Chain Stores

[fish_keeper2]

well i thought i create this topic to chat and allow some people to vent. i personaly dont like chain stores. ive yet to know one that knows anything(given the exception of one person). one story i have is this: i was at petsmart one day to buy fish. they asked how big the tanks was and what i had in it. i fibed a little and told them a 20 gal long with 4 guppies. they said the tank was WAY overstocked and they cant sell me anymore fish.

another time i saw them sell a huge oscar to a kid(about 12-13 years old) and didnt ask what was in his tank and how big. i asked and he said 10 gal and they still sold it to him.

feel free to share your stories.

 

[TracyRene]

I have been to the PetCo here 4 times just browsing around. Everytime I have been there are so many dead fish floating or decaying in numerous tanks. Can I just say that they are way over priced too!

 

[riverman444]

I only shop chain stores when I need chemicals or rocks. I will go to a few and find the best price as I hate shopping on the net and will only do so as a last resort.

99% of my fish and plants are bought at private shops where their reputation and "Word-Of-Mouth" business is what keeps them alive, literally. Yes, I sometimes pay a bit more for my purchases, but I rarely have a bad experience.

I have rescued a few Bettas from Wal-Mart.......I have a soft spot for the poor things in the little plastic cups, stacked on top of one another like eggs.

My 2 cents.

 

[riverman444]

I was at a Petco a few months ago and watched a young couple. They had a 10-gallon aquarium kit, rocks, plants, food and what not in a cart. "That's gonna be expensive," I thought.

Then, I watched in horror as they started picking out fish. The probably bought 12-15 fish. I watched the underpaid "fishboy" bag about 5 neons and then he moved to the Cichlid tank and bagged a few of those. This charade went on for a while and the couple paid for their stash and left.

I could almost hear the fish screaming as the went out of the store. Poor things.....or poor people, you pick.

 

[mandy82]

I went into Petco yesterday to take back a fish that I had bought a few days prior that had died. Well, I was just going to get another fish but then I started to look at the fish in the tank. Half of them had fin rot. The tank beside it had the same issue, half the fish had fin rot. I just told the guy I'd rather have a refund. Oh, and he was getting water for the bag from a tank under observation that was housing fish with hole in the head disease. I don't know if it can be transmitted with water alone, but they shouldn't do that anyway, just as a precaution.

One thing that gets me is that most fs require the dead fish and a water sample in order to get a refund/exchange for a dead fish and NO ONE SEEMS TO GET THAT. I hear customers saying "what?!" when the employees tell them they need the fish and a ws. It's clearly freaking stated on the receipt. I know that's a little off topic, but it really chaps my ass.

 

[Durbkat]

I was at wal mart and this lady picked up a 1g bowl and some gravel and she started pointing at which fish she wanted and it was a bala shark 2 gouramis and some kind of other fish and I asked if she was planning on putting those fish in the bowl and she said "yes, why?" and I told her about how gouramis needed at least a 10g with filter and heater and bala sharks need at least a 125g with heater and filter so she said thanks and sat the bowl and gravel down and left and the person that was going to scoop the fish out gave me this really pissed off look like I scared away a sale or something.

 

[Alex_]

there is a petco where i live and i think

there alright, but i have seen really stupid stuff

like them mixing barbs with angels

and they are really overpriced

$15 for a nickel size angel and $20 for some small eel

 

[mandy82]

Geez, the petco about 25 minutes from here has nickel sized angels for 3.49 and 3.99. Where do you live, alex?

 

[Durbkat]

$15! At my lps they charge $3.49 for small angesl $4.49 for medium and $5.49 or $6.49 for large ones but they usually only have small and medium ones.

 

[Synirr]

This isn't a chain store, but a semi-local shop sells "goldfish bowls". The display one has gone through 3 goldfish that I've seen, despite my telling them the last one needed to be moved because he was gasping at the surface... I need to talk to the manager about that. They also were selling a "sweetheart bloodparrot" with a cropped tail last time I visited, just disgusting . I have a fish that was born tailless, so I can tell the difference.

 

[afireinside]

I went to this store, and all the bettas had ich
It really scared me to see all the sick fish.
This wasn't a chain store either

 

[Inchworm]

one story i have is this: i was at petsmart one day to buy fish. they asked how big the tanks was and what i had in it. i fibed a little and told them a 20 gal long with 4 guppies. they said the tank was WAY overstocked and they cant sell me anymore fish.

I can't imagine why they asked that question or why you even answered it. When a store offers merchandise it is for sale to the public. What you do with it after that is your own business.

Of course, in a perfect world, everyone would have the right tanks and know how to cycle them properly. Until then, we can only hope that people will make the effort to try to learn how to keep their fish successfully. That's why they publish books and why forums like TFF are so popular.

 

[SkydiveSonic]

Last time i was at PetCetera, literally every other tank had "floaters". When someone else there was getting fish, the staff guy just hooked out the dead fish with his net, moved the corpses to the next tank, and proceeded to get the fish out .... I really hate seeing the betta's in really freakin small cups there as well, not to mention people picking them up and tapping the glass

 

[jkrekord]

well the worst thing concerning chainstores was when i overheard a staff member telling a man he could keep siame fighters together and there would only be mild aggresion
however the worst advice from a fish store ive ever heard was a small crappy shop where i heard a woman being told she could easily keep a red tail black shark some neons and a dwarf puffer in a 10 gallon
how dumb can you get

 

[fish_keeper2]

one story i have is this: i was at petsmart one day to buy fish. they asked how big the tanks was and what i had in it. i fibed a little and told them a 20 gal long with 4 guppies. they said the tank was WAY overstocked and they cant sell me anymore fish.

I can't imagine why they asked that question or why you even answered it. When a store offers merchandise it is for sale to the public. What you do with it after that is your own business.

Of course, in a perfect world, everyone would have the right tanks and know how to cycle them properly. Until then, we can only hope that people will make the effort to try to learn how to keep their fish successfully. That's why they publish books and why forums like TFF are so popular.

agreed

another story i have is from petco. since i work near one i tend to go over there and browse during my break between shifts(sometimes i have to work all day). anyways ever since i started this habit i have yet to see a tank of clownfish that are healthy. they are always very stressed out and full of ich and have fin rot. and every week they add more to the tank. its real sad when they cant sell healthy specimens of a fairly hardy and easy to keep fish.

a dwarf puffer story: workers from petsmart have told me that i can keep DPs in a community and that they were only mild fin nippers.

another time at petco they accedentaly got in a mandarin goby( a very beautiful marine fish that is very hard to keep). i had told the lady working there thatday that they need a very mature system with lots of pods(little creatures that live in most SW tank and are very bennificial) to eat and the lady tells me the the system is mature and the goby gets fed regularly with frozen foods. the prob with that is that they cant live off of frozen food need lots of pods so they can constantly search for foods. then i ask her some questions about other SW fish and she tells me she doesnt know anything about SW fish and very little about FW fish.
links so you can understand what i mean about the fish: http/liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=551 http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=123776