"DBA, how are many of the people to know if the retailer tells the truth. They know that many of the Philippine and Indo fish are cyanide caught so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think some may not be forthright. "

I feel that if you walk into a store and feel that there is something fishy going on "lol" there quite posibly could be. Get to know your LFS before making any purchases, you should be able to get a very good idea as to how trustworthy they are. I know that there is alot of hype about cynide caught fish from the phillipines, and it is true to an extent, but there are also alot of nice healthy fish coming from the phillipines. If your LFS store is getting alot of cynide fish you will notice by observing their in tank fish, and you will definitally notice by purchasing cynide caught fish, you will most likely have dead fish. If this is the case I can only recommend you notify your suspicions to your LFS and they see what they do about it. This is when I would recommend you start making "ALL" of your purchases at a LFS that seems to always have healthy livestock, if you buy the sale item from the LFS that has the poor quality livestock you might as well be the one dumping cynide into the reefs, because your support of the unethical LFS leads to more cynide fish. DO NOT support your LFS that seems to consistantially have poor quality livestock as this only keeps them in business. This is something that is most dependant on educated reefers like the ones on this board. Also on another note, there are certian organizations set up that will give their seal of aproval verifying cynide free fish, personally I take it with a grain of salt, some people are only in the positions they are in to make absurd amounts of money and they will put their stamp on anything that comes from the man who paid for their new BENZ. The industry is in a pretty sadly run state if you ask me, there are alot of great people that are in the business cuz they love the livestock, but there are more that are in the game because they see a chance to make an absurd amount of money off of a plot of ocean that is far away from their home. I am in a unique situation that I can purchase direct from the source when I want and sell direct to the consumer. I also sometimes out of convience buy from other wholesalers that I have a good relationship with and I trust their livestock to be of the best health. I personally dont sell much to "Hobbiests" most of my customers have more money than they know what to do with, so they want an aquarium, they have tanks cuz its a symbol of sucess, like the tanks im putting together right now,"588gallon seamless 60"diameter cylinder that is 4'tall, best of everything, yeah its $50,000.00 but hey it looks damb good!" my customers have a 6month guarntee on all their livestock if I have supplied all the livestock, I can do this because I know what Im putting in their tanks, my fish are also all net caught to the best of my knowledge and my customers pay a premium for this piece of mind. I hope that some on this board will have a chance to visit my facility that is being built, I am definatally at an advantage over a "Pet Store" and am able to concetrate on quality. Well basically the hobbiests out there can make an ethical decision to NOT SUPPORT certain LFS and they can make their purchases at the very obvious caring respectable ethical LFS. Well its getting late and the beer is needing a refill, Ill tie this one off for know...
I dont mean to insult anyone but I know how I run my business and I try to know where my livestock comes from, I actually make sure the customer knows where its from. I personally would take it as a huge insult if someone came and saw my livestock and asked to see an invoice after I just told them where it is from.