Is this alright?

[Cleggat]

Well the other day I went into Pets At Home (a local pet store) that sells live fish... and once again the decorations had the tags on them, first it was cardboard with ink etc on it, but this time it was plastic with ink etc.. Would this be harming the fish? Here's a picture, there was not only freshwater fish in there but adfs too that normally from that shop have no where to hide. They also have dead fish in there tanks and have 'ill' mollies in QT.. I couldn't see anything wrong with the mollies except that they were pretty round and gravid, so I asked what was up and I got the answer "They have an illness, that's why they're so fat".. I also seen mollies and guppies with ich that weren't classed with any illness and being sold. Personally I think the staff should have good knowledge about fish :/

 

[TaiN]

Well the other day I went into Pets At Home (a local pet store) that sells live fish... and once again the decorations had the tags on them, first it was cardboard with ink etc on it, but this time it was plastic with ink etc.. Would this be harming the fish? Here's a picture, there was not only freshwater fish in there but adfs too that normally from that shop have no where to hide. They also have dead fish in there tanks and have 'ill' mollies in QT.. I couldn't see anything wrong with the mollies except that they were pretty round and gravid, so I asked what was up and I got the answer "They have an illness, that's why they're so fat".. I also seen mollies and guppies with ich that weren't classed with any illness and being sold. Personally I think the staff should have good knowledge about fish :/

I run into that everywhere I go as well. My only choice is petsmart for the most part. Because of them I have to maintain a QT for any additions to my tanks. I have had sales people "come clean" on their Ick issues when I point it out for them to see. I just ask them when they get the shipments in and show up about 2 hours after they open to see who looks healthy. I say 2 hours because I made the mistake of getting there just when they got the boxes and had to wait that long before they would sell them to me.

 

[AquaOne]

Cleggat, you really need to find a quality supplier !
A specialist aquatics centre will surely give better advice and quality product including live-stock. I don't know where you are in UK, but round Bristol there are a few stockists. Not 'name-dropping' but 'Maidenhead' is one of my favourite places. Good advice from a friendly bunch, they only sell you fish after asking questions about your setup, so they can give best advice.

 

[Cleggat]

Hmm :/

 

[Cleggat]

Well, I have a few fish shops near but they're horrible to the fish. The only shop I trust is Dobbies in Ayr (30 mins drive) the garden centre, all the staff know their fill about fish. Pets at home asks you questions but they don't really matter I could say anything and they'd let me take the fish.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I run into that everywhere I go as well. My only choice is petsmart for the most part. Because of them I have to maintain a QT for any additions to my tanks. I have had sales people "come clean" on their Ick issues when I point it out for them to see. I just ask them when they get the shipments in and show up about 2 hours after they open to see who looks healthy. I say 2 hours because I made the mistake of getting there just when they got the boxes and had to wait that long before they would sell them to me.

I'll only buy from 2 LFS for one reason, when I was looking for a particular fish and didn't see it in their tanks, I was told they're in QT for 10 days and they'll hold the shoal I want once they're cleared. That's what I call a store that keeps fish, as opposed to the Petco's of the world who just sell fish.

 

[samt1]

I had issue's with Pets at Home as they let me buy Clown Loaches to go into a tank way to small for them and only buying 2, i didn't know and that's what the shop is for. I normally buy all the stuff from a Garden Centre who have an aquatic centre, very helpful with decent advice.
The Loaches are going back to Pets at Home tomorrow and I won't be going there again for my fish.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I had issue's with Pets at Home as they let me buy Clown Loaches to go into a tank way to small for them and only buying 2, i didn't know and that's what the shop is for. I normally buy all the stuff from a Garden Centre who have an aquatic centre, very helpful with decent advice.
The Loaches are going back to Pets at Home tomorrow and I won't be going there again for my fish.

I found a great LFS in the east bay that had good service, lots of plants to choose from, good looking fish and I'll never shop there again. When I went in to buy plants for my brackish GSP tank, the owners daughter told me to not even bother and just keep them in FW like she has for however long. PO'd me to no end as I signed my CC receipt, I didn't say "see you soon" and will never set foot in there again.

In contrast, the place I'm getting my GSP from drilled me on my setup, cycle (FW->BW) and what other fish/cuc I plan to put together with them before we even talked about buying them. Needless to say, they're sales potential went way up with me dropping the other store from my approved list of LFS I'll buy stock from.

 

[jasurf21]

Ridiculous...A horrible LFS of mine had a cichlid for sale for $25 (forgot which kind) and it was suffering from severe fin rot and probably only had a few days left. What a ripoff.

 

[pitbull]

My pets at home here in south wales has all dead fish they dont seem to care. Even when people are buying you can clearly see they're dead and they dont care