How does the LFS keep so many fish in one tank?

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mobiusnu

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jan 21, 2005
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How does the LFS keep so many fish in one tank? Heavy duty filtration? What about oxygen levels?
 
Welcome to AA.
They probably have heavy filtration, but filtration is not the only reason you should not overcrowd your tank. Your fish need to have there own space.
Oxygen exchange is an easy one. Just agitate the water. Any where the water ripples there is O2 exchange.
8)
 
I can't speak for other LFS but the one I work at has monster filtration on each system. Saltwter fish, saltwater inverts, freshwater tropical and freshwater cold are the main systems we have. Each have a huge sump of at least 100 gallons fitted with 2 towers each ranging 6 to 8 feet tall and about two feet in diameter packed with bio balls. The invert system has a sump full of live rock instead of bio ball towers. Territory disputes are all we really need to worry about, though we do get our share of ammonia spikes and have to do what it takes to get the ammonia down. We also have a good aeration system for all the tanks.
 
So is the ol' 1"/gallon rule of thumb a sort of amalgamation of filtration, aeration, and behavior concerns?
 
The 1" per gal rule has been debated to death around here. That is just a rule for beginners to keep tham from buying everything that looks pretty and puting it all in a 10 gal. But to answer your question yes the amount of fish (i.e. the bioload) is a net effect of filtration (biological and mechanical) aeration and behavior concerns.
 
How does the LFS keep so many fish in one tank?

I asked a girl at petsmart and her response was "mega filtration and heavy losses'
 
They have more losses because alot of there tanks are connected and they get in stressed out fish.

Keeping alot of fish in any tank requires very good bio filtration, dissolved oxygen, organic waste removal, chemical filtration, controlled feeding and water exchange. If you lack in any of those your fish bio load will be smaller.

Case in point I have 40 or so male guppies in a 10 gallon the tank has 3 forms of bio filtration, 1 chemical filtration, Very good surface movement and aireation (DO), I do 2 water changes weekly for solid waste removal and water exchange. I also turn off all filtration and aireation when feeding to reduce wastes.

The fish store probably has a huge bio/chemical filter that adds DO as well as removes solid wastes and exchanges water automatically.

I wish I had that kind of set up :) mine takes more work ;)
 
They have more losses because alot of there tanks are connected and they get in stressed out fish.

That's not entirely true. We have tanks connected to a large system and we have very few losses. Our freshwater system is 2,000 gallons total all connected. Saltwater is all connected. The inverts are all connected, etc.

The difference is in the people who work with the fish. It's the employees and the corporate offices. Corporate chains like Petco and Petsmart hire inexperienced people to care for the more demanding livestock. Even when they do occassionally have a well experienced person, they have to go by corporate rules which clash a lot with what the animal may need. I've worked at Petco and have argued several times with their corporate offices about keeping this animal with that animal in that type of bedding and this kind of substrate and this and that. I gave them explanations and it didn't matter. It had to be the way they have it down in their stupid little plan o grams. I refused to do a few things anyway and always got yelled at or written up for not following directions. Yet I refused to do certain things to keep the animals in better health. I ended up getting fired eventually after two years of busting my ass for that company. They can shove their policies up their @#$%$# ass. LOL. These companies do not care about the livestock. They don't make any profit off the livestock. All their profits are from dog and cat supplies for the most part. Your typical LFS and other special pet shops like bird stores, reptiles shops etc that rely much more heavily on the survival rate of the animals they sell, so more care is taken in the livestock than making the place look pretty. Know what I mean? BTW...both Petco and Petsmart have filter systems that are a pain to deal with and really aren't as big as they should be.
 
Ive seen them get in fish at these stores they take no care really in what they are doing their methods are crude at best. So they end up with sick fish right out of the box. then they have these net piles, use the same water container to catch fish etc... they transmit disease all over there store without really giving a hoot.

They also catch fish like crap. For the most part id like to slap the guy up side the head and take the net away from em. Ive seen one or two people that have done a good job at not freaking out the entire tank trying to catch a fish.

when I catch a fish it climbs in the net practically lol! now once they realize after 7 or 8 of them are caught they might not climb in but they still arent hovering at the sides of the tank huffing and puffing looking like rats cornered or something.

It just seems like alot of fish stores have people working for them that know nothing about fish.
 
Disease outbreaks have nothing to do with the net piles and using the same containers. The disease factor is really about how well the store is up on any outbreaks and keeping their systems low in nitrate. Disease is inevidable in wholesale and retail situations. You can use the same containers and the same nets to catch fish without spreading disease. Gotta keep the fish healthy in the first place and isolate sick fish from those that are healthy right away. Then there aren't any problems of spreading disease.
 
I think that there is a degree of "acceptable losses" at the chains...they expect to lose fish..also they figure the turn around on the fish is fairly quick so they won't be in those conditions for a long time...the mollies you see there one week may not be the same ones there the next.
 
I had a girl at petsmart damage a rubber lipped pleco so badly it died overnight with the net. When I pointed out the injury she just gave me a second one but I still felt bad.
 
We're getting off topic here! We can debate fish deaths and handling all we want between a decent LFS and inexperienced employees at the chain stores, but the question remains: How do they keep all those fish in one tank?
~turn around on the fish is fairly quick (this mostly takes care of territory disputes, plus the tanks usually lack décor)
~heavy filtration
~surface agitation to aerate the water
 
What I don't understand is when I ask "Is it alright to keep more than one of these in the same tank". They answer "no".

- even though they have four in the same tank.
 
well I have read countless articles and stories and some diseases can kill a whole tank off in a day or so with just one drop of water from another tank. So yes using the same nets and containers is a BAD thing.
 
What I don't understand is when I ask "Is it alright to keep more than one of these in the same tank". They answer "no".

- even though they have four in the same tank.
High turn over rate, no territories to defend and if they loose one, oh well :roll:
 
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