The very $5,000 fish, Herself
My Original Blithering -
When I read this story I didn't think of how darn excited the aquarium people were or how this might be some huge horkin' event I'm not getting the gist of.....I thought: How wonderful life must be to have nothing better to do with your money than buy a FISH. FOR FIVE GRAND.
This is a Hawaiian Masked Angelfish. Some in an Hawaii aquarium bred and had baby fishies. Fishlings. What ever the hell you call them. I'm happy for the fish, I am. However I'd like to focus not on the fact that these fish breed quite well as a matter of course out IN THE OCEAN where they live, or the fact this made news because they bred in an AQUARIUM, like we had SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT (ok, I'm yelling...I apologize) (I'm calm now. I am) was the fact that people pay up to $5,000 for one of these.
(3,477.82 GBP ......5,656.26 EUR)
Please read this slowly:
F I V E (5)
T H O U S A N D (5000)
D O L L A R S ($$$$$$$)
A M E R I C A N
Hobbies are nice to have, yes siree bob. I myself cross stitch and do beadwork from time to time. I love books. Once in a rare while I'll treat myself and go to the bookstore and buy some fat, yummy book that's not on the bargin-reduced table when I can scrape $50 or so together. It's not like I'm bitter or anything. It's not like on MY PLANET $5,000 is say, 5 month's rent or a few car payments or HELL, EVEN A CAR....(ok, I said I'd stop...sorry). They want a fish with a little yellow on it? I can get a anyone a fish exactly like this for HALF OF that amount. Hell, I can get one yellow AND WITH a mask on it for say.....$300! Spray paint is cheap these days and the guy at the pet store said Angelfish are about $3 a pop. Nevertheless this seemed to excite people enough that it was front page news, so here for your viewing pleasure is what $5,000 worth of fish looks like. That's a bit more than $700 an inch.
And I found in my mail....a nice surprize -
" Just wanted you let you know,
in your article on angelfish in the odd-pics section, only the
picture on the left is a female masked angelfish, Genicanthus personatus
, the other two are different species. So where ever you took these
pictures from has it wrong too.
(Note..I took 'em down. I'm a moron -R)
As to why anyone would pay $5k for a fish ... well ... why would anyone pay a high price for an old chair, or a rare diamond? This is a rare fish, found only in the Hawaiian Islands below 200'. So ... they are very hard to get so if some crazy fish collector wants to pay someone to dive to those depths to get this rare fish ... oh well ...
Anyway, the real importance of the press release was not that this fish is worth that much, but that it is the first rearing of this type of fish anywhere in the world. The food source used can be applied to other popular aquarium fish as well. So the gist is, its a conservation issue not an economic one, and could result in the decreased collection of fish from the wild.
I've attached a pic of our little lady at 75 days old.
Aloha from the home of the $5K fish!
J. Charles DelbeekAquarium Biologist
Waikiki Aquarium
2777 Kalakaua Ave.
Honolulu, HI, USA 96815
www.waquarium.org
and for having a great sense of humor, too :) Best of luck with your Girl!
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