Disgusted With P@h

[Vidster]

I haven't been to my nearest P@H for some 10+ years so i decided to take a trip over today.

I started looking around and was amazed at all the cheap plastic bits and bobs (whatever sells i suppose). Then i got to the actual fish. Half of the tanks had dead fish in them. If i see dead fish i won't buy from the place anyway but there were some tanks with 2 or 3 dead fish in. Not just small fish either. Some were quite large Pleco's.

There were three young members of staff their. All having a laugh and a gossip about something instead of actually doing something

When a customer finally got the attention of one of them the conversation went like this:

"Hi. I would like some more fish for my 60L tank please"
"OK when was it set up?"
"3 days ago"
OK that's fine and what fish do you have in it at the moment?" (to this he reeled off about 20 fish but i only remembered a Cichlid being mentioned).

The girl was writing all this down and walked away in to the back. When she came out she says:

"Yes you are fine. I would recommend 2 Neons, 2 Barbs and 2 catfish"

I was sooo close to butting in and telling the guy what a huge mistake he was making

 

[elisew]

The majority of the members here probably feel the same about pets@home, I know I certainly do.

I won`t touch them with a barge pole!!

 

[myrtle]

I regularly go there to buy dog food as it's the only place that sells the only food one of my dogs can tolerate. However, I would never buy fish from there as there are always dead fish in the tanks. I accept that there will always be losses when there are so many fish, but to leave them in the tank is just bad husbandry. The only thing I ever do at the P@H aquarium section is play "count the dead fish".

 

[coldcazzie]

It's a shame because the pets at home near me, while not being the best store in the world, seems to be alright. Ok, they continue to perpetuate the myth that water + 3 days = cycled, but there's rarely dead fish, and if there is and you point them out they always go immediately and fish them out. Their quarantining is utterly inadequate I'll give you that (2 hours - it's laughable!) but I get around that by quarantining any fish I buy from there for a minimum of 4-6 weeks.

Edited to add: I also have to go there to buy cat litter, but more importantly I have a staff discount card (friend of my sister's works there) so if I do buy fish from there I get 20% off. I can't decide if it's worth it or not. Money is an issue...but it's that balance between not paying the earth for the fish, and them being well enough to survive the trip home...

 

[Carlovel1]

P@H make me sick!

 

[shelaghfishface]

pets at home is a pet shop, not a fish shop.. if you dont like what you`ve seen dont go back there simple.

 

[Carlovel1]

So why sell fish when you don't give them the care they need and you sell them to customers with tankd that are not suitable. And they give customers rubbish advise

 

[shelaghfishface]

So why sell fish when you don't give them the care they need and you sell them to customers with tankd that are not suitable. And they give customers rubbish advise

supply and demand

 

[elisew]

pets at home is a pet shop, not a fish shop.. if you dont like what you`ve seen dont go back there simple.

I appreciate that we all view things differently, that`s what makes the world go around but it`s not really that easy to ignore if you actually give a t@ss about fish though is it?

Fish=pet......pets@home=petshop? No?

We all know that a lot of people don`t view fish as a 'real pet' but if pets@home are selling fish then they should be responsible enough to make sure they`re looked after whilst in their tanks and in their care.

 

[Carlovel1]

pets at home is a pet shop, not a fish shop.. if you dont like what you`ve seen dont go back there simple.

I appreciate that we all view things differently, that`s what makes the world go around but it`s not really that easy to ignore if you actually give a t@ss about fish though is it?

Fish=pet......pets@home=petshop? No?

We all know that a lot of people don`t view fish as a 'real pet' but if pets@home are selling fish then they should be responsible enough to make sure they`re looked after whilst in their tanks and in their care.

 

[shelaghfishface]

if everyone that moans about the shop and the way they treat there fish were to stop buying fish from them.. they wouldnt have any customers to sell them to

 

[the_lock_man]

If they regularly had dead hamsters, gerbils, budgies or whatever in their cages, they'd be prosecuted, wouldn't they?

So why is it ok to have dead fish?

 

[fisher78]

There are always both sides of the argument though, I bought 2 angels from a P@H yesterday as my local place I sometimes shop at (who were highly recommended via a thread on here) had 2 tanks full of dead/badly fin nipped angels and another large multi chain aquatic place in the same area were charging twice the price for nearly every fish!!!

I only went in for a look as I'm not a fan of the chain either but was impressed at how clean and healthy the tanks/fish were. The girl that served me asked all the right questions and knew her stuff so no complaints from me.

Like everything, there will be some good places and some bad. You just have to search until you find the good ones.

 

[ian]

I agree with Fisher78 on this one, there are good stores and bad stores, if you don't like it, do go back. Simples. We have a very good P@H where i live where i have heard some really good advice, with some good members of staff. Its a pet shop, not a LFS. The thing is it's the place that has the most stores in the UK which sells fish, so the majority of non serious fish keepers will go there, so there more ingnorant fish keepers than P@H stores believe me.

 

[chishnfips]

I have to say the one in INverness has gotten better over the years but still wouldn't go there. they quarantine their fish and have seen certain members of staff turn away people for buying fish. In saying that it depends on what member of staff is on duty. One of the lassies there keeps her own fish so knows the crack. I have even seen them doing water tests with liquid test kits.

I suppose its down to each individual store.... but agaian the chain should be making sure that high standards run throughout there shops, there is no excuse. maybe you could write to the branch manager?