I agree that the import of almost all species is now unnecessary as there are captive bred specimens available. In the mid-80's, when I started keeping Gonyos, there not only were very, very few people breeding them - but the lack of internet as a resource made it so difficult to find out who was out there.

Even such information as husbandry, incubation parameters and length, etc. were really a mystery to me at the time and I had only a few scarce references to rely on. I'm not proud to admit that I killed off my share of WC oxy's before I was able to establish a breeding group. I fared even worse with hatch rates until I learned a little about the incubation period and the idiosyncrasies of their eggs.

Today there are still not too many people breeding them in NA but there are enough that a person should never consider buying WC in my opinion....but the cheap prices and relative availability of WC insures a market for them, which is a shame.

I think the fact that many people's only exposure to some species (like Gonyos, Spilotes, Pseustes, etc.) was with WC specimens is a big part of what has kept these species from becoming more popular....and that too is a shame IMHO.

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