i want to buy a baby red zebra but i dont want to buy a hybrid how do i ensure this doesnt happen?
red zebra yellow lab hybrids
- Thread starter cichlidcraze
- Start date
why bash the petco/petsmart stores? I know they dont have the best fish but I have gotten some great fish from there not to mention they usually get there fish from the same places that many local fish stores get there's from. Atleast that's how it is in my area!
Well then I wouldn't buy from your local LFS then either. Almost every fish I have seen at petsmart/petco ie large chains tend to be hybrids... IE I dare you to find a good peacock, and I have yet to see really any good quality mbuna. (DONT even think about those assorted cichlid tanks, unless you really like hybrids.)
Good LFS only buy fish from people that have good names and are known to only supply fish that are healthy without disease and such. It can take some time to find them, but honestly how many dead fish do you think the petsmart/petco people have to fish out of there tanks each morning? I am not saying you can't have the rare fish manager than knows what they are doing, but honestly you are going to get good quality fish at those places. (The ones I used to go to before I started buying online and getting into the Atlanta fish club usually bought there fish from local people that were in the fish club... Not the giant fish farm in Florida that just scooped out a few bags of fish from there lakes of Africans... Again there are good fish farms and bad ones, and your lfs should have had experience figuring out what ones are good.)
I am not saying you can't find good fish (though Malawi is questionable). You can for sure find pretty fish, but I honestly am not willing to sell any fry from fish that I have received from petsmart.
Honestly the best way to get good fish is you local fish club...
Good LFS only buy fish from people that have good names and are known to only supply fish that are healthy without disease and such. It can take some time to find them, but honestly how many dead fish do you think the petsmart/petco people have to fish out of there tanks each morning? I am not saying you can't have the rare fish manager than knows what they are doing, but honestly you are going to get good quality fish at those places. (The ones I used to go to before I started buying online and getting into the Atlanta fish club usually bought there fish from local people that were in the fish club... Not the giant fish farm in Florida that just scooped out a few bags of fish from there lakes of Africans... Again there are good fish farms and bad ones, and your lfs should have had experience figuring out what ones are good.)
I am not saying you can't find good fish (though Malawi is questionable). You can for sure find pretty fish, but I honestly am not willing to sell any fry from fish that I have received from petsmart.
Honestly the best way to get good fish is you local fish club...
whatever i wont debate this topic again with someone. Get your fish from where ever, if there healthy and you think they look good get them, its your tank. Im just tired of everytime some one mentions those places, they immediately get bashed for being crappy places to get fish, but let me tell you i have seen some really crappy places that call themselves fish experts and there fish may come in pure but they go out hybridized!
As you said we don't need to get into rants. And I never said that every small lfs is good. But I can say that if it is a small lfs it is likely around because they love fish and they want to improve the hobby, ie they aren't there to really make a large profit. On the other hand a petco/petsmart chain is really only around because they care about profits.
Again fish quality at chain stores depends on the managers, if you have one that is good you can get good fish. I have yet to find that good manager at a super pet store.
I again will say when answer the question where to find a fish that you know isn't going to sell you a hybrid, is first off you local fish club, then online, then your small mom pop lfs if you have built up a trust with them. (Again that means you have to do research/get to know who is selling you your fish...)
Ok enough of that, good luck on finding some some good labs.
Again fish quality at chain stores depends on the managers, if you have one that is good you can get good fish. I have yet to find that good manager at a super pet store.
I again will say when answer the question where to find a fish that you know isn't going to sell you a hybrid, is first off you local fish club, then online, then your small mom pop lfs if you have built up a trust with them. (Again that means you have to do research/get to know who is selling you your fish...)
Ok enough of that, good luck on finding some some good labs.
I also believe that he said stay away from those places, since he does not know if those shops are good in that area. You can most likely trust fish club people about hybrids. To be honest, most petsmart/petcos do not have a large say on the fish, local LFS may have more of a say, this way have a higher chance of knowing if it is a Hybrid or not...most of the time at the Chain stores the employees can not tell if they are Hyrid or not, and are more than willing to lye... of course LFS can lie too. find a breeder... or aquabid...
The ideal place to get your fish from is one that either brings in fish from a breeder who has wild caughts or imports F1 stock from wherever. I don't know how much of your stocks come in from the Far East, singapore and Taiwan, but they seem to end up inbreeding so much that the fish don't resemble the parents at all.
We often get some rather pathetic looking caeruleus, pale yellow with very little black in the fins, and these are imported from the East.
Never seen your big stores but would agree, rather try and locate a supplier who has good colouring in the fish.
My wild caught off spring sometimes have better colouring than their parents. Have some Pse. heteropictus where the F1 males colouring is far better than the dads.
We get petshops that have a tank of "mixed Malawi's".
I personally will never buy a fish from a store where the people cannot give me the true scientific name for the fish. If they don't know this then they are basically clueless.
We often get some rather pathetic looking caeruleus, pale yellow with very little black in the fins, and these are imported from the East.
Never seen your big stores but would agree, rather try and locate a supplier who has good colouring in the fish.
My wild caught off spring sometimes have better colouring than their parents. Have some Pse. heteropictus where the F1 males colouring is far better than the dads.
We get petshops that have a tank of "mixed Malawi's".
I personally will never buy a fish from a store where the people cannot give me the true scientific name for the fish. If they don't know this then they are basically clueless.