Newbie! With A Question...

[crazychris]

I went in Pets At Home today and pointed out all the dead fish and the lass said "yeah but they're all half-price"

are you kidding me?!?!?! wow i would of asked to speak to a manager!

No I'm not kidding you. She said that, maybe as a joke but it's not really funny is it?

 

[Duck and Dive]

The worst I saw was a fluval roma tank filled up so high that the light unit wasin the water and the 5 black moors had whitespot and were dead at the surface!

 

[Harlequins]

^^Only issue is that 1 week QT draws you into a false sense of security. Anyone that understands the life cycle of most common diseases would know that 4 weeks is the minimum time required for most diseases to show themselves. This means for QT to be effective, you need to maintain it for a minimum of 4 weeks, with 6-8weeks being better 1 week may catch about1 in 10 issues, but it is about as effective in real terms as not bothering at all. To people that don't know what they are doing, it looks good, to those that do it looks just like the marketing gimmick it is

Maidenhead do have a good reputation, but there are bad Apples in every load

All the best
Rabbut

I may have to take my words back about maidenhead,i think i may have a dodgy batch of corys ,when i originally bought 3 last wednesday,one died overnight,took it back they tested my water all ok,so they replaced that one and i bought further 3.
Anyway they all seemed fine upto 3 days ago when another small young cory died!,no marks or redness on it,noticed it was at the bottom,thought it was resting,next morning he had died.
Now today another one of the young small ones is showing the same behaviour,i tried to catch it but it's lively enough to swim away,anyway i didn't want to stress it so i've left it in there for now! I don't hold much hope for it has its again still on the bottom,just seems strange it seemed fine when i fed them all this morning!i have another small one also plus 3 larger ones which are all very active!
Will just have to keep an eye on them.
So i now realise what you say about quarentining fish for a week doesnt show illness until later

 

[rabbut]

The Pets At home near me (Chesterfield) run all their tanks on a central filter so as soon as one tank gets a problem all their tanks get a problem, also they don't quarantine or treat the water when they get new fish.
My experience of them=Bad.

Potentially a bad assumption made here. Just because a store runs a Centralised System, it does not mean that Disease in one tank makes them all infected. Anyone running a centralised system that knows what they are doing would run a UV steriliser on their system. ( Rabbut on the side of UV!? the regular posters in the hardware section cry... I'll go into why soon...) If any shop is running a Centralised System, you want to ask what they do for disease prevention. You should hear the words UV mentioned if they are a good dealership. You then want to ask what Wattage of UV they run for how may Gallons, and the flow-rate through their UV, Oh, and when they last changes the tubes. You want a reasonable sounding turn-over through the UV for the gallonage of the system, suffice to say all the filtered water passes the sterilisers before getting into a tank (so about 5-10X an hour). You want about 15W per 100g The tubes need to be replaced AT LEAST every 6 months for the unit to remain effective.

UV will essentially kill anything disease wise passing the lamps (bar Viruses, but if you get a viral fish disease in your fish room the stock is lost with or without UV anyway) so infections remain localised in one system. The fish are still exposed to diease, in back-ground levels, but the levels remain background, unless there is a disease in the specific tank they are in. On top of stopping disease spread, the UV reduces the risk of Disease outbreak in the first place with the hight levels of stress the fish are under

So, should we all go running out to buy a UV steriliser for our tanks? NO. Would i recommend using one at home DEFINITELY NOT! At home, your fish should not be stressed, and since stress is the main cause of Disease, your fish should not get ill. If you find your fish are constantly getting ill, there is an issue with your husbandry, unless your home tank also happens to be a shop tank or wholesaler tank with high stock turn-over... On top of that, UV will mask poor husbandry, leading to further, harder to solve, underlying health issues in your fish. Also, when the UV develops an issue, you will likely find that all the fishes disease resistance and natural immunity has gone, leading to immediate outbreaks. So, UV in a shop, QT or wholesale tank; good UV in a home display tank; bad

All the best
Rabbut

 

[James_loveless]

I just thought I'd stick in a quick comment.

Today I decided to check out my local P@H and was shocked. While waiting 20mins for someone to assist me with my questions or even just to see if i needed help I spotted about 20 dead fish and in one tank there was dead fish and what looked like mouldy poo........

Definitely never going there again!!

All my other lfs, two of which are MA are fantastic, great CS, advice and a fantastic selection!

lfs
P@H

 

[ManMakeFire]

I quite regularly pop in my local P@H in Banbury to buy supplies, though as yet I have bought no fish from there. However, the tanks do all look clean and tidy and I have only ever spotted one dead fish in my many visits and that was scooped out the moment I pointed it out. In fact they seem to have a quite knowledgeable person in charge of the section from speaking to her on a couple of occasions.

 

[coldcazzie]

Surprisingly enough, I'd happily tell customers at work if they asked... I suppose it is part of experience and trust. All the LFS's round here that I rate will do the same, stating if they have had issues with the fish they have if asked...

maybe I should come buy fish from you!

A friend of my sisters works in Pets at Home in Bradford and when my sis was in last another friend of hers found what he thought was a dead betta (it wasn't, it was just resting) and went to report it and was told by my sisters friend "no, it's fine, but at least half of our fish are dead or dying".

I wish my sis hadn't told me that

Thing is other places near me have also given me bad advice in the past - the only place I've not had issues with was Tong Garden Centre but I've only ever bought supplies from there, never fish, so I don't really have anything to go on.

 

[aly_starh]

I think i might stick with my LFS, but the thing is, the owner is kind of ignorant. He never asks questions on my tank, like is it cycled or simple things like how to acclimitize the newly purchased fish etc.

 

[razer121]

I quite regularly pop in my local P@H in Banbury to buy supplies, though as yet I have bought no fish from there. However, the tanks do all look clean and tidy and I have only ever spotted one dead fish in my many visits and that was scooped out the moment I pointed it out. In fact they seem to have a quite knowledgeable person in charge of the section from speaking to her on a couple of occasions.

really?? my local just happens to be in banbury......and ive lost count of how many dead fish ive seen! although recently i must admit ive noticed this particular female you are talking about who seems to know what she is on about. idk if you have spoken to the chap with long ginger hair?? very arrogant.....

 

[aly_starh]

Going to get new fish tommorrow! Will stick with LFS!

 

[Jibber_Angel]

I don't know if I'm the only person who thinks this! But there fish are rather over priced compared to alot of other fish shops area the area that i live in. Also the price that they charge on there products is A TAD .

When i first did my freshwater set up i used are local pets at home as i didnt know any better and most of them had something wrong, or died within a week. So now i personally stay away and use places that has alot of recommendation. But again everyone has there own option you should go with what you thinks right, and learn from mistakes. With regards to dead fish, i wouldn't touch a tank that had a dead fish in there as you don't know what else it might have passed on.


Jemma-Claire

 

[indigoj]

I challenge anyone to find a shop that has NO dead fish....

 

[Jibber_Angel]

I challenge anyone to find a shop that has NO dead fish....

I agree with that comment, but i would also want to know why there was a dead fish in that tank?!? It could simply be that it has died to stress during the move to the fish shop or that there is somethink else going on in that tank water.

I dont mind if the shop has dead fish but i would have a better piece of mind if the shop were to quarantine the tank and deal with the problem. But some places just leave the fish (quite a few sometimes) floating in the water and just carry on selling fish out of the tank.

Jemma-claire