SOP when buying from follow reefer in your local fish fourm

I believe if you are long enough into this hobby, you have more less even brought some fishes from the reefers in your local fish forum before. I would like to share my experience gained on this from selling and buying fish.

I suggest the following SOP:

1. Only buy fish that is in the display tank not in the Betta box or another tank.  This is because you can observe the movement of the fish when it is allowed to swim freely and the appearance of the fish. You can always come back the next day to collect when the fish is caught once you put a deposit.
2. Always ask the owner to on the light so that you can see clearly the fish's appearance when the light on.
3. Check the tank water salinity level. Make sure the tank is not on hypo salinity treatment. Hypo salinity treatment means diseases in the tank..
4. Bring your own pellets and try to feed the fish with your own pellets. This is to see whether it is feeding well or not.
5. Do not trust the member grade in the forum. Senor member should not means his fish is good and stable Sometimes newbie fish are more stable.
6. Do not trust the seller saying that the fish have been in the tank for months. They are just salesman.
7. QT the fish for a few days before putting it into the main tank. Someone may ask what is the purpose of buying from the reefer in the forum. They brought it because it is been stable and disease free after it has been in the seller tanks for months or years. BE CAREFUL on this statement, my experience shows that the seller sell the fish for some reasons and the reasons they will not disclose it at all. So never trust what the seller said that the fish is disease free. I lost some of my expensive fishes because of my naive on not to quarantine the fish.
8. There is always RISK when putting new fish into the main tank, whether it is from the LFS or from the reefer. After going through some purchases, I concluded it is MORE risks when buying from the reefer than from the LFS because your guard is down or lesser when you brought from the reefer. Furthermore, the conditions of the fish from the reefer is more difficult to determine as compared in the LFS because the seller may not be obligated to all the things you asked.

This is what I learnt from buying experience and  the buyers of my fishes when they come to view my fishes. Although most of the experience are from buying experience that cost me a lot of money as some of the fishes is not what the seller said and causes outbreak of diseases.

Happy buying...