cruelty to fishes!?

[aberdeen aquarist]

yes we are lucky to have them but we have the other kind as well, its can be hit or miss when you are starting out. i always recommend the shop i mentioned before as i know i can trust his advice.
i know of 7 shops in aberdeen and he is the only one i trust, out of the others 3 are in it for the money, 2 are general pet shops and the other is newly opened so i'm not sure about him yet!

 

[Jo]

Yeah, same for me, there are many shops where I live and I was reccomended one and have never used any of the others just in case, you get a bigger selection at petsmart or some other national chain, but as I mentioned in another thread their fish are kept in a terrible condition and look very pale and un cared for...I look carefully in the tanks at my lfs before buying anything.

Last time I went in I noticed a female swordtail that looked not too happy and a little ill, i mentioned it to the assistant and was relieved to notice that she took the fish out of a tank and put it into a quarrantine tank, just in case...a sign of a good fish shop I think.

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

exactly my point, find a good lfs and stick with them. just imagine what you would do if they went out of business
i also try to support my local fish breeders because you know that they take good care of their fish and its not just business to them, i have found friends that way too. there are a few of us up here who have organised a fish & equipment auction later this month and hope to be able to get enough likeminded people together to form a fishkeeping club. there are even people coming from workington to sell stuff, thats at least a 4 hour drive!!!!

 

[Alien Anna]

I saw something funny in my LFS - a newbie was being instructed to buy a school of pearl danios for his new 3 ft tank and was looking really sceptical "They're not very interesting. Have you got anything a little more unusual?"

The assistant thought for a moment and then said "Well, we've got these fish out the back. They're rarer than the pearl danios and a little more expensive but they should be OK for cycling your tank, at a push. They're a very attractive blue and gold striped pattern." (Yes, you've guessed it) "They're called zebra fish."

At which she promptly sold him a school of zebra danios which he took from the shop thrilled that he'd started with "something a little more unusual". I couldn't stop grinning at the assistant, who was shooting me warning looks about breathing a word!

OK, I don't agree with cycling with fish, but at least the newbie was instructed in the correct method.

 

[Moe]

I was at petsmart the other day and there was a guy buying a 10G tank and 5 oscars. I said to the girl that was packing the fish for him that I didn't think that you could keep even one oscar in a 10G let alone 5. She said they weren't supossed to comment on peoples choices.

 

[joshua]

some of these employees either feign ignorance or can't even feign it, having total ignorance

 

[Jo]

At which she promptly sold him a school of zebra danios which he took from the shop thrilled that he'd started with "something a little more unusual". I couldn't stop grinning at the assistant, who was shooting me warning looks about breathing a word!

He he....I like her style!

weren't supossed to comment on peoples choices.

That seems like the wrong way to go about things surely, but also seems typical of a large store's attitude, surely they should be giving advice to people...! stipid people!

some of these employees either feign ignorance or can't even feign it, having total ignorance

Yep...suppose that most of them are kids with part time jobs tho, they seem to look upon purchasing a fish in the same way that they look upon purchasing a tv from curry's or somewhere..makes me mad really!

YOu have to go through a home inspection for a cat/dog or something from the rspca, so why not for fish too, the whole "it;s just a fish" attitude really wind me up sometimes...i have to admit that i was a bit guilty of it myself before I became a fisyholic, but now it just winds me up.....!

Shops like pets at home, petsmart, etc should be raising awareness of things like this surely..?!

.......

sorry...didn't mean to rant! )

 

[CFC]

Shops like pets at home and pets smart shouldnt be selling fish full stop and why walmart in america sells fish i do not know, lets just hope that now theyve taken over asdas we dont suddenly start seeing fish sold in supermarkets over here.

The best thing that anyone who is serious about the hobby can do is invest some cash in a set of very good fish books, this way they can research any fish they want to buy and learn about the hobby without having to worry about bad information from crafty lfs owners, although this dosent stop it completely. I recently asked about wet dry filters in one lfs as i am looking at ways to try and reduce nitrates in one of my tanks, the guy sked me why i was worried about nitrates because they are harmless and tried to sell me some plants which he assured me would soak up the nitrates in 24 hours . So i told him that the tank was already planted and that i already changed 10% of the water twice a week with RO so that wouldnt help either, do you know what the idiot told me? That doing too many waterchanges was the cause of the problem and that i should really only be changing the water once every two months!!!!!! How on earth does he think nitrates are taken out of a captive enviroment? What a muppet.

 

[mrV]

on sunday they had a thing on cool framed in-wall fish tanks, neat!

That is terrible! How could someone be so stupid!!!

This is a result, when being without using brain - or at least common sense.

If I don't remember wrong, here in Fin there were couple "in-wall tank" (likes paintings) in some hamburger restaurant. People complained about them and they removed those tanks.

 

[aquarius]

Are you talking about this type of aquarium? http/www.tenecor.com/livingpicture.php

although these do have filters and look pretty neat but I don't know know if they're good for the fish

 

[MAM]

i saw those same tenecore ones. they look cool and all, but how the heck do the fish turn around in them???!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and how on earth do you clean them? not real practical for humans or fish. and those coffeetables, while cool, how do you keep your fish stress free, clean teh tank or have a filter without cords everywhere? sheesh. if people want to go that route, they do make these great "fish tanks" with plastic fish that move due to electrical current or something like that (had one in the dorms in college since a real tank wasn't practical at the time). its at least more humane.

 

[KimmyFishy89]

It really does sicken me how people think of fish as toys. They are just as alive as any animal around, and they are so badly abused. Treated like orniments

And it also bothers me when people think that fish keeping is simply throwin a fish into a thing of water. When I tell them how much work goes into keeping up a tank, they never believe me. And I only have a ten gallon tank, alot of you people have 50+ tanks or several tanks

 

[BlackWolf0503]

All good reasons to support your Local Fish Store. Get to knowthe people their. They will know what's in your tank & what you can & can't put in. I had a water problem & asked if i could buy more fish (knowing the answer was no) & the LFS guy said "no, not with water like that, bring in another test next week & we'll see. Untill then NO FISH" I liked that answer. They know enough & care enough about the fish they sell to tell me not to buy them.

 

[cmbaile1]

And did you see the price of the frame tank?? $975!! For that amount of money you could get a nice tank set-up and have A LOT more fish! Isn't more better??? We'll at least we all think so anyway.

 

[Lithril]

I must admit although my lfs has never heard of fishless cycling and some of the advice they give about compatibility etc is a bit dubious they have a reasonable stock and I was impressed wth the fact that they won't sell fish to someone unless they're sure the tank is cycled properly and everything set up to give the fish a reasonable standard of living. Some of their prices on hardware it extortionate though...