Buying fish - Check first

[ehlim]

This afternoon, I went to a big LFS near Jalan kayu that sells in bulk. I bought 50 cherry barbs. To my surprise when they were released into my tank I found that more than half of them were pale in colour, without any hint of reddness! Pale = females, right? I called the LFS, and the response was that it had "thousands of species of fish, and did not know that female cherry barbs are pale in colour"! The LFS agreed that I could bring the females back for exchange. But trying to catch the fish in a heavily planted tank is very difficult. I went to another LFS off Upper Paya Lebar and bought another 50 cherry barbs with very good colouring. The lesson I learned are: confirm the sexes of the fish before buying, and to check them before leaving the LFS.

[Fei Miao]

If I'm not wrong the difference in body shape are: females usually broader and males slimmers, perhaps they are still stressed and not colour-up yet, give them some time to settle and see...

[Justikanz]

Well, ehlim, you are right in your advise, look before you buy... But then again, female cherry barbs look pretty too. They should be able to attain an orange body colouration once they are settled in. And some collection location's male cherry barbs are less red than others. Think Choy had mentioned that before.

Anyway, that means you have 100 cherry barbs in your tank?? Won't your tank be overstocked?...

[vinz]

Actually.... always check your goods before you pay or leave the shop. Any kind of goods.

[bryan]

Well, actually to be fair to the Big Fish Shop in Jalan Kayu, would you want to sex possibly thousands of fish from your stock tank?

There are pros and cons to buying bulk.

[vinz]

...

I called the LFS, and the response was that it had "thousands of species of fish, and did not know that female cherry barbs are pale in colour"!

...

What really bothers me about the "big" LFS is that they don't even know something as basic as this about the fishes they bring in. It's like a car salesman telling you that cars run on petrol, so it doesn't have a battery.

[neon]

I learnt my lesson also once bought 100 pieces of boraras from the Jalan Kayu LFS , which I called in advance ,asked them to pack first as I wanted to pick up and go (hired a taxi). As the fishes were stressed and pale, could not see probably, realized they were the wrong fish. Called and informed them that they were selling the wrong fish. As usual from their reply "Supplier say one !!".

[diki]

I noticed that the cherry barbs that I have, there is a different in males and females. Males can be really cherry red in colour but I think it happens when they are ready to mate. Females will not have the cherry red colour but more like light orange colour instead. And also males are thinner while females are a little fat.

[andrewtyr]

I learnt my lesson also once bought 100 pieces of boraras from the Jalan Kayu LFS , which I called in advance ,asked them to pack first as I wanted to pick up and go (hired a taxi). As the fishes were stressed and pale, could not see probably, realized they were the wrong fish. Called and informed them that they were selling the wrong fish. As usual from their reply "Supplier say one !!".

so what did they give you instead?

[mickthefish]

reading what the lads have said there's one thing i'd like to add,
some of our shops have a similar way of selling their fish, and you must understand the sellers point of view you asked for 50 and you got 50 so really you can't expect the man to give you all the males.
he give you them in pairs.
cheers
mick

[Talos]

Well, ehlim, you are right in your advise, look before you buy... But then again, female cherry barbs look pretty too. They should be able to attain an orange body colouration once they are settled in. And some collection location's male cherry barbs are less red than others. Think Choy had mentioned that before.

Anyway, that means you have 100 cherry barbs in your tank?? Won't your tank be overstocked?...

agree that sometimes the fish need time to settle down before their true colors are revealed.

i've had experiences of buying large quantities of fish that weren't quarantined properly and they all died within hours of being released into the tank.
nothing to do with the water in the tank.
just bad quarantine.

[ehlim]

reading what the lads have said there's one thing i'd like to add,
some of our shops have a similar way of selling their fish, and you must understand the sellers point of view you asked for 50 and you got 50 so really you can't expect the man to give you all the males.
he give you them in pairs.
cheers
mick

The LFS here separate the male guppies from the females. I stand corrected, but people only buy female guppies, which are much less colourful, if they want to breed. If there is a distinct difference between male and female cherry barbs, why can't they be sold separately, just like guppies? Having a small quantity of female barbs is ok, but having more than half of the stock just spoilt the aquascape! We buy cherry barbs because of their distinct finnage + "orangey-red" colouring, isn't it? Cheers.

[XnSdVd]

I find it ironic that some species have females in ready supply, whereas others like the betta are full of males. I believe the local macrostoma population is exclusive to males. Along with my 9 male and 2 female B. pugnaxes...

[low]

I had bad experience there too....don't know if it is the same shop.......

http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=194963

[budak]

The way LFS sell their livestock aside (which I can agree is quite haphazard), I must strongly disagree that having half one's stock consisting of female barbs 'spoils the aquascape'. Don't flame me back; I know it's ultimately because we have different ideals with regards to aquariums. For me, it's not just about having tanks filled with 'pretty' fish. (Disclaimer: nothing written here should be construed as meaning that I think female cherry barbs are not pretty)

[Quixotic]

...We buy cherry barbs because of their distinct finnage + "orangey-red" colouring, isn't it?...

No, not everyone. I would rather have a mix of males and females. And I have a soft spot of colourless fishes.

Agree with budak, I don't want my tanks to be just having "pretty" fishes. I would like it to have a natural "mix" of males and females. There is much more fun with their interaction.

[XnSdVd]

Hmm.. i think we're going into a "Biotope or Aquascape?" debate. Not that it's bad but does anyone aside from myself get the difference? An aquascape puts aesthetics before the ecological correctness of the tank. Whereas a biotope is concerned with getting the tank ecology correct before getting it to look good.

[budak]

Aquascaping ideals aside, I think the broader lesson is still that hobbyists cannot assume too much of LFS/farms/other suppliers. When buying in bulk, there's no telling what you might get, unless you specify exactly what you want (e.g. 50 males) or better, do the catching/selection yourself.

That said, it's getting a little off topic, although there's much to be said about fish selection for planted aquaria. Gaudy fish like cardinals and fancy discus are certainly popular, but has anyone noticed how some of the best-looking setups (by Amano as well as prize-winning tanks from ADA/AGA etc...) use fish species that are usually regarded as dull-coloured (e.g. Rasbora einthovenii, R. caudimaculata, silvery tetras/hatchets, altums)?

[XnSdVd]

As an art student let me say this: It's all about subtlety... Let the viewer draw his own mental picture. You scape is merely the inspiration.

[Jungle-mania]

Oddly enough, I am drawn to the individual beauty of the fish and the overall aesthetic of a scape, never really the individual plants. I find often enough that I am drawn to how the plants complement one and another and to the scape and not to the rarity or the price of it.

For fishes, people are forced to focus their attention eventually on them as they are constantly moving, as a result the need to buy more psychedelic fishes. Again, I might be biased, I might be having disease on collecting exotic buggers and the itch gets unbearable when I am around Kovan area.