Okay, as many of you folk may already know from reading my previous threads, I'm smitten on -Corydorous sterbai-. They're just fantastic little cories! If you don't know what one is, I suggest going to visit PlanetCatfish.com to drool over the gallery photos there.
Ever since my last trio died (unknown causes, suspect anaerobic bacteria bloom in gravel) I haven't been able to find a single sterbai anywhere. Until about a month ago. The LFS up the block has five sterbai in a tank. I've visited them once a week for the past four weeks, and they're still there, the same five, so I know they're healthy, and I even snagged the opportunity to watch them feed. They're just the right size too, little guys, which I like.
Now, the deal is 3 for $15. That's fine by me, I'd pay that for those guys. Here's the kicker. I would rather have all five, except two of them have broken/missing pectoral fins! Now anybody who has seen sterbai know that the color of these babies are in their bright orange ventral fins! This isn't just a torn fin, I mean this is really having the first ray missing from almost where the pec meets the body, they swim around on little finny stubbs. There is no chance of regeneration on these suckers, they're gone. This is how I know I've been looking at the same five fish for the past four weeks.
But the fish themselves are otherwise healthy little suckers, at least for the past four weeks I've been observing them. I feel bad, I know nobody is going to buy sterbai with no pec fins. I could just purchase the three good fish, but I know cories like to be in schools, and I would feel bad leaving those other two in the store by themselves, as well as for my trio because they don't have enough playmates (my six green cories I wouldn't dare think to separate now, they all love to follow each other about).
So I was thinking, would offering the guy $20 for all five be ripping him off? Sterbai are expensive fish in their own right, but come on, without their bright orange pecs they really aren't much to look at. I pointed out the missing pecs to the guy last week, and let him know I was really interested in them, but he didn't make me any offer, so I didn't make him one. I didn't want to seem pushy, or that I was trying to cheat him or anything. 3 for $15 is a real deal on sterbai.
So what do you all think? Should I go in next week and make him an offer he can't refuse? Provided those two pecless sterbai are still there and haven't been culled :'(
~~Colesea
Ever since my last trio died (unknown causes, suspect anaerobic bacteria bloom in gravel) I haven't been able to find a single sterbai anywhere. Until about a month ago. The LFS up the block has five sterbai in a tank. I've visited them once a week for the past four weeks, and they're still there, the same five, so I know they're healthy, and I even snagged the opportunity to watch them feed. They're just the right size too, little guys, which I like.
Now, the deal is 3 for $15. That's fine by me, I'd pay that for those guys. Here's the kicker. I would rather have all five, except two of them have broken/missing pectoral fins! Now anybody who has seen sterbai know that the color of these babies are in their bright orange ventral fins! This isn't just a torn fin, I mean this is really having the first ray missing from almost where the pec meets the body, they swim around on little finny stubbs. There is no chance of regeneration on these suckers, they're gone. This is how I know I've been looking at the same five fish for the past four weeks.
But the fish themselves are otherwise healthy little suckers, at least for the past four weeks I've been observing them. I feel bad, I know nobody is going to buy sterbai with no pec fins. I could just purchase the three good fish, but I know cories like to be in schools, and I would feel bad leaving those other two in the store by themselves, as well as for my trio because they don't have enough playmates (my six green cories I wouldn't dare think to separate now, they all love to follow each other about).
So I was thinking, would offering the guy $20 for all five be ripping him off? Sterbai are expensive fish in their own right, but come on, without their bright orange pecs they really aren't much to look at. I pointed out the missing pecs to the guy last week, and let him know I was really interested in them, but he didn't make me any offer, so I didn't make him one. I didn't want to seem pushy, or that I was trying to cheat him or anything. 3 for $15 is a real deal on sterbai.
So what do you all think? Should I go in next week and make him an offer he can't refuse? Provided those two pecless sterbai are still there and haven't been culled :'(
~~Colesea
