no research lesson
Oh my gosh that is sooooo sad!! I had a "newbie" experience also, mine fortunately turned out much better, but my Aunt had given us a 30/g tank and my mom took my son to get some fish for it. Anyway they DID tell the sale person the size of our tank before picking out fish (this shows NOT to trust the sale person or the info tickets on the tank), well my son really liked the columbian shark (on the tank it said they get around 6") and got 2 of them then he saw the bala, rainbow shark, neon gaumbie (not sure how to spell that) and the irridesent shark (tank said they get 6"-8") well he ended up getting 2 of each of these and a algea eater and 6 ghost shrimp. The sales person told them they would all be fine together and that was not to much for a 30/g tank. Well the columbian's did say they are BW, when my mom asked about the other fish they were told they could all live in BW, my mom asked what is Brackish and he said you just add some aquarium salt so my mom got the "aquarium" salt to make it BW. After getting the fish and bringing them home we put the salt in and everything was doing fine, then I noticed the columbian looked like they were shedding (that is the only way I can describe it) and is also how I found this site (which may I say is WONDERFUL), in the process of trying to find out what was wrong with them I found out more about all my fish, and that there was NO WAY they could all live together in a 30/g tank. I found out what I thought was BW was not you were suppose to use a different kind of salt for that then the aquarium salt (which thankfully I did not use since NONE of the other fish were suppose to be BW) and most likely that was the cause for the columbians looking the way they did which they both did die within a day or two of finding out more about them, I was going to switch them into my 20/g tank by themselves so they could at least have the right type of water and temporaraly since they can get up to 18"!! I am getting a 55/g and was going to switch them to the 30/g untill I couldn't keep them there any longer, not really sure what I was going to do when that time came. Then I found out that the irridesent sharks could grow up to 3' yes that is FEET not inchs, a very nice person on this site sent me a link to some pictures of a few fully grown irridesents I about died when I saw them, well after loosing the columbians and knowing there was know way I could provide for the irridesents I went to the LFS and took in a picture from the link telling them I wanted them to take the fish back, and asking them why in the world they would say they only grow 6"-8", his response to me "well in an aquarium they will only grow to that size, they wont outgrow their surrounding" I told him that I found out they my not out grow on the outside but their insides still grow and they would die!! They refused to take the fish back telling me they have a 3 day return policy :mad2: Then I asked them why they would say all the fish would be ok in BW when all but the columbians were fresh water and if I was suppose to use BW why did they sell my som the aquarium salt instead of the other, he said they must of missunderstood because the columbian could be FW or BW and that would be why he sold the aquarium salt instead since the others were freshwater fish
Now the irridesents were my fav's I didn't want to kill them, and in no way could provide the gallons they would require I was at a loss as to what to do, heres were the happy ending comes, my cousin has a friend whos mom has a outdoor pond with coy(I think they are called...the HUGE goldfish) and several other fish, well she said she would take them, which made me very happy...only problem she said she couldn't take them until they were at least 1'. Then came the next good thing for my fellows, a friend of mine had just got a 120or130/g tank and said he would take them until they were big enough :dance2: So although my ending was much better I know how you feel!! I have told my son NO MORE unless we know EXACTLY what we are getting and don't depend on what the LFS tells you either!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is soooooooo very important to research first. I do not think they should sell fish that get that big to anyone unless they let the person know what they are getting into EVER!!
p.s I heard through the grapevine that LFS is going out of business so maybe that is why we were SO misinformed but still that is no excuse for such B.S.