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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/19/2009 7:24:29 PM
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I emailed Steven a question and he asked that I post it within the forum, so here it goes:
For those who have owned, currently own, or have worked for an aquarium maintenance company, did you have any livestock policies including health guarantees? If you happen to search maintenance companies online you'll notice that many, if not most, stipulate some variation of a livestock health policy. For example, "fourteen (14) day health guarantee." My understanding is that in most cases it does ease the client into the purchase, but at the same time there are numerous variables at play once the animal is acclimated to the display. Coincidentally, there are expectations one cannot control, but monitor and react accordingly.
Any thoughts? Thank you for your time! 
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Group: Administrators
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| When I was doing maintenance for people I would extend the guarantee that was offered from the place I purchased the fish (100% of purchases were from LFS at that time and most unfortunately had no guarantee on saltwater livestock). I guess it also depends on where the fish are coming from. Are you bringing them into your home first, QT'ing them and then offering them to your customers OR are you doing what I did and picking them up and dropping them off? I think many of the larger companies will house their fish in QT tanks first before bringing them to their clients (and if I were bigger at the time I would have also done this). While I did this very small time (only kept a few clients at a time), if I were a larger company I would also make sure your policy about livestock is well stated in the contract. Items such as how long fish/corals are guaranteed, what happens in the event of death, not liabable for other animals within the tank (if a disease wipes them out as well), etc... Basically you want to cover yourself as much as possible since you aren't there everyday to monitor the animals health.
________________________________________________ Keith "Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." Wayne Dyer
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Group: Moderators
Last Login: Today @ 4:42:12 AM
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I quarantined everything before I took it out to someone's home. So, I gave everyone a one week guarantee. But, I also would not work for someone if they added their own livestock. Those folks wanted me to guarantee the animals, but would bring in infected junk from anywhere. I would walk away from those clients.
Steven Pro, yeah that is my real name.
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/19/2009 7:24:29 PM
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Thank you for both of your inputs!!
The policy portion can be fairly tedious with livestock. I can fully appreciate providing a guarantee of livestock health prior to display acclimation, but once an animal is added to a system I am not sure how anyone can get away with a guarantee considering the nature of animal behaviors. Realistically, all fish are bound by competition through feeding, breeding, and territory so how would you explain a guarantee of fish health during territorial aggression in newly added livestock if, say, the introduction didn't go as planned? Would it be safer to just provide a guarantee on fish health prior to purchase? Some terms seem like Russian Roulette...
As for my personal plan, I will be purchasing livestock through a wholesaler and quarantining (freshwater: 14 days, saltwater: 30 days) them via de-worming and Chloroquine.
Policies are frustrating lol
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Group: Moderators
Last Login: Today @ 4:42:12 AM
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You are going to be providing the maintenance (aka care) of the system. You should be the one selecting the livestock, both for overall health, but also for compatibility. You are going to quarantine them. It really should not be hard to guarantee them.
Steven Pro, yeah that is my real name.
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