My Stupidity At Times.

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RRaquariums

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So a new LFS opened up and I of corse went down to check it out. They had a great variety of new fish and all looked healthy so after looking around I set my sites on an absolutely beatiful red coris wrasse now I hadn't really read much on these guys and I knew for the most part wrasses are problems all the way around. So I talked with the LFS owner and she said it was reef safe and shouldn't give me any problems me being a skeptic I figured it was a gamble on that being true but purchased this guy because I wasn't able to say no even though it was against my better judgement and my rule of always research something before you buy it. Well got him home and acclimated then put in and of corse I went to start research turns out he is not fully grown at his current 4 inches but gets to be anywhere from 10-18 inches which is not at all what I want in my tank. Secound problem is he has a taste for shrimp, snails, and hermits basically every last one of my cleaning crew he would eat in a heart beat. So now thanks to my own stupidity I have a wrasse in my tank that I need to get out and take back. The point of this thread is hopefully someone will learn two things from this one don't ever ever buy a fish/coral that you haven't done your research on first eventually we all make the mistake of an impulse buy but when your feel like your gonna do that just walk away because chances are it's a bad idea. And secound thing I hope to show how to catch a wrasse from a reef tank without moving out all the rocks and corals which even if I wanted to is not a choice in my tank because it's all glued down. After some reading I built a fish trap I'll post a pic of it and we will see how it works.
Ok so for some reason my iPad won't let me post a pic but it's just one of those plastic small fish/pet carriers with the small swinging door on the top I've rigged up a piece of fishing line to hold it open and put food inside. Read a lot of succes stories of catching wrasses that way but we will see. Hopefully he will get hungry enough to go in.
If not I will have to explore other options of removal.
 
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I'd add 2 more things to that list:
 
  • Take what the person at the LFS tells you with a large grain of salt.  
  • Never buy livestock from a store that has just recently opened.  Personally, I try to visit a store at least 3 times before making my first purchase livestock.
 
All tanks look pretty and clean when they are brand new.  Let them mature a bit, and see if they still look new, and the fish are still looking healthy.  I usually will check out their food selections, maybe a plant or two, or some other odds and ends items while browsing their tanks.
 
 
 
 
If it makes you feel better RR... I had a store in my area that I only ever made purchases of plants (kept separately from their fish) or other supplies when they had a sale, but I refused to buy their fish.  It was just not a good situation.  I couldn't put my finger on it exactly, but the tanks never looked 'right', ya know?   Anyway, I go in one day, and see they have orange flame tetras (von rio tetras), and at a great price.  Silly me.  I buy the lot of them - 8... for a planted 15 gallon tank.  They'd be the fish, as they'd really standout against the plants.  I get them home, acclimate them, the whole 9 yards... next day, ich on ALL of them.  Every last fish is covered in ich.  I treat the tank, I try to save them, but I lose the lot of them... and the treatment process kills half my plants as well.   Needless to say, I've gotten a little more stiff-necked about my 'rules' for purchases since then.  Hopefully you will learn this lesson as well as I learned mine, but without the loss of life.  
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The store was actually about an hours drive from me but moved closer I'd delt with them in the past and it was all the same tanks so wasn't concerned about the new LFS syndrome. But good point on that.
And yeah I pretty much don't believe anything an LFS owner says ever but in this case I knew that and went against it anyways.
That's why I'm mad at myself for breaking the rules and making a nooby mistake.
But nothing like trying to catch a wrasse in a 230 gallon tank to teach you a lession again lol.
 
Ah, the temptation of LFS fish is sometimes almost impossible to resist despite your head saying "DON'T DO IT!!"  :shout:
 
Think this affectes most keepers
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The number of times I have gone into a lfs just to get a piece of tank kit and find myself seriously considering getting someting unsuitable
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I have no idea how hard it is to catch a wrasse in a 230 gal but can imagine is not all that easy then
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Good luck
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to be honest i have fallen for things at fish stores for me its alwyas plants labelled as easy and they say theyll grow in any conditions turns out cambomba might not be as immortal as they told me XD
 
I still need a video of you getting inside the tank to catch that fish.
 

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