Pets At Home

[doresy]

Hi, I would agree with some previous posters in this thread in that I would never attempt to keep D/Gouramis after trying a number of times.

I feel that deaths are due to the nature of the species rather than where they were purchased.

I would like to say that my local PAH in (Eastleigh, Hampshire) have always provided me with a very curtious and, on the most part, a well informed service. Sure, there was a dead or dying fish or two but I would suggest that this is 'par for the course' in most fish shops if we were to be honest.

Admittedly I have never asked for advice in this shop nor likely too but information offered to me and overheard conversations all seemed correct.

 

[Jazzzz]

all fish I have had have survived fine

 

[pastabake]

Never had one survive more than a couple of days.

There is a branch of Maidenhead aquatics in St Albans ... That's near'ish to Hemel ... It's big and has a nice stock, I bought a few fish from there and they've all survived.

 

[tenohfive]

I go into St Albans MA as often as I can, I love that place (especially the silver arowena as you walk in through the doors-huge thing!) but MA don't sell dwarves individually, either in St Albans or Chipperfield (my normal LFS) and I want 1 male 2 females.

I didn't know Hertfordshire Fisheries sold tropicals, I'll have to pop by-maybe tomorrow. Toying with the idea of picking up some Ram's from MA St Albans tomorrow, so will check them out along the way.

As for dwarves in general, I know the risks and I know they're a sickly fish but frankly they're beautiful. If I have losses because of their inherent weaknesses then I can deal with that-better they try and survive in my tank (with the collect knowledge of these forums at my fingertips) than at the fingertips of a 6 year old whose parents don't know any better.



And I checked out P@H - their stock seemed pretty good, couldn't see any dead fish in their tanks other than one marine fish (although it was the middle of a busy Saturday afternoon so I'd expect they were checked before the rush) but not surprisingly, I overheard one of the members of staff telling two blissfully ignorant women that 10 neon's would be fine in their newly setup biorb, as they are hardy fish. I intend to buy my dwarves from there so I wasn't about to correct him-maybe after I've got them.

 

[dem0nz]

my local P@h is fine,
when i was very new to this hobby one of thier assistants spent a rather long time explaining that my pictus catfish (brought from another store) isnt only to big for my tank but always has been too big (6.6gal...i really did not know what i was doing back then) and then refused to sell me 5 neons to go in the tank with him
i was pissed off at the time but thinking back he def did the right thing.

and they have recently set up all new displays for different tanks such as nano,chichlid,amazon,brackish ect ect
and they have signs explaining the differences between them all

i brought a few endlers from them last week and they are perfect yet i still had to get past thier interragation on whether i have cycled,stocking levels ect ect

although the day before i saw another member of staff sell 6 fish to a guy who hadnt cycled or anything at all.

i guess its the same as anywhere else really,it depends on the individual who serves you.


as for gourami's...no idea

 

[Genesis]

I bought a pair of dwarf guoramis from pets at home, then another female from another shop.
They all lived over 2 years, so yeah.. They aren't that bad in my experience

 

[fourthtimelucky]

I'd recommend finding out what day the fish delivery arrives (it's usually once a week at my local P@H) then waiting until two or three days after that to purchase.

Hopefully by then the ones that are really badly stressed by the move will either have died already, be fairly obviously ill, or will have had time to recover a bit before you get them and stress them all over again. Sounds harsh but it should help you select the healthier ones, and therefore have the best chance of keeping them alive.

P@H vary so much store to store that I don't think you can necessarily lump them altogether.

I would recommend quarantining them for a couple of weeks if you can just to be on the safe side.