So what is up dead fish all the time?

[logansmomma1228]

Every time I go into Meijer's or Walmart, or even an LFS on a lot of occasion, I find dead fish all over in the tanks. This makes me nervous to buy fish from them; what if it is a disease? Do they just not take care of their fish and have bad parameters? What is the deal? I went into Soldan's the other day and they had dead fish all over. I asked a clerk a question about their plants and he just kept walking and basically told me WYSIWYG . Thanks for that great info.

Sorry had to rant. It just bothers me to see people not take care of them.

 

[HeathB]

This is why you should always quarantine fish. Basically with most chain stores like Petsmart or Petco, fish is only a small part of their merchandise. Jack of all trades, master of none. They also expect a pretty high turn over in fish and order in bulk to save money. Of course since fish isn't the specialty, only a small amount of room is allocated to a fish department, meaning most of the time, these tanks are overstocked which is obviously going to end up in losses. And corporate would lose money if they employed someone to consistently be watching over these tanks. They might get lightly cleaned once a day and fed, but with that many fish in that small a space, its just not enough.

 

[jsoong]

Don't buy from stores that don't look after their livestock ...Spread the word .... A good old boycott can work wonders. <Eg. Our local Walmarts had stopped selling live fish ... no buyers means no profits, so they stop selling them ... saving many fish from untimely death & horrible living conditions.>

 

[jeffwisely]

i do have to say i have bought some fish from petco and they are great because they do have someone who knows what they are doing working there. as for my other LFS i go to they do have some dead fish in there tanks but i've never had a prob with any of there fish. and they are one of the best around

 

[logansmomma1228]

I went to Soldan's last night and three of their plecos had ick. In three different tanks. They were in with other fish too. Now maybe I'm jumping to conclusions when I say they should take care of their fish, but on the other hand every time I go in there I find dead fish all over. My favorite LFS QT's the fish they get from people, and I saw one fish dying once because it got in a fight. I love that place. Plus they don't try and sell me everything in the book unless they think I need it. I tested one of the guys there once to see if he would try and sell me something I didn't actually need (RO water) and he didn't.

 

[DragonFish71]

I've almost been banned from our Petsmart for reading the sales girl and store manager the riot act a few times and the manager of the fish/reptile department at Petco won't even come near me. (Really, I'm a nice person, honest.*Grins*

 

[HeathB]

Petsmart is all about "Training classes training classes training classes! Sell sell sell!"

I'm just a stockboy, and even I'm fed up with it. Even when they go over the amount they were supposed to make during the week, if they missed their quota of dog training classes, the district will tell off the manager and so on. If corporate didn't make such a hullaballoo of training classes, we could concentrate better on the things that matter.

 

[logansmomma1228]

I've almost been banned from our Petsmart for reading the sales girl and store manager the riot act a few times and the manager of the fish/reptile department at Petco won't even come near me. (Really, I'm a nice person, honest.*Grins*

Lol, that is great. Every time I'm near fish somewhere (I like to actually go in and watch them before i get any to see what kind of behavior they have) I see people just buying stuff and talking it about it; and I always want to advocate good fishkeeping now. Plus I think it's funny that I already know a ton more than some of the people that work with fish, and I have only been reading stuff. . . . it's nice to be educated. I love going to this place called Aquatic Gardens. It is my favorite. I get to go in and have an intelligent conversation with them. And they're not ugly guys either lol