I used to be in the freshwater aquarium hobby and a "true" cichlid (colorful african and southamerican fish) owner wanted his fish as close to wild and natural perfection as possible - this seems to contrast with everything I've been seeing lately. The extreme breeding and inbreeding of ball pythons/ etc. to get new and trendy colors and the crossing of different species to make a high dollar.

These animals will one day be near extinction in the wild - and what are we doing to preserves the quality of each species? Or are they just simply more for aethestic purposes, than conservation and enrichment of others? The way I look at is: not too many people out of the whole worldy population care about this or that in regards to snakes, especially large constrictors - so the future of these snakes lies in the hands of hobbyist. It seems that the hobby has fallen large todays king - the dollar.

Not trying to start an argument - just want to hear opinions of other snake owners on the matter.

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