I steer clear of those sites because its not worth bashing your head against the wall.
Doing something for a long period of time doesn't mean anything in terms of knowledge. And doing things the same way as was done in the past is also a pretty poor way of perpetuating myths.
For example:
Medicine (Rob should enjoy this one): Years ago doctors would 'bleed' patients to remove bad 'humors'. It was common place, and many times the patients recovered DESPITE the treatment, not because of it. The treatment itself, doubtlessly led to many deaths as the patient wasn't able to cope with both the illness AND the blood loss.
Home canning (Yeah, obscure, but its in my knowledge field): In the 'old days', people used Boiling water baths to can low acid foods. But the temperature of the boiling water can't actually kill the botulism bacteria that can survive in low acid, anaerobic conditions inside these containers. As a result, food poisoning deaths were very high. And the claims, but my grandmother did it this way, and I've never gotten sick is used as proof of its safety. The graveyards full of food poisoning victims, of course, would be the proof of the risk. (Canning in pressure is the only safe way to raise the temp to kill the bacteria.)
Science has progressed in fishkeeping too. Its a shame some folks don't realize that.
I must say there is a LFS near my location (won't name and shame as I could be v wrong - especially as I'm new to keeping) that house their fish in the smallest of tanks. Now I know there's an arguement that "it's because they're only there a few days at most" but this really is something else. Goldfish too, hundreds in brown , merky water. You can only see them when they squish their heads against glass. Koi outside with fungal scale problems and not seperated from others (bent spines too).
As well, fresh and marine water fish show little movement in some tanks, with some stuck to filters or laying sideways!
The shop is pretty run down but reasonably popular, but compare it to the other LFS which I use where all is clean and well looked after, no quarantined tanks, happy lively fish. Its like fishy heaven v Fishy Hell
Worth making a comment to any powers that be?
Its always worth mentioning. Also, its worth mentioning to the owner as well. You might want to point out that their tanks are in such a condition that you will be using their competitors instead, because their competitors keep their tanks/fish in better condition.
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