Hi. I wanted to share how things are going for me. I joined the AKA after receiving quite a bit of feedback that this was the place where I could find an abundance of information about killifish, that their were people who were selling/auctioning rare strains, and a community built around keeping these fish. So I payed the yearly fee to get through the paywall, join the group , and to experience it myself. Unfortunately, it seems like there isn’t anyone here.

While it seems like the AKA has a ton of information about Killis; it isn’t searchable, just presented in old newsletters and information stored from other clubs. Barely any of it is setup in a way that at least I could easily find anything pertinent to what I was looking for. While there may be some really good information, it is providing very little value in its current form unless someone somewhere remembers an article and can find it, or you just happen to come across something you were looking for.

While I did find some posts about selling killies; most referenced a sale between members years ago, quite a few were left unanswered, and the rest just said to go to aquabid. So why bother being a member?

I spent the last two weeks since joining trying to see if anyone monitored the forum at all, it seems there a couple people that do but none are regularly checking or posting to it. So talking to myself there isn’t going to lead anywhere good.

At the advice of Ken Murch I reached out to the members within a few hundred miles of me. In this way I was actually able to chat with 3 members.

During my search through the newsletters I did find that the group was interested to know more about new members, engage them to help to encourage them to stay in the hobby, and if applicable know why they become disengaged. I hope that this message conveys those reasons for me. I, unfortunately, realize that the odds of anyone actually reading this are exceeding unlikely.

This group has made it way too difficult to participate. You have a strangle hold over the information about these fish and seem content to let it fade into oblivion. There is almost no community online that post much of anything. Maybe at a convention these things may be different. But I am 3+ hours away from the closest club and with 4 small children, the odds that I can make a weekend trip are slim to none. I thought that by joining a national club it wouldn’t matter where I was located as there would be people from across the country participating in the community, there are people all over but if they are they don’t participate online. I also really thought a fish that could be passed to others through eggs sent in the mail would be a great thing for someone further remote like I am; cheaper to mail/ship and less prone to the fish being harmed in shipping. But if anyone is shipping eggs it isn’t on the forum (again, maybe it happens at a convention).

At this point I am giving up. The barrier to entry is way too high and just isn’t worth it. In my opinion this group has managed to make keeping killifish harder and less appealing.