grocery store fish

has anybody ever bought a fish from a grocery store? i mean a fish, such as to put into your aquarium. the asian stores in the area have live fish, and yesterday my eye was caught by some eels ($8.99/pound!) at a place in falls church. they were in an enclosure with some rainbow trout, so i'd presume they're being kept in freshwater.
so anyway, wondering is anybody has ever tried this. i have no idea what kind of eels they actually were, but (assuming they were not tiretracks or fire eels) what might they be? obviously they're not kept in the best of conditions, so i'm wondering if they could adapt to aquarium life. would the store actually hand me a life eel on request, or do they kill them upon purchase?
they're a decent size, probably all over a foot, so might make a nice affordable addition to my big tank...or a snack for the catfish. would appreciate any feedback or experiences.

I think some folks have tried to keep live Tilapia from the grocery store. Not sure about eels and others.

The absolute last thing that I would do would be to buy something from a market and dump it into an existing tank of fish (without quarantine).

Take a picture and post what you saw and likely someone can ID it and provide feedback on proper care. If you're interested in trying to keep whatever it is, I'd absolutely start with a quarantine tank.

Matt

Asian swamp eels maybe?

no question, it would go into quarantine first.
i tried to get a photo yesterday, but it the water conditions were not conducive....
i've seen eels at h-mart before, but when i asked they told me they were "no clean water," which i took to mean salt. i didn't ask at this place (wasn't an h-mart), but they were seperated from rainbow trout by just a screen. might have even been what some pet shops try to pawn off as "freshwater" morays.

The local H-Mart occasionally sells weather loaches ("Mudfish"). THey're usually about $8-9 a pound... I've bought them. I lost about half of them, each time, but ... you get a lot of weather loaches for $10.

As an aside, if you plan on buying them, they're usually sold without water (and you do NOT want the water they're in). As they're sold by weight, people generally just throw them in a plastic bag like a thing of bananas. It's great for scaring the WHATHEHECKISTHAT out of the cashiers, other people in line, etc. But, you want to come prepared. Put a bucket of CLEAN, dechlorinated water in your car, and get those fish into it.

The Great Wall in Germantown has gobies of some sort.

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I once saw a tank of live abalone in a restaurant....They were the coolest thing I've ever seen.

I bought Louisiana crayfish and stock with my African cichlid. They are similar in size as Africans and their bright red contrast well with blue Africans. They are not aggressive but will stand their ground with menacing big claws Typically, they last no more than 6 months because as soon as they molt, they are defensiveness and will be eaten.