I disagree; there can be some great priced fish from stores that take very good care of their animals; it only depends on where they are getting their stock from, how much they are buying, etc. Case in point, when Red Sea fish first started coming into the states, the fish store I worked for, the owner, a marine biologist, had one of our fellow employees who's uncle was a diver and collected fish in the Red Sea.
We were able to acquire very healthy Asfur Angels, Sohal Tangs, Semil. Butterflies, just to name a few, and the number of fish lost was next to ZERO, and the prices we were given were far lower than any wholesaler. Are these fish less healthy than ones that another diver catches, then go through multiple vendors before arriving at the local store? I don't think so. In fact, since the fish we acquired came directly from the diver without being shipped to other holding facilities, their stress levels upon arrival were dramatically reduced.
To say that because it is way cheaper than market value equals a suspect fish is not a generalizable statement that applies here. There are some divers, and relations, that equate to cheaper fish for some, and more expensive fish for others, even if they are collected and shipped from the same general collection sites.
