Where to buy fish on-line

"Susan" wrote:
That's sad the some fish are caught with cyanide I don't know how many
times I've been in a local fish store and I've heard someone tell an
employee I just set up a fish tank and I want one of those pointing to a
mandarin. It just makes me sad that people don't educate themselves on any
livestock before purchasing. It makes me real sad whenever I loose any kind
of livestock myself as I try to provide the best environment. Sounds like
you have a nice fish store Wayne Wish I lived closer and I'd support you


Susan




Unfortunately not all stores are honest or more frequently they have
employees who don't know anything about what they are selling. Kind of like
Radio Shack where you have one tech whiz in the store and two or three others
who usually say "huh?" when you ask a question. Usually my experience is there
will be a couple of experts who know marine life inside and out and then a few
other employees who tell you alot of gobbily-gook, probably not to cheat anyone
but because they don't know any better. I have a store I support locally (Tails
and Scales, Chesapeake VA) but I know which salespeople to talk to there. I'm
rather ashamed to admit that I didn't do nearly enough independent research
when I started salt water. I relied on the store's personel for advice (not
Tails and Scales). With my first tank they were right on in telling me how to
cycle a tank and did free water perameter checks..BUT....they also told me a
yellow tang was very comptatible in a community tank (so I bought it
FIRST...ouch!!) and that a madarin dragonet ate brine shrimp. So I learned the
hard way (and expensive) about mixing the right type of fish. It takes time
and research and you pretty much have to do it on your own. Even so everytime I
get cocky enough to think I understand how to run an ecosystem occassionally I
get bitten. Most of my fish live for years but I just lost a tomini tang
(beautifull fish which I've only seen once in a pet store) that came down with
some sort of bacteria infection that I just couldn't eradicate no matter what I
tried. I've been brooding about that all week.

Bob