Starting To Lose Faith With Maidenhead Aquatics...

[daver555]

The company I work for allows us to run a couple of tanks in the office. We've got a Fluval Duo 1000 deep and 800 deep. We recently bought some new fish from 2 lfs. I will refer to Maidenhead Aquatics as LFS1 and Pets at Home as LFS2. LFS2 is right opposite where I work and have recently upped their game on all things fishy. I have up until recently avoided buying livestock from LFS2 as their reputation has not been good over the years. LFS1 in a known chain and I have more often than not been happy with my purchases. About 4 weeks ago we bought 6 black neons and 6 rummy nose tetras from LFS1 and after 2 days the 800 tank was showing signs of white spot. A week after we bought we bought a similar number of fish from LFS2 for the 1000 tank and all was fine. Last Thursday we bought 6 more rummy nose tetras and 6 neon tetras from LFS1 for the 800 tank and this morning white spot has returned after after successfully treating it from the last time.

I put the first bout of white spot down the "these things happen once in a while" but to get the same thing happen the next time we used them has seriously dented my faith in Maidenhead Aquatics. For the time being I am going to avoid them as its not the first time this sort of thing has happened. I will be supplying Maindenhead Aquatics HQ with my concerns later today as speaking with the store in question before has been a waste of time with their self-opinionated and we're right your wrong outlook.

If anyone has had similar experiences I am referring to the Maidenhead Aquatics store in Woking and would suggest to write/email the MA HQ as I am about to. Maybe this will get them to take on-board customer feedback for a change!!!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hi and welcome to the forum .
How long exactly did you treat the fish for whitespot for? Whitespot has a reputation for making return trips to tanks after being recently treated for, you need to understand how the parasite works to treat it successfully;

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=128879

The parasite has stages in its life cycle where it is not physically visable, so a lot of people assume they have ridded their fish of the parasite when this happens, when in fact it is very much still there. This why people sometimes think they are dealing with another infestion of whitespot after they last treated it again, when in fact it never left in the first place at all.
This is also why it is always handy to quarentine fish if you can and to never buy fish from tanks that have sick fish in, as it is always posible that the fish you just bought has just been infected with a desease/parasite but it is simply too early to show any symptoms on it yet.
Most people advise to keep treating the fish for at least 2 weeks after the spots have disapeared, and not buy fish for at least a further weak after that, to help prevent the parasite from coming back .

 

[daver555]

Should have made myself a bit clearer. This happened in seperate tanks. We have separate buckets and nets etc for each tank so cross-contamination is not an issue.

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

You post clearly states you added both sets of fish from LFS1 into the 800... =/

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Should have made myself a bit clearer. This happened in seperate tanks. We have separate buckets and nets etc for each tank so cross-contamination is not an issue.

So basically both of your tanks were separately infected by putting new fish in them?

 

[timmystood]

Unfortunatley, very few people will back you on not liking Maidenhead Aquatics as they have such a fantastic reputation. It is possible that both batches had whitespot, but it is more likely that it returned to your tank from it's first trip! Continue treatment after the visible signs have disappeared.

 

[daver555]

Apologies, I'm now confusing myself (been a busy day).

The time between the first outbreak and second in the 800 tank was about 2 or 3 weeks ago. The last purchase from MA we placed some of the fish into the 1000 tank and white spot broke-out in both within a couple of days. We use the eSHa brand of treatments which we find very effective.

Hope I managed to explain myself, I sometimes get carried away when typing and confuse people. Must remember to read my post before clicking Add Reply!!!

Should have made myself a bit clearer. This happened in seperate tanks. We have separate buckets and nets etc for each tank so cross-contamination is not an issue.

So basically both of your tanks were separately infected by putting new fish in them?

Yes, see my other post it should make things a lot more clear!

Unfortunatley, very few people will back you on not liking Maidenhead Aquatics as they have such a fantastic reputation. It is possible that both batches had whitespot, but it is more likely that it returned to your tank from it's first trip! Continue treatment after the visible signs have disappeared.

Understood, but it doesnt explain the outbreak in the 1000 tank.

 

[CFC]

I dont like maidenhead aquatics either, like most "chain" establishments they pay their staff very little and as a consequence usually end up with less than competent staff, they also generally have over inflated price tags on their fish and a poor selection of anything outside of cichlids and general community fish, i have 6 branches within half an hours drive from here but i havent been to any of them since christmas time after a crappy experience with one of the braches on christmas eve (give them their due though they did sort the problem out and let me have the fish i was interested in free of charge). Independent stores tend to be better in my opinion as they dont have the luxury of having the back up of 20 other shops if they get it wrong and start losing customers, unfortunately independent shops are becoming rarer and rarer these days.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Indeed, the fish prices are vastly high, plus they use a centralised filtration system (as do most shops with many branches), spreading disease throughout tanks like wildfire if the fish are stressed. Plus it always seems to me they cram their tanks chock full of fish, they might sell them but there's no need to have 100 large swordtails in one 5g when there's a tank right across the aisle with a couple of small L numbers.

 

[voo]

I had wondered about how fish shops filter their tanks. I often see a tank that isnt for sale as the fish are under treatment. But surely if one tank has whitespot, then couldn't they all have it?

 

[OohFeeshy]

If they're on a centralised system, yes.

 

[CFC]

Not necessarily feeshy, each tank is plumbed back to a UV steriliser staged before the large sump where the water is pumped back to the top of the system from so in theory if one tank has a parasite only that tank is affected as the UV destroys the parasites before they get recirculated. However the UV tubes must be replaced regularly and the glass tube the water flows through has to be spotlessly clean or the effect of the UV is lessened and some parasites can get through.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Ah, righto, most of the centralised systems I've come across don't use UVs. But still, the risk is there. And if they are having to treat one tank, they have to treat the whole system.

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

My experience with Maidenhead has been varied both on quality of fish and advice given. For instance the branch at Wheatley Oxford has a very healthy outstanding selection of fish, and I have brought from there many a time with no problem.
Whereas the one at Woborn Sands in Beds always seems to have poor looking fish with signs of all sorts of disease and I would not touch their livestock with a barge pole. The advice from this branch on fish keeping is also poor.
I think is boils down to the experience of the staff and how they look after their tanks at each branch. It is not just the whole chain of stores full stop, which would be a very unfair statement.

 

[PaulEbs]

I dont like maidenhead aquatics either, like most "chain" establishments they pay their staff very little and as a consequence usually end up with less than competent staff, they also generally have over inflated price tags on their fish and a poor selection of anything outside of cichlids and general community fish, i have 6 branches within half an hours drive from here but i havent been to any of them since christmas time after a crappy experience with one of the braches on christmas eve (give them their due though they did sort the problem out and let me have the fish i was interested in free of charge). Independent stores tend to be better in my opinion as they dont have the luxury of having the back up of 20 other shops if they get it wrong and start losing customers, unfortunately independent shops are becoming rarer and rarer these days.

In my opinion, it is the opposite around here. The smaller single shops seem to dis-regard the fish and let their tanks get smelly, overstocked, and diseased - generaly not caring for them.

However, Maidenhead aquatics in Bourne End, the only fish shop I use now, are absolutely fantastic. Fair enough the staff can have their bad days - but atleast they have regulations on who can buy fish, rather than the smaller shops palming them off to people even if all they have is a lunchbox filled with water!

I don't believe you can blame Maidenhead aquatics for the disease outbreaks. They would probably recommend that you quarantine your newly purchased fish for a week or two anyway, before adding them to your tank.

Paul.