Tripod1404
Active member
Thank god this did not happen to me...
I was at my local LSF yesterday afternoon and I was talking to a fellow reefer and the LFS owner. He said to me that a aquarium cleaning company that he hired to take care of the tank while he is on vacation for a month stole his adult gem tang. He told me that when he returned, he wasn't able to find his gem tang anywhere and the rock work within the tank looked a somewhat strange like pieces have been taken out of the tank and later put back in. He called the company asking for what happened. Their response was, "umm it died and we threw it away..." He argued with the company for an hour, asking them to how come they did not inform him or at least took a picture of the dead fish that is worth $5k. Anyway the argument resulted in nothing as the company insisted they didn't know how valuable the fish was and just threw it away.
Here comes the more interesting part. I must first point out that this company also restocks the tanks of some of its customers, so although they do not display and sell fish like a LSF, they house fish for special requests or restocking. Anyway the guy came to my LSF several days later and tell them the story. LSF owner got suspicious and called the company asking for if they have any "adult" gem tang for sale since one of his customers is considering buying one. They said they have one. Now all my life I have never seen an adult gem tang offered for sale (especially by an cleaning company that does not maintain a fish display. ). Both the LFS owner and the guy are certain that it is the same fish. LFS owner said he will go to their warehouse and take some pictures of the fish (acting like the customer asked for pictures) to compare it to the old pictures of the original owners. I never had a gem tang but the LFS owner was sure that the markings are specific to each fish and can be used to identify. If they match the guy said he will sue the company.
His advice for anyone using companies to take care of fish was; either sing an agreement where the company is liable for the death of fish under their care (most will not sign this) or ask them to sign an agreement that they will take photographical evidence of dead fish (at least very expensive ones) and store the remains in a freezer until the owner returns to sees it.
I was at my local LSF yesterday afternoon and I was talking to a fellow reefer and the LFS owner. He said to me that a aquarium cleaning company that he hired to take care of the tank while he is on vacation for a month stole his adult gem tang. He told me that when he returned, he wasn't able to find his gem tang anywhere and the rock work within the tank looked a somewhat strange like pieces have been taken out of the tank and later put back in. He called the company asking for what happened. Their response was, "umm it died and we threw it away..." He argued with the company for an hour, asking them to how come they did not inform him or at least took a picture of the dead fish that is worth $5k. Anyway the argument resulted in nothing as the company insisted they didn't know how valuable the fish was and just threw it away.
Here comes the more interesting part. I must first point out that this company also restocks the tanks of some of its customers, so although they do not display and sell fish like a LSF, they house fish for special requests or restocking. Anyway the guy came to my LSF several days later and tell them the story. LSF owner got suspicious and called the company asking for if they have any "adult" gem tang for sale since one of his customers is considering buying one. They said they have one. Now all my life I have never seen an adult gem tang offered for sale (especially by an cleaning company that does not maintain a fish display. ). Both the LFS owner and the guy are certain that it is the same fish. LFS owner said he will go to their warehouse and take some pictures of the fish (acting like the customer asked for pictures) to compare it to the old pictures of the original owners. I never had a gem tang but the LFS owner was sure that the markings are specific to each fish and can be used to identify. If they match the guy said he will sue the company.
His advice for anyone using companies to take care of fish was; either sing an agreement where the company is liable for the death of fish under their care (most will not sign this) or ask them to sign an agreement that they will take photographical evidence of dead fish (at least very expensive ones) and store the remains in a freezer until the owner returns to sees it.
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). So even if they read the forum (I doubt 
), it will be too late for them 
