asonitez
Floodicus Maximus Flooris
My wife and I bundled up the kids the day after New Years and decided to try and hit a few LFS's around our new area. I have recently setup my tank and after it cycled I needed a few fish to check things out before moving my main stock over. The goal was to pickup a box of salt and 5 Chromis.
Fish Shop A - The Systems looked great definitely a decent holding facility however the status of the fish for sale was horrible. Most looked diseased and just hanging in there. It's as if they did not put much thought into what each fish needed vs.. just getting them into a tank. I witnessed the workers there just ripping open bags and throwing the fish in that had just come in on a shipment. Most just sunk to the bottom of the tank gasping for air and probably going through PH shock.
*- I was offered 5 chromis at 6.99 each from the new shipment with the assurance that they would be up and running in a few minutes that they just needed time to get acclimated. ~ I declined.
Fish Shop B - Had vats open and were cutting open and adding the fish to giant feeding throughs that had air bubblers in them and had a decent drip going. I was told that the fish were going to be dripped for about 4 to 6 hours and then divided and placed in the holding tanks. Decent enough.. They too seemed to be cutting corners as over their coral holding tanks they were using power-compacts and a mixture of name brand and off brand led fixtures most of the coral was bleached and on its way out. All the while charging 299 for a 2" Bleeding Apple Scoly that did not look healthy at ALL.
Needless to say I ended up getting my chromis from Fish Shop B as i was assured they were there for at least a week and showed no signs of disease. (They are still currently in qurantine with PraziPro) I plan to run them through a copper stage as well.
This leads me to ask. I ASSUME (noobish of me) that most LFS's are hobbyists like myself. We KNOW from a variety of sources what works and what does not. We all know that if shops followed quarantine methods that the likelihood of passing on diseases would diminish significantly. We all know what kills Ich and Flukes. We all know what corals need to survive. I say we all know because if we don't, then we ask them (the LFS) or we find out online from others experiences. Why then does it seem like LFS's throw these principles completely out the window when they sell stuff to us? Has anyone ever shopped at a place that treats their stock like hobbyists do?
Fish Shop A - The Systems looked great definitely a decent holding facility however the status of the fish for sale was horrible. Most looked diseased and just hanging in there. It's as if they did not put much thought into what each fish needed vs.. just getting them into a tank. I witnessed the workers there just ripping open bags and throwing the fish in that had just come in on a shipment. Most just sunk to the bottom of the tank gasping for air and probably going through PH shock.
*- I was offered 5 chromis at 6.99 each from the new shipment with the assurance that they would be up and running in a few minutes that they just needed time to get acclimated. ~ I declined.
Fish Shop B - Had vats open and were cutting open and adding the fish to giant feeding throughs that had air bubblers in them and had a decent drip going. I was told that the fish were going to be dripped for about 4 to 6 hours and then divided and placed in the holding tanks. Decent enough.. They too seemed to be cutting corners as over their coral holding tanks they were using power-compacts and a mixture of name brand and off brand led fixtures most of the coral was bleached and on its way out. All the while charging 299 for a 2" Bleeding Apple Scoly that did not look healthy at ALL.
Needless to say I ended up getting my chromis from Fish Shop B as i was assured they were there for at least a week and showed no signs of disease. (They are still currently in qurantine with PraziPro) I plan to run them through a copper stage as well.
This leads me to ask. I ASSUME (noobish of me) that most LFS's are hobbyists like myself. We KNOW from a variety of sources what works and what does not. We all know that if shops followed quarantine methods that the likelihood of passing on diseases would diminish significantly. We all know what kills Ich and Flukes. We all know what corals need to survive. I say we all know because if we don't, then we ask them (the LFS) or we find out online from others experiences. Why then does it seem like LFS's throw these principles completely out the window when they sell stuff to us? Has anyone ever shopped at a place that treats their stock like hobbyists do?
