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$700 dollar mistake in DD

Chad

By Chad,
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Chad

Chad

  • Author
(edited)

Mike, where is the thread on RC? I spent 60 seconds looking and didn't see it right away.

Edited by Chad
LOL, should have hit refresh first!
Chad

Chad

  • Author

DD has a pretty esteemed reputation in the hobby, although the prices are usually a touch on the high side, they definitely do their best to make it worth while. I'm impressed, I think most folks would understand if they could not honor that with the economy the way it is and the margins so many companies operate on.

Coral Hind

Coral Hind

The guy doesn't seem to have the right setup for them and is going to throw a DIY pond together in his garage. I have a feeling they will be re-sold pretty soon.

Chad

Chad

  • Author

^sad but true.

treesprite Neptune Reefer

treesprite

(edited)

Someone on RC just got some, saw the post last night. I thought he said in the basement, move the kid's moon bounce? He should have waited anyway, until he had a place already prepared for them. Obviously an impulse buy.

Edited by treesprite
Jan

Jan

(edited)

Wow, just read the thread on RC. A pond in the garage in Richmond Va. As we approach winter no less. Talk about impulse buy. Not even an honorable display inside? Will they survive? I hope he doesn't dump them in the ocean. They grow to 3-4' and they are aggressive. Why would divers den sell them and why would anyone outside of someone who owns a LFS and would put them on display or a Marine biologist want them? I think it's a bit much.

Edited by Jan
treesprite Neptune Reefer

treesprite

Status symbol, attention, arrogance. Like buying a high end imported car and driving it around here... fast while texting with the stereo blasting.

Jan

Jan

Irresponsible! Both Drs. Foster and Smith as well as the guy who purchased them. Those fish deserve a huge display or to be left in the ocean! Love this hobby but some critters just don't belong in captivity. They certainly should not be sold to the average hobbyist. Let's hope he donates them to an aquarium.

 

Status symbol, attention, arrogance. Like buying a high end imported car and driving it around here... fast while texting with the stereo blasting.

daharley

daharley

Just my opinion and very possible that this guy is exactly what you guys say. But at some point or another most of the stuff in this hobby should have been left in the ocean and not in a tank. I don't believe the desire to have one of these is is arrogant and except for the confines of our hobby is not much of a status symbol. I wouldn't by one, for the moment at least, but would love to have the ability to take care of a shark if I ever have a large enough tank. It is why we are in the hobby to be able to take care of interesting beautiful creatures. Hopefully he takes proper care of them and kudos to liveaquaria for actually standing by that.

roni Legendary Reefer

roni

Guys, please don't judge someone you don't know. David is actually a very responsible aquarist who has kept a ton of difficult stuff and doesn't skimp on expenses when it comes to livestock he keeps. I'm pretty sure he's done more research about these guys then any of the people on this thread. They are going into a 4 x 4 ft tank initially and will be transitioned to an indoor pond in the future. These sharks from what I remember are also not very active (compared to species like the reeftip) and max out at 28" in captivity. While this may be a little of an impulse buy, it's only because these guys usually sell for $700 each, not $80 for a pair.

Jan

Jan

Welll, I'd buy a high end imported car, if I could afford it. I'd drive it everywhere too biggrin.gif . I wouldn't text though. I'd definately blast my music. Nothing like driving through skyline or on Rt. 66 on a clear crisp Autumn day in a purrty car :cool:. Gotta have a convertable top too. Candy apple red...YA BABY!

 

 

Status symbol, attention, arrogance. Like buying a high end imported car and driving it around here... fast while texting with the stereo blasting.

davelin315 Neptune Reefer

davelin315

Wow, jumping on someone without any background on epaulette sharks. Are you telling me that if you saw a Clarion, Peppermint, or some other cool fish marked at a price that was far below what the fish was worth you wouldn't buy it, regardless of whether you currently had space for it? Despite not agreeing with capturing a mimic octopus, for example, if I saw one for $30 I would have that thing in a bag and be throwing money at the cashier as I ran home to try and figure out what to put it in. I did not read the RC thread but if I had seen this earlier, those would be in my basement right now, even if I had to put them in a baby bath while I figured out where to put them.

 

Some background information on them...

 

Epaulette sharks seldom swim and instead crawl around on their two pectoral fins. They "walk" more often than they swim. Out of all of the sharks out there, they are the most suited to captivity. They do not grow to a large size in comparison to most sharks and are easy to care for. I would say that they need less tank room than some of our larger fish and would be just fine in a smaller tank (by smaller I mean a couple hundred gallons, a 180 would probably do it for a number of years). As far as aggression, they are not aggressive and I would say that an eel or a trigger is much more dangerous and aggressive than one of these sharks, with even some angels and tangs being more aggressive. Heck, I'd say that even tomato clowns are more aggressive than these sharks.

 

When I was keeping sharks in my house back in Chicago, the only thing stopping me from getting these was the price tag - they were around $120 each back in the day. Getting a pair of them for $79 today is an absolute steal. I had one, in fact, ready to go into school but FCPS squashed the idea because they label all sharks under the same tag as a bull shark - dangerous and violent predators that will kill people. Tooth Decay donated it before and then I gave it back when the school system rejected the idea.

Jan

Jan

....ZZ Top. That's it! I'd blast ZZ Top while driving my candy apple red high end imported car.....:smokin:

Jan

Jan

(edited)

Hey, wouldn't keeping these sharks in a 150-180 gallons be like keeping a hippo and yellow tang in a 24 gallon nano? Where's the fish police?

According to Live Aquaria they should be housed in nothing less than 360 gallons. http://www.liveaquar...+291&pcatid=291

.....Just sayin.

 

Now that this person on RC is getting these beauties I really hope he can keep them healthy and happy. They will lay eggs for him every 14 days as this is what they do in captivity. In the wild they lay eggs every 14 day from December to July. In captivity they lay eggs all year long.

Edited by Jan
treesprite Neptune Reefer

treesprite

For Clarification:

I was giving a general statement about why any person might buy an expensive hard-to-keep marine animal. I don't know the RC poster from Adam of Eden, so I have no idea what his personality is or why he made the purchase.

 

I read the RC post because I don't expect the average hobbyist to be able to provide sharks with an appropriate habitat in a private home, and wanted to see if the guy actually did.... which he currently does not. I wonder how long it will take him to build the "pond", and if he is going to be able to follow completely through on it fast enough for the health of the sharks. Hopefully all will work out well....

rancor1

rancor1

Guys, please don't judge someone you don't know. David is actually a very responsible aquarist who has kept a ton of difficult stuff and doesn't skimp on expenses when it comes to livestock he keeps. I'm pretty sure he's done more research about these guys then any of the people on this thread. They are going into a 4 x 4 ft tank initially and will be transitioned to an indoor pond in the future. These sharks from what I remember are also not very active (compared to species like the reeftip) and max out at 28" in captivity. While this may be a little of an impulse buy, it's only because these guys usually sell for $700 each, not $80 for a pair.

 

Some times you just have to say what the $%#$ and act on an impulse. Especially for that crazy pricing - awesome. Kudos to the vendor for honoring it - they get more word of mouth for being upstanding and "good hearted". Contrast that with some of the airlines when they have a price mistake and then backout of the offer. It costs them way more in negative publicity than a plane load of $1.99 fares to Europe. I like using Foster and Smith - my only beef is the shipping from multiple locations - my wallet is not a fan.

lostanime

lostanime

Wow, just read the thread on RC. A pond in the garage in Richmond Va. As we approach winter no less. Talk about impulse buy. Not even an honorable display inside? Will they survive? I hope he doesn't dump them in the ocean. They grow to 3-4' and they are aggressive. Why would divers den sell them and why would anyone outside of someone who owns a LFS and would put them on display or a Marine biologist want them? I think it's a bit much.

 

This was actually a big issue for us, especially when we first moved two 180gal systems side-by-side in our garage. Your absolutely right, Richmond winters get COLD! Fortunately, our garage is also half underground and insulated. As of last winter we still had two 180gal tanks side-by-side in our garage (we traded one of our 180s to a member of our local club for corals this spring)... and to be perfectly honest, the winters weren't the hardest part, the summers with 1600w of lighting was a bit painful on the electrical bill due to the amount of additional electricity we were burning keeping it cool. Thankfully, we won't be running anywhere near that kind of light over a shark pond (which will be the only water down there long-term)

 

I read the RC post because I don't expect the average hobbyist to be able to provide sharks with an appropriate habitat in a private home, and wanted to see if the guy actually did.... which he currently does not. I wonder how long it will take him to build the "pond", and if he is going to be able to follow completely through on it fast enough for the health of the sharks. Hopefully all will work out well....

 

Scott Michael's literature on these sharks documents that they grow up to 2"/yearly... these little pups shouldn't quickly dwarf their current holding tank. The female won't be large enough to be sexually mature for another 6 years. If it takes us a 3 months to finish the pond, the sharks could end growing a sluggish 0.5". This seems VERY slow to me, but these are exceptionally lethargic as far as elasmobranches go, and despite consuming relatively large chunks of food, they don't eat nearly as frequently as hyperactive "big" fish like tangs do! Our last hippo tang (which reached about a ft long) would swallow multiple cubes of frozen food before ripping through sheets of greens every day.. !

 

Someone on RC just got some, saw the post last night. I thought he said in the basement, move the kid's moon bounce? He should have waited anyway, until he had a place already prepared for them. Obviously an impulse buy.

 

These definitely were an impulse buy in the sense that I was not planning on buying a shark (or two!) that night. I've been looking forward to keeping epaulettes for a very long time, but did not expect them yet.

 

For a bit of background with this - I've been talking with wife for months about purchasing an epaulette from one of the LFS that has had them in stock. We had not moved forward on purchasing it, because we had also custom ordered an acrylic aquarium and a new deltec APF800 over a half-year ago, and the store (which also exclusively handles all Deltec warranty and repair work) has not been able to address getting this skimmer to cut on when it's plugged in since day one, and the tank is already having some crazing and milky issues in the seams. I'll spare this thread all the details of these problems, but we wanted to make sure we weren't throwing good money after bad with this particular store.

 

As far as the kid situation is concerned, that is why we can't keep these in the house long-term... with a toddler and infant, we can't do a pond in the house...it has to be in the garage. I'm just not 100% comfortable that we can keep kids out of a pond if it's in the house... but the garage is below the house and locked off, they have never been down there. :) Not sure where a moon-bounce reference came from... but don't give my wife that idea, we'll run out of room for tanks :)

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