Barry,
Yes Fintique is a dungeon but when I went there wasn't any probs w/their tanks or fish. I was there 2 wks. ago. They had an awesome baby Snowflake eel. Everything looked good to me, but maybe I went on the wrong day. I don't frequent it because I don't care for the part of town it's in & I compared it to Alamo, which I just don't like at all. So far, Texas Tropicals is a great store but then again, they sell Alligator Gars there & that's another Moray Eel kind of fish that should be left in large waters. In reality there really isn't any around here. The pet trade suffered w/the economy. There is a new one opening up soon on Perrin Bietel called Pets of the Sea. So we'll see if that one is good or not.
The old man at Alamo Aquatics told my husband & I that they only feed the Moray when it starts hitting the sides of the tank & since it's acrylic & the Moray is huge, they fear it will crack it. They've had that huge one up at the register crack because they had it on simple cement blocks. We asked if the Moray ever ate the fish in there & he said no because they put so many rocks in there for that purpose, so the eel couldn't move well & it doesn't. That eel was for sale once when it was a baby & no one bought it so it got bigger & bigger until it just stayed there & the old man feels it's a financial drain & he doesn't care for it.
We drilled him because we wanted to buy it & have it sent to an aquarium on the Gulf but he won't sell it & the reason is because they're all afraid of it there & he hasn't the first clue about how to get it out of that tank! When they feed it, they just chuck food in from a safe distance. It's hard for the eel to get the food because when it sinks, it's pretty much gone, he can't move around in the tank. There's a dude that we met through Pet Stuff on NW Military, through Matt, the owner, we use to keep reptiles & this dude was an ex-employee of Alamo Aquatics & he also said they rarely feed the eel. He works at the zoo now & has thought/tried to get the eel in an public aquarium too, but to no avail.
So, that's the sad eel story. I don't frequent that store because of that eel & I just can't stand to see it in the tank & that's mainly why I don't go into that store. I've investigated ways to transport the eel but financially it's impossible w/out pooling a large amount of people to do it. It's all a fine line, it's not animal cruelty because the eel is often fed & it's housed w/proper filtration & etc...so one can only go so far w/the whole thing. I guess if one walked in w/ "x" amount of money & a way to get it, he would sell it, but who knows. That old man's moods are so unpredictable, much like his prisoner, the Green Moray Eel.
Keep a look out for Pets of Sea!
