Chain Stores

[afireinside]

well i thought i create this topic to chat and allow some people to vent. i personaly dont like chain stores. ive yet to know one that knows anything(given the exception of one person). one story i have is this: i was at petsmart one day to buy fish. they asked how big the tanks was and what i had in it. i fibed a little and told them a 20 gal long with 4 guppies. they said the tank was WAY overstocked and they cant sell me anymore fish.

Ya, they do that to me too, so I lie.

"Hi, I would like to purchase that Albino Oscar there."
"Sure, but how big is your tank?"
"Oh, 300 gallons."
"Ok then."

Can you spell gullible?

 

[XxTbaggerxX]

Walmart's pretty bad, I just buy stuff there for supplies. But sometimes, the "shoppers" were just as bad too. I was there last weekend, a group of girls (12-14 years?) were hanging by the bettas. They were picking the dixie cups up, tapping them, shaking the cup etc, while saying "Eeeewww! Look at this one! Uglyyyy!!!". Poor fish.

Yea they are pretty bad, Once i saw a tank with 3 huge goldfishes (about palm of your hand) in a tank with some corys. And you can tell that they airnt feeding them cause whenever theres a dead fish in the tank there are fish just devouring it.

 

[TammyLiz]

I went to Petco today and their fish looked pretty good. I didn't see anything sick, and only one dead fish. It was the first time I had been there. Its fairly new and just opened up over the summer.

I also went to a small store today and they specialized in dogs but had a very small fish section. Their tanks were stuffed with fish. They had one tank that was maybe 10 gallons and had 8 or 10 3" blue gouramis, a german blue ram, and 4 or 5 red tail sharks. They could barely move without having to bump somebody out of the way. Some of the fish (in another tank) had ich pretty badly and there was no medication in it. Their prices were terrible. The ram was $13 although it is the only ram I have seen in any pet shop around here. I asked about them at petsmart and the guy looked at me like I was asking if they ever stocked aliens from mars.

 

[wwestar2000]

To TammyLiz's post
Theres a petstore in a mall near me callled "The pet factory" and it specializes ing puppies but sells fish. Theres ablout 15 10 gallon tanks way in the back. 2 bettas in each excluding the variations of other fish with them. One with fancy guppys one with goldfish I think i even saw a betta with a crwfish. So yeah and you know whats supper funny everytime i go there they have a really wierd fish i've never seen before. Once there was this like 9 inch long thick pike kinda fish in a ten gallon. He was just lying there on the bottom with a 60 dollar price tag on the tank. idk what they were thinking. And the worst part of how that happens is that the employes are these ditsy blonds you knoe the "Oh my god" one's (all the girls that are like that OD on the phrase) and there like the type to see a fish like that and like be completly scared to put it in a tank and take care of them properly. I can see how they were when they were putting the fish in the tank.
-Omg this fish is like not hot!
--Yeah im totally not gonna touch it.
-Maybe it like' doesn't need this bubble thing. It has a long nose it can reach out to breath.
--Omg that fish is like totally 60 dollars. I could like totally get me these really sexy hollister jeans for that......(as they walk away and leave the fish in the bag on the floor)
I know i clearly have no life.

 

[fish_keeper2]

i was just petco cuz i got off work early and didnt have a ride home. its so cold out side and i didnt want to walk home so i went over to petco and browsed around for an hr while i waited for my mom to get off work. while there this guy comes up asking what fish he can get and the lady there asked him what fish he had and tank size. he said he had 30 gal with a bala shark and 2 tiger barbs. she then ends up selling him 3 CAE and several apple snails. she didnt even bother to tel him(if she even knew) that he needed more tiger barbs and the shark gets too big for that tank.

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

there is a petco where i live and i think

there alright, but i have seen really stupid stuff

like them mixing barbs with angels

and they are really overpriced

$15 for a nickel size angel and $20 for some small eel

Thats not true, but yes their prices are somewhat higher than others. The reason Petsmarts prices are low is because they do not get their fish from an independant supplier, like most other lfs and chain stores, petsmart owns their own breeding operation. Walfart has low prices for fish because when you fire union sympathizers, pay abysmal wages, and you buy bulk from countries with no environmental or labor laws, then you can price the fish as low as you want.

Most of these places have management by the way, and those people get paid to fix customer complaints, so if you want things to get better for the fish, and the employees to be more knowledgeable, talk to someone above the store manager.

 

[onemisterchristian]

on the upside...aquatics warehouse is a chainstore and so is big al's and they are both pretty dang good!

 

[mark.w.jones]

I don't understand how all these chain stores get away with the cruel way they treat their fish. In the UK if you are cruel to your dog / cat etc. you can be reported to the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), they can prosecute, fine and even imprison you if it's serious enough. How is cruelty to fish you are stocking or giving out incompetant advice to customers that will lead to them dying any different to that?

ps Don't want a huge debate about the relative worth / value of different animals. e.g. does an ant have the same rights as an elephant etc.

But all animal cruelty disgusts me and not knowing what you are doing is not an excuse in my opinion. Someone should be held responsible at those US chainstores for what they are doing.

 

[jkrekord]

I don't understand how all these chain stores get away with the cruel way they treat their fish. In the UK if you are cruel to your dog / cat etc. you can be reported to the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), they can prosecute, fine and even imprison you if it's serious enough. How is cruelty to fish you are stocking or giving out incompetant advice to customers that will lead to them dying any different to that?

ps Don't want a huge debate about the relative worth / value of different animals. e.g. does an ant have the same rights as an elephant etc.

But all animal cruelty disgusts me and not knowing what you are doing is not an excuse in my opinion. Someone should be held responsible at those US chainstores for what they are doing.

i completley agree but im from uk an i have seen some horrible things

 

[OohFeeshy]

The RSPCA don't care about fish unless it benefits them in some way. There have already been threads about the horredous stocking guidelines in one of their petcare books, and also emails from them that back up the afoementione 'no gain no care' view.

 

[Iann]

I've never bought anything from a pet chain store (i'm new to fish keepin and have so far stuck to the same shop), but we have one by me it's called "pets at home". I went in a few weeks back, they had signs on all of the tanks that said "fish not for sale due to filter problems" I looked around the shop and noticed the staff where thin on the ground, poor fish.

 

[jkrekord]

i started one of those threads on their books HORRIFIC advice apparentley bettas and tiger barbs are ok together

 

[dwarfgourami]

i started one of those threads on their books HORRIFIC advice apparentley bettas and tiger barbs are ok together

I wrote to the RSPCA re that book and got a letter back from some pretty high up veterinary advisor saying there is no evidence that tropical fish suffer from having their growth stunted by being kept in too small tanks. In other words, I have no training in fish and I don't give a toss!

 

[DebraAustin]

I think it is important to judge each store on its own. We have only one true fish store here and the worker was so uninterested they never even asked me if I needed help. When I wanted to ask some questions, they seemed knowledgable, but like I was taking up their precious time.

Other than that we have PetCo and PetsSmart to choose from. I've been to all of them in the area and find that PetCo really tries to take good care of their fish. I rarely if ever see a dead one in any of the tanks and whenever they have a problem they won't sell them (the fish under observation thing. One time lasting 3 weeks for a bank of tanks that had a problem). I went to one PetsSmart and they had floaters everywhere. However, I found another one and its tanks were clean, no dead fish and they even had some plants in with them. The person working there had tanks, knew what fishless cycling was and helped me with a couple questions. I think you really need to shop around. Just because all they sell is fish doesn't mean all their help is qualified and just because they sell other things doesn't mean they don't know or care about their fish.

I actually had the guy at PetCo recommend I hold off on introducing any new fish because I thought my water stats were a bit funky. He recommended I check on a forum to see if anyone could help. I eventually found out my water was just doing what it is going to do and that is why we clean and change water regularly, duh. Anyway, don't judge a book by its cover and don't judge a store by its name.

By the way my two dwarf platys are doing great and seem happy as clams (LOL). I got them at the PetsSmart that had the knowledgeable person.

Debra

 

[Weaver]

Last week in Jolleys in Omagh I saw a tank full of dyed parrot fish.Ive seen dyed fish before but these had 3 bands of colour injected in each side and had their lips dyed bright red.Looked like hookers.Absolutely disgusting
I will never ever set foot in that place again.