Tip of the Day – 2/24/2011

When ordering corals, fish, and live rock online, you don’t always know exactly what you are getting. You put blind faith in the online retailer to pick out a specimen for you. This method doesn’t always end in disaster, but chances are you are going to get something that doesn’t look quite as good as the stock photo on the retailer’s website. To get around this problem, you can do a couple of things. You can shop at the “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) section of the website, or you can request to see a photo of the specimen you are wanting to purchase. These don’t always prevent problems, as the wrong animal can be shipped to your door, but they certainly help you select healthy and colorful livestock, instead of drab looking and disease or parasite infested ones.