Absolutely Disgusted

[FroggFrogg]

I would love to name and shame the shop but i'm not sure if i'm allowed? We went to the said shop to buy bloodworm and brineshrimp but as usual we looked round at the fish. They have a great selection of fish including wild caught specimens and oddballs. I have previously bought a blood parrot from them without problem but today i was disgusted at the ill health of some of the fish.
They have a great selection of plecs and i was considering buying my next plec from them for this reason.
On a previous visit i saw an African Knife fish with a obvious parasite problem but this was in quarantine however today in the 'normal' tanks i saw three types of plecos with either ulcerated open sores or extreme fin rot. The worst one only had white stringy bits of tissue where its tail used to be and a large white lump in place of its dorsal...and this poor thing was still alive and for sale! Sorry for the rant and long post but i had to get that off my chest...

 

[xostrawberryox]

Youch! Not good, i think you can name and shame if ur just saying what you saw!

 

[FroggFrogg]

Ok well it was Elm Court garden centre.. i think the actual pet part is called Arc something. Its in Chatham in Kent. There customer service leaves a lot to be desired, i was waiting two weeks for an impellor shaft for an Eheim filter before they finally admitted that they couldnt get it! I was originally told it would be there the next day. So i went somewhere else and got it in three days.

 

[The-Wolf]

lmao; Ark aquatics, I should've known.

Frog, get yourself over to me at Aylesford Aquatics
London road (A20), Aylesford.

 

[FroggFrogg]

Yea i plan to visit soon just haven't had the time Wolf! I've got a week off work starting 16th Oct when i plan to re-do my little tank so hopefully i'll come over then!
Does it have a reputation then? I only recentley started going there as my LFS closed
As i said i bought one fish the but i only bought it coz it was being bullied in a tank of unsuitable larger fish.
It was a horrible sight, very sad

 

[SamUK]

im always a little hesitant to jump on LFS's like this.


you say there normally pretty good.


well maybe an infection came in with a delivery or something.


this doesnt excuse the fact they werent in quarantine but maybe the main fish guy was on his summer hols?


jus seems weird you say there normally pretty good and this one visit has been bad.

 

[Richie Hell]

Swallow Aquatics in Norwich although highly praised upset us as there were many dead fish and large fish crammed in large groups into small tanks.

Pets at Home also made us angry as they had put a single peppered cory on his own in with a load of angelfish with no other corys for company. We told the shop assistant who said "He's fine just probably really really lonely"

We asked him to move the cory to its own tank with its own kind and a week later it was still swimming in the angelfish tank.

 

[xostrawberryox]

i think its good that people who can recognise diseases in these fish let it be known that they are occuring in the named fish shop, it will help newbies who may shop in there to check the fish out more thoroughly before purchase. 'The main guy being on his hols' does not excuse unquarentined sick fish, anyone who works in an LFS should know how to recognise these symptoms and the correct action to take!!! If the LFS has a hospital tank then they should write NFS (not for sale) on it!

 

[Boxa]

Phoebes in SE London, Catford..

Well known Fish Aquatic Shop and have bought stuff from them loads of times over the years, hadn't bought anything from them within the last 2yrs though but went there the other month, I noticed lots of the fish seemed a little unhealthy, I looked for a tank where all the fish looked healthy, still though I should have read the warning signs of the other tanks from the start. I asked about the many dead fish in other tanks and some of the unhealthy looking ones and the words I got from the "boob" of an Assistant was "oh I think their just having a little sleep" "So that really gave me loads of confidence, but still I decided to make a purchase of some very expensive fish.

Subsequently most of them died within a few days, I returned to the shop with the dead fish and then noticed the tank I had bought them from, again most of them this time were now dead, So I asked for a refund presenting the dead fish and pointing out the tank with dead fish. The same "boob" of an assistant just looked at me and said their fish mate they die we don't give refunds..

So I explained that I was not his mate and that if he didn't get someone who could give a refund or did not issue one to me then I would put him in one of the fish tanks and see how he got on in there.

He didn't wait for anyone senior he made the refund straight away

So anyone in the SE London area should keep away from Phoebes Aquatics and the "boob" of an assistant, crap how the fish seemed to have been treated there but still makes me laugh with the "BOOB" assistant saying they was having a little sleep!

 

[The-Wolf]

Does it have a reputation then?

we have many customers from there that say they would not go back after visiting our shop.

I only recentley started going there as my LFS closed

That would've been medway aquatics then.
It is a shame that Mark had to close down but all the more customers for me

 

[FroggFrogg]

Yea it was Medway Aquatics, its how we got into fish keeping. We walked past the shop and got temtped inside! We became quite good friends with Paul and Dave. Mike was actually a teacher at my scholl aswell!

SamUk; it was the normal array of part time school kids working but your right the normal people don't know that much anyway!

They have loads of large fish cramped into small tanks mainly because they only have small tanks. Its a shame that most of them wont live very long or go to suitable homes

 

[xostrawberryox]

So anyone in the SE London area should keep away from Phoebes Aquatics and the "boob" of an assistant, crap how the fish seemed to have been treated there but still makes me laugh with the "BOOB" assistant saying they was having a little sleep!

Haha 'boob'! Who says violence doesnt resolve anything?

 

[babybell911]

Boxa if thats u in your sig I'd have given you a refund too you look like a big guy!! Lol
Wolf is right his fish shop does rock. My corries are got from there are still going strong might have to come back down soon and visit.
EDIT:Oh yeah wolf do you sell kuhli loaches?

 

[Inchworm]

Oh please..............................not another one of these threads!