Really Cheesed Off.

[Mowbz]

I have 3000 oscars in a 200 litre tank, they are £100 each, can you come and buy them please?

Legend

 

[HayzH]

i had a sad experience the other day ..i went to my LFS to get more dechlor and everytime i go in i can't resist looking at the fishies
until i got to the tank where the puffer was....he was at the bottom mouth open WIDE and very skinny with all his fins clamped in....he turned his eyes towards me when i peered in.....made me feel sick. Paid for the dechlor and left.
only last week he looked fit and healthy and swimming around. I did notice 2 baby ones in another tank "climitising"..poor things

 

[Baccus]

Do you know if the LFS is a small privately owned shop or a sub branch of a much larger LFS company? If it is a small privately owned shop rather than talking to the manager I would be hunting down the owner. A letter (sent via registered post with a copy kept for you and another ready to be sent to an animal well fare organisation and possibly local newspapers) where you are able to clearly and calmly state your objections to the conditions that the shops fish are being housed in, and be able to state the true requirements for each of the under cared for species. I would end the letter on the note that if the necessary actions for the well being of the fish is not carried out in a timely manner than you will be sending the same letter with further updated information (i.e. showing that you have already sent the original letter to the shop and have given them time to rectify the situation) to not only local animal welfare groups, but also the Council and media bodies. People like this will only ever understand when things hit them in the hip pocket and I am sure that the possibility of losing potential customers from their methods finally being made puplic on a grand scale should scare them, along with any possible legal action taken by either the Council or animal welfare groups. Also at every oppurtunity tell others locally to you - friends, family, neighbors, work colleges why you persoanlly boycott the store. Word of mouth can make or break a business and even though the people you speak to may not use the shop themselves they are bound to know people who do (seven degrees of seperation rule applies here) and being told of bad experiences can tend to make others steer clear of the same company.

 

[micko]

Its disgusting, it really is, but this same thing happens all the time although we cannot see the way they're farmed in countries and crammed into boxes, hoofed on a plane and then sent to wholesalers. A friend of mine owns a shop and his orders come direct from the countries they're farmed in, in the average sized bag they cram 6 3inch discus into each bag. He has contact suppliers and complained and even changed suppliers a few times only to find out they're worse.

 

[creeker]

Its disgusting, it really is, but this same thing happens all the time although we cannot see the way they're farmed in countries and crammed into boxes, hoofed on a plane and then sent to wholesalers. A friend of mine owns a shop and his orders come direct from the countries they're farmed in, in the average sized bag they cram 6 3inch discus into each bag. He has contact suppliers and complained and even changed suppliers a few times only to find out they're worse.

I worked for a wholesaler so I have seen this. Bettas were sent to us in boxes of 500, each packed in a tiny baggie with one tablespoon of water. We just made sure to unpack everything as quickly as possible. But that is shipping. The suppliers in Indonesia are trying to save as much freight charge and at the same time have a high survival rate. It's a different story once they hit the store. They might be in that tank for weeks. No need to jam them up. I suspect the fish shop in question took that Oscar in from one of his customers. He probably got it for free and figured if it died no loss to him. Please stop patronizing this shop! In time, his customers will figure him out, and he will go out of business. In addition to not caring about his fish, he doesn't sound very customer service oriented. Not all fish shop employees are bad. I used to spend way more time explaining to customers why they couldn't have certain fish in their tanks. I used to get customers from the other shops that just sold whatever. I always felt like I was making my customers play 20 questions, but if someone wanted to buy an Exodon paradoxus or an Electric Eel, I certainly wanted to know what the tankmates were going to be!

 

[Geoff-]

it's nice to think you're "saving" a fish but in reality you are only saving 1 fish and enabling the suffering of many more. why? because you've just given positive reinforcement to bad LFS habits by buying their product. a sale is a sale, the reason behind it doesn't matter.

when shipping, the fish is in the dark and probably sleeping so it's not so bad..