[Delphinus]

Depends, I guess. I've bought a few fish from our Big Al's over the years, but there have been times I wouldn't touch that water with a ten foot pole, also. You'll need to go with your gut feeling and exercise common sense and all that.

FWIW, no LFS has ever been willing to hold a fish for me. In the times I've had to have something, I've just taken the leap of faith. I should mention, however, that I enjoy a relationship with a prominent MO outfit who IS willing to work with meon matters such as that, so I have very little reason to shop at LFS's any longer (except for staples like frozen food, carbon, etc.). It's just that MO tends to add overhead (cost of shipping) to your purchase costs, so if you're just in the market for one or two little things, yeah, it's hard to pass up that occasional visit to the LFS and see what's new.

One word of caution, our Big Als (Calgary) sometimes has VERY low SG in their tanks (apparently a fairly common practise for LFS's ... for various reasons, for better or for worse). This is fine as long as you recognize this possibility, and tailor your acclimation appropriately. Some things will withstand a shock, but some things won't (e.g., shrimp such as cleaner shrimp, will be dead before they hit the sand if going from one salinity to another salinity, if they are not very close or identical).