Roar of the Plakats: Trend Similar to Luohans?

[Sebas]

Was like bringing in plakats some time ago, and not much people were keeping them. But only until recent months, these plakats suddenly became the hot favourites among many hobbyists. At that time, plakats were the 'exotic' ones in the scene, but now everyone are going for plakats. Luohans came up the same way, lfs owners were asking me to buy a packet full of baby luohans to feed my 'arowanas'(never had 1 before). But out of the blue, the tilapia look-alike fish became very popular, fetching sky-high prices. Now, some are ending up as food on the table.
Are plakats becoming a trend like luohans? Is this a good sign? Will the market and scene be so saturated with plakats that 1 day they will become virtually worthless? Should all hobbyists come together and come up with a standard range of prices for these wonderful fishes, and prevent the faithful end?

I am a plakat lover, no doubt, but this saturation is getting to my head.

[Dr Hsu]

Sell only your best and cull the rest (let go, put in pond/urn, give to kids, feed aro, whatever, but don't be tempted to sell for a pittance). This way, quality will be kept up and prices decent. This will keep the interest going.

[kennho]

Sebas, there is a group in Malaysia which spawn fighters to erh ... fight. A few of my friends also have contacts with this group and also a small group of "golden oldies" are "challenging" at certain wet market. They don't care what display type, all they spawn is for the main purpose of seeing their fish winning the "trophy" over a cup of coffee. Fish that fight, that's the meaning in their mind.

At a LFS, I saw pineapple plakat selling at 1 buck and also comes with female. Lots of marble plakat, pearl white and even very strong reds. Even I see small fighters become feeder fish. That's why sometime I see plakats selling at sky high price, I would just give it a miss.

Probably the show betta will remains as a better fish to continue as these are weak fighter in the tiny "water ring".

[Samuel Phan]

The reason for the recent popularity of the plakat is because of the ease of care for the fish. Furthermore with the improved finnage ... it is starting to gain more attention.

But I supposed there is a great different in Betta trade compared to LH trade. That is for LH you are selling the further and all fries can command a good prize if the parentage is good. But for betta ... you have to sell based on the final result ... so it is more like a WYSIWYG kinda trade.

So I see this popularity only as a chance for plakat to gain more interest and attention amongst the hobbyists.

Btw ... it is almost as difficult to acheive a nice HM plakat compared to getting a HM ... although it can be slighly easier.