From: frazier@kona.cs.ucla.edu (Gregory Frazier)
Subject: Re: Licensing/Certification
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 92 16:16:00 GMT

satilley@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu wrote:
: In article <1992Aug30.235027.12427@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>, satilley@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu writes:
: > I'd like to know if there are any programs for licensing dealers
: > and breeders of salt and/or fresh water fish. 
: >  
: > I called a pet store that sells fish and simply asked if he would
: > buy zebra danio fry.  He said yes, at 1" and for 10 cents a
: > piece.  That's it.  No questions asked.  Over the phone....
: >  
: > How do I, the
: > unsuspecting, naive consumer, know if their fish are 1) healthy,
: > and 2) ?
: >  
: >     I'd like to do a 55 gallon set-up with irredescent sharks,
: > bala sharks, columbian sharks, black ghosts, angel fish, and
: > pictus cats.  But, are they telling me the right things, for the
: > safety of my fish --and me?  Or are they telling me what it takes
: > to get the sale?
: 
: Forgive me if I speak out of line here, but, has anybody seen this?  If it's a
: bad idea -- tell me so I can quit expecting to see someone that cared enough to
: let me know that I *AM* wasting my time.......

Yes, it was seen.  I didn't respond because it is just too big
a can of worms to try to deal with.  Yes, *anybody* can sell
their fish to a fish store.  Yes, this can create problems,
especially with cichlids, where it is very easy to cross-breed
different species.  No, there is no way to tell if you are
purchasing true-bred fish from a fish store.  However, if you
are truely interested in a species of fish, you will either
buy them from a reputable store, where they will tell you the
source of the fish, or you will purchase the fish from a club
or specialty breeder, where you can be confident of the quality.
For example, I am leary of purchasing killifish from a fish
store - almost all of our killies were purchased from fellow
hobbyists.

As for dealers trying to make a sale, as opposed to keeping the
best interests of the hobbyist and fish at heart, of course!
That's why this is such a popular newsgroup - you come here for
the info, and then go into the fish store and *tell* them
what's what! :-)  As for fish health, you have to learn what
to look for, and then decide for yourself if a fish is healthy
or not.  For a marine aquarium, that means seeing the fish eat.

Finally, I personally would be very nervous about setting up the
tank that you describe.  Freshwater sharks are fast-moving and (I
believe) aggressive fish.  I've seen bala sharks schooling in
a display tank, so they probably wouldn't molest each other
if you got enough of them, but I don't know how they'd interact
with slow-moving, long-finned angels.  And, I suspect the ghost(s)
would never get any food, with those sharks in the tank.  I think
you should choose between a tank with a school of sharks in it,
*or* a tank with a ghost and several angelfish in it.  My
opinion, and I've never owned either bala sharks or a ghost/knife fish.

--
"They thought to use and shame me but I win out by nature, because a true
freak cannot be made.  A true freak must be born." - Geek Love

Greg Frazier	frazier@CS.UCLA.EDU	!{ucbvax,rutgers}!ucla-cs!frazier
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria