Need a second opinion or 50

[cichlidaddicted]

So I have been ordering most of my fish and I have run into a problem. I have no clue how to handle it so please help. I choose to order fish because I needed a reliable way to get fish that were hard to find and absolutely not hybrids. I have ordered a few hundred dollars worth of stuff and most was small so it was hard to tell if they weren't represented correctly by the seller. I will be descrete in an attempt not to defame anyone's buisness. So when I order I have three variables to describe the fish-size, sex, species. Obviously I can't see them so I am trusting the seller to describe them correclty. Well upon arrival all seems well the sizes weren't to accurate but this is the least of my concerns. Gender is difficult so I assumed a fish labeled as male showing some color is a small male and a sex unsure is a toss up. Upon arrival this is not the case. All sex unsure turned out female and about half the fish that were supposed to be young males were females. Okay so the sizes were a little off and the genders weren't as accurate as I hoped but atleast I have a starting point with pure bred fish.... right? No, I won't go into to much detail because that will give it all away so these are just very close examples lets say I ordered a pair of fish with intentions to breed them and after they grew to size I had a male tangerine tiger instead of red empress and the female is a toss up not really sure and the second problem is similar to me ordering a sulfer head, fish arrives grows up and no sulfer head ask what's going on and they tell me "they have never seen a sulfer head with a yellow blaze"....oh well why does the one on your website have a yellow blaze and last order from you I got one, that arrived dead and that one had a yellow blaze. "Oh I will have to look at the fish more closley". So after all sizes were off gender was off and now actual species are totally unkown the seller admits this and says "not sure what I should do". Now I don't want to make demands but the fish I got were not the fish I ordered in atleast one case the second case is a possible hybrid or some variant or just a fish missing one of the main defining characteristics of the species. So now I can't breed them and I have four random fish. What should I do please help on this one.

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[cichlidaddicted]

Oh and in have already submitted these fish to cares so now I have to figure out how to handle that.

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[Reel Addiction]

Dont order again and demand some satifaction, whatever you feel that may be

 

[jonclark96]

I've ordered fish on line for a while and have generally had some pretty good results. Size of fish is generally over estimated by just about everyone, IMO. Doesn't matter if it is an on line seller or a local club member, most folks tend to think their fish are bigger than they actually are. I don't really get upset when things are smaller than advertised, as long as I don't get a 1" fish that's sold as 4".

If you are dealing with a reputable guy, I would think that some discourse back and forth would get the issue reasonably solved. I don't think that good vendors are looking to upset their clients, but they aren't in the business to give stuff away, either. I'd try to reach out again, maybe even offer to send the fish back to them. If they are stuck on not making things right, then I'd chalk it up to a tough lesson learned and find other vendors to purchase from.

 

[dogofwar]

I deal with a precious few, trusted sources of fish.

If you're not happy, let them know why and let them make it right. Otherwise, there are impeccably good sources of African cichlids (like Dave's).

Matt

 

[cichlidaddicted]

I've ordered fish on line for a while and have generally had some pretty good results. Size of fish is generally over estimated by just about everyone, IMO. Doesn't matter if it is an on line seller or a local club member, most folks tend to think their fish are bigger than they actually are. I don't really get upset when things are smaller than advertised, as long as I don't get a 1" fish that's sold as 4".

If you are dealing with a reputable guy, I would think that some discourse back and forth would get the issue reasonably solved. I don't think that good vendors are looking to upset their clients, but they aren't in the business to give stuff away, either. I'd try to reach out again, maybe even offer to send the fish back to them. If they are stuck on not making things right, then I'd chalk it up to a tough lesson learned and find other vendors to purchase from.

I agree the size thing is true no matter where you get your fish and I expected that. I don't mind waiting for a tiny fish to grow out as long as its the right fish. I have no reason to believe he is refusing and type of satisfaction I just don't want to expect it if its not due. I also understand that these people get what their given and if a fish isn't perfect they can't just toss it out. One thing that bothers me is that this is a process getting a fish shipped getting it comfortable growing it out feeding it supporting it all to find out its not what you wanted. Now my fish are at the size where I can't just toss another full color fish in and expect it to end well. It just seems like so much time wasted and now its fixed on the website I truely want to believe it was just an accident. I want to order more fish I don't want to have to start a new relationship with a new supplier.........its just a lot of money to throw away for some females I have no use for and males that aren't even the species I want to breed. Just a colossal waste of time and money the shipping on these orders was over 100 bucks alone.

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[Localzoo]

Wow that blows. As Matt and Jon mentioned if the seller is responsible you should be able to contact them and have them fix things...then you know not to deal with said person or business again.

Hope you can get it all straightened out. Best of luck


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[Rasta Fish]

Its very difficult when ordering young fish to sex them correctly
* The Seller should know what he have and label them accordingly
* Check around the Club before ordering some of the most common easy to find fishes
* get in on group buys and don't buy a a lot of different species at once
* a few hundred is a lot man, i would be very upset! right about now, if i was in your shoes
I trust you contact the seller about this
* i hope you did not mix them all up and have them separate according to what you think you have
* If all else fails grow them out and see, ask around for help ID them, you maybe able to salvage some of this as long as you dont mix them together

 

[Becca]

You may be able to go through your credit card company or PayPal to dispute charges. After all, what you ordered is not what you received.

 

[verbal]

You may be able to go through your credit card company or PayPal to dispute charges. After all, what you ordered is not what you received.

It sounds like it has been a long time(to grow them out) since the original charges.

At the very least the retailer should be willing to take the fish back for the price you paid. It really doesn't hurt them since they can at least sell the males for male-only tanks.