My Local Fish Store

I don't know which subthread to put this in so please move if it is felt this is not the right location.

I went to my local fish store yesterday, which is more of an all animal store with some fish.

Anywho, I was looking at their fish and in one tank they had a bunch of mollies, a lot of black and white ones, which are gorgeous, and some regular reddish mollies, but in this same tank they had one big pinkish sucking cat fish thingy on the side of the tank. Anywho, only the black and white mollies were beating the out of this sucky fish. Over and over they would go over to it and nip at it. This sucky thing had like pointy spikes on its head. The mollies were nipping at these pointy things. I called over the fish attendant, LOL, and informed him of this nipping. He told me, well survival of the fittest and all. he also said the sucky thing only takes so much and then goes off on the mollies, but I was there a while, and never saw this. So, they did not move this poor sucky fish. I wanted to buy him to get him out of there, but I have no idea how to care for him and where to put him. He was about 3 inches long and I don't know what size tank he would need. So, had to leave him there.

Then, OMG, their bettas. They were in clean water it seemed, but they were in the worst condition. All their fins were gone. They looked so sad. They had white bettas they were charging 19.99 for and they looked horrible. Oh they also were not in the usual cups but were in squarish small tupperware like containers so had a little bit more room and water than those horrible cups.

Finally, and OMG I now want one, they had a few saltwater tanks set up and in one of them had a puffer fish. This thing was the cutest thing ever. It's eyes move like humans. It follows you around, your finger, etc. It doesn't seem to swim, just sort of floats. If you walk away he went about his business, but if you went back, he came back to the side you were on. I want him so bad. He was the cutest and most interactive fish I have ever seen ever. The fish attendant called him Happy. He seemed to smile. How hard are these fish to keep, how big of a tank, can they be kept alone, what do they eat? I want one.

Oh also, I was asking how often they do water changes, gravel vacuuming, etc. He said they don't do water changes, it was all automatic on some system they have. He also said he encourages customers to not really vacuum the gravel that well, and only do spot cleaning in a few spots. I just sort of looked at him. Something to do with bioload and good bacteria, and the gravel did not look dirty at all in the tanks so I don't know, maybe I misunderstood him, but I was under the impression you should fully vacuum your gravel to remove decaying stuff at least like doing a quick vacuum with water changes, etc., and a full clean-out once a month.

I keep thinking of more things so keeping having to update my post. Sorry. They also had this big reddish sharky looking thing that was in a log. He told me what it was but I forget. Anywho this sharky looking thing was scratching himself continuously on the side of the log inside the log. I asked him what he was doing. I felt it indicated sickness or something. He said he was just marking his territory. Do fish mark their territory? He was the only one in this tank and I don't remember what he was housed with. Their tanks were pretty scarce, no plants, nothing, I guess it is easier to catch them for customers without worrying about them darting into plants.

 

Just a side note about mollies before I begin, I will try to answer as many questions as I can. Mollies are livebearers and are constantly pregnant and giving birth it seems, they will need at least a 30 gallon tank in order to keep them happy.

The catfish looking thing, is most likely a pleco. Without a photo it would be very hard for me to tell you what it actually is. From the sounds of it, it was close to being an adult because of the "spikes" on its head. (I could be wrong, but the spikes means it a male.) Most stores keep them in all their tanks to remove the "algae" that may or may not actually occur in their tanks. Because they are actually algae eaters.

Puffer fish, I would not get as a beginner. They are actually quite senstive to water changes. They are very personal little fish and I have thought about getting one myself...however, I couldn't because in my area I have a LOT of copper in my water. Enough so, that I cannot keep snails alive in any of my tanks. Puffers love to eat snails and a variety of other things. Some people go as far as to call them the "dogs" of the fish world. They can actually recongize their owners, you can teach them to do tricks, etc.

I really highly doubt they have an "all automatic" system. Most places don't, not to be mean or anything...but I think he just said that to make you hush. LOL. I actually vacuum my substrate weekly along with my water changes. (My cories love food, but tend to leave extra here and there. Rotting food can actually cause an ammonia spike.) Depending on the tank I'm sure once a month could be fine? I'm not an expert when it comes to that.

I'm not sure if fish really mark their territory? At least I have never heard of that. Sure they have territories (hence aggression and why its good when you have aggressive fish to change up their tank every once in awhile) but I have never heard of them actually marking. They will defend their terrority (fin nipping, chasing, etc) but I have never heard of marking. It sounds like the fish might have something wrong with it.

A very important thing to remember about fish stores, is that they will try to get you to buy everything on spot. They don't seem to care about the quality of the fish in the store, or leaving the store. They are out there to make a quick buck. They will hire people without fish keeping experience. 9 times out of 10 the information you will receive from your local pet store or fish store will be wrong. Some of the people the hire won't even have fish keeping experience.

 

Since the "sucky thing" had bristles on his head my guess would be it's a bristle nose pleco. They don't get very large (mabee 6 inches at most) but all plecos have huge bioloads. A well filtered 20 gallon is about minimum for those.
As far as the LFS advice on tank maintenance.... There usually not the best resource for information.

 

Is it normal for mollies to be nipping bristlenose (and I googled pics and that appears what he was) constantly at least for 20 minutes, as long as I was watching for? I swore he had sores on side of his head but my son and GF said the sores were his eyes. So, he would need a 20 gallon? Nope no room for him. Poor thing. I felt so bad.

I so want a pufferfish, but not in the cards at the moment. He was just the cutest thing I ever saw in a fish. It felt like you know if you go to a pound to adopt a dog? Like a dog picks you, and you just can't resist those puppy eyes, and he is telling you take me home, take me home. This is how it felt leaving the pufferfish. One day, I will have one. Too cute.

 

Mollies can be mean at times, but no it's not normal. Usually a BN would hide in a cave during the day and feed at night. At the LFS though ,all bets are off, because fish are usually not kept in optimal conditions. The molly may be stressed and acting out.

 

The only logs, hiding spaces I saw in any of the tanks was one for a red tail shark, the one scratching constantly. But in the mollie tank, there was nowhere to hide, and it is weird because only the black and white ones were beating up the bristlenose, not the normal colored ones. If I had a place to put him, I would have bought the bristlenose.

 

Scratching is usually a sign of parasites. Yea the pet stores don't usually provide hides for fish so they can be seen by customers. It's sad because some fish need them.