The fish "You Sold Me " is DEAD

Well quit frankly, "the Fish You Bought Is Dead".

Buying a saltwater water fish is , at best, a roll of the dice. The outcome is never a predetermined one. Will the fish succumb to disease, aggression, bad water quality or mishandling? Or will the fish adapt well and give the costumer years of enjoyment?

When a shop purchases an invertebrate or fish, there is rarely any sort of guarantee. Occasionally , if the animal arrives dead, a credit will be applied to the next purchase from the vendor. That is it. That's all there is.

I had a costumer buy a yellow tang the other day. We had the yellow tang for about a weeks time. He bought it and took it home, and killed it within a week.

Here are some of his plea's as to why we should replace the fish or refund his money:

You guys tested my water and said it was fine,

You told me it would get along fine with my other fish,

I acclimated it like you told me too,

I'm a man who lives a christian life, and would not lie to you..

You promised me, with guarantee of monetary remitince or replacement, that if the yellow tang died, You would personally see to it that I would get my money back or recieve a new fish of greater value..( He did not actually say this, but this was later implied.)

My response?

Talk to the owner,

His response?

All sales final!

We are actually going to give the guy a discount on the next fish he buys. Did I mention we tested the guys water for free and spend about 45 minutes with him every time he buys a fish? A cheap fish ,I might add.

He works at a bank. I wonder if I can get a low interest rate on my next loan. Somehow I don't think he is going to hook me up. Even if I throw in my new found love for the Omniscient Being , overseer and ruler of the heavens.

Red Lobophyllia

Convict worm Blenny/Engineer goby
T.moorii fry

Mom(top) and Pop(bottom)
The eye's have it!(next day)

Larvae with eyes

A.Percula eggs

.

Red Mushrooms

candy cane

Golden polyps

Nemo's touching it

Stare at an aquarium for too long , and strange things happen.

Reef Tank, 6.14.09

Pangasius sanitwongsei

Cyprichromis leptosoma

Two fishes gifted to me ,I truly appreciate.

Lake Tanganyika shell dwellers. Small but cool.

Tropheus moorii "moliro" Fry

I have at least 40 of these. Make me an offer. Pick up only.

The Guarantee..

The shop I work at does not guarantee saltwater fish, inverts or coral at all.

 No successful shop is inclined to do so. We do guarantee freshwater fish for 24 hours, with a separate water sample,the fish, and a receipt. 

A young couple who bought freshwater fish Monday came into the shop today(Wednesday) carrying a bag of dead fish.  I have dealt with these two before.  They had three tanks worth of water to be tested.  The first with the dead fish, the second with fish that have not died, and the third with a new tank.

The young couple said that two of the fish they had purchased the day before ( I knew it was monday) had died and wanted to know what I was going to do about it.

I began to test the water and quickly realised the water from the tank that the two dead fish were in was not just toxic, but friggin' deadly. The water quality of the second tank with no dead fish in it was also abismal.

I told them "this water kills fish" as I showed them the results next to the color charts used to confirm the tests. High ammonia and nitrite brought these fish lives to a quick rendezvous with destiny.

(2ppm ammonia, 1 ppm nitrite, 5.oo PH)

"What are you going to do about the $15 dollars of fish we bought?" They queried.

My response " throw them in the garbage"

I attempted several times to explain the Nitrogen cycle and its importance, to no avail.

Repeated comments from the "magnificent duo" of  "we will never buy fish again" were made.

That's fine with me.

I did not realise until I was tossing the melted fish soup of Bala sharks in the dumpster , that  they brought the dead fish back in a Petco bag...

Le cichlidés L'extraordinaire en chocolat

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                                                      Albino ancistrus 

 

Big tank? So What?

  Pops on the keyboard!

      

My dad playing Thelonious monk's "So What" while some of my fish's go about their evening.

If in comparison you chose jazz,aquariums or blogging. My Pops  is a more accomplished  musician  than I will ever be as an aquarist or blogger.  Mastering  jazz is an even more life consuming habit than either of my current endeavors. It requires actual inate talent, determination and practice.

More power to him.

Once you dig in

I made this video a couple of years ago. The fish have all doubled or tripled in size. I still like it though...

Stupid

A young woman enters the shop,my domain as it is, and while I'm in the process of gathering goods for sale for two other customers she asks the question" what be this fish" I am not kidding. I respond that I will be happy to help her after I'm through with the folks I'm currently assisting. 

I finish with the two customers and go back to the young lady , who is impatiently waiting on me in the back.  " how much are these?" she asks.

"The Blue Reef Chromis are $5.99 and the Neon Green Chromis are $3.99" I reply.  Both prices are clearly listed on the tanks by the way.

Her response:What kind of filter they need?

My response: Do you have a saltwater tank?

"Miss's I'm only here because Subway is next store", responded with this gem: "NO"

In the end I realised that we displayed the chromis price effectively, they are the cheapest fish in the shop. They are very pretty fish for the budget minded salt water aquarist.

She however, was not leaving without burning up some money. 

So, I sold her a Betta splendens, and some food for it.

Bluefin killie surpise!

My friend Bob gifted my planted tanks some variety  a while back,both Brazilian moneywort and Giant duckweed were offered.  A  month and a half later this dude showed up..

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NICE!!

Walmart has better Pay and Benefits

OK, here is a retail dilemma.

And how I dealt with it.

  A guy comes in today who typically spends $5 or less every month. The guy has two filters on his tank that he does not know the names of, he needs the strainers that go on the intake of the filter tube that extends into his tank from the filter.  The guy does not know what filter brand  he has and therefore, I cannot assist him right on the spot. Under my instruction he says he will call me later with the exact name of the filter and I tell him that if I can obtain the parts he needs I will order them for him.

He calls sometime later, he has two Regent filters on his tank. Regent is Walmart's knock off brand of Marineland's Bio-wheel filter, San's the bio-wheel. The  Regent filters are cheaper, they are Marineland's big F'U to the independent LFS.  While they may not have the Bio-Wheel on them they still will take the same filters and parts that Marineland's 350,250,100 etc. filters will take.

As I have mentioned These filters  parts and filters are almost interchangeable. I have never been interested enough to figure out which of  Marineland's Bio-wheel filter  parts and accessories go to which  Regent filter .

Buy it at Walmart?,  go figure it out at Walmart!.

If I was so inclined I would have to go through the trouble of determining which filter this guy had, (did I mention his room temperature IQ?) Which filter strainer(Regent) he had purchased that would match up to one those that we sell(Marineland). Which part number and the retail price of said product,choosing between two wholesalers, and retrieved the item within an acceptable time frame.(He wanted the parts within the week).   

Actually, this is an easy fix,

I tell the guy to go to Walmart and look for parts there.

Yes, the shop lost a $1.49 sale.

Yet again. I will not be employee of the month..(sigh)..

Walmart does not carry spare parts. Part of me says he should buy 2 new filters from his favorite retail outlet,  cut out the strainers from each of the boxes bag with a razor blade, and then return the boxes for a refund. Do the folks at customer service really check those things?

Does anyone really care?