WEll..it had to happen: Discus at Petsmart

[Christmasfish]

This past week I guess....
our local Petsmart began carrying Discus...
They have "royal discus" at nearly 40 bucks and "discus" at 34.
The "royal" they had was about 3 inches and full colored. 8O
And any of those that speak discus 24/7 know what that means....
(means someone will probably have an ugly fish in about 2-3 months, if it lives so long)

Man what a disaster waiting there ..they are in the shared system with other fish and no telling how well they were treated for yuk before arrival.
And yesterday they had1+ dead fish in every tank but 6 and the carp kept hitting the floor. They had three different koi thrash until they came over and out. That can't be good.

As I watched them unpacking betta straight to the shelves (no fresh water for you air breather! that blue stuff will last ya) from the shipping box, I felt that righteous rage reach boiling point. Poor Dem things! I took my sister elsewhere for all her fish but the platys now under strict QT.I'll post her tank.
She has 2 jade guppies and two red wag platys in a bowl





jkg: in a 10 gallon that I took my filter out of an established tank and 50 % changeout water(7 gallons) that was 0/0/.20 and traded the new exact one she bought.My tank has a sand substrate as well and 3 fish in a 20 long, ,so my betta won't feel the difference very much. She will test Day 3, Day7 and Day9. More if anything looks suspicious. She wants a 55 gallon later with red, yellow and black community mindeed fish

 

[krap101]

yeah i saw it. was it a pink discus? i thought it looked cool. and its been there for about a month now.

the reason i stopped going to petsmart for awhile is because they dont know a disease when its right there. the whole panda cory tank was filled with popeye. i tried acting concerned (b4 it died) but i was realy trying to warn them in a way that they have popeye. but no they just said it probally got poked in the eye and then they hung up. so not i lost all 4 pandas and from those i lost 4 more fish.

i didnt see any regular discus in there so we live that far away 8P. its not a small world anymore

 

[Christmasfish]

pink disus that are likely some kinda melon color..I know there are tons more..but I don't do disc-o. That is my daughter's passion. ^_^

Our particular Petsmart is still 100's steps up from he nearest Petco and 6 steps below the local Walmart.

Even our small stores are not at 100% Least they bother to take the floaters out. My fav guy has dead plecos in a tank yesterday. Dead and half eaten....he be slackin this month!
Makes me want to find another 2 fish lovers and set up a store right to show em how it is done! Just use all local breeders to make sure the stock numbers are manageable.
I mean as a dept manger, my employees first job in fish zone is remove ALL dead things as shift starts! Look for obviously injureed animals for Qt. Can that be that hard? This store has 6 people in the bird/fish area on any given day.

 

[Menagerie]

I have not walked into a mega-pet store in over two months. I have limited myself to a LFS that specializes in African cichlids; alhtough, he does have some tropicals. I get too angry about the ill/dying/dead fish. One of the summer students in my lab started talking about their fish and I wanted to rip into them about goldfish, but I bit my tongue. I can't go around offending our under-paid summer students *sigh*

 

[krap101]

true. i would but i live in central USA, northern IL, b south beloit. i'd start a store but im not old enough, and you probally dont have enough money for that.

ooh. we could try going together and buying tons of stock in petsmart and just buy petco nvm petco's good, then we consentrate on walmart. then well take over the world mwahahahha

 

[smilla4]

I noticed the discus recently in petsmart as well. A bit before that I noticed a new type of loaches petco was carrying and I asked about it. The employee told me that they were going to start carrying more exotic fish, and get away from the walmart-type fish.

I was kinda amused that he was trying to imply walmart was inferior, but I guess it must hurt that a giant general discount mass retailer can supposedly impact on their market. But if they took better care of their fish, that wouldn't be a problem, now would it?

Blame Walmart

 

[fearlessfisch]

i saw them here too, and was concerned. some people were buying, and the person selling really wasn't giving any good information. i left the store thinking that this is a Bad Thing.

it's really sad.

my experiences with our petsmart have really run the gamut. i had a disaster with a betta i bought there, but i also found some really beautiful angels, and tequila sunrise guppies, which are the prettiest guppies i've ever seen.

 

[BrianNY]

No comment

 

[QTOFFER]

I simply can't wait for the appearance of painted (dyed) discus in the mega pet retail stores. Hey, if nature can make it pretty, then man can make it prettier - right?

 

[flipz]

One of the summer students in my lab started talking about their fish and I wanted to rip into them about goldfish, but I bit my tongue. I can't go around offending our under-paid summer students *sigh*

A friend of my my girlfriend and I's works for the transportation department at our school. We went to go visit her 1 time and I noticed a fish tank in the office, so of course I went and looked. It was a 10 gallon, with at least 5 large goldfish in it. The water was so evaporated and low that the HOB filter intake was above the water line, and it was left that way for so long that it had since burned out. The bottom of the tank was just black with gunk, and our friend told us that the boss feeds them 5+ times a day, and puts HUGE amounts of food in there. She goes through a big can of fish flake food in like a month.

*sigh* I couldn't say anything either.

-brent

 

[jeffs10]

every fish i have bought from petsmart has had ick and have not live for more then 2 months i will never buy fish from there again.

 

[youronlysin]

The only true "fish only" retailer we have here is a salt water retailer. They have beautiful animals and seem to know their stuff, but as for freshwater I'm left with the Wal-Marts or the smaller Home/Garden/Pet-food Supply stores. Although they carry the equipment, they just can't tell me how to use it properly. I no longer trust their advice with stocking my tanks or treating them properly.

 

[Guest]

Discus are quickly becoming the most popular FW fish in the industry. They also fetch a decent amount of money for a FW fish. Factor in the gread of man (humans, for the PC) and there might be a disaster on the horizon.

We've built a free enterprise market. It's all about supply and demand. The only impact one has, is where they choose to lay down thier hard earned money.