BAP Reevaluation?

[Acara19]

Not sure if it's possible or if it's been brought up before, but just a suggestion, after looking over the list of genre/species and their classifications for grading, I was confused as to why certain species were listed as category A (as in easier to breed) while others were considered category B or C (as in more difficult). For example amatitlania altoflava and nanolutea being in category A wasn't too fitting to me, as with my pair of nanolutea I only get 3 spawns a year, only one of which yielding fry annually. Keeping the pair conditioned and getting them to spawn takes alot more effort than throwing a female at one of my male convicts and having them lay eggs the next day. I can understand the rest of the amatitlania however, as I got my f1 sajica to spawn within a week of getting them, and my myrnae breed as readily as the convicts if they're comfortable (I'm sure most of you are familiar with the myrnae experience in spite of their "rarity"). Septemfasciata was a little harder to pull off because of how small their fry are and how aggressive the adults are. I have shared my nanolutea breeding experience with other keepers of the species and it seems we have all run into the same problem of the fry being very sensitive and only ending up with a number you can count on one hand. Altoflava as well, I had a friend who got no spawns in 4 years before losing the pair to a heat wave. Meanwhile some of the more common parachromis and amphilophus sp. being in B and C, which does not seem fitting to me because I have known people who got dovii, motas, freddies, citrinellum, and sagittae to spawn in 40s at 3 - 5 inches long. From what I can tell the BAP classifications there are mostly based on the difficulty of housing an adult pair as opposed to actually breeding them. However with things like thorichthys, the nosferatu type herichthys, vieja type things, and angels, I can understand the difficulty there based on the size of fry and their growth rates. Cribroheros and the rarer amphilophines as well, in regards to getting them to spawn.
I also noticed their taxonomical classifications were pretty out of date, like the cribroheros species still being listed as amphilophus or the amatitlania species being listed as cryptoheros. Perhaps it is time for an update?

(Also I wasn't sure where the right place to post this question would be so I just put it here for now)

 

[Leffler817]

I understand your complaints/comments. My understanding was that the categorization of spawning types(?) was done by the American Cichlid Association or CCA used their list and categories when they created the BAP. Breeding a fish is one thing but finding a certain fish is different and a fish’s rarity has nothing to do with breeding it. It’s kind of a non-answer answer.

 

[Acara19]

Ah I see, also I understand that they shouldn't be classed by rarity, but I just brought it up in regards to comparing different species on the list because those rarer species are usually coincidentally harder to breed than their more common relatives, sometimes being the reason they are rare. Then again there's the circumstances where something is rare in the hobby but easy to breed and only rare because noone has them or takes the time to import/export them, but for the most part the species listed on the BAP list that are considered harder to breed and could be considered rare are rare because of a combination of the two possibilities.

 

[Leffler817]

Well, one thing for sure is change is guaranteed in life. So it’s possible that a fish can be moved to a different category. There are also fishes becoming available that are not even on the list. We’re seeing new fish imported from Madagascar and “thought to be extinct” fish from the Victorian lakes or newly collected regions of South/Central America. I remember Jesse got a group of Soda Lake Cichlids that had never been available. He was able to breed them but no know knew which category they would fall in to. It took a bit of time and research to figure it all out. I think it worked out in the end.

 

[Acara19]

Are the soda cichlids the ones from that one talk where they lived in the 10 pH hundred degree water and could barely be moved because they died as soon as they got taken out of it? If so that's pretty cool, somewhere down the line I want to get into dambas too but definitely don't think I'm ready right now.

 

[Leffler817]

Yep, that’s the fish!