ya gotta read this, care sheet from *****

[loopy]

long before we even had a tank, I picked up a few care sheets on fish from *****. I was cleaning out my filing cabinet today and found them. I quote..(and cringe)
Care Sheet/Tang
Diet-marine flake, lettuce or spinach
Housing-two gallons per fish inch is recommended for saltwater aquariums with a minimum aquarium size of 30 gallons.
UNQUOTE.
2 gallons......no wonder so many have troubles. Flake food, my butt, I have had two tangs....flake food....uh uh, not mine anyway...if yours does I call you lucky and wish my tang would be so simple. Lettuce and spinach....yes, I heard that here as well as brocolli. At the top of the sheet it says.......
*****
where the animals always come first.
(apparently not the fish)
BTW, on all the care sheets I collected it says two gallons of fish inch and also they all say flake food.......ALL.
*****, where the pets go, and where I blow.

 

[lion_crazz]

I agree, I hate *****.

 

[55galgill]

i understand you frustration loopy. i got nailed with lfs mumbo jumbo and ended up with a hippo in a 55 gal. (still there) i got him a the size of a silver dollar but now little dudes gonna be heading for a 180 this summer. other day i was at a ***** with my girlfriend and the fish manager was telling the customer to add a couple fish a day after he cycled for a week. wouldnt be surprised if the poor soul shows up on this forum a week from now with the post"help all fish going to heaven".~gill~

 

[jjlittle]

I have a yellow tang he love flake & i put seaweed in once a week he or she is very healthy and shows no ill effects. He eats it all even brine . He didn't even touch broccili when i put it in. Not all tangs are finiky eaters

 

[loopy]

I am sincerely happy for you and your tang jjlittle, that makes life easier for both of you.:yes:
Tell your tang to email my tang and tell him flakes are yummy!!!:yes:

 

[ryan]

Ive read a few books out there before i jumped into saltwater tanks. I know most people on this site say 1 inch for every 5 gallons of water, but some of the books for saltwater say that is what you should use when your tanks newer, but in a established aquarium you can have 1/2 inch per gallon. So that would fit with Petcos care sheet.

 

[mombostic]

It's funny, isn't it? I have a book that is much harder on us. To make a long story short, it says that you can't just go by gallons of water, that each fish (or inch of fish) has to have so many square inches (I think it was one square foot, actually) of surface area, not just gallons of water in the tank. If a person followed that rule.....well, let's just say a lot of us would be overstocked.

 

[harlequin]

While it is true that a new tank should be around 5 per gallon, You will learn that some fish are messier than others and require more or less. In addition, in a well established tank you can definately go beyond the 5 inch per gal limit but definately not to the 1/2" per. Thats just silly. A high-powered skimmer goes a long way towards helping your limitations. But still a 10 inch fish in a 30 gallon tank is wrong anyway you put it.

 

[ophiura]

There are just so many opinions on inches per gallon. I think 2 is not appropriate but many LFS would disagree and say you could do MORE fish.
I think that their "minimum tank size"of 30g is admirable. Many LFS would gladly sell a new hobbyist a 12 g eclipse with Nemo and Dory...and was that a 30g tank for saltwater in general? That would be good advice too as smaller tanks are more difficult.
I've worked with many tangs that eat flake and pellets - while not an ideal long term diet, they do mention supplementing with fresh foods. This, again, is FAR more than many LFS do. You can always ask for the fish to be fed...if they don't want to, you shouldn't buy the fish anyway.
It is just SO easy to bash ***** and it happens an aweful lot...OK, we know they aren't the best. But I've seen FAR worse at some LFS.
Is it better to have a fact sheet that is slightly misleading - to us since some experienced hobbyists would agree with it, or to have no fact sheet at all?

 

[loopy]

I agree getting a fact sheet is far better than getting nothing at all. My problem with ***** stems back to a day when we were looking at fish, and they told me two obviously dead clowns were 'sleeping'. Sleeping caught up in a plastic plant. So obviously dead. We left and returned later and apparently while we were gone someone purchased the 'sleeping' clowns. I have never been there without seeing dead fish in the tank. At least remove them ha? I dunno. Sometimes ***** is an only choice, and some *****'s are better than others, as with any chain store. I just get disgruntled when they try to tell you stuff that is just not true...but then that's common of lfs if they just want to sell sell sell. Ya, I'd probably purchase at ***** if it were local enough....I don't know. I have another store the same distance that is just so much more honest. It's not always a choice for everyone and I am sure not every ***** is bad. And, as I have said before, there are always more than one way of doing things....and as we learn these options we can be better fish keepers, which makes swf.com a great place as I have learned options to taking care of fish I would not otherwise be able to have. In closing, if ya'll would come over and help me net a fish I'd greatly appreciate it........I am about to go crazy!!!!!

 

[ophiura]

The weird thing is, and this may sound stupid but...they may not have a clue if they're dead depending on the employee. Or maybe they didn't want to say "yeah, they're dead" when you asked, and promptly removed them as soon as you were gone. "Yeah, they're dead" is not a good marketing plan.
When I worked at an LFS people would come up and say "you've got a dead fish over there." And it was kind of annoying. Hey way to announce that there is a dead fish over there. But it (fish death) happens constantly, even in the best stores. The person saying it may have the best intent (I caught my Mom doing this once), but it can annoy the employee. I know that is lame, but if people don't understand the typical fish loss in the store, it can be taken the wrong way. Some fish die of neglect, some fish die because they are caught from the ocean, transported thousands of miles and were basically doomed regardless of where they ended up. But stores still don't want to say "yeah, they're dead."
Anyway, I went into a petsmart not too long ago and a woman had been told to bring in part of her eclipse filter. The guy who told her wasn't there so she was working with another person and they were going in the totally wrong direction with it. So I eventually just butted in and got the employee to grab a bucket of water, showed them BOTH how to clear it, and demonstrated how it worked. I could say "wow those petsmart people are idiots" and were just trying to get more money out of this lady. I think they just didn't know any better. The employee might be pissed at me, or she might know what to do in the future.
They won't start saying "yeah, its dead" but there are times you can inform people. If they are saying "hey, just feed it flake" say oh I've had great success with such and such a food too! Be positive and helpful to the employee and customer and hopefully at least one person will get better info. But if you try and challenge the owner or something - challenge what they know- that won't be taken well and may not be productive for anyone.

 

[harlequin]

I point out dead starfish at my LFS all the time...just so I can watch them feed the harlequin shrimp yeah its childish, but hey since I cant afford to keep a harley fed, why not have them do it instead? They dont react like it bothers them.

 

[cmi]

does ***** even have saltwater fish???