LFS's...

[jenatron]

Scare the crap out of me.
Today, iDreamInSaltwater and I went to a LFS in our town to browse. I'm not a fan of the place because they're kind of rude, but I like their slightly wider selection of fish. So we're walking around and there's some neat fish usually not carried at other stores, so I'm pleased. Then we get to the Black Skirt Tetra tank. INFESTED (ooh and do I mean that) with Ich. No sign saying they're not for sale or anything, just sitting there like nothings wrong. Seriously, almost every single fish in that tank was ridden with Ich, severely. I'm amazed there were no dead fish.
That was the really bad part. Also, there were some deformed glolight tetras, and some angelfish with no fins... :/
But this all happened AFTER we talked this morning about how LFS's don't QT fish before the introduce them for sale. I know they don't have the time for it, and it wouldn't be profitable. But still, a gal can wish, can't she?
But the point of it all: LFS's scare the crap out of me. I've never had a QT tank before (shame on me), but now I'm terrified not to!
I guess for the sake of conversation: what's your worst LFS experience?

 

[Shugo]

Lol that's why I like going to preuss Pets here in Lansing Michigan. They're real friendly helpful and they quarentine all fish for a minimum of a week before selling and they take very good condition of their tanks and fish. But I do know what you mean.
Where are you from? Jw. If I know anyone from around your area (which I know people all over so......) then I MAY be able to get recommendations for you.

 

[celticfan]

There is one in Glasgow where I live that half the tanks are green with algae lol I will try to take a photo of it if im ever in. Its also really dirty inside and the fish are all in a back room thing where the tiles on the floor are cracked. The last time i was in it a health inspector or whatever guy was in but he seemed to think it was fine. About 1 quarter of the tanks are ok but the rest are terrible.

This place it is

Thomas Hay's Pet and Aquarium corner

 

[jenatron]

I live in Palm Bay, Fl now. But I'm moving to Tallahassee, FL in about 3 months. We're hoping there are some good stores up there.

 

[Homedog98]

I live in Atlanta Georgia. Petco and petsmart are my options. Petco is great! Good advice, nice quality, healthy fish, but EXPENSIVE! petsmart, more selection, horrible tanks, horrible advice CHEAP. So in short, after giving petsmart a shot at fish, and it wiped out my tank, I buy supplies at petsmart, and fish at petco.

 

[Dylan5359]

I'm here in NJ. My options are petco, petsmart, and this nice LFS. The petco is EXPENSIVE and most of the time I'll be walking to the register thinking, "this'll only be 40" and be handing the cashier $80! The petco there also don't pay any attention to their fish! It angers me! The other day I saw HALF a clownfish on the intake of the filter. Oh the guys in the fish department were to busy texting and laughing. I gave them a piece of my mind! Once I'm old enough to get a job in going to fix my local petco! As for the Petsmart I dont usually go because it's far and I had a bad experience with them when I was little. The LFS is great though! I always hear stories about LFSs trying to rip people off but no this guy and his wife try finding me the best price! I'm a valued customer and when people my age walk into the store they watch to see if they are shop lifting but with me they just casually ask how I'm doing and what crazy project I'm up to this week. The only down side is they don't really carry SW fish and SW fish supplies, and they're a little expensive. Because of their lack of SW fish supplies sometimes I'm forced to go to.... PETCO.

 

[Homedog98]

Just curious... But what happened at petsmart?

 

[Crepe]

Just to make fun of you guys: Houston we have Aquarium Design Group, fish gallery, and Aquarium World

from their site:
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]"AQUARIUM WORLD has the atmosphere and appearance of a public aquarium, yet functions as a retail establishment. The 12,000+ square ft store is rich in display aquaria, the centerpiece being a 40,000 gallon tank that is 44 ft in length and 14 ft deep. This is one of the largest display aquariums for a retail establishment in the world! Additional displays include a 5000 gallon saltwater tide pool, and a river fed by a 12 ft waterfall, under which visitors can walk and view a 300 gallon freshwater tank sealed in a "rock" wall."
[/FONT] Got hundreds of tanks of fish, the latest tech (outside of ADA stuff, that's only ADG) and have great staff. Additionally they keep tabs on all the fish they sell to people and for sensitive fish require you bring in a water test before they sell to you...just making you guys jealous lol.

Oh..and as for poor experiences? I can't say I have many...there are a lot of aquarium shops in houston and it's pretty tough to stay in biz when there are giants such as the ones mentioned above. The ones that suck go out like a flame in a wet t-shirt contest.

 

[Purevil21]

There is one horrible place in Brandon, FL called creature castle. All of their fish don't appear healthy, algae everywhere. They don't know what some of their fish are, lol. I don't go there.

If anyone in the Tampa area needs SW fish, go to Studio Aquatics in Lakeland. Beautiful tanks, very healthy livestock. No one I know has lost a fish they bought there. They QT all of their fish before selling them and treat all of the livestock for parasites on arrival so when they are in the display tanks to be sold they are vibrant and healthy. They give great advice and won't sell you anything that will not thrive in your system. If you want to trade a fish for credit, they get on their distributors website in front of you, and give you whatever they would have to pay the distributor for one. Their prices are great, and they will get what you want if they don't have it. I love my LFS, lol. I go in there a couple times a week and gawk.

 

[torontofc]

In Toronto, one of my worst LFS is Walmart (i guess it is consider as a LFS, right?), it is a graveyard for fish!!!! I went in to a Walmart once, and just curious the selection of fish they sell (im not buying it anyway). I walked to the aisle and guess what, all I saw was a building of green water (algae), then as I walk closer, all I saw was piles of dead fish. It seems that nobody notice, dispite that nobody even work at the fish dept.
Then a week after, my friend told me about his exprience buying fish at walmart. He told me he bought some goldfishes at walmart, in less then a days, his whole tank is wiped out. (55-65 gal?)(with 15 or less other fishes). I would never buy fish from walmart, and I will encourage everyone not to, unless you really trust a particular store.

 

[jenatron]

Oh well aren't you lucky Crepe??

 

[Dylan5359]

Oh the petsmart I barely go because the trip is so long. But i recently found out that theres this mega fish store with over 9,000 gallons of marine fish. I've seen there site just haven't had the chance to actually go. :/

 

[Dylan5359]

Oh the petsmart I barely go because when I was little I bought a hamster! Haha. As happy as I could be playing with him and he died the next day. We brought him back and the lady was so rude. Laughing at a little kid with a dead hamster! She replaced him but laughed at me when I said I wanted to bury the dead hamster. call it stupid but i have a low tolerance level for rude people. I would go back to see if they are nicer and to see there WALL of fish but it's right across the street from a mall. So the traffic is unbearable. But i recently found out that theres this mega fish store with over 9,000 gallons of marine fish. :0 I've seen there site just haven't had the chance to actually go. :/

 

[jenatron]

I feel the same way. If that lady had been like that to me I would neverrr come back.

 

[Bettababe1011]

She laughed at a little kid losing a pet?! She should've gotten fired. I would probably still have to go back for certain things, but that is ridiculous.

In loving memory of Pansa Princess, the greatest horse who ever lived. May you rest in peace.

 

[ejaramillo01]

I live in south California, here besides the chain pet stores, we do have a lot of local fish stores, some are good and some are really bad.

My first store they did not care but just about my wallet, they sold me any kind of stuff, I also do take responsibility for my lack of research on those days.

I found a second store, close to the airport in LA (unfortunately too far from my house) that does a great job maintaining healthy fish, and also providing good help to costumers.

 

[Homedog98]

That's so sad. At my petsmart, my sister bought a sick gerbil and the the day after purchase it was on it's death bed. They took it back to the store and were very understanding. They humanely euthanized it and took care of the body. Then they gave her a new gerbil for free!

 

[Dylan5359]

Yeah I wish petsmart was like that. -__- the lady did get in trouble. And the hamster had a tumor ! Like usually if a hamster dies its like wet tail or something unnoticeable. But a tumor!

 

[Homedog98]

That stinks. My sisters gerbil was separated from it's mom too early, so it died from lack of proper nutrients, and was exposed to disease too early.

 

[Dylan5359]

Thats sad. They should make a point of doing health checks on all the animals. And they should trust their breeders.