I've brought this up some years ago. A friend just brought the idea back up to me recently.
I think it's time to form a dart breeders' union. The purpose is to have like minded breeders who wish to move the hobby forward unite towards that goal.
After reading through the info from TWI and ASN I think it's time to form an oginization solely concerned with our darts in our U.S. hobby.
Members would in essence be putting the Union tag on their frogs and follow agreed upon/approved union practises. A form of quality control.
The issues as I see them would concern, but absolutely not limited to, the following ;

Lineage.
Health issues, including quarantine. I'm sure my brother can give us a nice discount for members running fecals...
Cost of frogs , including frogs priced too low. Yes, there absolutely is such a thing in this hobby.
Hybrids and mixed tanks.
Health guarantees along with the live arrival guarantees.


These are just a few topics that pop to mind right off the bat.
I belive this union would go farther than any single club, gathering, offcial site or any other single entity concerned with darts, as it would seem it may be the only organization not open to simply anybody wishing to sign up or simply contribute cash.
Not everyone is welcome. Only those willing to sign up for the agreed upon practises. This would be quite different than any organization in that we are looking for those who are absolutely like minded and like goaled.

Rich

Are you talking about registering our frogs as well. It may be the only way to track lines as we all know people think they have their own lines which end up all coming from another breeder. And do you suggest we share and all use the same husbandry practices? I would think that would be the only way to control quality or atleast push it in the right direction. And I agree on the price issue as I am guilty of underpricing many frogs as of late but I needed to get rid of them all. Im finally down to two species.
Michael

For some of the frogs we may need to utilize our own lineage register. I don't think other 'banks' will let us use theirs. But for many 'lines' it's not that hard. Example;
Any highland lamasi in the U.S. can and should be bred with any other 'line' in the U.S. Same with many other 'lines' here today. Some 'lines' will be tougher, but I think we can work out what should be bred with what after a bit. I know you are interested in the retics lines and not finding tons of info. But the main concern is to find out if your frogs came from one locale or multiple locales. One locale, breed them all together. Multiple may need to be divided into import dates. There are really not that many lineage variables with most of the frogs we should be concerned with.
Nobody can share exact practises, but we can all agree that we will or won't practice certain things. This will all need to be worked out and voted on.
One thing about the pricing issues. I mainly do not want to see frogs advertised at crazy low prices. I have given away frogs and sold frogs to people I like for great prices. I'm more concerned about advertised prices driving species out of the hobby. I happens, all the time.

Rich

LIKE it.

I'm all in.

We gotta be carefull about any hint of "price fixing" as it's mucho illegaloso. There are ways around it and we just have to be smart with the wording ect. Easy to do.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing

Dont forget about the selective breeding issue . I think you have a good plan and a new bank to store lines and locales on is probably the only way I see them being tracable and guarenteed. The standard lamasi are one thing but tracing some of the others might be near impossible. How would you go about registering unknown lines or locales? Do you leve them out? I have gotten somewhere with the info I am seeking except for the 2000 import year as far as the retics go.
Michael

It's very simple. Prices set are there to help the hobby first, not the sellers or their wallets. Not going to be an issue.

As far as everyone using the techniques and practices I agree it cant be done but how do we decide what the quality of care is good enough. There are a few supplements being used that many dont even know about and the husbandry of some makes the difference in the quality of froglets. I also believe there should be something on the grounds of selling froglets/ juvies as to pairs if possible. The newbies need to start out as everyone else did. Jumping straight into this hobby with sexed pairs doesnt help anyone learn about proper care as the frogs are past the touchy stages. And I also think said price issue could be the end of flipping so go for it.
Michael

Here's what I have on Retic imports to the US......

D. reticulatus

2000 177
2001 0
2002 0
2003 0
2004 22
2005 10
2006 34
2007 42
2008 2

Selective breeding falls under lineage and husbandry. And is a no-no.
Unknown locales are few and far between , excepting those imports where there was zero data involved. Do we want those frogs in our union? I personally see no use for a 'blue pumilio' in our union. But, for those who bought in to that, there should be info traceable to the original import. If not...'for sale or trade'.

Not everyone is going to want to pay the 'premium' for frogs which are union accepted. Not everyone will want to join . Not everyone will be allowed to join. New concepts?

Thanks for the list Phil, I copied that off of the other board when you posted it a while back on that import thread. Now all I need is the locale of that year if its out there.
Michael