Bad, Bad, Bad

[Gelt]

Went into my local LFS today (a big chain sells other pets as well...say no more) , just as i was passing to pick up some bits, decided to look at the fish...wish i had not done so

- All male guppy tank prolly about 20 or so stocked - 4 dead a clear to see - 3 gulping for air and red gills

- Another tank with silvertip tetras in 3 floating motionless

- yet another tank at least 4 fish with a parasite worm dangling about 1.5 inches, they were either upside down or vertical with not much movement and emaciated.

Needless to say i was horrifed, told a member of staff who did'nt seem to care. Then the same member of staff came upto me a few minutes later as i was looking at the tanks and said ' do you want to buy any fish' being polite my reply was ' You have dead fish , infected fish theres no way i will ever buy anything from here! ' he seemed to look suprised ?? i promptly walked out in disgust.

Any LFS who is like this won't get their tills ringing with my hard earned cash..

G

 

[midnight-blue]

What a horried pet store!!!

 

[Skins]

Hello Gelt,
I'm under the impression this is the same chain of shops i just bought my two firemouth cichlids where i experienced the same thing, the way i look at it is they are now in a better place.

Keith.

 

[Gelt]

Hello Gelt,
I'm under the impression this is the same chain of shops i just bought my two firemouth cichlids where i experienced the same thing, the way i look at it is they are now in a better place.

Keith.

yup one and the same chain, glad you found a better place for them....this place is becoming a bit of a rescue centre instead of a LFS, Aquatics store, nope just plain old small aquatics section in a big store with a lot of crap in it! (and thats being generous with the title)

 

[PEneoark]

Sounds like a Petsmart to me.

 

[cocomonkey24k]

Sounds more like pets at home to me. I went into my local P@H around 2 weeks ago only to find atleast one dead fish in every tank. Needless to say I won't be buying fish from there.

 

[Lisa67]

Yup, Petsmart

 

[This Old Spouse]

So do something!! Write letters to the editor of the local paper, contact the Better Business Bureau, contact the store owner, something!! If I saw those conditions that's what I would do. Honestly, I think the only way to get conditions to improve is to put pressure on the owners to make it change for the better!

Sorry. I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

[Binge]

Aside from not knowing what they are talking about most of my LFS (a pet smart included) Take pretty good care of the fish they have with the exception of feeder fish.... Funny part to me is thye dingy reptile store around the corner from me actually has the best kept fish tanks. The store itself is dirty and dark and smells like a reptile den. But all the aquariums and enclosures are in good shape lol

 

[moochy13]

another week, another pointless thread about pets at home being the harbinger of fish death and all that is wrong.

mine happens to be very good, but people dont make threads about good shops.

 

[Miles_hot]

I don't know that it's pointless Moochy - I welcome threads that name and shame the rubbish shops so that I can avoid them. Just because they used to be rubbish (i.e. an old post) doesn't mean that they still are so a new post is useful. Granted if we saw many, many posts all in the same sort of time frame it would seem to be overkill / clutter but I don't think that this is the case here...
Miles

 

[mattbleasby]

another week, another pointless thread about pets at home being the harbinger of fish death and all that is wrong.

mine happens to be very good, but people dont make threads about good shops.

I have to be honest mate, My local one isnt that bad either. Sometimes over stocked a little. but generally OK.



OP: I do believe you should contact the shop though. And tell them about this forum and how fast word gets around. Little bit of bullying hahah

 

[moochy13]

at no point has a specific branch of whatever chain of shops is being discussed (seemingly either pets at home or petsmart) been named. so all thats happened is somebody has slammed a whole chain of shops based on their 20 minute (or whatever) experience in a single branch.

dont get me wrong, i like to know where not to go, and every week there are complaints made about the 2 chains mentioned here on the forum. its pot luck if you happen to live near a branch that employs somebody whos eager and knowledgable about fish, which i do. they pay peanuts and mostly get monkeys, but without mentioning the specifics of location you cannot base a whole company on one persons experience in one branch. and yes, i know there are lots of threads about this subject, but as i mentioned, very few people start a thread when they've been impressed with their LFS, particuarly a chain store.

its also slightly pointless in that people come on here, ***** about the shop, and do nothing, as "this old spouse" mentioned. if you are that 'disgusted', complain. dont just put a faceless moan on the internet.

 

[felybee]

We've been to our local Pets at Home yesterday (Canterbury) to look for gravel for our new tank. First of all we didn't buy the gravel from here because there was not that much choice. It looks like they only sell their own brand. I was surprised. The one we did like, it was a sand like one they had only 1 bag of 8kg (our tank is 4 ft long) so it was not enough, and the white gravel, they had only 2 bags of 8kg.

So we looked at the plants, they've got a bit of choice, but only one square bassin, I would say 3ft by 3ft. But nice variety.

About the fish, they looked healthy, no dead ones, but not much choice. I didn't even see any guppy. But for their goldfish section, they had a very large choice.

I bought my hamster here back in September and had a good experience, but I am not sure I would buy my fish from them because of the lack of choice. As well, the guy who sold us the tank gave us the contact details of a local breeder.

At the end, we ended up buying some playsand from B&Q. £3.56 a bag, we took 3 bags and used only 2. That looks very nice but needed rincing about 6 times so the water was clear. Now we're starting the fishless cycle.

 

[midnight-blue]

Sounds like the place i gont my boys from have now lost 2 of them a pleco and 3 mountin things(i forget the last part of there name) WONT be going back there thats for sure. mine was not Pets at Home Or Pet Smart.