Maidenhead - Peterborough

[Azaezl]

I finally managed to get to maidenhead aquatics in peterborough today and all I can say is wow!

It is so much better then any fish shop I've been to, it's a million times better than my local ones which are ok(ish) at best.

I got myself 3 new panda corys, was hoping to get 5 or 6 but they only had 3, oh well gives me even more of a reason to go back in a few weeks

The guy who helped me was really nice, he subtly asked questions about the tank they were going to and what I fed them etc, which was a refreshing change.

So anyway the point to all this is maidenhead in peterborough is fantastic and I highly recommend it, just wish I had longer to stay and drool over all the fish, next time I shall be in there for a few hours!

 

[FISH KEEPER EXP]

ive also been to peterborough it is a well run shop, and livestock is always healthy.
have you tryed the maidenhead in cambridge i think its in coton, well worth a look.

 

[Azaezl]

Not yet but I intend to eventually, I was in peterborough anyway doing some shopping so I just had to stop by as I've been meaning to for months. I rarely get into cambridge but next time I do I shall pop in and take a look

 

[timmystood]

I work at Maidenhead Peterborough! Glad you enjoyed your visit Azaezl. Any idea who served you? It should be on your reciept. It really is nice to recieve some positive feedback, it makes all that hard work worth it (the two main rows, the tetra isle and and the livebearer isle) are both maintained by me. It's bad luck i'm not working today! Just ask George Farmer, i'm normally living there! I'll pass on your comments to everyone else in the shop. I really am glad you enjoyed it (normally monday's aren't great in there after the mad sunday rush - tends to resemble the first 20 minutes of saving private Ryan on sunday afternoons!!). You'll have to let me know when your next in so we can meet each other - you'll get a cup of tea and everything!!

See ya soon!

 

[Amerce]

Don't bother with the one in Barnstaple, went there in September and what a dissapointment, tanks were overstocked and the plants were dying, I was so dissapointed after all the good reports I'd had about Maidenhead shops.

Staff were friendly but totally lacking in knowledge or even the type of fish they had.

Some of the fish were dead and had been for quite a while.

 

[timmystood]

Oh wait! Just seen it was Saturday you visited!! You would have seen me then! It's possible it was even me that served you!!

 

[Azaezl]

Well I checked the receipt and it just says clerk 10, is that you? My pic is to the left there <-- so do I look familiar? I was in at about 5ish, it was pretty much deserted and I was in a rush so didn't pay much attention to who was around, I vaguely remember 2 guys standing chatting whilst the one who was serving me got the pandas out. Simple soloution, did you sell the last 3 pandas to someone on saturday at around 5pm? The guy had dark hair, it was chin length I think(and between me and you..unless it was me and you) he didn't charge me for bloodworms, didn't realise until just now when I checked the reciept(paid by credit card), I like your place of work even more now, I get free food lol

 

[timmystood]

LOL! You were served by Aaron. At about 5ish I was probably getting ready to hoover! It was strangly quite on satuday! No disrespect to Aaron but if you were impressed by him you should grab one of us full-timers! (man that makes me sound big-headed!) What I mean is Aaron is a saturday worker, getting some extra money behind him, not to say he's any less knowledgeable but I think that is credit to our store that even our part-timers are impressing customers!! We must meet up in there! I'll give you the guided tour!

 

[Fella]

Don't bother with the one in Barnstaple, went there in September and what a dissapointment, tanks were overstocked and the plants were dying, I was so dissapointed after all the good reports I'd had about Maidenhead shops.

Staff were friendly but totally lacking in knowledge or even the type of fish they had.

Some of the fish were dead and had been for quite a while.

I'm not affiliated with Maidenhead Aquatics, nor do i even regularly shopped there. But tanks can rarely be "overstocked" in aquatics stores, except in extreme cases. These are temporary tanks, they're not where the fish live, it's a temporary residence. Slating an aquatics retailer for being overstocked is one thing, but people would be quick to point the finger if they had no fish for sale.

And you will always get some fish dead in some tanks at the LFS. if I worked in an LFS, it would really bug me to hear that people were sick of seeing dead fish in the tanks. With all the other duties involved in running an FLS, removing expired livestock is a never ending cycle. Every LFS I have ever been too has had dead fish, and some of the places I shop are exemplary, winning awards and the like on a national level, not just locally.

 

[Azaezl]

I was impressed because he actually asked questions, in my lfs they don't say anything apart from certain people who seem to be there less and less, he also seemed pretty pleasant wheras 90% of the people at my local always come across as having a bad attitude, one woman almost crushed the otos I was buying because she was getting so worked up trying to catch them.

Sure we can meet up next time I'm in which I'm sure will be very soon as I want some more panda corys, when will you be getting more? and do you often get dwarf frogs & c.melanotaenia in? Or could you order some in?

Thanks

 

[Darkstar]

I'm not affiliated with Maidenhead Aquatics, nor do i even regularly shopped there. But tanks can rarely be "overstocked" in aquatics stores, except in extreme cases. These are temporary tanks, they're not where the fish live, it's a temporary residence. Slating an aquatics retailer for being overstocked is one thing, but people would be quick to point the finger if they had no fish for sale.

Agreed.

And you will always get some fish dead in some tanks at the LFS. if I worked in an LFS, it would really bug me to hear that people were sick of seeing dead fish in the tanks. With all the other duties involved in running an FLS, removing expired livestock is a never ending cycle. Every LFS I have ever been too has had dead fish, and some of the places I shop are exemplary, winning awards and the like on a national level, not just locally

Don't agree, if your primary function is to sell fish then it's good business practise to make sure your fish appear in the best possible way. Dead fish do nothing to promote the selling of fish and it should one of every lfs's priorities to make sure their tanks and fish look A1.

 

[timmystood]

I was impressed because he actually asked questions, in my lfs they don't say anything apart from certain people who seem to be there less and less, he also seemed pretty pleasant wheras 90% of the people at my local always come across as having a bad attitude, one woman almost crushed the otos I was buying because she was getting so worked up trying to catch them.

Sure we can meet up next time I'm in which I'm sure will be very soon as I want some more panda corys, when will you be getting more? and do you often get dwarf frogs & c.melanotaenia in? Or could you order some in?

Thanks

Yeah he's a good lad. We all ask basic questions like 'how big is the tank?' 'How long has it been running?' 'What else is in the tank?'. We understand that it is a hobby and so people will enjoy talking about it, we're trying to achieve advice through a conversation not just dictating to people.

We don't stock dwarf frogs i'm afraid. As for the c.melanotaenia, we may have some on our softwater system, i'll have to have a look but if not then we MAY be able to order some in.

As for the panda cories, they are popular so we will have some in by wednesday hopefully. It's a shame you didn't get me actually because I look after the system you got your cories off, I know of 2 adult panda cories in a different tank (Aaron wouldn't have known about them). Anyway, we should definatley have some in by your next visit and if need be I can reserve you some.

 

[joecoral]

Whilst I agree that dead fish looks bad, when a LFS has several hundred tanks full of fish, repeated checking for dead fish becomes incredibly time consuming and can interfere with the other duties of running and LFS, and the fish arent considerate enough to die at predetermined times of the day so you can know when to go look for them.
Obviously if there are multiple dead fish in every tank then yes, that is a very bad sign, but if its just the odd one here or there than that is no reason for alarm

 

[Darkstar]

Whilst I agree that dead fish looks bad, when a LFS has several hundred tanks full of fish, repeated checking for dead fish becomes incredibly time consuming and can interfere with the other duties of running and LFS, and the fish arent considerate enough to die at predetermined times of the day so you can know when to go look for them.
Obviously if there are multiple dead fish in every tank then yes, that is a very bad sign, but if its just the odd one here or there than that is no reason for alarm

No-one is suggesting connecting each fish to a heart monitor so it can be removed as soon as it's keels over, but at the same time I've never seen an lfs at any time of day where every single member of staff is rushed off their feet. Invariably, I usually see 2 or more just standing around chatting. So i see no reason why, unless it's extremely busy, an hourly walk around the tanks glancing for any dead fish is too difficult.

 

[timmystood]

We're running slightly off topic here. The only input I will put to the dead-fish subject is this: we have over 10,000 fish on 9 different filtration systems (marine fish, marine inverts, tetra/barbs, livebearer/gourami, loaches/cichlids, softwater, fancy goldfish, pond fish and koi). We check hourly for dead fish and any we see in between these checks times are quickly wisked out. The only time we won't grab a dead fish is if we are serving (in which case we get somebody else to do it). Not making excuses but when you have 10k+ of different sized fish it is extremely difficult to get every single dead one. I would say, on average, we lose no more than 20 a day, which when you consider how many are coming in and out isn't a bad total.