How I got my white tip reef shark. A cautionary tale on who not to buy from

turbo253

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 29, 2009
670
8
33
new york
Boy, I don't even know where to start on this story. I guess I'll start eight months ago when I was out visiting a buddy in Sacramento. I when out for his B day and to see the great white at the MBA. Well before I went home I stopped at O street aquarium in Sacramento and they had a white tip reef shark there I fell in love with. I did feel really bad for him cause he was at least 3 feet long and in a 600 gal tank! Knowing that there was no way to get him, I said good bye and headed home to NY.

Fast forward to December I decided that I would add some type of swimming shark to my nurse sharks pond. I talked to this guy Dean from Aqua Top USA
He talked me into a 7 gill shark. He shipped it out and everything worked out pretty good. I took his word that it would be ok in temps at the mid 70s. It was some what true, but I feel they do much better at lower temp. He did fail to tell me about how they rub there fins and nose. That was a constant battle. Anyway I asked him about a white tip reef shark. He said he had one and it was nice and small. Dean Sent me some pics and his ruler said 20". It seemed to good to be true. I gave him 3 deposits of $500 and asked for the shark to be shipped around xmas time.

Well December came and went and nothing from Dean. He said that it was to cold to ship. I said ok no problem, what ever is best for the shark. In the mean time I picked up a black tip reef from black tip 17 in long Island. One solid guy let me tell you! Both the black tip and 7 Gill were doing well in the pond at 72F. So as temps started to rise in the end of January I asked Dean about shipping the white tip and he said that it was at a customers tank for safe keeping and was being kept at 83F. Dean told me that he would bring it back to his place and lower the temp for me and ship it out in a couple of weeks.

In the mean time I contacted another member here that has dealt with Dean in person and asked if he had seen the shark. He told me Dean had sold the shark months ago. At this point I felt I was in trouble and the Dean Thrihn scum bag rumors were coming true.

At this point its early February and no word from Dean. I decided to set up a new bigger pool. Dean got back to me in mid Feb and said once the temp went down below 78F the white tip stopped swimming and eating. I was like ok? what do we do? I was pretty busy setting up my new pool and just figured I would bide my time cause everything I asked him for he had some excuse why I could not have it. The only thing he would send me were things he could catch for free in the bay area leopards,7 gills,skates, smooth hounds.

Now comes the fun part.(thanks for hanging in there I know its a long story)
A couple of weeks ago I saw a guy on SRC that was selling 2 small bat rays and I got talking to him and he said he new of Dean, when I was telling him my story. This guy Steve was like thats BS you paid for a white tip you should get a white tip. So the next day I get a call from Steve and said that Dean had my white tip. Steve acted interested in it and told Dean that he could pick it up local. Dean was all over it cause he thought I gave up. I told Dean the temp came up a bit in my pool and the white tip would be ok. After a week of working on him he agreed to ship it. The best part is that every time I hung up with Dean he would call steve and try to set up a date for pick up. At this point I knew he was scumbaging me. Two days after he agreed to send the shark he texts me and tells me it jumped out and died and then calls Steve and tells him its ready to go.(what a dick!) Dean offers me leopards again but this time I say no way you owe me a white tip. He tells me the only one he has is 4 feet. So I tell him I'll think about it.

After talking to Steve, I tell him to call Dean and back out. Dean freaked out on him and 3 hours later I called his bluff and said send me the 4 footer. He sends me pics and its the same pics he sent to Steve. The only thing is he was selling Steve a 29" shark.

Now its Thursday and Dean says its going to be shipped in a 48"x40"x40" box and its going to be 500 bucks to ship it plus a $100 fee to the airport and $160 for the box. I say ok but I want to pay the airport direct. It turned out it was way too much trouble so I made him send me an invoice for what I was paying for and I would send him the money. All in all it was an extra $834 to ship it I knew he was ripping me off but it was worth it cause now I have proof of what a scum bag this guy is and I can warn people.

Now its friday afternoon and I send him the money and he packs it up and ships it for Saturday morning to Jfk. Knowing how Dean ships (a whole other story for a different time) I called black tip 17 and told him what was going on and he said he would meet me at the airport and repack him with amquel and o2 for the ride home.(what a guy)

So this is the big day I pick up the shark at Jfk and Get the invoice from united airlines. Shipping was only $289. A far cry from $834. I open the box there is a good lookin white tip in pretty rough shape. The water was dirty and there was tons of food and poop in the bag. We ox him up and get the hell out of there. I get him home at about 10 am and check the water temp and its 58F. He was shipped with no heat packs. WTF. I start acclimating him. Thank god I am able to get medical O2. That helped him a lot. The acclimation took about 11 hours to get the temp up and he ate that night. The only thing that worried me is his tail was red and his eyes were blood shot. I thought maybe he was injured when he was caught.

Well I look in the tank two days later and what do it find? A major infection in his tail. Great! now I have a sick shark that I way over paid for. plus the poor shark didn't ask for this! I lucked out and my vet set me up wit baytril to give IM. My wife is a nurse so this was not to big of a deal. But I was still super worried about him.

Now this brings us to today and full circle. I was looking at my old blackberry today and was watching the video I took in september of the white tip I fell in love with back in Sacramento. I noticed the shark was missing the same half moon shape in his dorsal fin as my new white tip. Could it be? The hair stood up on the back of my neck. I ran down stairs to check and it sure looked like the same shark. So I called O street aquarium today and asked about the white tip and they said they sold it about 2 weeks ago.
I said noway! Did a guy named Dean buy it? They said yup and he sent it to ny. They told me he bought it for $800. After talking to them for a bit he remembered me coming in and was glad it went to a good home. He also said that there is video of Dean catching it out of the tank on youtube. I said nice now we can see how Dean operates.

So here are the links to this. its pretty sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_8hQ1wt92g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMfjV75MeMg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2pMH1nwel8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW3sHNUYrIk

Dean is the guy catching the shark.
The shark is doing well now and eating like a pig. I think he is going to heal up.
He is 39" and 11lbs
After I see the way he was handled its no surprise that he had problems when I got him.
I Hope this clears up any doubt on what kind of guy Dean Thrihn really is!

If the links don't work just search O street aquarium on you tube and the 4 clips come up.

I would like say thank you so much to black tip17 and Steve1815. They helped so much.

IMG_0466.JPG

IMG_3390.JPG

IMG_3395.JPG
 

wright4lfe

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 30, 2005
421
1
0
46
wow.

that guy needs to be dealt with.
 

Jabba954

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 4, 2009
617
1
0
Bay Area
BUT, if you really want to screw with Dean's business of scamming people, he's a very active and "respected" member of his church - located at 1000 N. Park Victoria St., Milpitas, CA - a lot of his videos are from the WAY too small tank there. I had considered posting flyers, but I decided against it at the time - but now I think I will. Send me more pics of the infection and damage and shipping conditions.

I rescued a blacktip out of there that subsequently died - necropsy showed that it had repeatedly smashed its snout, which probably caused all manner of balance and feeding issues. Dean is a thief and a liar. If you need more info, I think I have his home address somewhere too. I work about 15 minutes from where he operates out of.
 

Satan's Goldfish

Cloven-hoofed Sea Monkey
MFK Member
Nov 2, 2008
1,402
2
38
Carterton, Oxfordshire
Some people just deserve to be punished!

Have you thought about getting all the paper work and proof together about how much it cost from the store you saw it at, how much the shipping actually was, and how much that thieving scum over charged you for it? Play a bit of hard ball with him, try and get something back out of him then get him screwed over by the authorities. We'll all feel better for it!
 

turbo253

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 29, 2009
670
8
33
new york
Don't worry I will get him. I hope every one is watching those you tube clips on how he handled the shark. clip 3 and 4 are the good ones.
 

NilePufferFanatic

Gambusia
MFK Member
Feb 5, 2007
384
0
16
Idaho
You can tell a lot by how the store owner or employee catch fish. Looks like their strategy is to chase it around until it's exhausted, make sure it smashes into the walls to daze it, then use a net that is small enough to leave 3/4 of the fish hanging out.

I am glad to hear it eating well and putting on weight.
 

RoastReef

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 18, 2009
106
0
46
San Martin, CA
I've been to his "shop" as well. His fish look terrible and he keeps black tips in 8 foot tanks. He's a well known scumbag in the local reefing community. He posts on craigslist all the time trying to sell sharks and fish. He also rips people off that are selling tanks. He collects all the livestock (he took the canopy and halides from someone I know as well) and makes some excuse that he has to come back for the tank and stand, pumps, etc. He never comes back and the seller is stuck with the leftover equipment; and in the case of the guy I know, an incomplete set-up.
 

turbo253

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 29, 2009
670
8
33
new york
Remember its not the store that caught the shark its Dean. he is a wholesaler (Aqua Top USA) that sold me a shark that he either never had or never planed on sending to me. When I started to make a stink about it he found that white tip in a fish store by chance and sent it to me. The one I was supposed to get he said he caught in Hawaii and was only 20". When I talked to the guys at the fish store yesterday they were shocked I had the shark cause Dean told them it was going to a public aquarium in NY. The whole thing sucks but I did think it was cool how by chance I got the shark I saw 8 months ago and He is now out of that little prison and in a 18' round 4' deep pool.
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store