Story to turn your stomach...

[madasafish]

Hey,

So last week, I sauntered into the LFS, thinking I'd have a peek at the FW fish stock in the off chance that I'd find some interesting specimens. Needless to say there weren't any...

So I continued over to the marine fish and feeder fish aisle, and found myself confronted with a horrible site. Of the roughly 150 feeder fish (rosy red minnows) in the FF tank, 90% were dead in a pile in the corner of the tank. So, I've seen 10-20% of a tank's inhabitants dead, but this was gruesome, gruesome, gruesome. I pointed this out to an employee (they just love it when you do that), and he said that such losses were to be expected!!! Actually, he hadn't even noticed... He took out a large fishnet and proceeded to fish the dead minnows out of the tank. He was completely unphased. And all I could think was that even feeder fish deserve a "fat" (not PHAT) existence before they're sent to their deaths--you know, kinda like Vestal Virgins in ancient Babylonian temples. The "eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" idea...

It really got my goat.

--Maudlin about Minnows

 

[grimlock3000]

that is terrible, i have seen something very similar in a guppy feeder tank. i find it terrible that places can get away with inhumane treatment of fish with almost no one to slap their hand.

 

[jsoong]

Find a better lfs! I have a Big Al's warehouse/distrubution center in town, and their feeder tanks looks BETTER than some specimen tanks I've seen in Petsmart or Ugh! Walmart!

Guess where I am getting my next fish...

 

[RogerMcAllen]

Sounds bad to say, but sometimes it may not be entirely their fault. The guy at my lfs sometimes gets "bad batches". These ones usually die faster, and he won't even sell them to me. One time I was there and he said he had a "bad batch". The next day the tank was almost completely empty.

 

[cdawson]

I've seen that before, only it was an oscar tank! there was a pile of about 50 3" oscars dead or dying. I'll never go back to that store again.

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

i saw the same thing with freshwater angels and the same stores saltwater fish all had ich

 

[Allivymar]

A while back I was in the lfs I USED to get all my stuff from (until they lost their fish guy). While I was talking to one of the help, another one came over and said the feeder goldfish were sick and asked what to do. The one I was talking to told her to kill em. When she asked how, she was told to put em in a bag and whack it on the floor a coupla times. That was the last time I was in that store. Not only was it obviously not worth it to save em, an entire school of fish in a bag being whacked on the floor is NOT my idea of humane euthanasia. Mostly because half the fish will not die instantly as they'll be somewhat cushioned by the others, and the way it was presented, I'll bet not all of em were dead before they threw out the bag...

 

[TankGirl]

she was told to put em in a bag and whack it on the floor a coupla times

Uuuuggghhhh........

 

[Cherry Barb]

You know, I hate it when I hear stuff like that. You would think these stores would care about all of these critters. They are alive for goodnes sakes!

For example, of a "how could you miss that" story, how do you guys like this....

I walked around the corner of a "big name" pet supply store. It took me all of 3 seconds in the fish tank display aisle to see that one of the two koi the store had was dead. And he had obviously been there for a little while. Now, this was a very large fish. I turned around and walked all of 3 steps to the sales clerk. I said, "I just wanted to let you know that one of your koi is dead in their tank." She replied, "Oh did he finally give it up? Okay, I'll take care of it." Then she proceeded to walk toward their break room. 8O I was stunned! I grabbed my daughter and walked straight out of that store, Infuriated!

Luckily, I did a whole lot of research before I chose my lfs. I found a wonderful store I visit at least once a week and even told them I'd be interested in a part time job. Thank God for REAL animal lovers!

 

[Something Fishy]

How do you find a good store though? (I assume 'lfs" means fish store but what does it stand for?")

I went to three stores today to buy plants. The first one, a major chain store, had plants that were rotting and thrown together in a a big lump in the plants "display tank". The second one, another major chain, had nice plants but the girl I asked for advice said "The employees here really don't know anything about the plants, but I'll take a look". I wanted to know how big each kind got so she looked at the display sign, which I could clearly read myself, and said "See, the plant's will grow between 3 and 24 inches". Now, there is quite a difference between a 3" plant and a 2 foot plant. Then when she called some other employee he told her they didn't get any bigger than they were, which is clearly not true at all. I didn't buy plants there either. Then third store was a little better, but it was really small and still didn't have really knowledgable employees.

How do you choose one store over another when they all seem equally inept.

 

[TankGirl]

How do you choose one store over another when they all seem equally inept.

In that situation you basically need to do your own research and know what you want before you go in there. Then you shop for quality specimens, rather than for knowledgeable employees. There are PetsMart stores here that have employees who know nothing, but they have gorgeous, well cared-for fish without dead or diseased ones in sight. They obviously have a system for taking care of fish that the employees follow but may or may not understand. It is hard. Keep looking, and sometimes you will find a little shop tucked away in a strip mall in a less-than-desirable part of town that has everything you are looking for. Worked for me!

 

[LonerVamp]

I don't want to sound like I'm defending bad practices or bad stores, but let me play devil's advocate for a second.

What someone said about bad batches is true, sometimes there are bad batches. This doesn't mean the store was horrible, or inhumane. It happens. Fish die to the best of aquarists. Fish stores just happen to deal with hundreds of fish whereas most home hobbyists deal with dozens tops.

Also, the girl who went to the break room, may have had their supplies back there for dealing with dead fish, or maybe she went to find the fish department workers, or tell a manager?

Either way, don't do stores and employees and companies a disservice and disown them as inhumane because of isolated incidents, or even employees who are not 100% knowledgable. If the fish store repeatedly has these conditions, then yes, such condemnation should be incurred.

But what do you do when inventory orders 3x as many fish as you intended, and you only have a finite number of tanks and capacity? Do you send some back? Do you cut your losses and destroy your valuable inventory? Chances are most anyone would load the tanks and hope they got bought quickly enough...drop prices, make deals, etc.

Sorry if this pisses anyone off, but I just don't want good places and people written off due to a knee-jerk reaction.

 

[Madame_X]

Keep looking, and sometimes you will find a little shop tucked away in a strip mall in a less-than-desirable part of town that has everything you are looking for.

That's so true, or in my case, in a RESIDENTIAL area in a less-than-desirable part of town.

The best freshwater fish store in Phoenix is in a little shop set up behind someone's house in a part of town that is pretty ghetto these days. When I first came across their name in the phone book and went to check it out, I was afraid to go in. I later happened across a great fish store that only carried saltwater fish and asked them for a referral for freshwater, and guess where they sent me?

I told the guy that I had driven by there but I was afraid to go in and he replied, "Go in. They've been there for about 40 years." So I did, and I was not disappointed. As far as unusual fish and good advice, I haven't found a better place yet and I think I've checked out 99% of the stores in town by now.