Poll - Would you like to see albino Dart Frogs in the hobby?

[Bev]

Albino leucs are being sold for $200. "Hets" for $80. Is that a good thing for the hobby?

[955i]

It was bound to happen at some point when people had finished ruining leopard geckos, royal pythons, boas and reticulated pythons but it makes me mad :x

After all the effort put into keeping frog morphs pure by 99% of the hobbyists, the smell of silly money for a frog without it's beautiful colours will lure these amateur Frankensteins like flies to shit.

The only thing we can hope for is that dart frog hobbyists are not gullible enough to fall for the hype put out by the breeders, and they may then decide that it's not worth doing and leave the hobby alone.

I would certainly consider any dealer that started selling genetically engineered morphs off my buy from list.

And please, I have been in the herp hobby long enough that I will not fall for the whiney argument 'well they occur in the wild'. That is as maybe, but albinos in any species are uncommon and never successful enough to form populations.

That said, maybe I should consider putting all my frogs in one viv and see if I can produce anything in a colour I can charge some muppet £1000 for :roll:

Rant over

[zaroba]

lol...silly money? some people out there have bills to pay and aren't rich beyond belief like you.
but heck, if money is so pointless to you, can you paypal me 25k so i can pay off my bills?
then I'll be able to afford to ignore the whole profitability aspect of the small but growing hobby.

I'm not ashamed to say it. yes, i am one of those people who is mostly in it for the money. i owe about $25k and only make $250 a week. this hobby is small and is growing. while their still expensive is the perfect time to get into breeding frogs to sell.

[955i]

Whoaaaa!!

I'd suggest you wind your neck in far enough to be able to see your computer screen and re-read my post

I have not said anything against people making money from the breeding and selling of dart frogs, merely about people breeding unnatural morphs and then convincing people that they are worth ridiculous amounts of money.

Do you want to see morphs die out in the hobby because people don't bother breeding them anymore because all the money is in the freaky hybrids?

On another forum recently, someone had to ask if ANYONE had photographs of a standard leopard gecko!! What does that tell you about the state of that side of herping since the engineered morphs have taken over?

And I would also appreciate it if you would quantify this statement - 'some people out thier have bills to pay and aren't rich beyond belief like you'. Where do you get the idea I am rich? I am fairly sure that I don't know you so it cannot be from personal experience.

[zaroba]

please don't take it offensively. it's just a generalized statement based on the jobs and attitude that i've seen most people on the various dart forums have.

it seems most people tend to look down on people who 'are just in it for the money' and don't care about it. like how you put it, its 'silly money'.

the rich statement was just an exaggeration because the comments about money is what makes me think that you are well enough financially that you don't have to worry about whether or not you can pay bills each month, you probably have a good income and a good job. other words, the fact that people would be willing to buy a frog for 1k wouldn't seem like such a bad thing (besides the whole hybrid stuff anyway)


I've said it on other forums in similar topics and I'll say it here.
who says morphs HAVE to die out just because of hybrids? sites like this one can disallow the sale of frogs on them by people who aren't registered as pure breeders. then anybody who wants to have pure frogs can buy from those people. its quite simple, the people who only want pure frogs only breed pure frogs and sell them to others who only want pure frogs via these forums.

either way you look at it though. one thing can't be argued.
if people are willing to pay more for hybrid reptiles, then that shows a very profitable market. it also shows what most future hobbyists will want. think about it, if their wasn't a demand for all these hybrid geckos etc, then they wouldn't have been made in the first place

can't really say it about frogs yet, but can about geckos and pythons
somebody could easily say that only a small percentage of the gecko/python hobbyists wanted pure breeds. when the rest just wanted very pretty animals.

if pure breed frogs die out in the future, then it will show that people don't really want pure breeds.


p.s. no I'm not gonna be making any hybrids, I'm gonna breed leucs and a local pet shop said they would buy them.

[955i]

Well, no offense taken and I am actually on a pretty crap wage (although I do have a job I enjoy ).

My frogs are my passion and (as my wife will tell anyone who listens :lol: ) I spend far more than I should on them.

When all is said and done, people can buy what they like but I think that the problem seen with the new pumilio imports will be compounded tenfold once people start mixing morphs to try and get a 'desirable' pattern.

A lot of the reptile morph boom to my mind is not so much that the morphs are attractive, many of them are not, but appeal to the egos of people who want to say ' look at what I've got, it cost xxxxx£'

I am probably misjudging a lot of people here, but my opinion remains the same

[Liverlips]

Nothing wrong with albinos, normal morphs will allways remain widely available.

I'd much rather see albinos than morph crossbreeds.

[Philsuma]

Another interesting poll from 4.5 years ago.

[boombotty]

I don't like albinos, aren't darts suppose to be colorfull? Also, from what I have read, they don't survive very long.

[Bill Schwinn]

Yes, but they could not be as nice as the natural colors, they would probably have a following.

[Philsuma]

I've seen pics of Albino auratus, tinctorius and reticulatus only.

Anyone see any others ?

leucomelas ?

[boombotty]

I think I remember seeing a pic of an albino imi, perhaps a tarapoto. I was thinking it was a pic from Cindy, could be wrong.

[Philsuma]

I think I remember seeing a pic of an albino imi, perhaps a tarapoto. I was thinking it was a pic from Cindy, could be wrong.

Yeah...I thought I saw it here a week or so, ago. I can't seem to find it now.

[Cindy Dicken]

These are some Tarapotos we had morph out, a few years ago.

[Philsuma]

Wow. Very interesting, seeing that vivid colour - or lack thereof, in this case.

[Bill Schwinn]

Those are beautiful. Definately would not mind a tank of those.

[jellyman]

Those are awesome. What ever became of them?

[Philsuma]

Do you still have them Cindy. I think they look cool.

They look EXTRA cool in the hands of an experienced, responsible hobbyist - like right now. :wink:

[Michael Lawrence]

I find it funny that so many doubt the ethics of hobbyists on this subject. There has been quite a few albinos produced over the years yet I only know of one instance where the producer ended up breeding it and actively selling the hets. I wont name names as I do respect him but why bother. I think those of us who have produced abinos have led by a good example. Ive seen albino retics, lamasi, vanzo, leucs, auratus, a couple tincs and only one is soon to become a more commonly produced frog.

Michael

[Tony]

On the flip side we do have chocolate leucs and hets being sold regularly...