Getting annoyed with local fish stores and their white spot infested fish...

[sealife]

I know white spot is very common with fish, but its getting too much. The hassle of clearing white spot is stressful and annoying.
I walk the aisle from their showcase tanks, and every second tank is infested with white spot. I feel they should give you a bottle of white spot remedy with every fish purchase.

Sometimes when you purchase a fish, you miss the 1 or 2 small white spot it has, only to see it as soon as its in your home aquarium. Then the whole tank is at risk of catching it and its spreading. I wish they had a better practise, or at least treat the fish with the products they sell us to treat white spot.

Anyone else have this problem with their fish stores? I see it nearly everywhere, from where I live.

I need a quarantine tank.

 

[Sidman24]

I guess I'm thankful enough to have a very nice family owned fish store! All the fish are very healthy and the owners are extremely nice! Even though they aren't very knowledgeable about fish haha

 

[Sidman24]

Have you made any comments to them about the ich?

 

[Toad]

I agree, if it's that bad just tell them you won't be

 

[Toad]

Buying any more stock from them till they take care of it. Stupid fat fingers lol

 

[Laser]

I'm not convinced that ich is entirely the fault of the LFS. I see the one good LFS by me doing water changes every time I'm in there and taking good care of their fish, but I always see at least 1-3 tanks labeled do not sell due to ich.

 

[Alyxx]

A really good LFS should quarantine their new acquisitions, but the nature of the beast as far as the wholesale operations most fish stores order from is that disease is pretty common. The stores order from places with tons of fish packed together in tight quarters where disease can spread. This makes it really important to inspect fish well before you buy and to quarantine new arrivals. Personally I qt all new fish, even those from trusted fellow hobbyists. Better safe than sorry is my motto - I've had too many losses from new purchases.

 

[Teakwood]

Some fish stores have certain tanks running on the same filter. One of mine literally has every other row on the same filter so when you said every other tank it reminded me of seeing the same thing once.!

 

[azmodan]

I agree with Alyxx on this one. LFSs get fish in every week and considering the travel and conditions the new arrivals go through it's near impossible for them to arrive perfectly fine or develop sickness due to stress. LFSs can certainly take precautions to quarantine their fish and provide optimum conditions in their tanks but ultimately it's a business for them and our responsibility try our best to choose healthy stock (or opt not to buy anything) and quarantine new purchases to protect our own tanks.

I need a quarantine tank.

 

[Masha]

Is it worth complaining to a shop, if you bought a fish with white spot? I mean-- I know you wont get your money back or anything like that, but is it worth it for them to know the fish was infected so they can do something about the remaining fish?

 

[Toad]

I always complain. Depending on the store it can simply be a matter of uninformed or overworked employees, or bad suppliers, but I try to make a point of telling them. If their supplier is consistently bad they need to realize that it's hurting their business, if it looks like its the workers, the more eyes the better. I worked at petsmart, I didn't mind people pointing it out because I didn't always have the time to always inspect the tanks.

Hell I just went into one the other day and handed them some bettas and told them there were more all with hunks of fungus on them.

When it comes down to it, it's still a business and if their stock is obviously bad and I have bad experiences with it, I'm not buying more. I live near That Fish Place and I almost never buy fish from them, too many bad experiences.

 

[Delapool]

I'm lucky most of the nearby stores have tanks that look well-run and generally good. Also many of the employees have tanks. Every few months I reckon I see the odd fish that looks very poor. My daughter tends to loudly point these out - lol. I agree - if the store is not taking care of their fish, then I'm not going to buy them or anything else really. Just easier and better to go to another one down the road. I do try and support the little stores as I find their knowledge is good but (must be honest) it is handy to go into a bigger store for the variety of products when I can't find something (feel a bit guilty though).