Thanks X.I just don't see why I should have a ten thousand gallon pond in order for me to be able to say that a fish should at least be able to move around in it's glass box.
Again, kr, I am sorry, and I do (seriously respect you as a poster) value reading most of the posts of yours here on MFK. I do get the gist of the argument, however; there are as many reasons why any of us as fish keepers can blame on setups less than reasonably ideal for any species of fish.
The majority involve either intentional of inadvertent data supplied by the seller to the buyer!!!!!!!
I cannot agree more with the idea of research prior to buying any species of fish. With that said, I strongly feel it is 10x as bad to require any personal fish keeper to gain a college level degree in order to keep fish. This or any other "certificate" proving a working understanding of the potential pet fishes biological requirements. Again with this strictly my opinion, but I think it is clear how the requirement for education could, and would be according to human nature, used as an argument to keep all but the top handful percent of the highest level Ichthyologists from being able to cast stones.
Being a gar fanatic, I cannot tell you how many times that I have purchased mail order gar that were NOT the species listed. I LOL, thoroughly have come to expect this from vendors, and feed the needle fish, chariacans or improperly ID's Lep. genus gars!!!
Again, I am sorry, but since NO VENDORS selling gar can ID the things 1/100th as well as Solomon, Pel, or Xander I strongly apply this to other species.
So, if you buy a RBP from a vendor and get a Pacu instead, the buyer is the "bad person"? Baloney, I again cannot disagree more.
The vendor is the "bad person" and the "poor" Pacu gets filleted and used for feed to carnivorous fish.
Just my take. Vendors need to be held responsible.
It sounds like the only difference between the OP and myself, is when I get FORCED into this situation,
I cull the fish usually as feed, and blacklist the vendor for future business.
Please do not ask, I will NOT share my banned vendor list as I think that there are MANY issues wrong with asking others to share in my "bad" experience with a vendor as an overall cut and dry responsible warning to other MFK members.