into the game too late... Why Dan's fish is going to stop selling Congo River fish

[Magnum Man]

so lately I've been putting together an African regional river tank...

if you find those fish interesting watch this video...

 

[GaryE]

He has a whole bunch of very valid points. Even the best Congo shipper struggles with infrastructure. It's really hard to imagine how the Central African world operates. I negotiated with one company that included taxi fare in their estimates - they didn't own a vehicle to go get the fish. 3 day taxi rides to bring back fish...

These are entrepreneurial cultures with next to no regulation, so bribery and corruption flourish. The elite is very wealthy, and the cities sometimes have large areas with no running water. Whatever you build can be taken away, often by the police in some countries. The DRC Congo is still a war zone. I wouldn't go to the interior. Gabon, the safest of the region's countries, just had a military coup. The newly installed President is the cousin of the one kicked out.

Meanwhile, parts of the capital city have no running water. To feed the fish, exporters have boiled rice.

I met wonderful people, truly wonderful people. But things don't work well, there is hard poverty amid great wealth, and disfunction everywhere.

I really get the point of that video. African fish are my favourites, but they are slipping out of the hobby rapidly. I don't know Dan, but he seems a very diplomatic man.

Now, I've been sitting here on the outskirts of the hobby saying "we'd better learn how to breed these things, or...." That video is "or".

 

[Lateral Line]

Good video that. When I was in the Congo, (called Zaire at the time), there were no bad shippers simply because there were no shippers. The country was a mess, a wreck. Was mid '90's. It still has some catching up too do.

 

[gwand]

Sad story for the fish and the people.