Delimma Time! ;) Running a fish dept!

[danielcp]

Howdy,

I have a question for the fish store owners and general opinions for everybody else.

A little backdrop, I had finally found a pet store (Pet Supplies Plus) that had a knowledgable fish guy and decently healthy fish. So for a few months all was great. Then one day the fish guy disappears ^_^. He got offered a sales position with a dog food company and of course it pays better than a chain store so off he goes to Texas...

Now being all helpful me I decided to step in and take care of their fish (everybody else that works there is half clueless) and since I've spent so much at the store I get a good discount anyways so I don't want to ruin all of my hard work to get those discounts.

If things continue on their path I'll be going in a couple hours a day to maintain the fish and the aquarium section of the store.. ok no biggie right?

Here comes the problem, they have a tank setup with basically 12 75gallon tanks divided by 3 with the typical box'd corner filter/airpump etc... The problem comes in with the fact that it is a shared water system (from what I can tell). Everything is filtered into a large charcoal canister and back into the tanks...

This makes keeping individual PH ranges for the fish impossible..
I'm sure there's a way to disable the filter for one section of the tank if I need be for treating any sick fish... but, what do I do with the PH.

The previous guy who left had crushed coral in one of the 75's for the Chiclids, however, it being a shared water system (not sure if he realized that or not) all that coral is doing is raising the PH for all 12 tanks...

I took my Digital PH meter in and while the tank with the crushed coral is running about a 7.8, the tank farthest from it is running a 7.6 (+/- .1) so the difference is *not* that dramatic between the tanks, and a 7.6 isn't going to make the tetras very happy...

I've yet to find out what kind of water parameters that the fish supplier (local) keeps their fish in but what should I do. Three of the 75's are filled with Chicilids/Gouramis and the other 9 are filled with a mix of loaches, tetras, barbs, goldfish etc. I feel my best option would be to remove the crushed coral and just stick with the tap water PH, which is still fairly high, around 8.2 out of the tap and 7.5-7.7 after it has sat, but I wonder if anyone else had any suggestions or ideas for me.

 

[Endgame319]

Sounds like a blast! I'm sure the fish will be in good hands I sorta do the same thing at the lfs I work at, but I mostly do tank maintainance. - but at least I get to be around the fishies!. 7.5 is a good pH level too keep at a fish store, as almost all fish can be semi-comfortable with it until they find a new home.

 

[danielcp]

I agree, thats why I'm suggesting myself for doing it. I run my own company and work a night shift at another but yet I never get out of the house since I work via the internet, so if I get to deal with fish AND get my lazy ass outta the house all the better for me...

The cute girls that work there don't hurt anything either ^_^

 

[OneFishTwoFish]

A word of consideration from a relative new comer. I would hesitate to modify the PH from the local tap PH except for difficult species (ie Discus) as most hobbiest don't have the knowledge, capabilities or desires to modify their waters PH. This could lead to problems when bringing fish from the store home to their water.

I hate adding anything to my water so chemically altering the PH wouldn't be anything I would want to do and the customers that aren't interested in finding natural ways to lower their PH are setting themselves up for big problems with chemical additions.

That said a couple of tanks for these more difficult fish and more advanced hobbiests with different PH level could be expected.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[LAGlocker]

Cool idea. And yeah Im sure the cute girls there dont hurt either lol.

 

[Overstocker]

One of my LFS run all of their tanks at 7.0 PH including the chiclids. They are an older couple that have been running a fish store for decades. They said African chiclids are very tolerant of PH, not necessarily fast PH swings but can and do live in highly variable PH levels. He continued on about the different areas and water types within each of the lakes and such....

So, maybe telling the folks what the PH of your tanks are will help the buyer acclimate the fish to their tanks at home

 

[Christmasfish]

So far it looks like your lfs may soon be one that is frequented by real fishkeepers

heh...My daughter was talking this very subject at breakfast..
What she would do if she could work in the fish Dept.

Her list after first week...

1. Always remove dead things first thing on shift...cant be good and can raise ammonia

2. Clamour to Mgt for QT tanks in back and for a minimum of 7 days

3. Something going wrong? Test and do as massive a water change as system allows!....Then medicate. Keep a cheap xeroxed pile of slips sheet of my stores water parameters.
See if there is UV sterilizer if it is giant inline system like Walmart or my barracks. Demand one. Avoid delicate species and just special order them.


She had more ideas..too radical for retail tho


Sounds good to me...Out of the mouths of babes...
(in her case a Babe in training)
I did explain she may become unpopular with management...
Her answer? Then I'll ask Dad's dad to help me have my OWN business!
Yeah.....okay. Big plans...

(hahaha! for mgt....spellcheck suggests "maggot"..hahahah)

 

[Menagerie]

(hahaha! for mgt....spellcheck suggests "maggot"..hahahah)

[center:6b642b108b]Great observation!![/center:6b642b108b]

 

[danielcp]

Yah I never use chemicals in my tanks, its either crushed coral, driftwood or peat.

That's pretty much my goal as far as sticking with the water supply in the area, no need to fight it and to be honest half or more of the people buying fish will never check the PH in their lifetime so I'll do good to make sure they go home with a bag of biospira ^_^. If we lived in a ideal world everyone would wait to cycle their tanks and adjust the ph... but at least we have products now a days that will help save the fish.

Depending on if I can shut off one of the individual tank sections or not I may have to setup a QT tank in the back, I believe there's a way to cut that section off but I haven't climed behind it yet..

(There is no rear access door.. I'll have to take a ladder, climb ontop of the tanks, move the ladder to the rear of the tanks and then climb down it...) heh ..

*note to self* cut hole in wall behind tanks.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I recently became pet dept manager at Wal-Mart. We have those huge UV sterilizers that work wonders! The bad thing is that the tanks are all connected (tropical is one, coldwater in the other) In both, we run HUGE bio-wheels and huge filter systems that keep basically everything at set levels. PH stays around 7.4-7.6 everytime I have tested it.

Note to Christmasfish: Your daughter is on track! Now that I took over, dead fish do actually get removed at the beginning of my shift, instead of at the end like the other manager did. I am trying to talk my manager into letting me store-use a 29 gallon (or 10 gallon) tank for QT, no luck yet!

 

[danielcp]

unfortunately the system they have here isn't that nice. Pretty much a big 5 foot container full of carbon that the water is filtered through and individual filters in each tank.

I've got a lot of re-arranging to do though... they've got the Oscars and Cichlids kinda spread out... since I'm only working a few hours a day I need to make it simple for the girls to do the feedings in the morning.

That and put a few new fish on order (Royal and Clown pleco's) mostly. Plus some Oto Cat's and some Ghost Shrimp.