Susan wrote:
I agree that supporting the local fish stores is very important. The only
problem with purchasing locally most stores don't give much of a warranty.
I've purchased locally and took the fish home and had the fish die within
hours. The local place I purchased from refused to do anything about it.
That's hard to swallow when marine fish are expensive. I guess it left me a
"sour taste". That is kind of unusal though as most stores give at least a
several day warranty. The warranty to me is very important but that's my 2
cents. I still though do support other local fish stores sometimes if I see
something I want. To offset shipping cost when ordering on the internet I
usually wait until I get a bigger order together.

Susan



If your fish are dieing within hours of putting them in your tank,
either they
were about dead when you got them, and you should have noticed that, or
you did
something wrong in putting them in your tank (ie did not aclimate them
properly)
or you tank conditions are very bad.

Most online stores warrantees are not that good either. They will
replace the item, but you have to cover shipping costs, plus most will
only replace it once, so if the second one dies on you, you are still
out. Plus some of them ask you to ship the died item back to them.
Many people do not end up warranteing the livestock they purchase mail
order just because of the headaches involved.

If you have a bad experiance with a LFS, try another one, most areas
have more than one. Once all the mom and pop fish stores are out of
business this hobby will come very close to going away. New hobbiests
will not mail order a complete aquarium (or they will all at once and of
course they will all die since the tank is not properly cycled), and
still quit the hobby, plus they will tell everybody how hard it is to
keep sal****er livestock alive so there is a much better chance of big
brother stopping all importation of livestock.

Kim