Pets@home

[Twiglet]

Hi everyone
I've just found this forum and im not sure what to do?
Just last saturday i brought a loch, they told me to wait a week for the dirt to pick up from the other fish i brought a week previous and it's dead already!! I've had it for just 4 days!

It's acted strange since putting it into the tank, very sluggish and wasn't eating at all. I just thought it was because it was a new tank and that it was still getting used to the other fish (which have been ok with the loch). The question is do i take it back? Im not best pleased that the poor thing has died already and can't help wonder if it's them at fault. I keep hearing stories of people buying fish or even as far as a rabbit and hasn't lasted 2 weeks.

please can i have some advice?
Thnks

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hi and welcome to the forum v .

Chances are it wasn't suitable for the tank or your tank is already over-stocked and can't handle anymore fish. Pet shop staff are notorious for misinformation and there is not any standard basic training given to staff in charge of fish other than how to catch them and blag a few questions. As a consequence it is not adviseable to go by pet shop staff advice for a multitude of reasons when it comes to keeping fish. There are thousands of fish available in the hobby, hundreds of which are very commonly sold. The best places to research fish are good websites like http/www.loaches.com/, http/badmanstropicalfish.com/ & http/www.planetcatfish.com/ etc as well as active large fish forums like this and up-to-date fish keeping books.

There are a large amount of factors you should research when looking into a particular fish before getting it;

a. How big does it grow?
b. Is it peaceful, territorial, semi-aggressive or v.aggressive?
c. Does it do best with its own kind (and to what degree) or not?
d. What sort of diet does it have (insectivore, carnivore, omnivore, herbivore etc)?
e. What habitat does it do best in (sand substrate, planted tank, big open spaces, strong or weak current, driftwood etc)?
etc.


What types of fish do you currently have, how many gallons/liters is the tank and how many fish are in it in total?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

they told me to wait a week for the dirt to pick up from the other fish i brought a week previous

This is also nonsense they told you. Please see this link on proper understanding and maintaining of good water quality in your aquarium ;

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

 

[Twiglet]

It was a Hong Kong Pleco, tiny thing and was definitely the right size for my medium sized tank. I only have 4 mini fish and they asked me a series of questions before they even let me buy it. Like what sized tank it was, how many fish i had and if i had any live plants in it. It was fine.

I think i will go back and see what they say, having a fish for 4 days isn't right to me and all these rumours i keep hearing i think it maybe true with their animals

 

[fluttermoth]

Hong Kong plecs are notoriously hard to keep though. They need rather different conditions from most tropical tanks; cooler water and a very, very high current and lots of oxygen.

 

[Twiglet]

Yeah i forgot to say, i have a cold water tank. They were also in a cold water tank so it wasn't that.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

It was a Hong Kong Pleco, tiny thing and was definitely the right size for my medium sized tank. I only have 4 mini fish and they asked me a series of questions before they even let me buy it. Like what sized tank it was, how many fish i had and if i had any live plants in it. It was fine.

I think i will go back and see what they say, having a fish for 4 days isn't right to me and all these rumours i keep hearing i think it maybe true with their animals

They may be small but Hong Kong Pleco's (better known as Hillstream Loaches as they are not true pleco's but rather a type of loach) are specialist fish. As Fluttermouth said above habitat is crucial to keeping these fish successfully- in the wild they come from cool fast flowing mountain streams where the water is very clear and highly oxygenated. They are true algae eaters by nature and don't take easily to prepared foods like Algae Wafers, and so having a source of algae in the tank like Brown Algae (as they won't eat all types of algae) helps a lot in successfully settling them into the tank.

They are small fish which have small guts and so can suffer badly in the long transportation times it takes from getting them from the supplier to the fish shop- they may go for days without any food in very stressfull conditions. So ensuring you have an ideal habitat for these fish is very important in getting them through the first few weeks in the tank where they may be starved and very stressed from coming from the pet shop. This isn't Pets at Home fault, this is a common problem with a large number of specialist fish like these.

The average aquarium does not have strong enough filtration, abundant algae or cool enough temperatures (Hong Kong Pleco's/Hillstream loaches are sub-tropical fish) for Hillstream Loaches to survive & thrive in. They are also sociable fish and tend to do best with their own kind as they will by choice spend a lot of time in each others company.

You may have small fish but size isn't everything and even in a tank that isn't technically overstocked there can be many ways a fish tank stocking can be un-ideal .

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

It was a Hong Kong Pleco, tiny thing and was definitely the right size for my medium sized tank. I only have 4 mini fish

How many gallons/liters is the tank and what specific types of fish do you have in it?

and they asked me a series of questions before they even let me buy it. Like what sized tank it was, how many fish i had and if i had any live plants in it. It was fine.

They might ask the right types of questions but they can still be misinformed. Over the years i have been surprised at the great diversity of takes on aquarium water quality & fish tank stocking given by pet shop staff. Some staff are well informed, but this tends to be due to them having a personal strong interest in the hobby and haven done a lot of proper research on it done in their own personal time, rather than because of any training they have been given (of which there is no mandatory training given when it comes to the selling of fish etc). So pet shop staff advice can be very hit & miss, its why i would always recommend doing your own personal research at home first (researching as many aspects of keeping the fish in question) before deciding on getting any fish .

 

[Warren Timmins]

fish shops

sixhill street
alfords aquatics centre
wybers wood pet shop
victor aquatics
lordstreet aquatics dont know about that for fish it has fish but never been in


i have 1 loach is ok and the other is trying to stick on the bigger fish and some times they chase each other. got mine from their

 

[wirralbull]

i was listening to a man asking a member of staff at pets at home if his guppy in his tank was a boy or a girl and how could he tell. girl struggled to tell him the answers he wanted. he then said it had yellow and black on its tail. the girl replied that it must be a boy. another time i went there the girl catching the fish was talking to them in a baby voice. and the last time i went when answering the questions i said i had 25 fish in a 60ltr tank. i was still sold the fish i was after. they just fill in the answers to questions. they dont understand the answers. i have a chuckle listening to the staffs answers in ther. no wonder so many ppl struggle to keep fish alive with the wrong information available

 

[Warren Timmins]

the size of them are big and i got rid of my 2 loaches because they were bugging the weather loach