Are you a victim of this?

First topic message reminder :

Do you pay $13.99 for "Mixed Africans"?

I go to a store that has been in business for a long time and they have knowledgeable staff. They have stopped me from making impulse buys cause either the fish are not compatible with the fish i have now or my tank is not big enough. I trust their word because they have also stopped me from buying some higher priced items and steered me to cheaper ones that work just as good. I also have a friend who works at my local Petco and he has been a aquarist for 8 years, he keeps fw and sw and gives good advice and he keeps the fish there healthy.

Hey Vampy tell your friend to give me a job or get me in

lol, he works at the Petco on Military and Goliad, i'll ask if they are hiring.

Cool thanks!

vampyrekrab wrote:

I go to a store that has been in business for a long time and they have knowledgeable staff. They have stopped me from making impulse buys cause either the fish are not compatible with the fish i have now or my tank is not big enough. I trust their word because they have also stopped me from buying some higher priced items and steered me to cheaper ones that work just as good. I also have a friend who works at my local Petco and he has been a aquarist for 8 years, he keeps fw and sw and gives good advice and he keeps the fish there healthy.

My lfs is the same way, I always get good advice there and if they don't know they tell you so!
I started as a customer and now I'm an employee apparently my specialty's are African cichlids, corys and plants

Fern wrote:

My lfs is the same way, I always get good advice there and if they don't know they tell you so!
I started as a customer and now I'm an employee apparently my specialty's are African cichlids, corys and plants

I am not surprised Fern, and anyone walking in is very lucky to have such a great enthusiast who is so knowledgable! Thanks for you work in educating the masses on healthy fish keeping...

It's a dissapointment to find so many stores that stock fish who don't look back or even consider what's really important. Making sure you and your customer have a great environment for every animal that you are caring for. Dead fish happen sometimes in this hobby, but not very often! Once I bought some Plecos (2 common) from Petsmart and they told me I had a either a 7 day or 14 day return policy, and I thought to myself, wow they must have a lot of dead fish coming back, and then probably new ones going back to certain death... It's not uncommon to see more than one fish circling the drain at too many chain petstores. That's why I don't look at their "commercially bred" fish, and just pick up the Prime I came for in the first place, or catch a sale on a power filter.

IMHO - Find a store that's usually smaller and actually dedicated to fish keeping and encourage others to do the same.

I agree. Most fish stores are trash and don't know the half. VERY FEW have a good thing going. Infact I have not been to a LFS in about a year or so.... No point. I can find anything I want here on USA.

Petsmart and Petco is garbage, i stopped going there when i found my lfs(same of Fern), you see the big difference on prices and quality on the fish, and i will never pay $13 for a mixed African Cichlid..

I will spend a good 30 minutes with new fishkeepers giving them the run down of what all is involved in the hobby making sure they have a clue what they are doing before they leave. Then I hand them a fishbox sticker and tell them if you need help with anything this is the best place to go!

The other day I was in Petsmart...again, getting something non-fish related, (i think I was getting some toys for my dog...) and of course I have to go look at the fish because I cannot resist
anyways there was this mother with her son their talking to an employee. The young boy spent over $100 of his own money to set up a tank, when he did do this, the store employee gave him little or no advice, and even allowed him to take fish home that same day, with no water conditioner or nothing. Needless to say the fish died and the mother was trying to get better information from the employee there. She wasn't having success, the employee just kept saying if they weren't satisfied to bring all their stuff back and the manager would give them just a 20% credit!!!!
So I went over and was kind of rude to that employee, because he ticked me off, and I ended up getting that mom's address and stuff, and I went over yesterday and set the poor kid's tank up, I used my materials (water conditioner, test equipment etc.) and taught him a bunch about water quality, and how to keep fish. I gave him my cell number in case he had any other questions, and I did refer him to this site, we will see if he joins (hes only 12).
The mother (name is Karen) was so appreciative, I thought she was going to give me a kiss, she tried to pay me too, I didn't accept it, I told her to spend it on fish! lol
I recommended to her to never go to a pet smart or a petco again, and gave her the addresses of a couple of LFS that are really good.

Well thats my story

that was a real nice thing of u to do for that little kid and for the pets mart employ who has no idea what hes doing..

Very nice thing for ya to do! Doesnt it feel great to help someone when they dont know what they are doing? Its a sense of pride you get afterwards thats more rewarding than money.

Last time I went to petsmart a teenager was buying 12 snails because the employee was telling him it's the only way to get rid of algae. I went up and ask the employee if they out cooper in their tanks (I already knew they did) He said yes we do. Of course 3/4 of the snails were already dead in the tank. I told the kid cooper is deadly to snails and as you can see most of these snails are dead. 3 that were in the bag were dead. I explained diatoms and algae growth and told him to go on line and buy plants. 3 weeks later he called me and said must of the algae was gone. He now checks out the internet before leaving to buy anything.

its great to help ppl !!! but the big chain pet store r the biggest place ppl go too to get their fish and they hav the unhealthiest fish. i broke down and bought 2 balloon mollies but i qt them for a month lol, u know why ICH!!!! the next day they got ich so treatment water change and temp higher and it took them forever to get rid of it. wen ich went away they went into my 55 and now they r happy and healthy my first balloon molly dwarfs them and is a bully which is funny bc one of them is the male lol. they r getting to a better size for her lol. so far no breeding which im not very happy argh i want balloon molly fry lol

BLimon wrote:

Very nice thing for ya to do! Doesnt it feel great to help someone when they dont know what they are doing? Its a sense of pride you get afterwards thats more rewarding than money.

totally agree!

Mlegion1988 and FishVixen Great job on helping those guys out!!!!!

FishVixen wrote:

Last time I went to petsmart a teenager was buying 12 snails because the employee was telling him it's the only way to get rid of algae. I went up and ask the employee if they out cooper in their tanks (I already knew they did) He said yes we do. Of course 3/4 of the snails were already dead in the tank. I told the kid cooper is deadly to snails and as you can see most of these snails are dead. 3 that were in the bag were dead. I explained diatoms and algae growth and told him to go on line and buy plants. 3 weeks later he called me and said must of the algae was gone. He now checks out the internet before leaving to buy anything.

great story. glad u could help him.

Most of the lfs around here have closed. Petsmart is just about the only place to get fish within a 50 mile radius. I still don't buy from them. I found buying from a breeder and having them shipped gets me better quality fish.

For a healthy and quality fish breeders are the only way to go. If you want a dead fish you can always go to my local petsmart. I still go there in emergency supply needs because it's close by but usually end up educating someone (employee or customer alike) on the needs of a fish.

i totally agree my neighbor is the aquatics person at petco and he tells me all kinds of stuff that goes on there when they get fish in.. there system is all sumped so the cant set up a qt tank and get the fish healthy so they just put them in the tank and hope for the best thats a pretty S*@#Y thing to do to ppl

for u jessee

well on top of paying too much here is another thing that goes on at these places...


i ran too petco and baught some 10 gallon tanks the other day and while i was in there i was looking at the cichlids they had in there for sale and you wouldnt believe what i had seen. there were numerous of fish in there tanks that had fin rot seriously so bad that you couldnt tell that the fish even had fins. one that i saw was an oscar he was sooooo bad it was horrible. so when i saw a person who was employeed there i had notified him of the condition of the fish so maybe he would put them into a qt tank and heal the lil ones well his answer was that he knew aboutr it and a majority of there fish come in with all types od diseases and fin rot was just one of them and there was no tank he could put them in and frankly there was nothing he could do to help the fish. so instead of him sending the fish back or qt them he just leaves them in the tank hoping someone buys them before they die



how f-d up is that isnt there something ppl can do about this problem besides buying the fish

thats nasty tho..

I just set up my first 30 gallon tank and brought 6 tetra from petsmart before i went i read that tetra where laid back fish but i also have a dwarf gourami and a large silver dollar that i put in there today and the tetra that i got from petsmart are so mean to the gourami and silver dollar by the way i got the gourami and dollar from a family owned petshop who also breeds but i cant figure out why my tetra are so aggressive any answers?

I used to be the cashier at a chain pet store. One day a customer carried two bags up to my register. In one bag was a gourami and in the other was an oscar. Hmmm! I asked the customer casually where they going to put them together. Why yes, we are! Size of the tank....20 gallon!! I politely informed them that they could have the gourami if they wanted it but no way should they be buying an oscar. Not only for the size of their tank but that it would grow up and eat their gourami too! They gladly handed back the oscar and went about their day with their purchase.

After working there a while usual customers would come up to my register and ask if I could go back to the aquatics section and help them because they didn't trust the people back there. If not busy I always went with them. I got dirty looks a few times for recommending things that meant I wasn't 'upselling' the products. I just have a more natural approach to fishkeeping and don't like all the chemicals that some would recommend.