Elisabeth83
Fish Herder
This shop is the closest fish shop to me and I used to go there a lot. They have never been great but were O.K. when another guy used to work there who knew at least a little something about fish. He found another job though because I guess the boss was/is not the greatest guy to work for. They have hired in 3 new girls to run the shop and these girls along with their boss haven't got a clue on how to take care of fish.
Their fish are always sick, they stock fish with incompatible species and they don't even know the fish they are selling!!
You know how usually shops will have sections set up such as livebearers in a row of tanks, cichlids in a row of tanks etc etc? Their fish are scattered everyone! I've seen the owner get in a shipment of fish and just plop the bags in tanks that look more empty than others. One week/month a fish will be in a certain tank and the next week it's in a totally different area getting beaten up by something that it shouldn't of been in with anyways.
I know everyone has their opinions about using salt with livebearers swordtails, platies, mollies. The ones this shop get in come from Thailand, Asia area and the guy who used to work their told me all the livebearers they get in come from there the breeders use a lot of salt. Anyways it looks as though the new girls who work there have no idea about salt or no idea these fish were raised in salt but after about 2 weeks to a month of getting in these swordtails, mollies and platies most get extreamly thin and start to get a bent spine. It's terrible! It's not fish TB or anything like that it's the salt. I've bought from the same batches of fish and mine have all remained full looking with normal spines while the other fish in the store go down hill. Half the time they look like that along with fungus on them too
They once had huge koi goldfish in with gouramis in a heated tank and both had ick bad and as the fish were dieing the other fish were picking at them.
Just the other day I saw a lone platy in with fancy goldfish...what the? Even with common sense wouldn't someone think to themselves hey platies are over there why is there one in with these goldfish.
They have these fads where they get in more neat fish but if the fish fail to sell they take them from the higher up tanks and stick them in a tank in the back on the bottom. This happened to the cool endlers and gorgeous pygmy cories. I believe most died and to be honest I thought there was nothing left in the tank as theres no plants and the filter in jammed pack with gunk but then just the other day I saw a little single pygmy cory swimming around. I felt terrible for him.
They don't ever clear the filters in the tank..the guy once told me he hadn't rinsed out the sponge filters in over a year and you can watch as they OVERFEED them all the bloodworm and flake go straight into the filter as well as lots of dead plant material just rotting.
What also pains me a lot and just ticks me off is how they care for or should I say abuse the bettas! When the other people were working there I had spoken to them about how to care for the bettas..how they need water changes often etc. They took my advice and most of the times the bettas were in cleaner water. With these new girls they keep them in gallon-half gallon kritter keepers with gravel filled half way and then with about 2-3 inches of water. They don't change the water and I've seen the water get green and evaporate. A lot of the bettas get ill with fin rot from these horrible conditions. When the employees get tired or something of taking care of the bettas they stick them in the bigger tanks with big currents from the filters, fish that nip their fins off, or fish that end up eating them. I saw a betta the other day in with parrot fish,bala sharks and gouramis..you can imagine how it's fins looked. Another 2 were on the bottom tanks being tossed around by the filter. No plants in the tank and one of the bettas was in with tetras...and yes you can imagine his fins were bitten off too.
Some of you might think..why doesn't she speak to them about it...and I have with the other staff in the past...but to be honest I am so tired of dealing with that store and rescuing their sick fish that if they don't want to look after their fish properly and just loose money in doing so then let them.
To end my rant to top it all off I was in there the other day and they have this nice looking single cichlid. I haven't a clue as to what it is. Anyways I say to one of the girls there " What kind of cichlid is that?" and she says in a irritated way (about her boss) " You know I don't know because the boss here orders in loads of fish and then he just sticks them in tanks without telling us what they are and without labeling the tanks himself!"
Sorry for the LONG rant but that's been building up inside of me for so long..it feels good to get it out
Their fish are always sick, they stock fish with incompatible species and they don't even know the fish they are selling!!
You know how usually shops will have sections set up such as livebearers in a row of tanks, cichlids in a row of tanks etc etc? Their fish are scattered everyone! I've seen the owner get in a shipment of fish and just plop the bags in tanks that look more empty than others. One week/month a fish will be in a certain tank and the next week it's in a totally different area getting beaten up by something that it shouldn't of been in with anyways.
I know everyone has their opinions about using salt with livebearers swordtails, platies, mollies. The ones this shop get in come from Thailand, Asia area and the guy who used to work their told me all the livebearers they get in come from there the breeders use a lot of salt. Anyways it looks as though the new girls who work there have no idea about salt or no idea these fish were raised in salt but after about 2 weeks to a month of getting in these swordtails, mollies and platies most get extreamly thin and start to get a bent spine. It's terrible! It's not fish TB or anything like that it's the salt. I've bought from the same batches of fish and mine have all remained full looking with normal spines while the other fish in the store go down hill. Half the time they look like that along with fungus on them too
They once had huge koi goldfish in with gouramis in a heated tank and both had ick bad and as the fish were dieing the other fish were picking at them.
Just the other day I saw a lone platy in with fancy goldfish...what the? Even with common sense wouldn't someone think to themselves hey platies are over there why is there one in with these goldfish.
They have these fads where they get in more neat fish but if the fish fail to sell they take them from the higher up tanks and stick them in a tank in the back on the bottom. This happened to the cool endlers and gorgeous pygmy cories. I believe most died and to be honest I thought there was nothing left in the tank as theres no plants and the filter in jammed pack with gunk but then just the other day I saw a little single pygmy cory swimming around. I felt terrible for him.
They don't ever clear the filters in the tank..the guy once told me he hadn't rinsed out the sponge filters in over a year and you can watch as they OVERFEED them all the bloodworm and flake go straight into the filter as well as lots of dead plant material just rotting.
What also pains me a lot and just ticks me off is how they care for or should I say abuse the bettas! When the other people were working there I had spoken to them about how to care for the bettas..how they need water changes often etc. They took my advice and most of the times the bettas were in cleaner water. With these new girls they keep them in gallon-half gallon kritter keepers with gravel filled half way and then with about 2-3 inches of water. They don't change the water and I've seen the water get green and evaporate. A lot of the bettas get ill with fin rot from these horrible conditions. When the employees get tired or something of taking care of the bettas they stick them in the bigger tanks with big currents from the filters, fish that nip their fins off, or fish that end up eating them. I saw a betta the other day in with parrot fish,bala sharks and gouramis..you can imagine how it's fins looked. Another 2 were on the bottom tanks being tossed around by the filter. No plants in the tank and one of the bettas was in with tetras...and yes you can imagine his fins were bitten off too.
Some of you might think..why doesn't she speak to them about it...and I have with the other staff in the past...but to be honest I am so tired of dealing with that store and rescuing their sick fish that if they don't want to look after their fish properly and just loose money in doing so then let them.
To end my rant to top it all off I was in there the other day and they have this nice looking single cichlid. I haven't a clue as to what it is. Anyways I say to one of the girls there " What kind of cichlid is that?" and she says in a irritated way (about her boss) " You know I don't know because the boss here orders in loads of fish and then he just sticks them in tanks without telling us what they are and without labeling the tanks himself!"
Sorry for the LONG rant but that's been building up inside of me for so long..it feels good to get it out
1 you probably shouldn't be feeding diseased fish to other fish and 2 why even order in those fish if they just die like that (they had ordered them in on a few occasions and all died the same way). At least since then I haven't seen any in..maybe they actually learned from those loses. 
