exchanging fish?

[BettaBoyz]

my LPS is small and family-owned and operated. i wondered if many small stores would allow a 'fish exchange'. my Neons, you see, are being bullied to death. they are pale and listless and lethargic now, all their tails and fins are in tatters. the rest are fine, it's just the Neons. they are picked on my every other fish in the tank, even the snails crawl over them when they rest. i'd like to give them a better home, but a new tank is out of the question now.

if i do exchange them, would three Bentos Tetras and two 'unknown fish' be good? the unknowns are 1" long and silver with light lavender dot-lines over their sides and medium-long pectoral fins. can anyone identify them?

=D just wondered if this was a good idea and if anyone has experience with exchanging fish.

 

[fatbobsufc]

I once offered to give a load of fish to my LFS and they wouldn't touch them. They said that all their fish were imported very cheaply anyway. I suppose when you consider that the stock in the tanks are their livelihood and that by adding fish from a non-trusted source, they are risking cross contamination, you can understand it.

 

[CFC]

Most LFS will take in unwanted fish that are in good condition but usually offer no exchange or payment, after all they are doing you a favour by taking them off you.

 

[Losi]

My local LFS (and others I have been to) are usually happy to take fish off of your hands if it is in the fish's best interests (otherwise they obviously dont care for the fish that they are selling and are just in it for the money!).
They may exchange them but I would bank on getting very much for them as they are doing you the favour.

It is not a good idea to buy fish that you do not know the name of or what their behaviour is like as they may cause more problems than you have now!!!

If the neons are letting snails crawl over them then they sound ill and this is probably the cause of their condition???

 

[Moe]

My LFS will take fish back if they are in good condition they will give you the full price. If they are not in good shape they will take them back anyway but no $. They are so nice. I have to take back my bumblebee goby today. I thought I would be able to feed them the live food they require but had a brine shrimp disaster and decided that fish that prefer live food are not for me. It's nice when LFS will take fish back if they don't work out. I try to go there only. There is a petsmart across the street from LFS I don't even go in. I my LFS.

 

[colin5861]

It's great to have a mom and pop LFS where you can trust the quality of the fish. When we find one we all use them for our live stock.

BUT do we use them for new tanks, lights and other high dollar items ? We can get them cheaper at Walmart etc.

At what point do we say that even if the LFS is more expensive for hardware or food we need to support them or no more good fish -

-opions please


Colin

 

[Losi]

Fact is that even larger stores need to care for their fish in the same way as loacl family run stores do.
If they dont then I find an LFS that does. I always tell the shop if they have dead stock and make a point of giving them a herd time about it as well!

Their tanks etc may be cheaper but you can buy from the manufacturer in many cases and by pass the shop all together..that just leaves the fish which you can go to the family shop for.

 

[lizard]

It's great to have a mom and pop LFS where you can trust the quality of the fish. When we find one we all use them for our live stock.

BUT do we use them for new tanks, lights and other high dollar items ? We can get them cheaper at Walmart etc.

At what point do we say that even if the LFS is more expensive for hardware or food we need to support them or no more good fish -

There is a lfs in the town I attend college in. I am not at all impressed with the store and will not buy anything from them In Duluth (about an hour from here), they have at least one nice lfs (haven't checked out the others yet; am hoping to do so tomorrow). If I need fish supplies, I will run to Wal-Mart, as it is only a few minutes from here. (I will not buy fish from Wal-Mart, however). If I was closer to the lfs and wasn't a poor college student, I would try to support the lfs by buying as much stuff there as possible, I think I actually strongly dislike Wal-Mart and would prefer not to shop there very much, if it all. But, again, given that I'm a poor college student, in a small town, sometimes I don't have much of a choice.

Just my opinion(s).

Pamela
aka Lizard

 

[lizard]

My local LFS (and others I have been to) are usually happy to take fish off of your hands if it is in the fish's best interests

What if the fish was bought elsewhere? Then will your local LFS take them? (I know it varies store-to-store, I'm just asking for your experience(s)). See, I have a pleco that I bought from Wal-Mart before I knew much about fish (or that getting fish at Wal-Mart wasn't a good idea). He's still little, but I know he's going to get big. I don't have the resources (or desire, for that matter, but since I bought him I am responsible for him) to provide him with a bigger tank once he grows a little. If I do get to some of the lfs's tomorrow, I may talk to them about taking him. I'm not concerned about getting money for him, I just want him somewhere where he can be appropriately house when he's bigger. Anyone want a little plec?

Pamela
aka Lizard

 

[Moe]

My LFS will take back fish that you did not purchase there. I just brought them some red glass barbs today. I got them at a different store. They don't care they even gave me a few bucks for them. They'll also buy fry. They have this really nice policy that if you get a fish that gets too big for your tank they will swap him for a smaller one or just give you a credit. I went in to get something to eat algae off my glass, they suggested a pleco that I knew gets to be over a foot. I told them I did not want to be stuck with a huge pleco and nowhere to put him. They said get the little guy about 2-3 inches and when he gets too big just bring him back for a smaller one. It serves them also because they have a lot of customers looking for bigger fish. I love the pleco that I have and he does a great job eating the algae, the only problem with the system is that you get attached to the fish that you have raised and it is hard to give them up.

 

[MAM]

one of my lfs will take fish. they give store credit for big ones or ones that will sell for more. they put these fish into special tanks in one row, separated by compatibility of course, and sell them for a cheaper price, with no garauntee to the purchaser, unlike their other fish. works great for livebearers when you end with way too many. just call around to all you lfs and see what their policy is.

 

[BlackWolf0503]

Last tank I had an angel that quickly out grew the tank & I sold it back the the LFS that I bought it from. Even made a profit. I love my LFS too.