Well, I took the aro to the vet. Tried scanning through the bag. Didn't work. X-rayed the fish and located the chip. The scanner worked so long as there was no water between the scanner and the fish. The chip matched up to the farm cert.
I'm trying to buy the xray because it's pretty darn cool. The vet will email me the price, she has to check with the office manager.
She has a friend who works with wildlife in the Pathology Dept at the University of Manitoba who might be interested in working with some aro carcasses, specifically PLJ and drop eye. The vet believes that post mortem will very much tell what's going on with a jaw or drop eyes. So she'll let me know about that and if the person is interested, she'll have my email. So I might be collecting a few dead aros.
And now to deal with the original issue: my unhappiness with the seller of the fish in question. I won't go public with details until I have given the seller a chance to correct this matter, but what I'm dealing with is a fish that was sold as a 24K Grade AA crossback that essentially looks like an RTG at 12".