Worst Case Of Neglect Or Stupidity I Have Ever Seen

[ox5477]

I was in my lfs this evening buying some food for my Jack Dempsey and I just thought I'd check out to see if a mature Jack Dempsey the store had was still there. He looked so sad to be there and I would love to buy him but I just don't have the room. anyways....

I looked at the right wall and I discover a 10" Tiger Oscar with a bad fungus infection in a 30G tank. In a 30G below the upper one, were a 6" and a 5" Tiger Oscar, both seemingly healthy. Hopeing that the lfs wouldn't be as stupid as some other lfs', I asked the girl if a customer had traded them in and she said that a young man had just come in earlier that day to sell them to the store complaining that he couldn't keep them healthy and they were a horrible fish. The girl then proceeded to tell me that the young man stated that he kept these three oscars, along with another 9" Tiger Oscar, a 6" catfish (species not stated), a 5" common plec, and a 6" Texas. All of these fish were in a supposedly in a 30G TANK!!!!!!!

The girl told me that the Large Oscar that the store did not buy from the man had a severe case of HITH and she refused to buy him as he would be dead probably soon. She was upset that she couldnt give these fish a bigger tank than 30G in the store there, but atleast the big one had his own, and the two smaller ones shared one. This is like living in wide open pastures after what hell they must of indured in that small 30G.

I cannot believe that someone can be as stupid to think that all of those fish, expecially the size they were, could live a tank that size. I don't even know how they could have grown to that size, they must have been bought as large specimens and stupidly put together in the tank. I think it is disgusting how some poeple lack common sense. I mean, you don't need to read one thread on this forum to know that that was prob a VERY BAD IDEA!!!

I'm sorry they have to live in the small lfs tanks, hopefully the big one will get healed up (which im sure he will, this lfs is much more competant then others.... ie petsmart, petco) and all of them will find nice homes in somebodies 125G or higher cichlid tank.

 

[guppymonkey]

I have a lot of people try to bring in fish that have outgrown their tanks in the pet store i work in. One lady had three oscars in a 55G tank with some african cichlids. The oscars all were severely beaten up by the africans. We usually don't take in fish like that but the lady just walked in dropped the bucket and walked out. One oscar was almost completely stripped of scales and died within a few days. The other two were missing large portions of scales, fins, gill covers and had severe cases of HITH. They took forever to start to recover and then my manager decided that they were not getting better and got rid of them. I wasn't there to save them unfortunately and I have no idea how she killed them. Its sad that so many people are so abusive to animals, especially when they work at a job where they provide information and care for animals.

 

[Synirr]

Ugh, that's like the customer who brought in a pink con saying it was fighting with his other fish... of course it was, it was housed with 3 other cons and two firemouths in a 10 gallon. This is a sizeable con mind you, 4" or so. He then had his water tested because they kept getting sick, and surprise surprise, the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all turned "fish death" colour. One of my coworkers said, when the customer was out of earshot, "You're a horrible, horrible man."

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's awful isn't it. That's one thing that would put me off working in an lfs, I'd get too upset hearing all this stuff every day.

 

[fish_fetish65]

i had a man come in complaining about his jack dempseys fighting. i asked him how big his tank was. he said 20 (us) gallons. i told him that was too small. i then asked him how many dempseys he had. he replied with a nonchalant "26 or 27... something like that." my jaw nearly fell off of my face. i quickly explained to him that it was faaaar too small of a space to keep them in and that only ONE dempsey requires a minimum of 55 gallons to live. he said that the man he had gotten them from had kept them like that for years, and that they were fine the way they were.

people make me so mad. i had one lady insist that she was going to put an oscar in a 2.5 gallon tank... ummm, nooo. lol. and another kid who had three oscars in a 10 gallon. it's ridiculous. people make me sick.

 

[ox5477]

I just love how people don't think fish are actual pet's and they pet's rights or any feelings. THEY ARE LIVING, CONSCIOUS ORGANISMS. They have all the same feelings and right's that your cat or dog, or bird or hamster or iguana have. But people think that they can just flush their problems away.

I think there should be something of a small test administered for a fish keeping license, much like you need a fishing license to do it in the wild. and with this test, you will have to atleast know the basics. I know anyways this woulda helped me when i started out, because I lost 2 or 3 mollies and I was upset, so it made me look for info out there and I realized I was doing almost everything wrong. I understand a small test wouldn't stop people from doing what they do with overstocking and such, but hopefully enough would be educated to extent where those people who don't care would get scolded and insisted upon by others to make the conditions more likeable to the fish. Maybe too, knowing that they have to actually exert themselves and learn a little before they would be able to get the fish might deter some a$$hol3s from pursueing the hobby.

I don't know, just knowing that your delibrately hurting a a beautiful fish and not caring, I just wouldn't be able to do that. Everyday when I would go to feed them (thats assuming these people feed them everyday), I would just look and get pissed at myself for being a jerk.

 

[catxx]

see if i worked in an LFS i'd probably spend the whole time getting really angry right in the faces of these ignorant people who believe a 10 gallon tank is the biggest tank in the world. i'd also go out of business refusing lots of sales to people who hadn't done their research.

GAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i hate the general public.

 

[nurglespuss]

"THEY ARE LIVING, CONSCIOUS ORGANISMS"

Well they arent conscious as such, and no they dont have the same rights as your cat/dog etc. you can quite happily sit down and eat your fish.

 

[00mitomk]

evil

 

[dwarfgourami]

"THEY ARE LIVING, CONSCIOUS ORGANISMS"

Well they arent conscious as such, and no they dont have the same rights as your cat/dog etc. you can quite happily sit down and eat your fish.

I have also on several occasion eaten horsemeat; this does not mean that I could abuse a pet pony. And it says nothing at all about the horse's level of consciousness. I eat (organic) chicken- doesn't mean I go torturing sparrows. A lot of people feel there is a big difference between swiftly killing an animal for food, and wilfully abusing it over a long period.

 

[guppymonkey]

"THEY ARE LIVING, CONSCIOUS ORGANISMS"

Well they arent conscious as such, and no they dont have the same rights as your cat/dog etc. you can quite happily sit down and eat your fish.

Since there is no proof of consciousness you are partially correct, but there is no proof that cats/dogs or even people have consciousness. There is plenty of proof that fish think and feel pain. Saying that because you can eat fish that they should not have rights is rediculous. With that kind of logic you could eat any animal and therefore you should be able to abuse any animal? You can quite easily eat cat, dog, horse, guinea pig, rabbit, and many domestic birds and other animals I am sure. Does that mean that anyone should be able to go out kill their dog and barbeque it? I don't think so. Also, its illegal to abuse food animals such as cows (although its rarely a convictable offense). Making excuses for people being lazy, ignorant or malicious is wrong. People should not be allowed to just buy an animal and do whatever they want with it.

Another horrible fish owner dropped off a lima shovelnose cat in our store today. It had been kept in a 20 gallon fish tank for a year or two and had a piece of netting stuck in its pectoral fin and the fin had actually grown around part of the net! I cut the rest off but part is actually stuck in the fin! It seems to have internal parasites and I have no idea how I am going to treat it as this fish hasn't eaten anything besides feeder fish for its entire life. Also it seems to have a damaged lower jaw (probably from its tiny tank). We also had someone with an oscar in a 2.5 gallon tank and wondering why the tank was so dirty and the oscar wouldn't grow.