Amanda

I need to vent to someone who will listen aka FISHLORE! First off today I went to WalMart to try to find Tetra Safe Start, didn't have it. So then I wandered over to where they have the bettas in the torture cups, and I have NEVER seen finrot as bad as it was in some of those cups. Some of the bettas barely had any fins left at all! Then I went to Petsmart to try to find Tetra Safe Start - didn't have it. So I went over to look at their angelfish b/c I plan on getting 3 when my tank is cycled. I look down at the tank underneath them, and there is a fire track eel laying there bleeding in the tank! He was in a tank with some sort of catfish & another eel. When I pointed it out to the girl, she just took him out & took him beind "the doors". Now I know that he was flushed which aggervated me. Then I went & was looking at the gouramis, & there they are eating a dead gourami in the tank. So I also point this out to the girl & she rolls here eyes and THROWS IT IN THE PUBLIC GARBAGE right in front of a 5 year old. The she went on to tell a teenager there that He could put 2 common plecos & a handful of Oscars & Jack Dempsey's in his tank. She also told them that they won't get much bigger (they were about 3 in.). Hate to see that tank in a month.

Devon

Oh my...

I would write a polite but very clear letter to the management of each store explaining what you saw and what you think about it... and how it will effect your business (or lack thereof) in the future if steps aren't taken to rectify the problems... sadly, places like that rarely if ever listen, but at least it will give you the feeling that you did something and if enough voices chime in, changes are likely to be made.

Sorry you had to see those things, that's so hard, and I can sympathize with your anger and frustration completely.

Slug

Don't you hate it when places like this hire bored teenaged workers with 0 experience? It sucks that the majority are there just to collect a paycheck and don't really care about the hobby or the animals themselves.

Kudos to you for trying to help out by pointing out the dead/dying/sick fish. Sometimes i get tired of correcting the LFS (Chains) folk.

Alessa

So agree with that! I am a youth coordinator at a MUSEUM so I know about it...

I agree with the letter thing. It would be nice also to know the name of the employee... for reference of course.

Butterfly

Things like this just make me love my local LFS more and more.
We were in there last week and there was a fish dead in a tank and the man APOLOGIZED to me because he hadn't noticed it before. They are so good about making sure there's nothing dead or dying in their tanks.
I'm so sorry you had that experience and for that child to see her just toss a fish in the garbage .... it's just unspeakable.
Carol

Lionfish17

Wow, Im sorry you had to go through that. I have learned from experience, Petsmart is NOT the place to go for fish. They sold us 2 silver tipped sharks, told us they wouldnt get any bigger than 6'' (which is a lie, they can get HUGE!) and didnt even bother to tell us sharks are not good for beginners. Petsmart employees dont know squat, and if it wasnt for us finding fishlore, well, im sure you can imagine the outcome..

COBettaCouple

Whoa.. talk about a dedicated employee who makes the store look good.

Laelanna

I really really miss the pet store we had when we lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Not only did it have a HUGE ( 100+ tanks freshwater, 30+ tanks saltwater) selection of saltwater and freshwater fish, but the employess knew what they were talking about. I have yet to see a store that can compare to them.

Allie

That's what my bf and his partner are doing in the future. When our fish breedery/store is ready to be opened, we are only hiring people who know fish keeping. Our fish is going to be exactly what I want in a fish store now. Too bad it won't be for another few years.

Laelanna

I just wish they let you order online too. I really miss that place. Too bad its 10 hours away.

Allie

We had a guy here too...who had mostly cichlids but his fish were well taken care of and he had a lot of selection. But he real job needed him more and he closed shop. He still has a few tanks at home and sells fish here & there. He so hard to get a hold of.

morganrules

the petsmart people in my state are really knowledgeable they actually understand stuff and can help me its amazing lol

Little Cherry Barb

I really hate seeing dead fish floating in tanks. The general incompetence is annoying, the advice is dangerous, but the half dozen dead fish floating in the tanks? Really sad.

morganrules

oh yah its sad but the one where i live rarely have dead fish floating and if they do they immediately get it outa there tank

David C

My good LFS had an angel in a tank that was donated by some guy who was moving. I was looking the beauty over and noticed a small fungus looking stuff around his mouth, and pointed it out to an employee. she got visibly upset that she hadnt noticed it herself earlier and immediately began to take steps to treat him. the next week when i was there, he was swimming happily around his tank with no signs of fungus looking stuff. i like to see that the employees take pride in the quality of the fish and never "give up" on the poor guys when they inevitably get sick.

Jess

I had a similar experience at Pet "Smart", early on in my fish keeping career.
My daughter and I went to buy a darling coradorus julii catfish, and the kid kept flipping the fish onto the floor! I ended up grabbing the net from him to finish without killing the poor thing. Then the little catfishes barb poked through the bag. And the employee wanted to just double bag it. I insisted he rebag. Then he hardly put any water in. I asked that he add more and do you know he went to the tap water and was about to add water right out of the tap!? I freaked out. I will never buy fish from them again! Needless to say many tanks had sick or dead fish in them. I've now found a fairly good LFS. They know what they're doing. Wheew!

platy ben

I live in the UK and all of my LFS have well educated staff and all the fish are healthy, never a dead one in sight! .

Valchitsa

Lucky... sadly though, the rest of us have to tolerate the pathetic excuse for employees we have here in the US. And of course those sad chain stores like petsmart and petco. You guys should see the petco that's near me. ALL of their tanks are covered in algae and most of their fish don't survive till next week's shipment. They usually get fish on Thursdays, well walk in on a Monday and there will be hardy any fish alive. I'm surprised they still sell saltwater fish considering the fact that they can't even keep their danios alive. Can you do me a favor? Can you send about 6 neon tetras my way? I'd like to have some that aren't inbred...

Blub

Might be difficult - we have inbred ones here as well!
Not all our LFS are birlliant. I have one near my school that is dreadful! 'Do your water changes whenever you need the'... "Excuse me, could you ID these cichlids for me?" 'No, I'm afraid I can't - knowone can!'... And one absolutely dreadful one sells tropical fish 'converted to coldwater'... The one near my school is also selling 'Coldwater platys'.

shecky95

I am afraid to say this......... but I bought my daughters betta from Walmart. *gets prepped to be pelted with bricks*


They were in their "torture bowls" as one called it. And none of the males had any colors they were so pale they were white in color. I have seen males Bettas better looking then them. My daughters fish and mine were the only ones that had color to them(daughter's fish-red with blue, mine- royal purple color).I bought 2 that day, my daughters and mine, it was tempting to buy all of them but I knew I could not house them all. Mine sadly died 1 1/2 weeks later. Im thinking he was most likely sick when I got him. My daughters however is still with us and in my pic link. IMHO Walmart should NOT carry any kind of fish but only supplies.Employees were rude,so rude one employee said in front of other customers that he didnt want to get fish on a top tank for another customer, and didnt want to help anyone that was in the dept( yeah I took that to the manager).

Sorry if I ran sentences on and on but I had to vent my anger as well with Walmart

jdhef

No pelting with bricks here. Rescuing a Betta from WalMart is very heroic! I would imagine that your Betta was sick when you got him. Look at the conditions he was kept in at WalMart.

LilMollieBreeder

Yeah when I went to petco almost every fish had frayed fins and the poor angels were missing some fins and some injuries and had some red streaks and in the goldfish tank almost 20 goldfish were floating dead in PLAIN SIGHT!!!!!!
pet "smart" had better fish then them. It made me mad and sad...I wish I could of saved some of them.... but I couldn't because I don't have the space....

au01st

Wow! Those sound like some bad experiences. The Petco here is great. I've talked with several employees in the fish dept. and they all know their stuff. I talked with the guy in charge about getting a puffer and he said he could order them, but didn't keep them on hand because the display tank would be too crowded and they would be stressed and kill each other. I was in there just the other day getting some small stuff and overheard a small arguement because a customer wanted to buy some Cichlids and some "glofish" (those genetically engineered tetras) to go with her betta in a 5gallon hex, and the employee wouldn't sell them. She called the manager and the manager explained their policy about how they "care for animals, not just sell them" and backed up her employee. When I bought my Julli Cories last week the employee asked me several questions (not in a rude way) about how old my tank was, and what other fish were in there, and what my water test readings were. I'm not saying she would have stopped me if she had gotten a wrong answer, but at least she knew what questions to ask.

Speaking of my little Julies, I just got an airstone and air pump last night (I had been putting it off for a bit), got it installed and everything, and they love it. One in particular will swim into the bubbles at the bottom, float to the top, swim out and back down to the bottom, and do it again. I watched the little fish for about 10min this morning do this routine over and over again, it just seemed so happy.

MrsM3197

No need to duck from this direction either. I think that most of us here have had some really awful experiences with the large chain type stores. I've had go 'rounds with PetSmart and a couple of weeks ago my 17 yr old daughter had to practically drag me out of a Walmart because of the condition of the fish there...I was gonna get somebody to listen. Shoot, I think when I was a younger woman with much less sense, I downed shots with more liquid in them than the torture cups those bettas are kept in. Either way we have a rescued cup buddy too, and after a nasty siege of ick he's lovely, happy and healthy. Good for you, be proud of your rescue!!!

Ghostfish

Unfortunately about the only choices I have are the large chains. The closest place nearby is a Pet Supplies Plus. I have seen just numerous horrible conditions there...fish dead and being eaten, painted glassfish, dyed parrot fish, and tattooed mollies. The Petsmart down the road is usually fairly well handled. The tanks are at least in good condition. Pet stores down here are just very limited.

au01st

Do you know the address of this store? My old boss just happens to be the regional manager for several stores in the southeast. Yes, I was a manager at PSP... My boss, the head store manager, was promoted to regional manager and we had a new store manager come in. A few months later, I quit... I think I still have his number somewhere.

Ghostfish

Yeah. It is the St Marys, Ga store located at 6500 Highway 40 east. It just opened less than a month ago.

Marc

Wouldn't happen to be... Purr-fect Pets?

How are the cardinals? Read your post in the Discus thread and saw the "redeye" and the eruption in the fish tank profile thingy... I think you're the only person I've met that calls them just "redeyes". Kind of odd stumbling upon one of your posts here.