose to educate themselves *independently* of their LFS. These message boards, while they present the appearance of hobbyists wanting to educate themselves and others, in actual fact they represent only a tiny fraction of the hobbyist community at large.
I founded the local reef club, and I recruited most of the members, or the person who recruited them, was recruited by me. I push the club HARD to each of my customers - but in actual fact, only about 20 % of my customers are members, and some of them only joined the club to get the club discount at my (and others) shop. One can safely assume that I have a higher proportion of members than most of the other stores in the area, because I'm one of the newest stores around, and I push the club DAILY. Other stores are supportive, but no other owners/employees attend with the regularity that I do, so they don't have the "emotional investment" that I do, and so they aren't pushing for membership like I am, so less than 20 % of their clients are members too. This area has thousands of hobbyists, enough to keep some pretty high -end stores in business, but there are only about 60 paid up club members. Fewer than those frequent the boards, and fewer still attend a board like this one (although I saw one of our members browsing here yesterday...). Other than the "tang police" or the occasional flame about somebody who put a Mandarin in a 10 gallon tank, the information is just not out there in hobbyists' face, and some who have heard "rumours" about cyanide think that was phased out in the 70s. Many are SHOCKED when I discuss the issues with them.
Unlike those of us with a vested interest, and those with a passion that causes them to live and breathe for their tank, the vast majority of retail customers are NOT aware, and they don't care either. They just want the prettiest fish at the best price. It's sad but it's true. Right or wrong they take all their advice from whatever LFS they land in when they begin - I see this every week when I get another new customer running an undergravel fliter on their marine tank, or a canister filter (or both) with 4 inches of Puka shell as subtrate...
I'd be willing to bet that there are MANY LFS OWNERS/OPERATORS and staff who aren't very well aware of the issues, they just accept things like increased mortality as a fact of life in this business, and carry on, since you get the same "quality" and stock list from all of the big wholesalers - "it couldn't possibly be such a large scale problem - somebody would DO something about it"....
We need to think beyond our little bubble here in the online community and get back into the real world - most don't know, and don't care and until we shout a little louder and make sure we're heard, nothing's going to change. I have changed what I can, thusfar, and work each day to educate all who will listen, and make suitable choices when I buy livestock. That's what we ALL need to do. Sooner or later as more catch on, change will follow.
Jenn
) and at least 50 clowns - kinda like playing, "Where's Waldo", plus an assortment of other fish. Looks kinda like a tank one would see at a trade show - packed to the hilt with stuff just for a weekend, then sold to the highest bidder at the end of the show. David was very surprised when I told him what I thought of that image, and he'd never noticed it.
