The joys of ordering online

[Taratron]

A week ago I found a great sale on bronze and melantoae cories, less than 50 cents each when you bought two dozen, all from a breeder who needed to downsize his fry fast. I quickly ordered 2 dozen bronze, and got an order together with my fish club, for both bronzes and their lookalikes, the melas. All in all, we had over 90 fish in order.

And to the seller's credit, all the fish are packed well. No DOAs, very hard to do. But not a single bag is marked. I have nearly 35 bags of green cories, without an idea as to how many of each species I have per page, if the trio are bronze or melas, etc. The best part is that I am looking at eating the cost of the order total, plus shipping, since the club doesn't want "guess" fish. I've tried all day to ID the bags, and one minute the fish look like aeneus, the next they don't. So I'm looking at 90 cories that no one can, 100%, ID, so no one wants, especially those who wanted the melas for breeding projects.

Is it too much to ask for a simple letter A or M put on the bags?

[MatsP]

Ah, oh, that's not very good, is it...

Corydoras melanotaenia

have yellowish fins, which

Corydoras aeneus

doesn't. However, this may be difficult to see until they have stabilized in a tank for a bit.

I guess the other thing to do is 'fess up to your club fellows, explain the situation, and see if any of them are in for a lucky dip ;) After all, they aren't going to spend a fortune on the fish, so they may be OK with it. I suppose you can always do swapsies later if it turns out they got the wrong ones.

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Mats

[Taratron]

Have already told the other buyers, and none of them want the fish unless they know for sure which they have. On all the cories, the fins are clear, but that's probably due to stress.

[MatsP]

Have already told the other buyers, and none of them want the fish unless they know for sure which they have. On all the cories, the fins are clear, but that's probably due to stress.

Miserable bastards ;)

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Mats

[OldMan]

Why can't you be at my club? I would be glad to split them with you and devote a tank to them all together. I am sure that they could be identified once they settled in. At that price I would gladly take them home and take a little time to sort them before selling whatever I didn't originally want at a whole dollar each.

[MatsP]

OldMan - I think so too - unfortunately, we are both a little too far from Arizona.

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Mats

[pleco_breeder]

OldMan - I think so too - unfortunately, we are both a little too far from Arizona

I'm not PM me with details BTW, I've raised both and they're not that difficult to tell apart unless they're exceptionally small. Melanos are always more elongated. Either way, let me know the details and I'll see if I can help.

Larry