lfs story....lets just watch the fish die

[loopy]

We stopped with my mother in law tonight at the fish store...they have fw and I was going to buy them that huge snail. Long story short....they have had the same Yellow Tang for about a month..(I asked...it's the same one) It is terribly terribly thin. Also they have two cc stars hanging out at the top of the tanks leaning backwards. I very nicely told the guy that tangs do not eat flake food, as he had told me before...that they need the algae pads you clip to the side of the aquarium or algae in general. He said no. so why is this tang so horribly thin???? I also told him I found out that contrary to what he told me about the cc star's being bottom feeders, they like shrimp etc. I told him about my feeding the (probably starving) star. He told me I was wrong...cc star fish don't eat shrimp. Hmmmm, Mine did!!!! I would love to buy the tang just to save his live, but I just don't have a big enough tank for one...and this store is the one that has the live rock issue. So....when the fish starves to death?????? Seems he needs to take a look at this site or quit selling sw fish. My frustrations with this place are mounting. It is owned by a vet btw. Think he should stick to dogs and cats.
Just a little share.

 

[aquaman]

Never buy fish with the idea of saving them. I know this sounds very harsh but this will do a few things. First you will be buying a sick, of weak fish, either way a dieing fish. Second the place you buy it at will just get more that will end up in the same situation, and the owner will learn nothing. If the store is the one to lose out on the money then they will either change there methods, or not carry the fish they keep killing. I know it is sad to think something has to die and it is a costly lesson.:nope:

 

[drummerbum]

Why on earth would you would you do that to a cat or dog

 

[guineawhop]

you are half correct. i work at a pet store and half 2 saltwater tanks myself and my yellow tang eats formula 2 flakes. BUT they won't eat flake unless they are in tanks with other fish that eat flake all the time or at least this has been my experience. they have to kinda be taught to eat flake. No tang will eat flake unless done this way and it might take a while for this to happen too.

 

[dominican]

GREAT point aquaman!!!!

BTW, my YT has been eating flake for a looong time. Yep, he's with other fish that eat it.. I vary the diet (nori, cyclopeeze, formula), but he loooves flake...
Regards,
Dominican

 

[reefraff]

My yellow and Hippo tangs eat OSI flake food like crazy. You just need enough rock to provide them some fresh algae or suppliment with nori of healthy greens from the wifes vegetable crisper

 

[loopy]

The store has no rock and no algae, and the tang is obviously in bad shape, that is all I was trying to say. The flake food they told me they fed tangs.....my tang would not eat, and they gave me bad info as to the eating habit of a tang. I have no plans to try to rescue this tang however, and what they do is basically there business, we will no longer take there information seriously as they steared my wrong on an enormous amount of different things. Thats all. I am happy, very happy that some are having success with flake food and tangs, I wish I had. I love tangs, they are beautiful.

 

[calvoley]

my yellow tang eats frozen brine fortified with algea and loves it he knows exactly when its feeding time.

 

[dmc888]

I have a lfs by me thats like that.
Everytime i go there i see about 4 dead fish in the tank. Last time i went there i seen about 10. They don't put compatible fish together. Their corals and anemones look almost dead. Corals had hair algea on it. Even the green chromis were discolored. Keeping in mind that they are hardy fish.
So far they gave me a blue tang with ich and a sandsifting star that they probably didn't acclimate right that died. I seen the last blue tang from the group i got had ich. They had it with a cleaner shrimp. And i have another ss star thats doing fine.
I have better luck with peeco. I should of known when i seen one of the employees at another lfs shopping .
I wanted to buy some blue background but i just left because i was so disgusted with the place.

 

[fishieness]

I have a fish store near me that i love and has always been a fealy good place. The fish seemed always healthy, but the past 2 or 3 times ive walked in, many of the fish are very skinny or have ick or another type of obvious disease. Some tanks looked great like their reef tank, but some of the others were horrible. I think the problem with them is that they keep too many fish in a tank. In a 15-20 gallon tank they will have more inches of fish than that. It is too crowded, therefore putting stress on the fish, and therefore makeing them sick. They have a large variety, and i think thats what the owner wanted, but since some of the fish are expensive, they lives in those crowded tanks for a while, and therefore get sick. Hes a great guy, jsut not the best busness man. As much as i hate to admit it, ive had better luck at *****. I usualy dont support the larger places, but the people are knowledgable, and the fish are very healthy. I have heard bad stories of ***** from this site, but the one by me seems to be a pretty good one. I saw one fish i wanted, but the guy said he would put it on hold for me because it wasnt eating and they were treating him. I am ashamed to say im not suporting my lfs, but i get home around 830, and they close at 5.... But mainly because of the resons suported above.

 

[rubberduck]

thats ashamed how these fish are treated. :nope:

 

[fishieness]

Hey guys. I wanted to apoligize to my local fish store. I just went back in and all the fish looked healthy. There were a few that werent doing so well but they had the three in their own tank away from healthy fish. So i dont know what happened, but they got their act together from 2 weeks ago. The tanks were still kinda crowded though, but at least the fish were looking healthy

 

[aquaman]

Yeah, we do a lot of complaining about the health of fish at the LFS and there are those who are real bad at keeping them because they do not care. However, even the good stores can have bad times, because the fish come in sick from the distributor, or from the supplier, or collector. It is natural that the fish get stressed and get sick. The point I am making is it is not how the fish are but what the LFS does with them, and how they treat them, Do they give it the proper care? Do the make sure that the customer gets the correct information on keeping the fish? Do they make sure a sick fish does not get sold, but proper treatment? And, do the LFSs make sure that everything is kept in the best environment that they can afford? We need to make sure we are not bad mouthing some store because of a few isolated events. (Yes even ***** has some good stores, Where we lived in TX they had a nice *****) Make your complaint and give the store some time to turn around. I did this at a store in TX, and you may find that the store, its customers, its fish and you benefit from a constructive criticism, instead of a red face complaint. Just some (fish) food for thought.

 

[lion_crazz]

I definitely agree with your last post, aquaman.