I would like to find the original wild type Aplocheilus lineatus. How can such an old fish be so rare ?
One fish I have never once seen in the North American hobby, and I have looked for it, is a platy. Yup.
Xiphophorus maculatus, the original, wild type platy. Once the hobby began to hybridize them, and line breed for colour, the original fish wasn't commercial anymore, and is one of the rarest fish in the hobby. I know the Dutch have them, but they do things right. In North America, we don't have much of a fish breeding culture, and we buy. Real platys don't sell.
I've seen them in Belize...
lineatus, the real golden wonder, have also fallen off the the radar. A lot of fish have. I've wondered if given the centralization of purchasing because of the large corporate pet chains and their limited choices offered, combined with the pursuit of hybrids and long finned, colour form 'fancy' mutant fish, if future hobbyists will ever be able to discover the wonder their grandparents thought would always be there. Fish are going extinct faster than independent high quality retailers are, and we're looking for flowerhorns and glo-fish.
We'll see.
I have seen fantastic underwater shots of
lineatus, taken by aquarists in India.