cn1561

I work at Pet Supplies "plus" in Bethel Park and recently I've found myself getting in arguments with the "animal" people over the care of the fish. Being the only person to have experience with fish. Starting several weeks ago, I informed them that the fish looked sick (clamped fins, swimming awkardly and a larger than normal amount of dead fish). I was brushed off as paying too much attention to the fish despite helping them when I could. Then within two weeks of the same behavior, all of the aquariums came down with ICH and had to be quarantined and during the treatment (7 days with meds despite one of them putting carbon in the filters), we lost about three quarters of the fish. Then we had to start getting ready for remodeling and we put them up for sale at 75% off with about half of the remaining still having ich.
During the remodel(we won't be done til the new year the surviving fish were put into two roughly 70 gal tanks one tropical(took about a week for it to get a heater), one for the goldfish, two 2.5" bowls each with a male betta, and 2.5 gal with about 12 1.5" odessa barbs with only a bubble stone. I mentioned that the bettas would like to be near the the cash register with the heater which also farther from the door, I was told "a little cold(60degree water) won't hurt them", and that after the animal person pushed them together, that "the adrenaline rush that they get from the agressive behavior is good even though it occasionally kills them" so after losing the battle to get them a little warmer I put the tape dispenser between the aquarium bulbs.

Lucy

That's really sad. The store should be reported. How dare they treat living things like that!

I don't understand what putting a tape dispenser between aqaurium bulbs means.

cn1561

The Betta were in separate tanks but were able to see each other and getting stressed, so I decided that they'd be a little happier thinking they were only male on the counter.

Lucy

Oh I see. That was probably a good idea. The have enough stress being in such cold water.

The shop owners are pretty cruel keeping tropical fish in 60F water.

Can you offer to take them home untill they re-open?
If they sell other pet supplies, maybe they'll allow you to use a reptile heat pad under the bowls. You'd have to make sure they don't get too hot though.

cn1561

And I plan on talking to my manager my next shift(tues) about taking charge of taking care of the fish.

Tavel

i think that's a little more than "irritating". bad subject line

I never liked pet supplies "plus", it's like the dirty wall mart of pet stores...only everything's more expensive. And i still don't understand the quotes around "plus".

cn1561

If anyone can link me to someone good literature for my manager to read then I think I'll have a good shot at making a change here.

Red1313

Welcome and Betta Care Guide - Please Read First!!!
here's a betta care sheet (not the same one the mod's link too but I can't find that one)
I'm not sure what the best link to send you to for over-reaching aquarium info.
Good luck though.

Lucy

That's the correct one, Red.

Red1313

lol

au01st

Haha, I worked at a Pet Supplies "Plus" in high school. I would have to disagree with them being called the "Wal-mart" of pet stores, but our store was also the district manager's office, so that may have had something to do with it. Every employee had pets, mostly exotic, and lots of us had fish, Oscars, Cichlids, Pacu, etc, so we knew what was up and had very healthy tanks and staff that wouldn't push fish.

I only quit after being treated unfairly, I actually liked working there. During Christmas break, I made plans to go to the beach with friends for my senior trip. I put in for the time off, put down deposits, etc. Then the week before Spring Break and the manager tells me I can't go. I asked if he was going to give me back $400 for the condo we rented, he said no, I told him he'd have to find new help, lol.

cn1561

Well good news I talked to one of my friends and coworkers and she said that the fish are free as in $0 so if anyone lives in the area stop by and rescue some of them. It'll be appreciated. I'm gonna take home as many as I feel I can put into an empty ten and 2.5 gal tank

bmxer193

Walmart just makes me mad (i know you dont work at walmart)... Ive I have seen workers tell a lady it would be ok for where to put like 3 mollies in a bowl that can hold about .5gals! Ive also seen them sell 1 tiger bard and 1 platie to some other lady for her 5gal saying that they will be fine together, thats going to work out great... Dont even get me started on their bettas. Glad to see your helping your store

Lucy

You might want to make a seperate thread announcing this. I'll bet you'll get a lot of responses.

Not many fish can fit in your 2.5, one betta maybe.

CarinaJo

You know, I think I may actually be the bane of a couple of the stores in my area.... they see me coming and roll their eyes with a huge sigh of long-suffering "Here comes the chick who always points out the sick fish!"

I actually was turned down for a summer job at a local big-name pet store....... everything was going fine until I mentioned I was a SCIENCE teacher LOL

Good luck with the new responsibilities- I hope you get it!

cn1561

I probably won't get them officially so I decided that the tanks containing fish were my responsibility since being a stock guy, my manager says that if its heavy, its probably my responsibility to keep it straight.
Also I picked up a bunch of the fish and I'm temporarily housing them until saturday when I get my one day a year employee discount of 20% off everything in the store to get maybe a 55 gal for them, but unfortunately I feel that alot of them won't make it due their previous mistreatment. Currently there's:
2 plecos about 3 in each
1 african dwarf frog
4 healthy livebearers (lost 4 on the way home)
I got the pleasure to give away most of the fish we had to two guys who came in who seemed to have a lot of experience with fish. They even got their own fish rather efficiently when I had to go do my actual job there