You think LFS will tell you the truth? they will only tell you what you want to hear. My LFS told me Hippos are out of season due the price increase @ $35. I was able to purchase a hipo from another LFS for $19, don't see no season issue here.
If its really cyanide caught they will tell you its net caught and raise the price by %50 because its "NET CAUGHT". You really think LFS is going to pay those extreme prices to satisfy you and take a chance if they can sell the fish or not and be stuck with it? not to mention if the fish dies then its NADA for them.
Please don't take my reply as an argument, just stating the facts that LFS are slime ball when it comes to selling fish.
You made not have meant that fist part to not be an argument, but the last "slime ball" part was. I used to work for a LFS and the owners would good people that charged a fair price. It was a mom and pop shop that had integrity to spare and were quite organized and strived to make constant improvements. We were meticulous about documenting every fish death from how it died, why it died, how long it had been in the store and which distributer it came from (which we already had information of the condition the fish arrived in and how well it was packaged). After a short while, it became obvious which suppliers were going to provide the best product and tanks full of dead fish and customers with constant complaints of dead ones as well was avoided.
If a fish was bought as a net caught, captive bred or captive raised then it was appropriately priced as such but never was a regular fish priced as anything more.
There are bad apples in every line of business that exists but that doesn't mean that your poor experiences justify such a blanket statement. Go with your gut. If you get a bad feeling about a store, or its owner or employees, take your business elsewhere. If you feel that you are being treated well by another, ask the right questions and see if they can provide the right answer.
Our owners believed that the best path to prosperity were to have returning customers. They believed that the best path to having returning customers was to provide them with a quality product and advice.
To TJmach's point... Yes we can all do our part. Quite often the smaller LFS are simply undermanned and under informed. Many of them are completely unaware of what areas of the world are more prone to such practices and a little education could go a long way for their business and the fish. It all starts with the individual. Personally, I know which three stores I'll purchase from and which two I won't go into. This has more to do with the history of the health of the fish in stock and track records from purchases but I do ask about where specific fish came from. For those reasons, I'm confident that they have avoided making purchases those that heavily use cyanide but I'm not so naive to think that some haven't passed thru their tanks.
