Pets at home

[rorrism]

I went to pets at home tonight to have a look at some of the fish they had in after work. All I can say is I was disgusted and there were people litteraly lining up waiting to be given fish. In one of the tanks there were some Albino rainbow sharks and one of them was laying in the bottom of the tank dead. If this wasn't bad enough there were two albino cat fish eating it. I looked in another tank and there was a dead albino catfish and another fish laying nect to each other with a mail siamese fighter flicking them around the tank. All of the fish that I might have been interested in were sharing the tank with a dead fish.

Obviously I never bought anything but I felt obliged to wait in the queue to inform the member of staff manning the tanks of the issue. The only ecplanation I got was an apology saying that there had been nobody to keep an eye over the tanks that day. Is it true that a shop can lose that many fish in a day in their tanks? I may have only had my tank for a week but I can gaurantee that my fish were 1000x time happier than the ones there.

The good point of it is that I was talking to somebody else who was disgusted in what they had seen and I've been recommended somewhere else to go have a look that is supposed to be very good, I think I might pay them a visit.

Before I walked in I knew that Pets at home are the worst fish shop in my local area, but they are the only

Sorry for the rant but this upset me. For the record I am talking about the store in Hull, the fish shop I have been recommended is KKC (?) in Hessle, does anyone know this store or have any opinions on stores in the Hull area?

THanks if you managed to read this far.

Mark

 

[breezer40]

I would NEVER buy a fish from our local Pets At Home store!

I do nip in there to get water treatment because its cheaper and every time I always have a look to see how many dead fish I can spot. One time I notice a bunch of clowns with white spot so I pointed this out to the young lad looking after the section..He claimed that they had a great filtration unit that "could get rid of ICH in 10 hours"! I just laughed and walked away.

 

[SirMinion]

Pets at home. Bunch of muppets.

I watched as they sold some kid's parents a little four litre 'tank' and three albino common plecs to go in it.

Their 'aquarium plants' are mostly drowned houseplants.

When asking about what species one fish was, I was told "it's a cichlid"

Rummynose tetras marked as "zebra tail tetras"

Hillstream loach marked as "coldwater algy (yes, spelled like that) plecos"

Three very ragged male bettas in one tank (one dead and finless)

I could go on, but you get the picture.

Cheap catfood though!

 

[Arfie]

I had the same thing at my local Pets at Home when I started out, fortunately I had read enough to know not to buy when there are dead fish in.

I went in on Saturday, looking at bits and bobs and wasting time, I saw a dead fish in a Biorb and told the assistant on the section who was offering advice to a customer. I went in again on Monday to get some frozen food and the corpse was still in there and half eaten.

I made them get the manager immediately told him I was a member of the Tropical Fisheepers Foundation and gave him a dressing down in front of several customers, I made him remove all dead fish before I left and then warned him I'll be in in the future and should I see anything like this again in the future I will have other members of the foundation there with posters protesting outside their front door informing customers of their mistreatment of animals. I also know a reporter on the local paper (which I do) and I would get her to do a report on the condition of the animals in the store. I then asked him how he thought his head office would react to him running a store with bad publicity and the inevitable loss of income that would cause.

Next time I went in, with a clipboard and a camera he was all smiles and I'm pleased to say no dead fish were around, so I seem to have done a little good even if it's only temporary.

So next time you see this kind of thing, make a fuss about it, it may do nothing in which case you'll have lost nothing, but it just might so something positive and help save a few fish.

Arfie

 

[rorrism]

So with all these storys of dead fish at pets at home, I have to ask this question. Is it normal for a pet shop (even reputable) to lose that many fish?

 

[Puffer_freak]

I don't think so.

 

[The-Wolf]

So with all these storys of dead fish at pets at home, I have to ask this question. Is it normal for a pet shop (even reputable) to lose that many fish?

like all things it is possible even with the
suffistocated filtration the pet shops have to
have this many (and more) deaths.

It is rare but sometimes they just get a bad batch of fish
supplied from wherever sometimes the water supplied by the
local water authority becomes diferent than the previouse days supply

 

[Aienu]

My BF works at an LFS and yes sometimes there are batches of fish that die. They have a "dead pull" in the morning before the store opens, but alas.. sometimes too much stuff to do and this doesn't get done. It's always bad for customers to SEE the fish flopping around--but just mind that some fish just don't go well together (when I bought my oscars once there were a few I watched get terrorize as I waited to get some caught). Especially after a shipment when the fish have been in transit so long and are finally put in an aquarium sometimes the stress just gets to them.

 

[Gill]

I tend to chat when I go into the stores.

Some of the Stores just have Ignorant workers and others Just have Bad Luck.

I have been in and they have no Coldwater fish for sale, as they have had to return the entire shipment. All the Fish were Infected or Dying.

They tend to make mistakes whent hey add new fish. They turn all the Lights off and they than add the Fish. This is where most mistakes happen. The Fighters get put in together and when they open up in the morning they have lost 3/4 of the fighters.

But I do tend to go in On a Thursday and Point out any problems i can see with any of the fish. Most of the Time they are Grateful, but sometimes they just ignore the advice and yo go in the next wek and the same figther is in with Tigers and it has harldy any fins left.

 

[rorrism]

I never thought this would be so much of a widespread problem. If I went to buy another rabbit or another Guinnea Pig I doubt there would ever be a dead one laying in the cage being eaten, why is this any different than fish? I have found myself becoming quite selective about where I shop now. I have looked at:

Pets @ home - ruled out through dead fish and excessive pricing

a LFS that sells painted/dyed fish, this is a hard choice though as they have some fish that I cannot find anywhere else, morality is a pain

and a LFS that smells very badly every time you go....

And then the other two, both of which have excellent and courteous staff and are fairly evenly priced. No painted or dyed fish and a fairly good selection. one of these is that popular that you need to go on the day of their delivery to catch anything special

 

[Helium_Junkie]

a LFS that sells painted/dyed fish, this is a hard choice though as they have some fish that I cannot find anywhere else, morality is a pain

Just don't buy the painted fish.
And inform the manager of the horror these fish are subjected to.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I have bought fish from Pets at Home in the past and found them to be ok in the beginning. But as I began to learn more I realised how clueless they are. I was told to set up my tank with water and leave it for a week with the light and filter on before getting fish. What the hell use is that going to be?! I also have heard them slag off betas saying that they are not aggressive at all and that they cannot understand why they have their name, and then sold someone one with guppies and angels.

Another time, I was wanting to get silver hatchet fish but there's were all sick and the ones I had got from them had died, except for a lone one. She said that fish aren't like us and don't care if they are along, obviously I pointed out about shoaling fish and she said that's for protection only and that they do not interact with each other at all. Stupid cow.

I now get all of my fish online as I can't bear to go in there and hear them spout rubbish. P@H are my local shop and then there's one a metro-ride away but they sell dyed parrots so I would never go in there and other than that I have to get my fish online, other than my discus who were bought from a breeder,

~ Dana ~

 

[rorrism]

The worst thing I got told by them was that I had to leave my tank 4-6 weeks to cycle using chemicals and that they wouldn't sell me fish until they had done a test on my water. When I mentioned cycling with fish they told me it was extremely cruel and that they wouldn't sell me fish for that purpose. Turned out for the best actually as I found somewhere else and got a bigger and better setup cheaper!

 

[Helium_Junkie]

The worst thing I got told by them was that I had to leave my tank 4-6 weeks to cycle using chemicals and that they wouldn't sell me fish until they had done a test on my water. When I mentioned cycling with fish they told me it was extremely cruel and that they wouldn't sell me fish for that purpose. Turned out for the best actually as I found somewhere else and got a bigger and better setup cheaper!

But that is completey right! Go read up on fishless cycling. This is the generally accepted method, since cycling with fish IS cruel.
Sounds like a LFS that know their stuff! Are you sure that was pets at home?!

 

[rorrism]

Would you honestly say cycling with fish (a totally accepted method until recently) is on the same level as forcing fish to share a tank with incompatible, or worse still, dead and decaying fish?