Switch & Bait: My Angelfish

Ellie11 · Sep 21, 2023

I had a bad EBay experience in the purchase of 6 Pinoys. Turns out the seller used a photo of a breeding pair that he lifted off another site. I did a Google reverse image search and got to the identical photo at a large vendor in Australia. The seller and I are in the eastern US.

The fish I received are solid black without a hint of blue and zero iridescence. They’re 3+ inches & said to be 6-7 months old. The seller says they are juveniles and will color up. I have reservations. When confronted with the photo he got from Australia, he said: “That was an attention getter to let people know how they will look later.” He added a reasonable person would have known they weren’t his breeding pair. Well, call me unreasonable. I trusted him. I call this ye olde Bait & Switch. It cost $170.

The thing that drove me to this seller was the size. I wanted to put the group in my 125 vs growing them out. I tried viewing these fish under multiple light sources: full spectrum grow, blue LED strips & a Fluval Aquasky with 4 adjustable colors. They are as black as midnight.

Endlersendlers · Sep 21, 2023

I thought that was a horrible bait and switch until I did a quick search before responding and found multiple sources that they do change color as they get older and for other reasons, later getting the more vibrant colors.

Can Angelfish Change Color? - Fish Keeping Guide

Angelfish do change color, but not as often as you might think. Also, sometimes, their color change might indicate something else going on.

fishkeepingguide.net

Do Angelfish Change Color? (7 Reasons Why They Might)

For some people, fish are going to be the perfect pets to keep. They're quiet and they're absolutely intriguing to look at. Angelfish are very common fish today simply because of how gorgeous they are.

avidaquarist.com

Colin_T · Sep 21, 2023

Presumably a good vendor would state under the picture that it wasn't their photograph and was purely to show what the fish could look like.

The same thing happens with plants too. I was looking for strawberry plants and a few vendors were selling blue strawberries. They were full on photo shopped and eBay was informed. A few other vendors had stolen photos from a company that did actually develop a bluish coloured strawberry and were passing it off as their own. The company was informed about that and the vendors were removed, but later set up another eBay account using the same pictures.

A lot of eBay vendors sell plant seeds that aren't true to type. They are mostly in China and offer all sorts of things including aquarium plant seeds, which usually turn out to be some sort of grass. A lot of these vendors say they are in Queensland (Australia) but the items get mailed from China. Most of the vendors that are in China and say they are in China, sell true to type seeds. But it's buyer beware. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Ebay does have a guarantee that you get what you buy or you get your money back. You could lodge a complaint with them saying the vendor is using other people's images and not labelling them as such. Misleading advertising.

Ellie11 · Sep 22, 2023

Colin_T said:
Presumably a good vendor would state under the picture that it wasn't their photograph and was purely to show what the fish could look like.

The same thing happens with plants too. I was looking for strawberry plants and a few vendors were selling blue strawberries. They were full on photo shopped and eBay was informed. A few other vendors had stolen photos from a company that did actually develop a bluish coloured strawberry and were passing it off as their own. The company was informed about that and the vendors were removed, but later set up another eBay account using the same pictures.

A lot of eBay vendors sell plant seeds that aren't true to type. They are mostly in China and offer all sorts of things including aquarium plant seeds, which usually turn out to be some sort of grass. A lot of these vendors say they are in Queensland (Australia) but the items get mailed from China. Most of the vendors that are in China and say they are in China, sell true to type seeds. But it's buyer beware. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Ebay does have a guarantee that you get what you buy or you get your money back. You could lodge a complaint with them saying the vendor is using other people's images and not labelling them as such. Misleading advertising.

I sent an email to the company in Australia & ratted out the photo thief. It is a violation of eBay policy to use photos you don’t own. I’m reporting him to them too & filing a claim

Ellie11 · Sep 22, 2023

Endlersendlers said:
I thought that was a horrible bait and switch until I did a quick search before responding and found multiple sources that they do change color as they get older and for other reasons, later getting the more vibrant colors.

Can Angelfish Change Color? - Fish Keeping Guide

Angelfish do change color, but not as often as you might think. Also, sometimes, their color change might indicate something else going on.

fishkeepingguide.net

Do Angelfish Change Color? (7 Reasons Why They Might)

For some people, fish are going to be the perfect pets to keep. They're quiet and they're absolutely intriguing to look at. Angelfish are very common fish today simply because of how gorgeous they are.

avidaquarist.com

Interesting articles, thanks!

Lcc86 · Sep 22, 2023

Ellie11 said:
I sent an email to the company in Australia & ratted out the photo thief. It is a violation of eBay policy to use photos you don’t own. I’m reporting him to them too & filing a claim

That'd exactly what I would've done, if someone's gonna use a random photo they need to make that perfectly clear and not just claim afterwards that any reasonable person "should" know... hope you get somewhere with it, that's a lot of money to spend and be misled. Hopefully they do colour up with time too

Endlersendlers · Sep 22, 2023

I hope they color up for you, but it was dishonest of them and they stole the photo for a reason, that their own were not as impressive. How disappointing for you.

Glad you reported. :good:

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Switch & Bait: My Angelfish

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