All the lfs's near me are pretty poor, but its not ignorant people that get to me- i can easily put up with ignorant people as long as they are willing to learn, as when it comes down to it we were all newbs once when it comes to fishkeeping. But what does get me is stupid/lazy people. For example; in my main lfs(the one and only one in my town), there's a lady there who's been working there for months. One day while she's scooping out some fish, i ask her if i can have 3 female guppys. She asks me which are the male ones and which are the female ones. I point to the 2 guppy tanks, one which says "female guppys" and the other "male guppys"
- i mean, you would at least expect the staff to read the labels on the tanks after a couple of months
? I further have to explain the difference between the males and females, which seemed to go straight through her empty head.
The other thing i really hate about my lfs is that the plastic transport bags they use are really narrow, and whenever they put fish in them they literally have to scoop them out of the nets before dropping them in the bags, which im sure is highly stressful for the fish. I often insist on catching my own fish there and often do, as the staff have no fish catching abilitys whatsoever
. Oh! Another thing i really hate about my lfs, while im on a rant, is that they never have the meds or fish supplies i need. Twice now have i gone down there in a row and they still havn't stocked pimafix, melafix, interpet "flora boost", daphinia, large size bottles of dechlorinator(the puny ones they sell last only a month or so with my uk 125gal tank
) and fine white silica sand etc despite me asking them if they can get them in stock with the reply of "sure", and then only to go there again and they still havn't got them.
They never medicate their sick fish.
They don't sell tanks above 40gals, but plenty of fish that need 100gal tanks. The staff are severely/seriously under-knowledged.
The owner/manager is hardly ever there, and certainly never there when you need him.
The place smells really bad because of all the dog food like pig and cow trotters, hooves and ears baking in the sunlight of the shop window every day.
They sell those horible "complete goldfish set ups" that are only a 1gal plastic tub with gravel a fake plant.
The bettas, male and female, get shoved into whatever tank is available whatever fish it has in it- numerous times have i seen bettas(both male and female) in tiger barb tanks and agressive cichlid tanks.
They sell tiger barbs, silver dollars, sailfin plecs, platys, mollys and guppys, angels, chinese and siamese algae eaters, red tail black sharks etc in the COLDWATER section of the shop with the goldfish.
They sell koi karp as tank fish.
The goldfish tubs at the back outside are really neglectid, somtimes they are so brown/green you often wonder wether theres any fish in them somewhere at the bottom.
The rest of the animals they sell there like hamsters and rats are poorly treated too, the cages and excerise balls they sell for the rats and hamsters would barely fit a mouse in, and many of the poor rodents often bake when its warm because of the glass tanks they keep them in. The rabbits are often stacked 4-5 of them in cages only 4ft long and 2ft wide roughly, and freak out everytime a little kid trys to rattle the cages to make them move(this also goes on with the fish).
Meh...I must have one of the worst selection of lfs in somerset considering the rest i know of are all pretty much in the same state
. This is the only reason why i shop there, simply because theres no-where else better to go to within an 40mins drive of me, as i rarely get the chance to go anywhere further a'feild. The guy who owns the place is apparently going through a divorce with his wife after he slept with various members of staff apparently, and he is thus planning on selling the place- which i am really, really looking forward to, as anyones gotta do a better job than his half-arsed efforts
.
Eh, enough of my rant now
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