A Rather Distressing Experience

[highfire]

...... and I certainly shan't be returning.
It's bank holiday, and my eldest son and I paid a visit to a LFS that we have passed nunerous times but never been in.
So we thought, why not? Two sections in two small shop units on an industrial estate - one section with dry goods, a couple of small indoor ponds, and a small selection of plastic ponds lined up against the fence in the back yard. In one of the indoor ponds, a goldfish had swum into the inlet of the filter and become stuck. It was obviously dead, and there were others trying to swim up there too.
The second section of the unit was given over to tanks, some cold water, some tropical, and the koi pond. The tropicals didn't look too bad, but the cold water were all fancies. There were about 9 tanks in all, and in one there was a mixture of orandas, lion heads and ryakins. I was horrified to see the condition these poor fish were in - they all had split, torn or completely missing fins, many were just lying listlessly on the bottom, a few weaker, smaller lionheads were being bullied by others, many had what looked like the beginnings of some fungal disease, and there were three dead ones floating on the surface with two or three others looking as if they were almost dead too.
I was so upset, and my son was too. I am still upset now several hours later.
I know I should have said something to the owner of the shop, but I simply had to get out of there.
This particular retailer advertises in Practical Fishkeeping in the classified section.
Poor fish.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

 

[timmystood]

Unfortunatley these kind of sightings are becoming more common, espically over bank holiday times. Most stores can't cope with the increased customers over the holiday times and the fish suffer as a result. I know you wanted to leave but I would have said something to the owner, after all they may not have been aware of the situation. I would just boycott them in the future.