Doh!

[tttnjfttt]

My dad was justsitting on the couch watching my new 40 gall that I have been settign up for African Cichlids. He then asks me "How much will it cost to fill this thing up with fish? If I give you $5, can you head to the LPS and buy a bunch of fish?"

Um...The only African Cichlids they sell are sold as mixed cichlids, which is a recipe for disaster. I only trust ONE employee there, and not enough to ID the fish. I need to either add Bio-Spira which they don't sell, or slowly add the new fish. I need to quarentine new fish, especially from the LPS that he is talking about. And finally, the fish I want are at a minimum $5 each, not $5 for the whole tank.

Some people never learn.

 

[Teelie]

$5 would buy me like 15 Zebra Danios at my LFS or twice that in feeder fish but only one or maybe two Cichlids. I guess he's thinking most fish are cheap like that.

 

[Naughtygirlrlw]

Just be glad you didn't get the "Back in my day....." speech!
At least he's offering to help out, gotta love him for having his
heart in the right place

 

[tttnjfttt]

Oh i get that one weekly, usually around water change day. Heaven forbid my fish get sick, he has no idea on why I want to medicate them, because they are not salt water fish.

 

[Fiori]

I suspect a lot of people don't realise how expensive fish can be. My friends look at me like I've got two heads or something, when they hear how much I've spent.

 

[Teelie]

If it wasn't for the shipping and housing costs, fish would be probably a third of what they cost now.

 

[fish_keeper2]

i was planning on buying a 29 gallon and when i told her how much she flipped....i figured around 500 for everything just to be on the safe side...not that she has to pay for it

 

[moeldner]

I was looking at my LFS (sorry - no help to you, this is in Australia), adn they had cardinals for $AU6.95 EACH ($US5.20). I nearly died when i saw that.

Ottos are currenlty $AU12.95 ($US9.70) EACH. I'm looking around for other stores now, but you guys in the US seem to be able to get fish much cheaper than I can in Australia.

 

[Teelie]

I think it's because those are South American fish and the travel distance is a much shorter one than importing them literally to the other side of the planet.

 

[moeldner]

They are sourced from local breeders though, so the import cost shouldn't factor into the equation IMO.

 

[Teelie]

No, that wouldn't make sense unless they are trying to recoup the losses of stock or cost of breeding. Even then though that would have to be a really bad stock for breeders to raise prices that much.