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...