Fish Shop Cruelty

[EllieW]

I went to a fish shop the other day to collect a filter and air pump. I had never been there before as it's a bit of a trek from my house but the offer they had was good.

When I went in, I couldn't quite believe what I saw. First thing I saw was a large oscar in a tank so small that its face and back fin were touching the glass so it couldn't move
Also the amount of fish they had crammed in was horrible to see. Some small fish (guppies etc) in tanks about 6 inches long where they had separated bigger tanks into small compartments

I left the shop feeling really annoyed and I think I should report the shop. What do you think?

 

[minxfishy]

You have to remember, that in cases like these, the fish are only in holding tanks, as they arent expected to be there for too long and are therefore overstocked and smaller than ideally they would be for life after being sold. The Oscar MAY have been dumped on them and they had done their best to accomodate it.

But if you believe these fish are being kept in poor conditions, being ill-treated, then your best course of action is to contact the local council (think its the council) that issue their licence for keeping animals and selling them.

 

[onebto]

The other course of action is not to buy anything from that store and tell them that.

I get annoyed when I see Beta's in plastic drinking cups but unfortunately it is a common occurrence, fortunately I have found a store that does not do this so they have my business exclusively I told them that and I told the other local stores why I will not use them no skin of there noses I guess but I feel a little better about myself.

Of course this is an issue especially when there is a good deal to have but I have Rarely! found a price in a LFS that could not be beaten on line, and of course they may not care about loosing one customer.

Regards onebto.

 

[kiriyama]

Unfortunately this is something we see all to often. Recently I discovered a small LFS on my travels locally, thye only had a few very small tanks and you could see they were trying there best to keep a variety, unfortunatly they had 2 very large plecs in seperate tanks, fish were about 9", I asked what kind of plecs they were and thet guy replied " not sure , think they are just normal ones", ???, they also had a large silver fish, looked like a siver dollar but it was massive in a tiny tank with guppies and neons(?), and a silvery catfish which clearly had a case of pop eye, bizarre, I bought some slate from the shelf but don't think I would buy fish from them,,, makes you cringe....

 

[EllieW]

Oh right, i guess i've just never come across it before then. Was just a bit shocked

I hope they did move the Oscar cause I keep thinking about the poor thing. Guess the best thing to do is still to my normal LFS where they are treated nicer

 

[shelaghfishface]

well you havent mentioned any dead fish, dirty tanks etc etc.. please do bear in mind that these people are running a business

yes we`ve all seen out fair share of shops that should be closed down on the spot..shops that some of us consider to be appalling are sometimes some of the best when it comes to one of us having a crisis (i,e burst tank) and needing emergency acoomodation for our fish.. i`ll bet thats why the oscar was in the small tank..in an ideal world they would all have 6ft+ tanks, but so long as they appear well and healthy and are not permenently kept lke this..well, not a lot to be said



incidently,why didnt you ask why when you were there? never be shy to ask why is that fish being kept like that.. im sure they would have offered a good reason for it
if on the other hand you are convinced that they are indeed being badly treated then your first port of call is to the local council who issue the liscences for them to sell the fish in the first place

shelagh xxx

 

[Bebobb]

I wouldn't. I agree, they are probally in holding tanks. They aren't going to be in those tanks for that long. I find that LFS owners have to have a vast amount of knowledge of fish. But they don't share it to the general public, but instead, they lie to try and make money.

 

[shelaghfishface]

I wouldn't. I agree, they are probally in holding tanks. They aren't going to be in those tanks for that long. I find that LFS owners have to have a vast amount of knowledge of fish. But they don't share it to the general public, but instead they lie to try and make money.

sorry but i really don`t agree with that sweeping statment at all

( tho i have no doubt that some do)
lots of LFS owners are "old school" its not that they lie at all, its more that they did things differently when they started out.. in the "good ole days" it was perfectly acceptable to dump a few neons in the tank, and if they were still alive the next day to stock your tank... or even let the tank run for a week or so empty to "cycle"... its not lies, its misinformation.. big difference,sorry!

 

[EllieW]

None of the tanks in the whole shop were big enough to fit that oscar in though.

 

[Bebobb]

I wouldn't. I agree, they are probally in holding tanks. They aren't going to be in those tanks for that long. I find that LFS owners have to have a vast amount of knowledge of fish. But they don't share it to the general public, but instead they lie to try and make money.

sorry but i really don`t agree with that sweeping statment at all

( tho i have no doubt that some do)
lots of LFS owners are "old school" its not that they lie at all, its more that they did things differently when they started out.. in the "good ole days" it was perfectly acceptable to dump a few neons in the tank, and if they were still alive the next day to stock your tank... or even let the tank run for a week or so empty to "cycle"... its not lies, its misinformation.. big difference,sorry!

Oh... I never thought of it that way... That sure does make me think a lot differently of LFS!

 

[shelaghfishface]

None of the tanks in the whole shop were big enough to fit that oscar in though.

i really do know what you mean.. ive seen it more often that seems right sadly tho for large fish of this size, the treatment they get at the shop is often the best they ever will huge oscars are usually in the store because someone cant care for it any more, lfs would be hard pushed to sell them on hence wouldnt buy them n at that size, and like you quite rightly point out.. they could fill the tanks needed to house them with " bread an butter fish" so yeah.. he`s prob been dumped there all he needs now is someone with a heart to go and give him a loving home for the rest of his days

 

[EllieW]

 

[star4]

You can contact your local council, their animal welfare department would go to the shop and check the conditions, however if the rest of the fish are in good health but just in cramped conditions they cannot really do much. I complained about a shop near me, their licence was removed and they cannot stock fish anymore. Its a shame for the oscar, but I suppose if he was dumped there because the owner no longer wanted or could take care of him its better than some alternatives.

 

[GAB99]

like stated above almost all lfs have something wrong with them, only ones i can think of that would be "perfect" have higher prices and have bee passed down so there are always improvements, there is a store in Ga that im checking out because it is the Costco of fish keeping and its way better than my current lfs.but i do admit that even thought they have a large 75-90 gallon tank that it still bothers me alittle that the pacus still get a tiny tank, and some angel fish have been there so long they are now stunted, but i cant blame them, people come in everyday abandoning fish (thats how i got my boesemani's) and usually if they are big to start with they usually never get sold.

 

[kelly528]

I reported a fish store to the SPCA once. They literally had more dead fish than live fish in every tank. They were all fungussed over and white and fuzzy and were making the remaining fish sick. I think the kids who run the place just didn't want to scoop them out. They had a history of neglecting their small animals and flat-out refusing to rectify the situation by doing stupidly simple things like putting perches in the bird cages because they had none. So after 2 prior offences the SPCA was pretty interested. Next time I went back, no more rotting bodies!

I think the bottom line is that while keeping bettas in cups is sadly acceptable to animal control authorities, if you see some really out of line they will check it out.

Of course all this is granted you can prove that the animals are consistently kept in such conditions. Escpescially if the tanks aren't sumped small tanks are ovbiously problematic.