anyone work at a pet store?

[nereef]

if so, how do you guys acclimate the sw fish and inverts at the store? i am in awe of how any of my lfs fish can make it!
they float the bag for about 20 minutes, then make a slit in the bag with a razor, let it sit another 10 minutes, then dump them in.

 

[rs1831]

The place that I do a lot of business at takes gladware containers and acclimate the fish by the drip method. There store is amazing and they only do saltwater.

 

[nereef]

perfect. it really doesn't take that much more work to do it right.

 

[anonome]

Originally Posted by rs1831
The place that I do a lot of business at takes gladware containers and acclimate the fish by the drip method. There store is amazing and they only do saltwater.
That store sounds wonderful, keep shopping there. I happened to be in one of the larger fish stores around where I live and saw an absolutely horrid thing :scared: They had just gotten a large shipment in and literally opened the boxes, floated the bags for a few minutes, not exaggerating the time, and dumped the fish in the holding tanks. I questioned the manager about this method and he gave me one of these--

. Needless to say, I will never buy any living thing from there.

 

[nereef]

thanks guys. keep em' comin'. and they don't have to be horror stories. i'd just like to know if most stores do it right or not.

 

[lion_crazz]

I work in a local fish store (part time job for now), and I acclimate all of the fish for about 3 hours in large containers. I run a slow drip for that time.
Not all LFS' are clueless. :happyfish

 

[nereef]

thanks lion. it may be that they aren't clueless. they just don't care, as long as the product gets moved before they have to pay for it. i do have a good lfs about 45 minutes away.

 

[noodlemmy]

The store I work at floats the bags for maybe 15 minutes, pops them and lets the water mix for maybe 10 minutes, and then DUMP!
Egads....

 

[drewsta]

At the LFS I work at we acclimate all stars/inverts however fish we sometimes get shipments of 100+ Fish at once so 3 hour drip acclimations are out of the question generally we only have about 5 deaths per shipment so thats not to bad and usually the fish don't look so good when they come in

 

[lion_crazz]

Yeah, that's true. Stores are sometimes careless.
Drewsta, I am not attacking you personally, but I have gotten those 100 fish orders at times, and I always do a 3 hour drip. Quantity is not really an excuse, in my opinion. We got a 10 box shipment one time at 1 in the morning and were in the store til about 4:30 AM putting away the fish order.

 

[drewsta]

If a fish looks sick we will do acclimation and QT we also have an awesome feeding schedule

How is the water quality at your store? If you have perfect water quality I believe the fish will be fine

 

[lion_crazz]

The water quality is great. I do large water changes every single week.
What does feeding schedule have to do with acclimation? If a fish does not acclimate properly and stresses out, he will not be very concerned with food..
Many fish do not look good upon arrival. I still do not lose hardly any. I'm not sure how you would judge which fish are just stressed from the ones that are sick. :notsure:

 

[drewsta]

When all the fish go in the lights stay out for a couple of hours. We look at each fish while its floating and see if has some disease if so whe QT. Our feeding is a major part of why our fish stay healthy I believe as soon as the fish go into the tanks we feed them because generaly they are starved. I believe the acclimation goes beyond the point of putting the fish in the tanks, I believe it continues for the next couple days

I don't know, at my house I acclimate via the drip method for several hours and the fish seem fine but there is still stress involved. But at the store they are aleady stressed, putting them in a bucket then netting/collection cupping is just another stress IMO

 

[nereef]

Originally Posted by lion_crazz
I'm not sure how you would judge which fish are just stressed from the ones that are sick. :notsure:
you can't. that's why you do it right, unless you're just carelessly moving product. it makes me want to open my own store. i'd have to take some business classes though.

 

[drewsta]

Look at the business side of it NEREEF for the hours of acclimation you have to pay someone to do that so thats 3 hours of payroll that the person could be cleaning/stocking/feeding etc.. Its a matter of opinion. I don't agree with everything the owner does at my store but all the fish we have in stock look great and its the only place I would buy my fish and I don't even get a discount

 

[lion_crazz]

Well, I don't know about you, but I can help customers and clean tanks in another system while I am acclimating fish. All you have to do is check on the container every 15 to 20 minutes to dump water or make sure all fish are okay. From a business stand point, you get your money's worth when you hire employees who are able to multi-task and do their job correctly and efficiently.
You cannot always see disease on fish. It could be in the water that the fish are in, it could be in their dormant stage. Disease does not always appear on the fish when they arrive. If you ask me, you usually do not see disease when receiving fish.
The stress of catching a fish after acclimation is MUCH less than the stress of going from a 7.2 pH to 8.4, or from a 1.016 specific gravity to 1.022 specific gravity.

 

[emperor11]

Does volunteering count? Since I'm 13, I help out at my local LFS. Its just nice to play around with more saltwater stuff!

 

[drewsta]

Originally Posted by lion_crazz
You cannot always see disease on fish. It could be in the water that the fish are in, it could be in their dormant stage. Disease does not always appear on the fish when they arrive. If you ask me, you usually do not see disease when receiving fish.
Even so 3 hours of acclimation is not going to prevent disease unless you QT every single fish you get in. I'm not trying to argue with you just expressing MO

Lion you have always been a huge help to me and I just wanted to say thanks for that

 

[lion_crazz]

I am not trying to argue with you either, I am just expressing my views as well. It's only fair to give the people reading both sides of the issue. That is the only way people can learn about anything.
I totally agree. Fish arrive with disease. There is nothing you can do about this. I think we would both agree that it would be impossible to QT all fish. A store does not make enough money to do this, and most, if not all, do not have enough room. This is the only way you would prevent disease though.
Thanks for the compliments. I am glad that I have been able to help you in the past. I hope you do not think I am arguing or attacking you, because I am certainly not intending to do that at all!

 

[poniegirl]

Originally Posted by Emperor11
Does volunteering count? Since I'm 13, I help out at my local LFS. Its just nice to play around with more saltwater stuff!

Off thread, sorry
I've seen a couple of kids at my LFS working for trade. Sweet deal for all! The LFS gets labor, the kids learn to do right..