Trading Juvenile/adult Fish At Fish Stores

[N0body Of The Goat]

I'm contemplating giving up some of my current fish (to get a more true "oddball" stocking, plus hopefully more African fish like P. Buffei in the near future) and was thinking about getting in contact with a Maidenhead Aquatics store, for them either to buy them off me or let me exchange them for some of their other fish...

4x 7cm Barilius canarensis
3x 6cm Barilius dogarsinghi (but might be bakeri)

At the time I bought them, it was in hope they would bond with my two Opsarius, to make a decent sized group of "Hill Trout" fish. It was always a gamble, as is trying to get schools from mixing species (often we read about mixed Cory groups), but it has simply not worked. The Barilius (especially the canarensis) and Opsarius antagonise each other, while the canarensis regularly intimidate the other tankmates and they are currently only half their adult size!

These fish normally retail at £10 each and so I'm wondering if it would be realistic to see if MA would trade them for ~5 young Blind Cave Tetra and/or ~8 Butterfly Goodeids (a nice size alpha male and adult female, with one or two young submissive males and four or five young females)?

As lovely as the Opsarius are, I'm going to make enquiries with the Aquajardin manager about him contacting other purchasers of these fish, when they were a batch of ~40 last year. I'm hoping that someone with a nice sized group (four or five) would be happy to home these two, as I feel they need some species companions (ideally ~4 females), but I've never come across any definate stock anywhere in the country.

Given your experience in trading fish with stores, how realistic is my trading goal?

 

[jacko32]

most shops around my area will trade aslong as the fish are something not too common or hard to sell

i had blind cave fish but had to get rid of them as my cichlids hated them and kept attacking them i think it was caused by there erratic swimming

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Blind Caves certainly are energetic, they were zooming round the MA when I last saw them ~6 weeks ago! Apparently they "learn" the tank layout much more quickly when zooming around.

 

[jacko32]

Blind Caves certainly are energetic, they were zooming round the MA when I last saw them ~6 weeks ago! Apparently they "learn" the tank layout much more quickly when zooming around.

my acara hated them with a passion chased them from lights on to lights out

 

[Essjay26 141]

As far as the actual trading process is concerned, I've never done it with maidenhead aquatics, but other shops I've traded with give you credit for half the price they'll sell your fish for. And they often insist you wait a week before spending the credit just in case your fish die on them. Some shops will only take fish they already sell, others will take any fish.

 

[Harlequins]

Maidenhead are touch & go when it comes to giving store credit,i know my local one will only use their 'breeder suppliers' or if its something they know will sell easily...

I recently took 10 trilineatus cories to a lfs and they have given me store credit for them,they won't say have much though - they said to pop in again when i need supplies of fish food or fish and they will sort it out...

So probably best to ask or phone around your local stores and see who gives the best deals

 

[star4]

A lot of shops by me now wont take fish from the general public, unless agreed before hand and then wont give store credit or swap

 

[ChilliPepper]

I had to give my beautiful GT away for nothing to a LFS as they were the only ones with space to take her. Well, they said space, but personally I think they find them hard to rehome. Another LFS gives a small amount of credit, or you can use it against buying other fish.

 

[Wills]

Yeah fish stores are generally cutting the levels of credit and cash for rehoming fish - not sure if its store policy but my local MA wont buy fish off you or even give credit they will just take them in.

Have you tried Aquarist Classified? Its well worth a try and often a good way of moving fish on and getting to know other fish people in your area.

Wills