Just Had A Horrible Experience

[mossonthemoon]

I had to get fish today so my fishless cycle wouldn't have been all for nothing, and thought I would have to get whatever I could find, since the places I knew about didn't have emperor tetras. I don't know how this forum feels about naming and shaming, and I don't know who knows who here, so I am not going to mention a name. But we went to a LFS that I was unimpressed with years ago, thinking maybe my memory was making the experience worse that it actually was. Well... No. It was much worse today than I remembered. There was a huge selection, but the fish were crammed into the tanks, piling on each other. Just about every tank had dead fish, many with up to six that I could see. The dead looked like they had been there a long time, some mostly eaten, others left alone but quite fuzzy. Most of the betta looked miserable, and had very algae filled tanks. Tanks being quite small but not as small as some other places with betta. I had decided we could not buy fish from that shop before we had seen all the tanks, but then we had the pleasure of seeing some unhealthy looking giant gourami. One had clouded and sunken eyes, and the other looked off-colour. That one turned and revealed a huge hole in their side. It was horrific. We had chosen a couple nice pieces of wood, so we paid for those and fled. I will never go back. I was really upset after that.

I then remembered that someone here had suggested Discovery Aquatics. As soon as we went in, we felt better. It was much cleaner, and had a much better presentation overall. The tanks all looked very clean with the exception of one that had more algae, but it almost seemed intentional. I wish I could remember which fish were in it. The fish looked healthy, and I overheard good advice being given. They did not ask me any questions when we bought the fish, but to be fair I had asked for a few varieties with their Latin names, so maybe they assumed I just knew what I was talking about. They were quite busy so service did take a bit of time, but I think that is fair for a Sunday. So there was a happy ending luckily, because I was ready to sell everything fish related after that first place.

 

[Torred1771]

What did you get??

 

[fluttermoth]

Unfortunately, we're not allowed to name and shame here, but it's great to see the good shops getting a mention.

I'm afraid there are still are some bad shops out there; all you can do is avoid them and give the decent ones your custom.

 

[mossonthemoon]

I can't believe I forgot to say after all that! I got eight emperor tetras and eight pentazona barbs. We saw the barbs and remembered how much we loved them, and decided to forget about trying to get completely new to us fish. I think that will be enough to hold the cycle for now, and we get the rest of the fish soon. They're being acclimated now!

 

[Torred1771]

I love my pentazona barbs, otherwise known as five banded barbs! They go really red and i love them.

 

[mossonthemoon]

I loved mine when I had them too! I can't believe I was going to overlook them just because I had them before. They are being ridiculous right now, all clustered in a pile in the corner of their bag.

 

[snazy]

You know, generally there are dead fish in every pet shop just some remove the fish before the customers see them. It's not a general indication of fish health and adequate fish keeping if it is not like numerous fish in everytank. I buy fish from two pet shops and I got diseased fish from the super clean pet shop, never from the "dirty" looking pet shop, all thriving. So generally, I can't even tell now which is better. Certain algae is good for some fish too

 

[mossonthemoon]

Oh I agree that dead fish can't be helped, but I saw well over 50 dead fish today, and didn't inspect every tank closely. A huge hole in the side and cloudy, sunken eyes is certainly indication of a disease, and allowing fish to decompose in the tanks is going to encourage disease. And when I said the betta looked upset in their tiny, algae covered boxes, I meant that many of them were on the bottom, either doing headstands or lying completely on their sides. I know betta can sulk, but these looked like they were worse than sulking.

 

[Baccus]

You know, generally there are dead fish in every pet shop just some remove the fish before the customers see them. It's not a general indication of fish health and adequate fish keeping if it is not like numerous fish in everytank. I buy fish from two pet shops and I got diseased fish from the super clean pet shop, never from the "dirty" looking pet shop, all thriving. So generally, I can't even tell now which is better. Certain algae is good for some fish too

I know of a pet shop that has slightly dingy tanks but the fish are all as healthy as anything, while another one I know off has super clean tanks and keeps have various out breaks of different illnesses, while a third pet shop I know of has absolutley shocking tanks and the fish you can plainly see are on their last legs- this last shop also stinks of cat and dog pee and even though the birds are outdoors the birds are always ill looking. Any way with the dingy tank vs super clean tanks I liken it to a house that is not Hospital grade disenfected compared to a house where every invisible bug must be killed. I know which house is healthier and its not the hospital grade one. I figure fish like people need that small contact with various germs to keep our immune systerm working correctly, other wise the simpilest cold will knock you flat. So rather than seeing just how dingy the tanks are, I also check to see the overall heatlh of the fish and do a rough percentage of sick tanks to ok seeming tanks, I also check which species the pet shop has crammed together and if it looks as though they have tried to make the various water parameters correct for the types of fish eg. haven't dumped khuli loaches or corydoras into an African cichlid tank.

 

[mossonthemoon]

Water parameters would be irrelevant in this case because all of the tanks are connected and share their water. The shop I didn't like today had dead fish in almost every tank, and the majority had more than one. The bodies were very clearly there for a long time in a lot of the cases. It definitely wasn't an example of the sterile houses versus messy. The shop I did like looked very clean, but the fish looked very well-coloured, each tank had less fish than one might expect, and there was loads of live rock. That means nothing to me really, but is worth mentioning. It looked really nice, to an untrained eye!

 

[Baccus]

My prefered pet shop actually has their banks of tanks set up to between 4-6 tanks per sump filter which can drastically reduce the chance of illness spreading and they are able to quarrintine one bank of tanks while the other tanks are all functioning properly. They also have nets for each bank of tanks so that nets are not transimitting diseases all over the place.
I wasn't trying to say that a filthy obviously uncared for set of aquariums will have perfectly fine fish, I was trying to say that when all factors surrounding the fishes care and environment are taken into account then a purchasing judgement call can be made.

 

[mossonthemoon]

I agree with that. I have been to some shops that looked okay and turned out not to be, but never the other way around. I think you have to go with your gut in these cases. The big chunks taken out of some of the still living fish told me not to shop there. I didn't ask how many tanks got each sump, but I did notice that they all had vents on each side, so I assume they must all be connected... or at least every bank is, and the banks were very big.