I will not put the name out in public, but as has been said many times before on this forum, buyer beware of traveling fish trucks.
I'll say one good thing about them. They make the reputable guys look really good and the good guys slightly higher prices seem cheap. Most of my initial fish came from Wallace Fish Farms and the difference between Wallace and the fish truck is night and day. Very satisfied with Wallace. Fish truck?.............well read on.
Can't say I was not warned..... by numerous people. Why did I do it? Sign up in local dealer, they were going to be here in a few days.......hey convinient, good timing. Give them a try.
Here is the story. Wanted to grow out some RES in my new micro forage pond (about half of a tenth of an acre, 7.5' deep)
Thread on new forage pond Ordered 200 RES and was going to put 50 to grow out in this mini pond. As they got bigger would transfer most to large pond or old refurbished pond. Some for son's pond, some for daughters pond, and 100 to go in our old refurbished pond.
Bought 3-4" RES. Had ordered them several days before. One he pulled out of the tank and showed me looked good. Noticed quite a few smallish looking fish in the 4 bags I was handed, but took them home.
Had rubbermaid tubs set up to sort, along with a small aeration pump. A few fish in bad shape, but not more than I would have expected coming off a truck that had been out almost a week.
About half the fish met the 3-4" measurement, the rest were in the 2-3". I did not count all the fish so not sure if they gave me "extra". Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.
Sorted out about 50 FHM's with maybe a few other species minnow. Picture below. If I paid for RES and got these in the count, they were expensive FHM's. Wish I would have done a total count. Maybe they were freebies, but I kind of doubt it.
One 4" LMB. That would have worked well in a forage pond..........Not!
A BUNCH of hybrids with GSF cross. Had the telltale green bars below the eye and larger mouth. Some looked like they had CNB and some GSF/RES. The larger fish I at least was able to tell. The small fish, who knows? I'm not good enough at identifying fish to tell what they were. The larger ones I was able to determine the ones that were NOT pure RES because of the obvious markings otherwise. Since the pedigree was so bad on the larger fish, I sure was not going to trust the small fish to be correct.
So wife and I picked out the best of the best that I was comfortable they were actually RES, and not some hybrid, and put them in the forage pond to grow out (FHM's are the only other fish in this pond).
The rest I put in my old pond that I know to be contaminated with GSF, and some in son's and some in daughters ponds which both have some GSF. So I utilized the rest of the fish.
But the point is, as has been stated many times on this forum, don't trust what comes off the traveling fish truck to be what you paid for. If it is important to you, check each and every fish. In the old refurbished ponds it was not so important. In my new forage pond or my main pond, it is. What it looks like I got was "pond run" out of a pond that breeder RES were in, so it was assumed what came out was RES. I guess. You would think the guy counting them could identify 50 FHM's in an order of 200 RES. Maybe not.
I wonder how many people just dump the bags in the pond and assume they got what they paid for? I definitely did not get all RES in my order. Buyer beware.
I wrote an email explaining my displeasure. I did not ask for any money back, just expressed my disappointment. I'll see if they have anything to say for themselves or offer any satisfaction adjustment.
The only other fish we have bought off a fish truck is a couple of grass carp from a different company last year. My wife picked them up, and she was not at all impressed with this fish truck either.
