Good lfs story!

[NickFish]

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for something like this!

One of my lfs, the second biggest one in town, just passed a new rule on buying large fish.
The buyer must bring in photo proof of a properly sized tank to buy:
Arowanas, pacu, oscars, jags, JDs, bala sharks, BPs, fancy goldfish, black ghost knifes and bichirs!

150g for arros, 250g for silver arros, 450g for pacus, 55g for oscars, jags, fancy goldfish, BPs and JDs, 70g for balas and bichir, and 100g for BGKs.
YAY!!!

I know these aren't the ideal tank sizes, and I'm trying to get them to include common plecos, severum, discus and piranha in the list, but you have to start somewhere and this is great! It will stop a lot of beginners with small tanks from buying these guys when they are small, thinking they will stay that way. Does anybody else's lfs do something like this?

[sailor]

That is awsome a step forward.
The store I work at do not stock Arowanas, pacu, ID sharks as most people don't have the proper tanks for them. As far as the Oscars, jags, JDs, bala sharks, BPs, fancy goldfish, black ghost knifes and bichirs, we ask what size tank they will be housed in. If the tanks are not big enough we do not sell them the fish.

[smoochxoxo]

It is a great idea but I can go online to even our site to get a fish tank pic and say see what I got. I think they should tweak their idea a bit more but it is a good start.
GL and hUgs

[Tooch]

Great step towards getting those large fish the proper homes!

[Rue]

Very good! Gotta luv when someone is willing to stick their necks out for animal welfare...

[jbeining75]

That is awsome a step forward.
The store I work at do not stock Arowanas, pacu, ID sharks as most people don't have the proper tanks for them. As far as the Oscars, jags, JDs, bala sharks, BPs, fancy goldfish, black ghost knifes and bichirs, we ask what size tank they will be housed in. If the tanks are not big enough we do not sell them the fish.

Great moving forward......Nick!!!!!!

Great store you work at Sailor...

[NickFish]

That is awsome a step forward.
The store I work at do not stock Arowanas, pacu, ID sharks as most people don't have the proper tanks for them. As far as the Oscars, jags, JDs, bala sharks, BPs, fancy goldfish, black ghost knifes and bichirs, we ask what size tank they will be housed in. If the tanks are not big enough we do not sell them the fish.

We often do that too, however, some of the employees don't even know a fish's max length (so sad) and many customers don't listen to what the employees say. If a customer really wants a fish, say they want an oscar in a 20 gallon, the employee can put up a fight, but ultimately he has to let the customer buy the fish (seen this before). And often they lie about tank size, just to get the employees off their backs....

"ya...um.....I have a 1000 gallon tank...so he should be ok in there..."
"really! What kind of stocking?"
"ummmm....some.....big fish...some small fish...goldfish too i think...."
"what filtration?"
"filtration??"
"you know....canisters...hang-on-back...wet/dry..."
*blank stare*
"how strong are your heaters?"
*more blank staring*
*customer walks away*
(seen this too, word for word)

There really isn't much animal cruelty laws enforced on fish. BUT if we have solid guidelines, there isn't much a customer can do.
Still, I guess all this could be avoided if people just did their research.

It's a great first step!

[jman]

It is a great idea but I can go online to even our site to get a fish tank pic and say see what I got. I think they should tweak their idea a bit more but it is a good start.
GL and hUgs


yeah always a down side they should have a policy also where u have to have an image of the fish in the tank after 2 days or something where they can proove that fish reached the correct tank good thing for the store though!

[Incredulous_Ed]

This is prety cool! but what if you forget a picture of your fish?

[NickFish]

something else I just, realised...what if you don't have a camera?

....never mind...now that I think about it....if you can afford a big tank, you should be able to afford a $5 disposable camera, lol.

I really hope that the other stores in the area do this as well, and there is a lot of pressure for them to do this as well, since many of the accomplised aquarists are praising this new policy.