Expanding To Full Aquaria / Marine

[SuperColey1]

I think they were right about the Mollies and Salt. As far as I know Mollies don't need salt but do prefer it, and they are less susceptible to illness in salty water.

I have mine in freshwater and have only had one illness which was quickly sorted out by the trusty melafix.

(I can't have salty water because of the plecs)

 

[sharkbaitwoohaha]

i only work on aquatics as our store is already divided. so im not gonna pretend to care about knowing about rodents. we are recieving oata training and apperently will be having a live in marine biologist with us for a while.
please dont judge me by the standard you judge your local PAHwith cos i do know what size common plecs grow to and consequently try not to sell them to anyone.i advise fishless cycling. and ASK before selling anything (such as fighters in comunity tanks cos i dont thnk its right)
would NEVER advise keeping a male and female together. wrt to rodents and some fishes
and if i dontknow i will say, excuse me while i get a member of staff who might know. (you wont believe me i know cos pets at home are the devil but im not bothered to b honest cs im telling the truth, maybe its just my store that runs properly??)
we have staff downstairs (rodents etc) who are petcare trust trained and have done college courses (admittedly not while at pets at home)
wont sell fish if the tank is not appropraite. consequently we get a lot of abuse from people who think they can keep goldfish in bowls, plecs in 10g, fighters with tiger barbs etc
besides. the 'correct' size cage isnt really something that is set in stone. its the biggest you can afford i would say. but then youll probably say thats wrong
im not bothered cos i know im right
i know what people think ofthem, and i thought it at first but now i work there and its nice to try and educate people from the inside rather than having a nice old moan about 'they always do this, they always do that' how do you know? you dont. im sorry i dont really know why im arguing for them cos its not like they will care but i dont like it when people presume you know squat when you work for pets at home. i wouldnt spend most of my spare time reading books, on here and doing ourses if i did.
i wontpretend that all the staff are great and all the stores are great cos i know that one near me is rubbish but my store isnt.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Of course, there are individual P@H staff who are very knowledgeable. There is a bloke in my local branch who really does know a lot about cichlids- always enjoyable to chat with him. And I'm sure he wouldn't give bad advice. (The truly awful even more local branch has been closed down). And I know Jenny is an asset to her shop ( ).

The problem is that marine aquaria require a lot of specialist knowledge and maintenance- if they are going to be able to run those successfully, they will need to train ALL their staff, or ensure that there is always a specialist on hand.

I do understand the problems for generalised pet shops- high staff turnover, more difficult to ensure that all staff know enough about everything- I just wonder if it is wise under the circumstances to take on the more difficult sides of the trade. If I had my way, generalised shops would only be allowed to sell smallish and reasonably hardy bread-and-butter fish; to sell tankbusters and specialist fish you would need a special license, which would involve satisfying set criteria on staff training and customer advice. Marines would count as specialist, not least because of the environmental issue: many are still taken from the wild, the still relatively few fish and inverts that are tankbred are much needed to cut down on the amount of wildcaught specimens, we can't afford to have them killed by ignorant staff or customers. For aquatics shops having the license could be a real asset, as fishlovers would choose to go there- or order from them.

 

[sharkbaitwoohaha]

i agree that they shouldnt be selling specialised fish, tank busters etc and i dont think marine is a good idea, and have made no secret of it with the managers. if and when marine and such are introduced, like jenny said the staff working with them will be new and a mix of old staff, new uniforms and their own tills... so more like a concession. these staff, i have been told, will all be recieving training.

this subject has just got off point cos people are ranting. and i find it hard not to defend myself. even though im beginning to doubt anyone on here can actually see my posts!

 

[K9bristow]

I have to agree P@H are pains they have no ideas about fish keeping ,tell you things that are so untrue its just stupid ,but to someone who is new to fish keeping needs good advice not what is on a stupid label on a tank !!! As for a comment i read on maidenhead aquatics the one thats in WIGTOFT is very good,there are some idiots but quiet a few of the staff are fantastic !! i find most fish places you go have a few good staff and some crap ,Downtown has about two lad that know what there talking about the rest are pants ,plus downtown sell fish that are labeled up wrong sometimes and if you say its labelled wrong because you know what it is they say well it came in as that .ITs stupid .

 

[STEVIE]

it annoys me when people have big rants about them saying the staff are crap because HELLO! i am staff

I wasn't if you mean me.
Okay,she dropped the fish on the floor which was an accident but there was no need to be so defensive and rude.Perhaps without meaning to,this person appeared quite threatning.I wouldn't want anyone to lose their job over something like this as jobs are hard enough to find.Everyone has a bad day but i won't be buying any more fish there.
Most of the tanks had dead or dying fish in them.They were cleaning out some goldfish tanks and refilling directly from the tap via a hose.Unless they get staff with some fish know how i can't see them keeping marines for long.

 

[SuperColey1]

As a reply to Sharbait and Jenny. I don't blame individuals in the shops for these problems. The problem is the bosees at these chain stores, who don't see pets as living objects, just a product to sell and train them the same way as someone in a supermarket would train people.

Most of the people I speak to in these shops admit that they're 'not sure' on some questions you ask them but there are still the 1 in 10 who is a blagger and just wants to seem knowledgable.

There are a couple of really good staff in the Lincoln South shop (never spoken to anyone in the north shop)

The problem is that although you 2 do a good job and is good to see caring and knowledgable people in tthese chainstores that for every person that does the right thing there are 3 more to ruin it (especially in the tank maintenance department)

Don't take offence it is so easy to say 'the staff @ p@h' rather than 'the person I spoke to' we do tend to generalise which is very unfair on people like yourselves.

The people that we should be ranting about are the fat cats who see no problem in hiring people at low wages and not providing info on their product to their staff. All it would take to improve it would be a small standard booklet for every live creature and product like a dictionary but properly researched, that each staff member could look up for the customer and it would give advice on that particular pet, medication, food etc. or if they hung it in each section then joe public who wants a plec for his Betta tank could look it up.

They already have 1 8 page laminated one for disease identification and advice on treatment.

Why not have a 100 page one in each relevant section to identify and advise on each pet (1 for each dept)
100 pages might even be a little excessive because there aren't 100 different types of fish in P@H in Lincoln. And please please please if the bosses read this. stop selling Stingrays to stay in your tank forever never being sold and being bored stiff in their 200Ltr display tank with Arrowanas and Silver Dollars and Shovelnoses polluting the water.