A note/question on chain stores and fish age

Hi,

Someone had mentioned in a thread about my ever growing Sailfin Pleco,
that the chain stores do often go out of their way to point out things
like: "Hey you realize that fish will grow to be a foot or longer...How
big is your tank?"

I have since found a good fish-specialty store (a chain too, but much
more learned and caring...they check you out to make sure you are buying
what you want).

Anyway, my comment or question is that I believe that some fish I've
gotten from big pet chain, were actually quite old. That is fine for a
long living fish, but not for something like the swordtails I bought. a
couple of which just seem to die of old age after 4 months. They were
quite large when I bought them, I later realized they could've been
fully grown. So how is one to know how old a fish is then at these
stores? I guess do the research on size and make sure they are not
quite fully grown?

Some other swords (although a different variety) were a lot smaller when
I bought them at the proper fish store. In fact they seem to get better
stock, and in general the fish with short life spans (1-2 years) seemed
to be selling at a younger age than the big chain. Some of their prices
are a bit more but it is usually because the stock is better or the fish
strains of the more fancy variety.

Does this sound familiar and a fair observation?

Cheers,

TS

--
Trevor Stenson

http://members.shaw.ca/kitschy/Digs.html
http://members.shaw.ca/kitschy/Blog/Blog.html

Trevor Stenson wrote:

snip

Anyway, my comment or question is that I believe that some fish I've
gotten from big pet chain, were actually quite old. That is fine for a
long living fish, but not for something like the swordtails I bought. a
couple of which just seem to die of old age after 4 months. They were
quite large when I bought them, I later realized they could've been
fully grown. So how is one to know how old a fish is then at these
stores? I guess do the research on size and make sure they are not
quite fully grown?

Most chains I've been to can't keep fish alive that long. ;-) The fish
industry is all about moving fish from eggs (or fry) to customers' tanks
as rapidly as possible. It is incredibly expensive to house fish -
heat, light, food, water, labor... The economics of the industry mean
that customers rarely see mature fish, and almost never see old fish
unless they are wild-caught as adults or brought in by other customers.

Swords, bettas, and fish that develop finnage later in life have to be
old enough that people will see the fins and purchase them, but they're
still less than a year old. A healthy swordtail should live a few years
in your tank. I've had them live for four years. The death after four
months indicates a health problem.

Some other swords (although a different variety) were a lot smaller when
I bought them at the proper fish store. In fact they seem to get better
stock, and in general the fish with short life spans (1-2 years) seemed
to be selling at a younger age than the big chain. Some of their prices
are a bit more but it is usually because the stock is better or the fish
strains of the more fancy variety.

The fish store probably uses a different distributor (or distributors).
Also, fish stores with a good water system and lots of tanks don't
mind getting batches of small, young fish as long as they're large
enough to sell. If you get a batch of small fish and sell them fast,
fine. Otherwise, you feed the small fish and grow them out so that you
can mark the price up to cover the cost of housing them. Chains can't do
this - they don't have enough tanks or expertise.

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