daisywb
Member
I need to vent....long-winded post coming up.
Every night from work, my boyfriend and I pass a store that specializes in saltwater fish. We'd never been there before, so tonight we decided to check it out. The first thing I saw was a nano reef display tank on the counter. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what was inside because the algae was so thick and it covered the whole front of the tank. From looking in through the sides I saw a poor clownfish just sitting there close to the top of the water. The only water flow was coming back from a filter that was releasing water back in the tank (and I couldn't even tell if that was working).
Next, we went to look at their fish. A beautiful coral beauty and potters angelfish caught my eye across the room. I went up to the tank and as they ducked and tried to hide because they were frightened, I saw that they were completely saturated (especially the CB) with ich. Now, I've never seen ich before, but I have no doubts at all that this is what it was. My heart sank when I saw those two. They were huddled in the back of their small holding tanks until I walked away. This store keeps a whole wall of small holding tanks (maybe 30 or so), that are all connected w/ the same water source...the water flows from box to box. All of the LFS's that I've been to have setups like this. What concerned me was that if these fish were so sick that every tank on that wall had ich circulating through it. Next to these fish were 3 clownfish. They didn't appear to be sick so I assumed they were new arrivals :/ Further down the lines the fish appeared to be frozen in their tanks, all of them covered with ich. One tank had about 5 feather dusters that were just thrown in. No substrate, no rocks to anchor them. At this point, I'm really starting to get upset.
The store has a middle isle with large tanks on each side. I walk down there and see the same deplorable conditions with these tanks as well. There was a yellow eyed tang that was crouched in one corner. When the fish turned around I saw that one of his eyes was cloudy and kinda puffed out. Another tank had a Naso tang in with a very tiny, 1" fish (not sure what kind it was). This poor little fish was beaten to a pulp by the tang. Its fins were torn and it looked like its scales were rotting off around the middle section of its body. Although these tanks were bigger than the holding tanks along the wall, I don't think that a tank approx. 30-40 gallons will comfortably hold a tang w/ a small, passive fish as a tankmate. Most of the other fish had ich, some of them looked like they were on their death beds. The tanks themselves hadn't been cleaned in a REALLY long time (both inside and outside). The water circulating through these tanks was cloudy and extremely dirty.
I was fuming by the time I left the store. I've seen a few dingy LFS's, but this one was unacceptable. More than 50% of the fish I saw had ich (or at least from what my inexperienced eyes could tell) and lived in rancid conditions.
What can we, as responsible pet owners, do about situations like this? Normally, I would just take my business elsewhere, but in this case, it's different. To me, this is obvious neglect, cruelty....it's flat out animal abuse. I'm very curious to know if anyone else in the southern Los Angeles area has ever been to this store. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the name here, but I will gladly give it in an e-mail in case anyone would like to visit this place.
I cannot articulate how despicable that place is. How can these guys expect to run a business if their stock is in this condition?! I'm very new to this hobby, but even I could see major problems. If anyone else thinks they have been to this store, please let me know. Maybe we can do something to help. I don't ever want to see another fish enter that death trap again.
Thanks for listening,
-Daisy
Every night from work, my boyfriend and I pass a store that specializes in saltwater fish. We'd never been there before, so tonight we decided to check it out. The first thing I saw was a nano reef display tank on the counter. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what was inside because the algae was so thick and it covered the whole front of the tank. From looking in through the sides I saw a poor clownfish just sitting there close to the top of the water. The only water flow was coming back from a filter that was releasing water back in the tank (and I couldn't even tell if that was working).
Next, we went to look at their fish. A beautiful coral beauty and potters angelfish caught my eye across the room. I went up to the tank and as they ducked and tried to hide because they were frightened, I saw that they were completely saturated (especially the CB) with ich. Now, I've never seen ich before, but I have no doubts at all that this is what it was. My heart sank when I saw those two. They were huddled in the back of their small holding tanks until I walked away. This store keeps a whole wall of small holding tanks (maybe 30 or so), that are all connected w/ the same water source...the water flows from box to box. All of the LFS's that I've been to have setups like this. What concerned me was that if these fish were so sick that every tank on that wall had ich circulating through it. Next to these fish were 3 clownfish. They didn't appear to be sick so I assumed they were new arrivals :/ Further down the lines the fish appeared to be frozen in their tanks, all of them covered with ich. One tank had about 5 feather dusters that were just thrown in. No substrate, no rocks to anchor them. At this point, I'm really starting to get upset.
The store has a middle isle with large tanks on each side. I walk down there and see the same deplorable conditions with these tanks as well. There was a yellow eyed tang that was crouched in one corner. When the fish turned around I saw that one of his eyes was cloudy and kinda puffed out. Another tank had a Naso tang in with a very tiny, 1" fish (not sure what kind it was). This poor little fish was beaten to a pulp by the tang. Its fins were torn and it looked like its scales were rotting off around the middle section of its body. Although these tanks were bigger than the holding tanks along the wall, I don't think that a tank approx. 30-40 gallons will comfortably hold a tang w/ a small, passive fish as a tankmate. Most of the other fish had ich, some of them looked like they were on their death beds. The tanks themselves hadn't been cleaned in a REALLY long time (both inside and outside). The water circulating through these tanks was cloudy and extremely dirty.
I was fuming by the time I left the store. I've seen a few dingy LFS's, but this one was unacceptable. More than 50% of the fish I saw had ich (or at least from what my inexperienced eyes could tell) and lived in rancid conditions.
What can we, as responsible pet owners, do about situations like this? Normally, I would just take my business elsewhere, but in this case, it's different. To me, this is obvious neglect, cruelty....it's flat out animal abuse. I'm very curious to know if anyone else in the southern Los Angeles area has ever been to this store. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the name here, but I will gladly give it in an e-mail in case anyone would like to visit this place.
I cannot articulate how despicable that place is. How can these guys expect to run a business if their stock is in this condition?! I'm very new to this hobby, but even I could see major problems. If anyone else thinks they have been to this store, please let me know. Maybe we can do something to help. I don't ever want to see another fish enter that death trap again.
Thanks for listening,
-Daisy
. Unless you're planning to buy all the sick fishes save them and keep them. I don't think you want to invest money on sick fishes, do you? Well there might be someone out there who has lots and lots of money and have one big hospital tank, he or she might be able to save those fishes. 
