Pet's Warehouse issue

[jmg416]

A couple of months ago I bought a pair of what I was told were Melanurus Wrasses from Pet's Warehouse. I bought these in hopes of controlling a flat worm issue I'm having. After enough time had passed I gave up on them eating the flat worms, and brought the one I could catch over to Tropical Island to have Mike confirm the species and possibly get a new one.

He immediately informed me that this was not a Melanurus. I tried to put the original one back in with the new one, but he was killed by the wrasses from Pets warehouse within a day.

So today as I was passing Pets Warehouse I figured I would stop in and see if they had any legitimate ones. It turned out that they had 3 different species of Wrasses all labeled as Melanurus, with only 1 actual one. I told the store manager who gave a very weak sorry and laughed it off.

I am now out $100, and still have a flat worm issue. This wasn't just a disregard for me as a customer, but he didn't even care to try to change to the proper names on the wrasses I told him about. I'm officially done with them as a store, and just thought I should put it out here to be very careful about what you are buying there. Kinda feel like this: :debi:

 

[MIKE NY]

Which store was it?...I've never had a problem in any of their stores. In their and many other LFS's defense, many species of fish are mislabled especially wrasses because many look very simular when juvis. It can work in your favor if you know what your looking for...it does for me..LOL Anyway Melanurus are hit or miss with eating flatworms...I have a 5"+ male that will only eat them when floating around...my best pest killers are my Sixline, Leopard and yellow which are constantly picking the rockwork. I don't recommmend the six because they can be terrors. What species of wrasse did you get?...I'm guessing a Christmas because they almost look like Melanurus when juvis. I've never had one, but I heard they may eat them as well.

 

[Keel]

Yea I dont know what store you were at but their tanks are usually labeled better than most. I have seen many fish mislabeled all over the place in many different LFS's. I guess the ultimate responsibility comes down to us. The best stuff for flat worms is Salifert Exit nothing works better. The sixline works great as mike said but the med kills all of them. The fish are great to have as a preventative but during a large outbreak u have no choice but to medicate.

 

[jmg416]

This was the Westbury store. And while I agree that most on this forum should know the fish apart, 90% of those buying fish are less knowledgeable, and shouldn't be deceived. Mind you, while I've had a saltwater tank for over 10 years, I had never bothered with Wrasses, so that was a blind area for me.

I did end up with a Christmas wrasse. That was a good guess.

I have the biggest issue as I had a long talk with the salesman, told him exactly what I needed the fish for, and was very specific about the type I wanted. Any decent salesperson would have at least mentioned that they weren't sure, but I was specifically pointed to them as what I wanted.

 

[onegreenray]

don't six line wrasses eat flat worms?