Major LFS gripe

[TF Keeper UK]

Why oh why is it a hardship for someone who works in a LFS to do a check 1st thing in the morning on their stock?

Went into one of my LFS yesterday with the intention of buying some corydoras. The state of the fish put me right off!

Dead fish being eaten by other fish, dead fish (apparently for sometime) still in the tank. Even worse disstressed fish!

The explanation I got from the less than intelligent looking assistant was "someone hasn't looked at them yet!"

Excuse me but this was at 13:45! To me that's a piss poor excuse. What does it take to check the tanks, remove the dead, etc before the shop opens?

In my opinion the state of the stock is a major factor in the purchase. Would you buy fish from a store where the dead float among the living? There is no excuse.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

I think even those with the best intentions lose heart after a time in the trade. So many get lost and to spend all your time getting out the dead and trying to rescue those poorly or stressed must take it's toll. I'm not sure i could do it.
On the other hand, there are many places that simply don't care and that irritates the hell outta me. We have a garden centre not that far away and they have a bunch of L numbers at really high prices but kept in less than good conditions! They often have an arrowana in aswell in a tank not big enough for it turn around in.
Hugs,
P.

 

[TF Keeper UK]

The LFS is in question is part of major chain and new around here. When it opened up I expected a few deaths due to new tank syndrome. But after 4 months I don't expect to see this amount of dead fish!

It doesn't take a lot to fish out the dead!

 

[Durbkat]

Whats the lps name? And that happens at my lp to its called feeders supply and yesterday I looked at the corys and their were 2 alive ones and one dead one that was being eaten. Then another time I saw their tank of common plecos there was FOUR DEAD PLECOS IN THERE And the live ones were eating them. They even sell fish that are sick. I mean they might tell you its sick but they won't say its not a good idea to buy them. It ticks me off so bad and sometimes I tell them they have a few dead fish in their and their reply is "ok" then they do nothing to take it out.

 

[TF Keeper UK]

The LFS in question is Maidenhead Aquatics of Oxford.

They can't have been doing daily checks, as one of the fish i saw had been dead for awhile now

 

[OohFeeshy]

Maidenhead Aquatics? Maybe you should complain to the head office, Maidenhead is usaully keen to come across as an exellent shop.

 

[lovell_89]

Miss Dib Dabs, by any chance is the garden centre called birleys in belton cos they also have an arrowana that can barely turn around.

 

[lovell_89]

i should have said other than this birleys is quite a good shop.

 

[fish_keeper2]

im always hearing bad things about chains....along with seeing it. petsmart doesnt seem to bad, but i was at petco the other day and in of thier tanks they had 3 clown loaches that were around 6inches and about 10 or so dalmation mollies and lots of baby plecs. this is a ten gallon tank i believe and all especialy the loaches were covered in thousands of ich cysts. one of the clowns was to the point it was laying on its side breathing vary heavily. every time i go in any petco in my town i can find something wrong with all or most of the tanks. oh and dont get me started on walmart. people like these should be turned in to fish and treated like this but kept alive for a long time. maybe that will make them treat fish better.

 

[IMCL85]

I dont buy fish from LFS that have alot of dead fish / sick fish as they probably not being handle properly and I think the store would eventurally be close due to lag of custom.

 

[fish_keeper2]

i dont either. one of the petsmarts here in town is always(so far at least)has decent fish and have never seen sick ones and the very few dead ones i have seen were removed as soon as i had mentioned it.

i highly dobt that chain stores would be closed down. when i was at petco on the day of the incedent i described there were several people who bought fish and afterwards i went to the tanks they got fish from and saw several sick fish. i most addmit i did by a fish...well not exactly, i got a bamboo shrimp which cost me !!!!6 buck!!!! but it was well worth it. incase u were wondering each tank is on its own filter....undergravel to be exact and the tank the bamboo shrimp were in had perfectly healthy fish(atleast to the naked eye) and i kept him seperated for a week to make sure it was ok. now its happily living in my 20 gal. i love the little guy to death.....he is just so cool ......errrmmm sorry for rambiling on )

 

[xamdarb]

i find the big chains almost seem better here because they have the money to put gravel plants and proper filters in the tank instead no filters gravel plants and a way to small heater like the none chain stores around here

 

[yvez9]

some smaller chain stores around here are actually pretty good. The employees are knowledgable adn take extra care of their tanks. Hardly ever any floaters in them. the local non-chain stores near my place suck. The owners and employees are there for a quick buck.

I've seen 18 inch pacus in 40 gallon breeder tanks. You ask for some specific product and they have no clue what you are talking about (like asking for maracyn, then they learn it's medicine so they try to sell melafix...)

then this owner who told me my water had no ammonia after testing for pH

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Its always frustating for me to go in to pets at home (which is probably our version of petsmart) because they normally have some nice fish with good prices, but there is always disease and dead fish. Do all fish shops and pet stores use some kind of filtration that runs through all the tanks, not each tank indivually?. I know pets at home must because i walked in there today and every single tank was affected heavily with ich But they werent selling any fish so they must be treating them all.

 

[yvez9]

i find big chian pet stores use central filtration for some odd reason.
All the better stores i visited use power filters or sponge/undergravel filters in there tanks. Big Al's uses big sumps for most of their tanks though, but they know how to handle them.

We have a Chain Store called Safari around here that is basically crap but has good opening hours so I sometime go there and see what they have besides dead fish.