Unfortunately fish keeping like almost all aspects of pet keeping has had the "fools rush in approach" for example how many people rushed off and purchased "Lassie" dogs (rough collies) after the tv and movies or Dalmations after the seeing the movies only to end up filling rescue shelters with their cast offs. The people rushed in purchased a particular breed or species because it was suddenly "cool, trendy, hip" to own them without knowing anything about the breeds requirements.
I can say with hand on heart its better for the fish and the potential long term fish keeper to start out with an easier to care for fish, easier being in the sense that they have been bred for many years in almost all water types allowing survival of the fittest to make them more resilient to the many mistakes almost all new fish (pet) keepers make. True the fish may suffer at the hands of inexperience, but I feel if people are ever going to really enjoy the hobby/ pastime of fish keeping then they need to have the emotional and uplifting feeling of having wins, instead of rushing into say a more difficult species and failing in the first month only to then be selling off the tanks etc that had once held great dreams.
Putting it another way I am an avid bird keeper and breeder, and many times people have told me its a waste of time because birds die at the drop of a hat. This can be true, but the birds that didnt die encouraged me to keep learning about them and expanding the selection of bird species that I keep and breed.
