Pets At Home

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BORING! they sold me fish with diseases.. N kept the diseased fish on sale for another week! Not bein a joker, but they shouldnt be doin that, just so the poor beginers in this hobbie have to fork out for treatments when in the first place they SHOULDNT HAVE BEEN SOLD!

Dont worry mate, I look at fish properly now thanks BRUV!

N also you can clean the plants but it can still hold snail eggs GEEZ!

I am sorry you find advice boring you need to weigh up the shop as a business and profitability versus customer satisfaction. I think your local P@H was generous to you and took a step that the majority of shops would never do. If your a beginner then you should research a pet before buying it not just walk into a store and listen to the salesman. Same with buying anything in your life.

My job involves sales and I will exaggerate the truth and give bias when stock needs to be shifted. If the customer doesn't know what he is buying then that is his fault not mine, as he has not properly investigated the market. A problem the small "good" shops have is people come in get good advice buy a minimal amount then go online and find it for cheaper and buy the majority. If you find a good retailer you should support it and promote it but if you find a bad one then write an impartial report of what happened, don't rant subjectively.

Your P@H may have an open loop system for all tanks thus there is one or 2 filters in parallel that treat the water for all FW tanks. As a result any ich or snail eradication treatment would effect all tanks and any aquatic life that is sensitive to copper or heightened salt levels would be affected. That is why some stores use UV to try and kill the suspended parasites and bacteria in the water column but its not as effective as UV+Medication.

P@H don't grow the plants they keep them from mass suppliers. To treat plants for snails use a copper soak and rinse then QT if possible. If you have sensitive fish or inverts in your tanks then it is best to ensure the plants are treated in a QT tank with snail medication then use a carbon filter for a week or two to ensure all the copper is removed. To test after you are 99% sure the tank is clean pick an invertebrate and acclimatise it to the QT tank and after 24hrs if it has survived as it should the plants are safe. If you don't have sensitive aquatic life then do a snail treatment when introducing new plants for a week or 2 after introducing.
 
Well no one really helps each over on dis site, ppl just gt dere own OPINIONS lmfao

as somebody has already mentioned. you will find it hard here, unless you can write in English. textspeak does not work here.
BORING! they sold me fish with diseases.. N kept the diseased fish on sale for another week! Not bein a joker, but they shouldnt be doin that, just so the poor beginers in this hobbie have to fork out for treatments when in the first place they SHOULDNT HAVE BEEN SOLD!

Dont worry mate, I look at fish properly now thanks BRUV!

N also you can clean the plants but it can still hold snail eggs GEEZ!

I am sorry you find advice boring you need to weigh up the shop as a business and profitability versus customer satisfaction. I think your local P@H was generous to you and took a step that the majority of shops would never do. If your a beginner then you should research a pet before buying it not just walk into a store and listen to the salesman. Same with buying anything in your life.

My job involves sales and I will exaggerate the truth and give bias when stock needs to be shifted. If the customer doesn't know what he is buying then that is his fault not mine, as he has not properly investigated the market. A problem the small "good" shops have is people come in get good advice buy a minimal amount then go online and find it for cheaper and buy the majority. If you find a good retailer you should support it and promote it but if you find a bad one then write an impartial report of what happened, don't rant subjectively.

Your P@H may have an open loop system for all tanks thus there is one or 2 filters in parallel that treat the water for all FW tanks. As a result any ich or snail eradication treatment would effect all tanks and any aquatic life that is sensitive to copper or heightened salt levels would be affected. That is why some stores use UV to try and kill the suspended parasites and bacteria in the water column but its not as effective as UV+Medication.

P@H don't grow the plants they keep them from mass suppliers. To treat plants for snails use a copper soak and rinse then QT if possible. If you have sensitive fish or inverts in your tanks then it is best to ensure the plants are treated in a QT tank with snail medication then use a carbon filter for a week or two to ensure all the copper is removed. To test after you are 99% sure the tank is clean pick an invertebrate and acclimatise it to the QT tank and after 24hrs if it has survived as it should the plants are safe. If you don't have sensitive aquatic life then do a snail treatment when introducing new plants for a week or 2 after introducing.

well put guy! :good:
 
I have only been to my local pets at home once and that was enough for me i was only after some gravel but could not resist a quick look at the old fish

4 tanks along all was ok apart from a dwarf gourami that had just died (all fish kept in same species tanks etc) then i come to their largest tank which had a beautiful almost fully grown tiger oscar in with ..... Wait for it ..... Guppies. it was fair to say i left without the gravel soon after.

But as said its a franchise just like McDonalds you go to one and the food tastes great the next might be horrible!
 
Must say, I was at my local Pets @ Home (Borehamwood) this weekend, and I was pleasantly surprised. Not much of a range of fish. But all the tanks were clean and the livestock looked healthy.

Btw, I didn't go there to get fish..... my kids like looking at the rabbits & guinea pigs. :lol:
 
Must say, I was at my local Pets @ Home (Borehamwood) this weekend, and I was pleasantly surprised. Not much of a range of fish. But all the tanks were clean and the livestock looked healthy.

Btw, I didn't go there to get fish..... my kids like looking at the rabbits & guinea pigs. :lol:

I keep going there with my gf as shes constantly in need of hamster stuff and as soon as we walk in the door she goes one way me the other. I just like to look haha wouldn't buy fish from them but but its free trip out beats paying sea lifes prices haha!! only thing is my Pets at home does not have marine :-l so off to dobbies for my marine day out haha. I dont really go out of my way that much if passing only or if im buying some accessories
laugh.gif
 
Hi all.

I have 2 local pets at home stores close to me, 1 is average and the other is quite good, the one nearest have been quite helpfull when i was setting up the tank, all the fish looked healthy, just snails though!!, plants were in ok condition but not amazing.

The other store, the tanks are always dirty, the plants half dead so never by from there.

There is another store that i have been to called World of Water. they are by far the worst i have seen, with so many fish with whitespot, and 37 dead fish on my last visit. staff did not know what they were talking about, so i asked if i could add 20 tetras to my tank having only set it up for 1 week. the response "yeh i guess so, not really sure" REALLY! there cheap as chips and seemed to sell alot of new tanks and fish with whitespot, which for begginers is not good.
 
its nice to hear something good said about pets at home!
My local one (Southend on Sea) is brilliant!
Tanks full of fish with VERY rarely any dead ones to be seen, and all of my tanks plants and fish have come from there and i havent had ANY problems, just happy, healthy, colourful fish and plants :)
also the staff are awesome, ask all the right questions and really know their stuff! :)
 
Hi all.

I have 2 local pets at home stores close to me, 1 is average and the other is quite good, the one nearest have been quite helpfull when i was setting up the tank, all the fish looked healthy, just snails though!!, plants were in ok condition but not amazing.

The other store, the tanks are always dirty, the plants half dead so never by from there.

There is another store that i have been to called World of Water. they are by far the worst i have seen, with so many fish with whitespot, and 37 dead fish on my last visit. staff did not know what they were talking about, so i asked if i could add 20 tetras to my tank having only set it up for 1 week. the response "yeh i guess so, not really sure" REALLY! there cheap as chips and seemed to sell alot of new tanks and fish with whitespot, which for begginers is not good.

I read an article somewhere about world of water may have been practical fish keeping dont quote me on that but it didn't have gleaming reviews from what I can remember.
 
I went to P@H in Colchester today. Perfectly fine, fish looked really healthy.

On the other hand, I also went to seapets, and counted at least 5 dead fish in their tanks...and they looked like they hadn't been cleaned for about 3 weeks. Definitely put me off buying anything from there.

yeah seapets has gone right downhill lately . i went there before pets at home , those poor oscars were in a shocking state werent they ,

Sorry guys, it's a shame the fish house has taken a nose dive again, I tried to tell them the current fish house manager would wreck it.

Rogue4fish, 3 weeks is probably a vast understatement for the cleaning regime.

I would encourage anyone to email in complaints when they feel standards have dropped in Seapets. It's only thorugh constant nagging that the current FH manager actually works.
 
I really think any petstore comes down to the workers. My local Petsmart has a girl who seems to work 6 days out of 7, and she's been a huge source of help with my new tank. The tanks are in great shape, and I rarely see dead fish.

The other two Petsmarts in our area have tanks full of slime and snails, and dead fish floating in every last one. So same store, completely different experience.

I did sadly overhear a clerk at the "good" Petsmart today telling someone they could keep one black skirt tetra in a tank by itself (and the tank had only been set up for one day). It must have been the knowledgeable one's day off. I tried to gently intercede, but I'm pretty sure the girl ended up buying it.
 
Have to admit its really annoying going into a petshop's fish section and doing a dead and dying count along with anaother favourite game see how many crispy critter you can spot. How ever I have come across on petshop locally that that tanks aren't always pristine but the fish are almost always in fine health, active, colourful and happy to eat with no signs of the dreaded white spot. While another petshop I know does have pristine tanks and almost always dead/ dying and or diseased fish. The later petshop also takes great delight in cucking any dead or dying fish in with any carniverous fish they happen to have eg. Barrimundi, large oscars and have even seen them chuck dying guppies in for the scorpian fish to eat, without even being sure what exactly ailed the dying fish.
Needless to say I prefer getting my fish from the first shop, but to be on the safe side I always inspect all the tanks to see the general health throughout the shop. My general rule of thumb one diseased fish in any tank generally means most of the entire stock could have been contaminated especially since most of the petshops have around 6 tanks all being filtered by one filter system. And they ususally mix and match the catching nets. I have even seen them take water from another tank seperate to the tank that was holding the fish the person wished to purchase. So again just because one tank looks healthy doesn't mean all the rest are.
 
I went into my local pets at home in barnsley yesterday and was immediately greeted by a member of staff. I asked if they could check my water and they did it straight away, My readings were a little high as its a new tank and then advised me on what i should do then come back with another sample in a week. I cannot say i had a problem with the store however i do think it also depends on how good the member of staff is
 
I went to P@H in Colchester today. Perfectly fine, fish looked really healthy.

On the other hand, I also went to seapets, and counted at least 5 dead fish in their tanks...and they looked like they hadn't been cleaned for about 3 weeks. Definitely put me off buying anything from there.

yeah seapets has gone right downhill lately . i went there before pets at home , those poor oscars were in a shocking state werent they ,

Sorry guys, it's a shame the fish house has taken a nose dive again, I tried to tell them the current fish house manager would wreck it.

Rogue4fish, 3 weeks is probably a vast understatement for the cleaning regime.

I would encourage anyone to email in complaints when they feel standards have dropped in Seapets. It's only thorugh constant nagging that the current FH manager actually works.

i have to say paul , when you were running it it was great , some of my best fish came from there . is it that tall huy with dark hair thats running it now?
 
Definately depends on staff! I go to two in Essex, one is manned by a bloke who is very informative. Tanks are clean, rare to see dead fish in tanks. However, the other store is BAD! No one person seems to be in charge. Staff ask patronising questions, which seems scripted, which you know that if you asked a technical question, they would be totally lost.

I was in there to buy some plants, there was this one tank that housed young Oscars and red tailed sharks. The sharks were fighting, many were severly injured with chunks missing from their fins. The Oscars looked past their best too.
 

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