LFS intervention?

[smilla4]

I wandered into an LFS today and two tanks had an outbreak of ich. And I noticed several fish in other tanks hanging out at the bottom, in not a normal way. A few of them seemed like they were on their way out.

I'm not quite sure what is going one there (I wonder if they know what they're doing?). I hardly know what to think, I haven't been doing this for long, and haven't seen something like this. Perhaps I should go back and make sure of what I saw...

 

[Menagerie]

It's a tough call. If that LFS cares about their animals, those fish will be QTed right away. However, if it is like a LFS that I dealt with, which put up the QT sign and the next day it was gone (this went on for weeks ). Everytime I was there to return a body (poor fish on their part), I would tell them their two tanks of Badis were ill. I have not been to that LFS in over a month. My fiance will not physically let me step in there because I would become so upset.

 

[millipede]

You're not alone... It seems that a few people here disagree with me, but in my experience the average, yes average, member here is more knowledgeable than the average pet store owner... That's just been my experience... I realize that a few places out there blow everyone else away but most places I go the people seem to care about money only... It's weird, they usually start off runnig the store correctly but after a while they just sit back and forget about things or something. Todays consumer is getting dumber and dumber, easier to sell ANYthing to... Most people selling things these days care more about the sale than what they are selling or who they are selling it to. Someone over at reptile advice wanted a coconut shell from me for a baby boa he planned on getting but I told him it would be a waste of his time and money because it would outgrow anything I made real quick... Even though I know little about animals in general, less than needed to run a store, I could have bought a store from this lady a year ago and I could have done a better job than she was going and actually made a living off of it... I decided not to buy it because she was asking toooo much and I wasn't sure I was quite ready for the responsibility and all the work that is supposed to be involved... I could have done it, but I wouldn't have been able to provide the best care for everything and everyone so I chose not to... My only regret is that the closest pet store is now 30 minutes away... Oh well... All in all it's just laziness... If you think about it, with just a little extra care they could easily keep things healthier and cleaner, they wouldn't lost as many animals, and they would get MANY referral customers... think about it, even if you were tooo lazy to do it yourself, hire someone to come in once or twice a week to do some of the work for you... It would pay off real quick... Man people sure frustrate me don't they... If you have any free time you could always offer your services one or two days a week, for a small fee of course Talking to some of those people seems pointless...

 

[smilla4]

My concern is they might not know what they're doing? This is not a chain store. I don't know how offensive it would be to question them particularly as 1) I'm a noob and 2) I'm a woman and the people there are male. So that could be taken very badly particularly if they feel defensive about it. I don't know how well they would take" "gee I noticed that you have ich in two tanks, are you planning on quarantining the fish, or are you going to let it spread to them all?" I should have asked why all the fish were lying on the bottom. Maybe if I have a chance to go by tomorrow I'll start asking questions. They haven't been open long.

I don't know the likelyhood of someone opening an aquarium shop and not know what they're doing tho. But it's got to be costly to keep losing livestock... I guess part of it is I don't know much of anything, so how can I question them?

 

[Menagerie]

Go in and simply ask about the fish and see what they say. You can act like you want information. Sometimes I play it ditzy and then turn on them. AH, the power of being a woman

If they haven't been open long and treat their livestock poorly, they won't be open much longer.

 

[millipede]

I think as the title suggests, we need to have some real interventions... Get everyone here together and go on a nationwide or world tour and visit every pet store out there... All of us, line up at the doors and we'll all pile in and help each one correct things... Could you imagine a few thousand people knocking on your door telling you your fish wasn't healthy... You probably can't tell from my posting but I really am kind of shy... I don't like bringing things up in pet stores, especially in a place I'm not familiar with... but it's getting harder for me to hold my tongue... this sort of thing has really been upsetting me lately... I sometimes feel so helpless, like what can we do... but I guess the only thing we can all really do is try to educate people one person at a time like fishfreek said in one of my posts... If the people selling wont listen hopefully we can at least reach the consumers...