Petsathome Told Someone To Cycle For A Week!

[guppy_man]

Hi went to petsathome earlier to get some algae wafers, and couldnt help having a quick nose at the fish
when i overheard one of the assistants telling someone that you should cycle for a week
with my first tank i cycled it for 4 weeks and then added 2 danios for another week.

why did the assistant suggest to cycle the tank for only 1 week?

and o ye i came home with a new guppy lol

 

[ringham]

When i first got my 240 tank I was new to fish and was also told that my tank would be suitable for hardy fish (that is plecos and black widows etc.). After cycling for a week I got my first fish ( I think I went over the top by getting 22) and 20 of them died with my first 2 weeks of getting them.

 

[kha]

whats cycle?

 

[Die_Grinder]

i asked them how long to cycle a tank for and they said a week or 2, but they did atleast reccomend cycle chem's. hehe i love to see if they know their stuff or not. you will find the odd one that does know quite a bit, but they are rare.
i think most people that just walk in and expect to take the fish home with the tank get annoyed if they are told to wait a week, let alone 4 weeks. some people just cant wait! bet they're real annoyed in the build up to christmas

personally i say the bigger the tank the bigger the wait! but i would say that a fishless cycle takes atleast 4 weeks no matter what the size of tank.

 

[emma12321]

Have you read the crap leaflet they hand out too

The people at pets at home know nothing about fish. The fish are provided and cared for by an outside company and the shop employs minimum wage students who know nothing about anything. The fish are over priced too. Why shop there when there are specialist fish shops to go to.

Also if you buy birds or furries expect them to have mange mites. I got guinea pigs and rats from there before i knew better and they all came with free crawlies.

Emma

 

[Die_Grinder]

yeah emmas right, the outside company holds its fish there, to pets at home only pay for what the sell, they dont look after them coz it dont cost them if they die. not the way to go about it if you ask me. altho my friend who works there (shame on her) says they got a new woman incharge of all the live stock, and shes kicking all the stores asses! hoorah!

i have seen their filters at my local PAH and there filter systems could be soooooo much better.
heh maybe i should get a job there and sort them out

 

[beux]

My store sent me home with 6 Danio's and a test kit and told me to come back in a month with some water for them to sample. They practically wouldn't let me anything else even if I wanted to...

Though the store I originally bought my tank from told me to set it up leave it two days then i could come back for all the angelfish i wanted for my 16 Gall (I wouldn't even dream of putting 1 in my tank now!) - it's a good job I went to a different store to check out their fish, I haven't been back to that first place since!

 

[Die_Grinder]

i do agree. pets at home are bad, but they aint the worst i have seen. went into one shop near me called "pets cabin" man its a state. hes got a cockatoo with no feathers, i asked him how much a fish was (think it was a yo-yo loach) and he didnt have a clue what one i was on about you would think that if he stocked it you would know what it was. ne hoo all his tanks were bare except from about 1" of disgusting algae infested gravel, the fish were under fed and didnt have room to move. on top of all that there was no filtration in any of the tanks (that was turned on anyways, look like a UG filter but it was off). just could not beilve it. so i went home and reported him to the pet shop license people, bet he had a good time with the VET inspector .

 

[joss81]

hey

in my many visits to pets at home ive come across fish that have jumped out of tanks and i had to put them back in, staff who actually asked me what certain fish were called and one member cleaning upper tanks with mr muscle, whilst lower tanks had open lids.....unbelievable!!!!!!!!

 

[kha]

lol they work there and they dont know wot is wot lol in the shop i bought my guppies most tanks had dead fish floating around! and even some fish nipping on the dead fish !!

 

[james1971]

Last year when I first got into keeping fish they were the first place I seeked advice from.

I asked a young girl about cycling a tank and she said that it was not really necessary. I had already read about it so I cycled my 22gal tank for 3-4 weeks before putting any fish in at all.

She was a fishkeeper herself and openly admitted that she would never buy fish from the very shop she worked in but would always go to another lfs 10 miles away.

James1971

 

[guppymonkey]

I would suggest that asking people at corporate pet stores for advice about any animals is not a good idea. They are usually uninformed and generally (in my experience) don't care if they are uninformed. You can sometimes find fish in good health but its sort of like russian roulette.

I would suggest trying to find some good locally owned stores. Its sometimes harder to find but they generally care more. They don't have a corporate structure of hundreds of stores to fall back on if a few customers leave. I don't know if this is true for fish but all of the best dog and cat food manufacturers won't sell to corporate stores ( personal experience with animal nutrition). So going to a local store could even get you some higher grade goods. For instance, the PetsMart near me just started carrying Omega One fish food while the local store has been carrying it (and promoting it) for a couple years now and they sell it at a LOWER price than PetsMart.

 

[juliehainsworth]

IMO I think pets at home should only sell pet supplies and not actual animals esp if they dont have the qualified staff to do so!

My friend bought a gerbil from there and after joining a gerbil forum she found out that most carry some disease a few days later she had to put it down as it also had the same disease and it infected her other gerbil too but luckily that one was treated with antibiotics! On the other hand they did refund her money for the gerbil and treatment without any problems!

Presonally I think all LFS should under go some sort of vetting procedure to ensure that they know what they are doing but there is nothing we can do about it really!

 

[fish mad]

IMO I think pets at home should only sell pet supplies and not actual animals esp if they dont have the qualified staff to do so!

My friend bought a gerbil from there and after joining a gerbil forum she found out that most carry some disease a few days later she had to put it down as it also had the same disease and it infected her other gerbil too but luckily that one was treated with antibiotics! On the other hand they did refund her money for the gerbil and treatment without any problems!

Presonally I think all LFS should under go some sort of vetting procedure to ensure that they know what they are doing but there is nothing we can do about it really!

The best advice I could give is to tell someone about this forum first befre getting fish or a tank. Its always best to do your research first.

 

[dwarfgourami]

personally i say the bigger the tank the bigger the wait! but i would say that a fishless cycle takes atleast 4 weeks no matter what the size of tank.

Really? My fishless cycles took 10 and 14 days respectively, without any seeding from established filters, only adding pure ammonia. The bigger tank was the faster. I know lots of people who've cycled in under 3 weeks.