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I was browsing down at the magazine section of the local big box bookstore (I don't want to name names, but Canadians can probably guess which one) and was looking for fish/aquarium magazines. There were none. Absolutely none. I found that strange. What I found even stranger is that there were dozens of horse magazines. I don't have any data to support this, but I have to think that there are far more aqaurium owners than horse owners. So do aquarium owners not want to read about their hobby? It's something that's often puzzled me. I was wondering if this is just a Canadian thing or even a western Canadian thing, or if it's more universal.

Tht's quite odd - there are three big ones in the US (TFH, AFM, FAMA) and a million little ones (Cichlid News, Flare), plus many of us have subscriptions to offshore mags like Practical Fishkeeping.

-Molly
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If it was chapters/indigo they've got little better than "see spot swim: dic and jane want more cash" when it comes to fish related books and magazines.

With any magazine it all comes down to money and new material. "fashion" magazines can last so long because it's always changing (according to them anyway) Even if it's similar articles as last year they can simply reshoot and it's new....it's not quite the same with fish. Magazines are rather difficult to publish and keep alive for more than 6 months. *shrug* Being an un-informed american I just don't see canada as a huge fishkeeping country .

^_^

That's a good point, Babelfish; it would be difficult to come up with new material on this, but that doesn't explain all of the horse magazines! Maybe there have been many technological developments in horses that I'm unaware of. It's just odd. I'm very thankful for the Internet and for on-line bookstores!

depends where you go babel, fish are huge west coast. The ammount of asian population has made it so that koi ponds are acutaly common in vancouver, and the water is 7ph out of the tap, very soft. Even though prices are poor where i am, there's always a fairly wide variety of fish because i'm 4 hours from the coast, but as that goes west it changes. My guess is on the praries fish are food and to most farmers out there they aren't exactly pets to them. Head out around ontario and you find people keeping them, but any farther east and you start finding lots of fishing towns; fish food not pets again

TFH has been around since the 50's though, so they've certainly managed to find enough to talk about in each issue!

I couldn't see there being any Canadian magazines, probably because it would be too difficult to compete with the American ones so close by...having said that, I'm sure you would be able to find the American magazines on sale somewhere?

Of course you could have the same problem as we Aussies, the foreign magazines are really expensive and the material and advertising often irrelevant, in which case you could always do what I'm doing and start your own .

(Actually I don't recommend that at all, my life is not fun at the moment...)

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

There is always something new going on in whatever hobby you're into. New ways of looking at things, new people in the hobby looking for advice, different and new products, such and such breed of fish or species of plant has made its way to aquaria and become popular.... it's like, how do aquarium related forums find enough stuff to talk about? They just do.

I've never seen an aquarium or fish type magazine on the rack.. I received a card in the mail with one free magazine with 1 year subscription, place sticker on this and mail back so I did. Should be receiving my first aquarium/fishkeeping magazine in a few weeks.

I'm not looking for a Canadian fishkeeping magazine, I just want any fishkeeping magazine. Sometimes I can find Aqaurium Fish at the pet store (but only sometimes) and I've only seen TFH at one fish store in a different city. I broke down and just decided to subscribe to one.

There is as much Canadian fishkeepers as anywhere else.

My view as an un-informed Canadian (lol)

Most fishkeeping mags here are sent from the States. They're overpriced and full of ads.

They're overpriced due to shipping costs and because the US to Canadian currency conversion rips off us Canadians every time.. I'm not paying $7.00 for a mag worth $3.50
when I can get any fish related info I need in here, elsewhere on the net or from my local library for free..




[span class="edited"][Edited by DaFishMan 2004-08-10 23:36][/span]

The Amazon Nut...

The last time I was in the local Chapters they had several (by several I mean around half a dozen) fish magazines on display (albeit hidden in the back on the bottom) with everything from Aquarium Fish and Aquariums USA (aquarium fish's annual edition) to some british magazines. I personally read lots of aquarium fish and aquariums usa, just because that is the one we carry at work! But they are there...

I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!

think yourselves lucky.... TFH costs al most $20 here and the ads are even less relevant.

the horse mags are mainly products and training ideas, thats why there are so many. there is one "the horse" which is entirely medical. Some are for kids and are all puzzles and basic care info and puzzles.



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett