Bev's got some good advice IMO. When I want to buy a fish/coral/whatever, I tend to spend a gross amount of time researching the living daylights out of it... heck, it took me 2 years of reading forums and researching before I finally decided to dive into a salt tank. When I bought an algae blenny a few weeks ago, I spent a good 45 minutes watching it and the tank that it was living in.... it drove my gf nuts :mrgreen: :lol: .

Who is this guy with the basement operation? I suspect I've been to his place before, but I ran out in disgust. It'd be nice if we all got his name and address so that we'll know to avoid this place in the future.

-Rich

I do the same thing and it drives my wife nuts too. :mrgreen:


It has been posted by AndyL in the first page of this thread.
We are still waiting for Lee to officially post it in the Vendors Ratings area though...

Ditto. Why do you think my wife usually passes when I go LFS hopping now :lol:

I agree that being an informed buyer (which means combining research & personal observation) is the way to go. If you're not sure, put the fish in ? on hold until you can look it up, either in books or on-line. Any reputable fish-store should be willing to hold it for you if it's not for too long (usually a day or less). It may be more hassle originally, but it'll save you $ & stress later (not to mention keeping unsuitable spp. out of your sys.)

Anthony

Oops, forgot one of the most important things:

- do not buy a fish from a lfs when there are dead fish in their tanks.

WOW! OMG! You guys are too quick at the draw!! No worries I will have it posted in the vendor forum a little bit later, I'm just drafting it up as we speak as I pretend to my boss that work is WAY more important then the hobby :mrgreen: Yeah right! :lol: :lol:


Lee


P.S- Also wanted to thank, Van down by the river, your article was awesome & very well written and for sure the longest....just buggin, but I must say you had great tips that I will use in the future. Thank you very much for your post. It was very much appreciated. *CLAPPING* *BOWING TO YOU* :mrgreen: Now where you when I was banging on the basement business door..... I could of called you and said, "Hey Van wanta come for a drive & hold the test results & the frozen bag of a popsicle fish? (crime scene) :lol: BUMMER...you live in Vancouver. :sad:

P.P.S- Thanks to everyone input as well. It can be very tricky picking healthy fish, even when you think they look healthy doesn't mean they are. I do always find myself feeling sorry for beaten up fish myself and get them just to think I can save them. I know...BAD LEE! Doesn't always work out though and does create more stress in life for sure. All the tips above have been great guys. Thanks a bunch everyone. *HUGS*
:mrgreen:

Van,

I occasionally acclimate fish, but that consists of floating the bag and adding 1 scoop of tank water to the bag waiting 5 min. most of the time I don't with fish.. just equalize temp and pour it into a safe strainer and put them in the tank. For snails I take them out of the water for 5 to 10 min then plop them in to the tank and I can say I have a lot better success rates with the snails this way. as well as I hear a lot of places are starting to ship snails moist also.

for corals, they get a fresh water dip then right into the tank, only ever lost two and they were severally stressed be for I got them and we didn't expect them to make it.

Having said that the fish I have bought come from a local store where I know the tank water conditions are very similar to mine so I feel the temp drop during acclimatization would cause more harm in my case.

I do agree that as a store that is selling the critters should be doing all they can to ease the stress on a fish that has been boxed for 24 to 72 hours to ensure they are selling a top notch product. I don't think it is as server when we are talking about a 15 min car ride to water that is almost the same as the stores if not better. you aren't going to kill a fish by removing ammonia fast are you if all other parameters (Ca, Alk, PH, and Temp) are similar?

Steve

Sorry to hear about your poor fish. :cry:

If it were me, I would definately post him in the vendor's forum and explain what happened. Why? Because no matter what, any business should honor thier fish, or any product for that matter. He should have atleast given you a credit for another one. Also, if any vendor acted like this, then I would want to know before purchasing from him. It's pre-informing other potential-customers what they could be getting into.

O.k everyone... I finally posted in "Vendor Rating" forum....

Let me know if its a bad post..please. Looking for your thoughts as always.

Thanks a bunch everyone for all your kind regards and helpful tips! Hope this does'nt happen to any of you.


Post your reply.....

*WAVES*