Pets At Home

[awilson360]

I was just curious about other branches of Pets at Home across the country as some people have good experiences with them where as some people do have bad experience with them.

So far I have bought 2 Dwarf Gourami's from them, a Betta with slight fin rot that is now pretty ill, an Oranda and a Black Moor, and rescued the last 2 Panda Corydoras in the tank which died within hours of putting them in my tank at home. Surprisingly the Dwarf Gourami's which I bought were all very healthy specimens... maybe they were new stock?

At my local branch (Lowestoft), they seem to have young teenagers working there. They are very aggressive whilst catching the fish and they get battered before they are even put in the bag. The tropical fish section is pretty good, the Cory tanks always seem to have a few dead ones which are being eaten by live ones and the Fighting Fish are always amongst Guppies and Gouramis??? No wonder their fins are always shredded. The goldfish are usually ok, apart from the Black Moors which all seem to have fungus or swim bladder and there is one black moor which must be at least 3-4 inches and has been in the "sick" tank for months. As far as I can tell he has made a very good recovery from fin rot.

The only excellent thing about the store is their range of Tropica plants.

What experiences have you guys had with them?

AW

 

[kaivalagi]

I used to get plants and frozen food from the Norwich branch but that's it....I find it hilarious sometimes when there, I'll be mulling over plants or equipment etc and hear advice given to newbies...a couple of times I've saved people spending silly money on algae treatment, good bacteria in a bottle and fish that are not suitable for their tanks, I think I'm a marked man in there now

Being in Lowestoft surely you have a few good LFS to visit rather than P@H...(edit: a bad P@H )

 

[ian]

if i was you i'd search P@H in the search button on the forum.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Mines the only place I've seen Chichlids (cept Angel Fish obv).

 

[awilson360]

I used to get plants and frozen food from the Norwich branch but that's it....I find it hilarious sometimes when there, I'll be mulling over plants or equipment etc and hear advice given to newbies...a couple of times I've saved people spending silly money on algae treatment, good bacteria in a bottle and fish that are not suitable for their tanks, I think I'm a marked man in there now

Being in Lowestoft surely you have a few good LFS to visit rather than P@H...

Haha sound like you should try and get a job there! They need some people with real knowledge. I hate it when they try and sell there little Dora the Explorer aquariums to parents with children and tell them that 2 Common Goldfish will be fine in there.

Lowestoft has 3 LFS. Pets at Home, Koi Joy and Broadland Aquatics.

Broadland has reefs and marine fish so you would think they would be knowledgable but I asked the advisor what temperature Panda Corydoras should be kept at, response "Dunno".
They also had some little fish skeletons on the gravel, at first I thought it was a shrimp skin but after closer inspection I noticed Corydoras barbels

Koi Joy is probably the best but they don't have a great range of fish and the equipment they stock is the cheap stuff, not good brands.

Pets at Home is not too bad, just the fish aren't looked after well enough.

AW

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I have 2 close by; I dont have huge experience with either.

Pets at Home (Gateshead - Metro Centre) - they are ok; I bought my female betta's from there. They are a lovely healthy bunch of girls (their male bettas are generally kept in separate containers).

Pets at Home (Cramlington) - again they are ok; although I went a while ago and all of their male bettas looked to be clinging on for dear life (I walked out) but I've been since then and they've all been ok.

Both of the pets at home are WAY better than another large garden centre/lfs in the area - they have sickly stock; thousands of dead fish and covered in white spot (I've never seen them treat the fish where as pets at home do treat for white spot).

 

[awilson360]

I have 2 close by; I dont have huge experience with either.

Pets at Home (Gateshead - Metro Centre) - they are ok; I bought my female betta's from there. They are a lovely healthy bunch of girls (their male bettas are generally kept in separate containers).

Pets at Home (Cramlington) - again they are ok; although I went a while ago and all of their male bettas looked to be clinging on for dear life (I walked out) but I've been since then and they've all been ok.

Both of the pets at home are WAY better than another large garden centre/lfs in the area - they have sickly stock; thousands of dead fish and covered in white spot (I've never seen them treat the fish where as pets at home do treat for white spot).

My P@H doesn't stock female Bettas, only males and they don't do water testing. They also have an obsession with Biorbs and recommend them like the bible.

Most of my small private LFS are "old fashioned" as in they use seperate Undergravel filters in each of their tanks but in away its good as they aren't using one large filter for several different tanks like P@H does, spreading disease.

Why do LFS also not recommend daily water changes when doing fish-in cycles? Is it to make more money replacing dead fish?

 

[kaivalagi]

Haha sound like you should try and get a job there! They need some people with real knowledge.

Because the pay is rubbish...and I am a professional software developer. I'd sooner provide advice to more through these forums

The trouble is that's normally after things have gone wrong...

Why do LFS also not recommend daily water changes when doing fish-in cycles? Is it to make more money replacing dead fish?

Why do you need daily water changes when the good bacteria can be added to a tank from a bottle (sarcasm!). But this problem is not restricted to chains, the little LFS down the road will more often than not try and sell you useless stuff too. Moral of the story, research before anything is bought.

 

[ian]

this isn't fair to bash the big chain store. If you had done a search on the forum about this before posting the thread, you'd have found about 95% of these topics get locked.

As for the dwarf gourami, i wouldn't buy one from any LFS as they are over bread and poor quality. Don't expect your Gourami to last 6 months/year.

 

[Twinklecaz]

You'd buy from a breeder?

 

[kaivalagi]

this isn't fair to bash the big chain store.

Why not? They make the most money though lower purchasing costs and bigger profit margins and so can afford decent staff

That being said it would be more productive if people where to suggest just finding a better LFS in the area instead of focussing on the bad ones...

 

[ian]

they're not making money through fish, i can assure you. They make there money on pet foods. You cannot bash because they are not all the same. There is some excellent P@H, there is some poor ones. There is some poor Maidenheads, there is some great ones. Shall we start a Maidenhead bashing thread?

as for the Gourami, neale monks (i think it was) wrote some good stuff about the poor quality and wards everyone away from the dwarf gourami. I wouldn't even buy from a breeder. The have some great wild ones at my local LFS at the min, they look totally different.

 

[kaivalagi]

they're not making money through fish, i can assure you. They make there money on pet foods. You cannot bash because they are not all the same. There is some excellent P@H, there is some poor ones. There is some poor Maidenheads, there is some great ones. Shall we start a Maidenhead bashing thread?

Good point, I'm sure they do vary...I guess the fundamental thing really is that people need to read up on the subject before even stepping foot in any LFS, most LFS tend to provide profit related advice...

And if lots of ill and dead fish are seen just steer clear when buying fish. I do buy frozen blood worms and brine shrimp from P@H, they offer good prices and are 2 minutes walk from me

 

[Twinklecaz]

Wild Gourami?

Yeah half the reason I bought Honeys in the end was coz of the rep Dwarfs have.

 

[Harlequins]

Not another lets bash Pets@home...

It can be the same with any LFS whether P@H,maidenhead or your small lfs,you get good & bad with them all...