Dp's In Petsmart

[Loko17]

Every time I've popped into the two local petsmarts in the past few months they've been CRAWLING with Dwarf Puffers. And every time I go in there it seems like a petite woman is buying "that cute widdle fishy" for their 3 year old child and holding a half gallon hex tank under their arm. Everytime I see the people net the Dwarves and put them in the bag and hand them off to the petite women I want to run over there and snatch it and then get all of the other ones out of the tank and take them home...but I've already got 2 DP's here in a 10 gallon and no more room for tanks and it would be really unreasonable to buy like 14 DP's every time I go into petsmart and then have to house them. But what really irks me is when the petsmart associate is asked "what should I feed this little guy?" they always reply "This food right here" and get out some flake food. I just know that fish will be dead within days and I feel so bad. Is anyone else's local petsmarts flooding with Dwarf Puffers like mine and have you ever seen these petite women with their young children and the tiny tanks?

Just thought I'd share my heartbreaking story and see if anyone else has experienced the same thing.

 

[bymauldin]

Unfortantly, I see that a lot at my local PetSmart too. Dwarf Puffers are extremely cute and hard to turn down, but don't you just wish that the sales person would inform these people before they just hand them over? I mean, did you NOT take the job working with fish because you just LOVE fish?? Then make sure they get the proper care and proper home. That's an LFS for you though.

BTW that's a beautiful fish on your avatar. What kind is it? Is it one of yours? Absolutely beautiful!

 

[Zafirah]

Wow, when i got my dp, they told me frozen food all the way

 

[demonmagus]

as someone has said buying them will just mean they get more in, the best thing to do is never shop there

 

[JackoUK]

To be fair to the LFS that I bought my pair from they pretty much told me all the stuff i'd already read up on. They told me they'd only eat live/frozen meaty foods and that the only fish to try with them would be Oto's. I'm afraid that is pretty rare though.

 

[Darkehorse]

At the PetSmart where I got my 'Leopard Gourami', it was in the same tank with the Dwarf Puffers and both were listed as 'requiring salt' which I assume they mean brackish. However, my understanding is that neither require a brackish tank . I can see where someone might say brackish is needed for the puffers, but for the life of me don't know why they would list the Leopard Gourami as brackish. I think that serious fish keepers such as ourselves should educate PetSmart at the corporate level . I think doing trying to educate them on a local level is not a very efficient method.

-Darke

 

[Loko17]

BTW that's a beautiful fish on your avatar. What kind is it? Is it one of yours? Absolutely beautiful!

Thanks...he's a Fundulopanchax Gardneri Lafia Killifish and he was my first male. Unfortunately he passed a few weeks ago when I had a strange disease outbreak in some of my killi tanks. Sadly I'm only left with a few killies because of complications with fry and everything so I probably wont have his offspring for much longer

 

[tophat665]

The really odd thing is that the reason Petsmart has them, and one of the resons that they have become so popular lately, is that Petsmart Corporate figured out how to breed them on a large scale (DPs, don't know about the Leopard Ctenos). So if they can get them into breeding condition, you'd think corporate would know a thing or two about the fish.

I notice they sell Pacus too, but at least they list them as getting 24"

 

[mlawson]

Just don't shop there.

 

[tophat665]

Flip side of it, the new Petsmart where I live has better betta housing than any other fish store in my orbit. The males are kept in a row of literal pint sized cubes that have slight gaps under the dividers and are part for the main filter system for the fish wall - too small still, but twice as big as the cups and much, much cleaner. The females are in a community tank.

Still and all, I'd get DPs from my LFS, OK?

 

[t1tanrush]

Correct the employees? Tell the lady buying it herself? I love how people are like " don't shop there ". When the problem is the uneducated employees, who have been taught wrong. Not shopping there wont make a difference.

 

[bymauldin]

Flip side of it, the new Petsmart where I live has better betta housing than any other fish store in my orbit. The males are kept in a row of literal pint sized cubes that have slight gaps under the dividers and are part for the main filter system for the fish wall - too small still, but twice as big as the cups and much, much cleaner. The females are in a community tank.

Still and all, I'd get DPs from my LFS, OK?

Wow ! That is nice! I hope that all Petsmart stores start doing that! My local Petsmart still has the little cups.

Correct the employees? Tell the lady buying it herself? I love how people are like " don't shop there ". When the problem is the uneducated employees, who have been taught wrong. Not shopping there wont make a difference.

You're exactly right. I think one major problem with the LFS is that they usually aren't willing to pay what a well educated/experienced person would be asking for. So, they probably settle for someone that would be willing to take around minimum wage, and just give basic training (How to safely package a fish, How to clean, How to feed, etc...etc...). The key is to educate yourself (RESEARCH) before going into an LFS.
I know that I've been in a LFS before and caught an employee giving bad advice and I've walked into the conversation and corrected it in front of the both of them. That never goes over well. Half of the time the customer is going to believe the employee-b/c after all, they are the one that works for the LFS. What else can you do?

 

[Rhiannon]

I'm in Oz, never seen a DP sold, but I see that happen with Betta's and it makes my blood boil.

And no I dont beleive that they took the job to sell fish because they love fish, alot of people out there take the job because they need a job.

At the end of the day they can go home and not have to worry because they have no knowledge about fish and dont know what they are talking about.

 

[Birdie]

nevermind.