Pets At Home

[MarkByrom]

Ahh i see, i got my tank from a specilist with all my aqua cycle ect ect to put in, Also some filters off my bro that had matured over 3 months

 

[pastabake]

They carry way more general stock than my lfs, filters, tests, tanks etc., so I have no problem with buying that kind of stuff from them if the price is right. I also have no problems with buying plants from them especially as they stock tropica and sell for considerably less than some online stores I could mention.

I will never buy fish from them again and I advise no one else to either.

 

[beany_bot]

just to add, i had a argument with one of the staff there... it went something like this....


Me: you just sold that tank to that guy and told him to fill his tank with water, leave it standing for a week and then if water tests show up ok, then we can sell you fish.. what did you give him to cycle the tank..

p@h worker: What do you mean?

Me: well is tank aint going to cycle on its own is it.

p@h worker: it will cycle in a week of been stood.

Me: how do you work that out?

p@h worker: well, the filter will mature after a week or two..

me: oh so its a week or two now, you told him 1 week... and the filter aint going to mature at all as the cycle cant start..

p@h worker: of course the cycle will start, thats why you leave it standing so it matures the filter

me: omg you have a the inteligence of a 5 year old

p@h worker: i beg your pardon?

me: The cycle aint going to start without ammonia, you have to add the ammonia to the tank whilst cycling it.. i dont know the 100% way of doing it off by heart, but i have it logged on my pc..

p@h worker: well i have not heard that before, can you explain how the cycle works..

me: well to the best of my knowledge, ammonia turns to nitrite, nitrite to nitrate, this is the nitrogen cycle.. the bacteria build up in the filter whilst this process goes on in your tank whilst cycling

p@h worker: ohh, well do you have to keep adding ammonia when you add fish to the tank

me: no

p@h worker: well then you have just contradicted yourself

me: and how does your 5 year old brain work that out? (with a smile on my face)

p@h worker: well you said you need ammonia to start the cycle, but when you add fish you stop adding ammonia, that dont make sense

me: omg how the hell did you get this job?

p@h worker: why you say that

me: what do fish do in a tank?

p@h worker: what do you mean

me: well they eat dont they, and then they poo..

p@h worker: and your point is what exactly

me: well fish waste has ammonia in it, all the wasted food in the tank ends up rotting and producing ammonia, this is how the cycle continues, all you do is basically start the cycle so its able to break down the ammonia etc so that your fish will eventually produce once you add them.. then they continue it themselves but are under no threat of high levels has you have already cycled the tank..

p@h worker: oh yeah i see what you mean, well i never knw that, we didnt get learnt any of this..

me: have you got a home pc?

p@h worker: yes

me: why dont you just do some research when you have time? join fishforums.net its a good forum with very helpful people.

p@h worker: i will, im curious to learn more about this..

me: im sorry if i sounded nasty towards you but it really winds me up.

p@h worker: its no problem, you have opened my eyes to a few things..

me: ok well i better get off, il send the cheque in the post lol

p@h worker: laughed***



lol, i know my info might not have been 100% accurate but i did my best lol..

Goes to show what goes on though dosent it..

Thats some pretty nasty stuff you said mate - the guys just doing his job not everyone can be an expert. he is told what to do. no need to insult him (repeatedly).

 

[scooterist007]

I had up until recently been buying fish from PAH, Lowestoft.

Two orandas had been living quite happily in my tank along with an apple snail (all from that store)

After about 2 months I decided to get a perscale. However after about 6 days it had died, no sign of any disease or problems.

Approximately 1 week later, both organdas have white spot This was treated and they did seem to get over it. However after about 4 days they unexpectedly died within 12 hours of each other.

I believe the perscale (puffy goldie) brought the disease in and killed off the rest of the aquarium (apart from brian the snail!)

I am going to see the Manager on Saturday to seek re-imbursement for the perscale and to notify him that this is not the first time I have had fish from there and had a problem with them.

I had previously commented to a member of staff that they had a floater in their tank and the assitant told me it was ok, just a bit of swimbladder. On the otherhand, I did pop in to PAH in Newmarket and spoke to their fish expert who was very helpful and helped me solve a problem I had at the time.

It is annoying that you trust a fish to come in to your tnk and it ends up killing off the others!

 

[Jazzzz]

My biggest problem with chain stores is the what happens to ill fish well i belive they are killed. If they send them back to the supplier what is the supplier going to do with a bunch of ill fish but kill them. Also you are right about the staff nowing nowt about how many fish you can place in a tank. The one near me seems to base its desion on what size the fish are now ignoring the fact that they grow.

Also they keep lots of little loach things in with the fancy goldfish wich chase and harras them nipping their fins. Also the tanks are massivly over corwded.

You can gess the chain store but i dont want to be done for slander.

 

[rabbut]

My biggest problem with chain stores is the what happens to ill fish well i belive they are killed. If they send them back to the supplier what is the supplier going to do with a bunch of ill fish but kill them.

I'll offer a bit of insider information as to how most reputable retailers will work when they find ill fish. As with at home, if staff judge the fish to be too far gone to be saved, yes it is euthanised. If fish are ill, the course of action will depend on the type of disease the shop is dealing with in that tank. On a Centralised system, a contagious disease will require that tank to be isolated, to preent the spread of disease. A cycled filter would be removed from a sump on the system, to run the tank in isolation. UV sterilisers should be ran on such systems, to prevent disease spread anyway, but the isolation is just a further precaution, and will cut down on the cost of medicating the issue.
Contagious diseases will then be treated. Non-contagious disease will then depend on the disease type. Easily treated ailments are treated in a seporate tank, to allow the others to remain on sale, where as hard to treat ailments that are non-contagious will lead to euthanisation, as the chances of the fish pulling through are slim in the high-stress environment that is a pet shop.

Obviously this relys on the retailer being ethical, and on its staff knowing what they are looking at. Few LFS's have both...

Re: dead fish in tanks. Large stores IMO can be excused the odd body, as if they have over 100 tanks they will easily have in excess of 1000 fish. Assuming a 4% loss rate, thats 40 a week lost. Not a lot when you look at the figures, and consider the stressful conditions they are under. So few bodies amongst so many fish are easily missed, particularly on busy days. Bodies are less excusable in a home environment or in smaller stroes IMO, as there are less fish to monitor and genaraly more time to monitor them.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[dem0nz]

pets at home in stafford is good
the managers and staff are always helpfull and friendly
i have seen a few dead fish thier before but hey...fish die in any aquarium

i havnt ever brought any fish from them because i prefere to go to specialists where i get a bigger choice but i always get my supplys and plants from them

 

[nicnak]

Funny enough i was in my local pets@home store today,it has a large aquarium centre on the top floor....
Anyway, i was looking at some fish and overheard a convo going on between a customer and employee.
Not sure of the whole convo but the gist of it was that the customers fish were dying and the employee was trying to explain about ammonia and nitrite but of the course the customer wasnt listening... kept asking,so how long should i leave it?

Some ppl wont be told

 

[Fineas]

I wouldn't buy anything out of P@H tanks. One of my local P@H had a notice stating that they had a two hour quarantine policy and couldn't sell any of their lastest delivery until something like an hour later. Taking a quick browse around the tanks I was shocked at the mortality rate and the condition of most of the stock that had just arrived. Is this a P@H standard policy? If it is no wonder they end up selling diseased stock. My regular LFS has a three day minimum quarantine and even though it is part of a garden centre the aquatics staff are dedicated, knowledgeable and honest, plus they all have their own tanks at home and have been through what their customers are likely to face.

P@H, handy for hardware if between a rock and a hard place. For anything with fur, feather or fin, best avoided IMHO.

Ken

 

[Matt_northants]

True there are stores that are shockingly ran and also there are exceptional ones; same can be said for any independant or mid sized chain - dobbies, maidenhead etc.

I've been into 4 P@H as I was being dragged around on a shopping trip and all were absolutely disgracefull. A lot of the info cards were wrong and almost all of the tropical tanks contained dead and/or diseased/injured fish. In one all of the plants in the plant table were covered in algea and in another they were infested with snails.
On the otherhand the Maidenhead stores I have visited, 5, are on the whole much better, its normally just a few guppies that are dead and I cant remember seeing a diseased or injured fish still on sale. The one at Harlestone Heath is really good, the marine expert is top-notch, and if one of the experts, ie RV Cichlids, is not in then they phone him up! Cant see P@H doing that.

 

[martyn21uk]

Can't fault the Crayford branch.

I went into Crayford branch last week for the first time as I was there with my boy and he likes to look at the fish. I loved the layout of having the whole mezzanine floor to the fish and I was impressed by the cleanliness and quality of the fish. Much better than the Charlton branch that I'd been to previously which although not horrific, was not somewhere where I would ever buy fish from.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Taking a quick browse around the tanks I was shocked at the mortality rate and the condition of most of the stock that had just arrived. Is this a P@H standard policy? If it is no wonder they end up selling diseased stock.

In a shop like P@H, there just isn't space to QT new fish, and since it's open plan you can't exactly keep new fish arrivals out of the public eye either. There are going to be quite a few mortalities in a new delivery, considering the journey and the vast quantites of fish involved. It's not nessecarily their fault, more a case of fatal design flaw.

 

[Nick Bramley]

I find my PAH store in Daybrook, Nottingham to be very good, staff are pretty knowledgable and tanks are very clean

 

[Zawiha]

No offence to dedicated p@h workers.
The amont of people who come into the LFS i work at,
who have been given dodgy advice from pets at home.
It almost outnumbers the amount of diseases contracted.

Not generalising all P@H, but the ones in my area retain as much information
as sieve retains water. Ive actually had to report them to the RSPCA for keeping
a 12'' oscar in a 1.5ft tank explaining to me that he fish was 'cosey' when o question
the about it

 

[Paul_MTS]

just to add, i had a argument with one of the staff there... it went something like this....


Me: you just sold that tank to that guy and told him to fill his tank with water, leave it standing for a week and then if water tests show up ok, then we can sell you fish.. what did you give him to cycle the tank..

p@h worker: What do you mean?

Me: well is tank aint going to cycle on its own is it.

p@h worker: it will cycle in a week of been stood.

Me: how do you work that out?

p@h worker: well, the filter will mature after a week or two..

me: oh so its a week or two now, you told him 1 week... and the filter aint going to mature at all as the cycle cant start..

p@h worker: of course the cycle will start, thats why you leave it standing so it matures the filter

me: omg you have a the inteligence of a 5 year old

p@h worker: i beg your pardon?

me: The cycle aint going to start without ammonia, you have to add the ammonia to the tank whilst cycling it.. i dont know the 100% way of doing it off by heart, but i have it logged on my pc..

p@h worker: well i have not heard that before, can you explain how the cycle works..

me: well to the best of my knowledge, ammonia turns to nitrite, nitrite to nitrate, this is the nitrogen cycle.. the bacteria build up in the filter whilst this process goes on in your tank whilst cycling

p@h worker: ohh, well do you have to keep adding ammonia when you add fish to the tank

me: no

p@h worker: well then you have just contradicted yourself

me: and how does your 5 year old brain work that out? (with a smile on my face)

p@h worker: well you said you need ammonia to start the cycle, but when you add fish you stop adding ammonia, that dont make sense

me: omg how the hell did you get this job?

p@h worker: why you say that

me: what do fish do in a tank?

p@h worker: what do you mean

me: well they eat dont they, and then they poo..

p@h worker: and your point is what exactly

me: well fish waste has ammonia in it, all the wasted food in the tank ends up rotting and producing ammonia, this is how the cycle continues, all you do is basically start the cycle so its able to break down the ammonia etc so that your fish will eventually produce once you add them.. then they continue it themselves but are under no threat of high levels has you have already cycled the tank..

p@h worker: oh yeah i see what you mean, well i never knw that, we didnt get learnt any of this..

me: have you got a home pc?

p@h worker: yes

me: why dont you just do some research when you have time? join fishforums.net its a good forum with very helpful people.

p@h worker: i will, im curious to learn more about this..

me: im sorry if i sounded nasty towards you but it really winds me up.

p@h worker: its no problem, you have opened my eyes to a few things..

me: ok well i better get off, il send the cheque in the post lol

p@h worker: laughed***



lol, i know my info might not have been 100% accurate but i did my best lol..

Goes to show what goes on though dosent it..

Thats some pretty nasty stuff you said mate - the guys just doing his job not everyone can be an expert. he is told what to do. no need to insult him (repeatedly).

I wouldn't worry too much. Sounds made up. Any store I've worked at would of told him to get out the shop at the first insult.

And to need to consult the 'log' on your PC on how to cycle a tank, is pretty pathetic in it's self. Cycling is basic knowledge, if you can't remember how to cycle a tank you have no right to lecture members of staff.


I have recently take over the fish house of a shop with bad local reputation and I can see why the reputation was there. The old fish house manager didn't have a clue and the equipment wasn't forgiving on mistakes.

From the state it was in white spot everywhere, dieing fish left right and center it took me near 2 months to get it back into shape.

My local P@H don't seem too bad fish wise, they barely have 50 tanks now though as a veterinary section was installed. I've never hung around long enough to hear fish advice.


It's not always down to the store though, it's down to some individuals. At work there's a member of staff from P@H and he just gives terrible advice. exodons with community fish, recommending common goldfish over fancys for tanks.