Should your LFS take stuff if you have nowhere else to put it?

[hawk82]

Long story short, my 40 breeder leaked so I had to move all my fish to my 20 long. In the process of moving rocks I finally got the mantis shrimp out that I wanted to get rid of for a while now. It was a hitch hiker on my live rock, and it was small at first but it had got big almost 3 inches, and was scared it was going to kill my fish, it would already eat my cuc as I restock them. So getting him out was the one good thing to come out of the whole ordeal. So now what do I do with a 3 inch mantis shrimp? Well I dont like to kill any living thing, thats the reason he was still in the tank for so long. But now that I had him out, I didnt want to put him back in. So I contacted my LFS and told them I would donate, give him to them, I didnt want anything for him, no store credit, no nothing. I just didnt know what to do with him. I thought out of goodness they would happily take him, but they flat out said no. I thought this was odd, because Ive seen posts on here where people say they take things into the LFS all the time. This makes me not want to shop at my LFS anymore. Any thoughts on this?

 

[sp1187]

consider they would have to have a designated space for it so it didn't kill their stuff.
space is money.

 

[Catnip885]

It is a risk that they might hold onto it for forever and they realistically can't put anything with it so it would be taking up a tank and they would have to feed it. That might be why. I think it also depends on each individual local fish store.

 

[Little c big D]

I agree, it's not something they could safely house probally. Also who will buy it from them?

 

[fish farmer]

It's the discretion of the LFS in my opinion. It may not be something they want to deal with or even think they could sell.

Put it for free on Craig's List or some other platform which allows pets.

 

[ScottyD36]

You probably would have better luck posting on your local reefer forum. Someone would probably gladly take it. It is a little odd to me that the LFS would turn down getting something unique like that to sell. I understand the space and all that. But most fish stores should be moving stock fast and housing a mantis shrimp wouldn't be that difficult.

 

[blaxsun]

Agree with all of the above. They may also be leery about introducing anything into their closed systems.

 

[hawk82]

I agree, it's not something they could safely house probally. Also who will buy it from them?

Ive seen people on here asking for, and looking for them. And the LFS has a whole invert section with small tanks, Ive seen them selling peacock mantis before. I just thought it was odd is all. Maybe Im too nice...

 

[blaxsun]

Ive seen people on here asking for, and looking for them. And the LFS has a whole invert section with small tanks, Ive seen them selling peacock mantis before. I just thought it was odd is all. Maybe Im too nice...

Put an ad up. I'm sure you can find him a new home (even if it's someone willing to take it off your hands and rehome it).