Scary

[55willys]

Stores have a responsibility to maintain a reasonable environment for these enslaved living creatures, regardless of their hiring stage. I would think the large chains might have an area person to immediately train new workers.

 

[Unome]

Large stores spread around the world like petco, petland, and such don't have a much concern for their animals as family owned businesses. Family owned business work by their rules.. petco/petland is forced to do whatever their head boss says to do and unfornuantly he/she doesn't know what to do..

So true. I went into a Petsmart one time & they had bettas in the little cups waiting to be sold. Most of the cups water was BROWN almost to the point of not being able to see the fish.

I mentioned it to a girl working there and she said they had a routine/schedule for replacing the water. I told her couldn't she tell that the water conditions were terrible. She just looked at me and said, "It's not time to change the water according to the company schedule."

So I(politely) asked if I could talk to her manager. After she rolled her eyes at me, she reluctantly went to get the manager. He came over and asked what was my problem. I told him there wasn't a problem(to him maybe) but it seemed cruel to have these fish in such bad conditions. He gave me the corporate spiel about their routine/schedule for changing the water. I mentioned that but not changing it more often, they were losing fish.

Then I get the corporate spiel about them allowing for "acceptable losses" regarding the fish and that is why they had so many. They knew some wouldn't make it but that was "acceptable". I then brought up the fact that maybe if they spent about 30 - 45 minutes more every 2 - 3 days "outside their routine/schedule for changing the water", they would not lose as many fish(i.e. reducing their $$$ loss) and have more fish to sell(i.e. increasing profits). He looked at me like I had just slapped his mama and told me that he ran the store according to company policy, that was that, & walked away without a "Thank you for your concern". :headwallblue:

 

[bigdookie]

The Petco around here is maintained by a woman who takes really good care of the tanks.
Not perfect, they lose the odd fish, but she really does the best she can.
The vast majority are healthy and get bought quite quickly.

petcos in my area are pretty well maintained. however that is 1 particular lfs that has ich all over some fish, imploded anemones.... i don't even understand how hes in business.

 

[fisheater]

The Petcos I have been in are usually clean and well cared for. Maybe the OP went in on a bad day or when they are in between p/m schedule.
Remember that to the vast majority of people who handle fish or other marine life they are nothing more than a means to collect a paycheck. Having them live in your home gives them a soul and or feelings to you. Take a look at how food animals are treated. foodinc movie.

 

[sonoma2nv]

So I was at my LFS (In Fort Walton Beach) with the family looking around and went by the fish section and was quite disturbed by what I saw. There was absolutely no water movement in the tanks and they were covered in algae and feces. Most of the fish had some sort of desease or looked overall very unhealthy. At what point do they get shut down for animal cruelty? Does it not apply to fish? They can be kept in this cespool until they die or some poor person purchases one. I know they are "just fish" but i feel bad seeing how poorly maintained this tanks were.

Rant complete.

yeah they wont theres no regulation for fish .wish there was then the ppl working there would have some kind of training

 

[Allmost]

So I was at my LFS (In Fort Walton Beach) with the family looking around and went by the fish section and was quite disturbed by what I saw. There was absolutely no water movement in the tanks and they were covered in algae and feces. Most of the fish had some sort of desease or looked overall very unhealthy. At what point do they get shut down for animal cruelty? Does it not apply to fish? They can be kept in this cespool until they die or some poor person purchases one. I know they are "just fish" but i feel bad seeing how poorly maintained this tanks were.

Rant complete.

they dont get shut down.

they will wipe out their tanks and claim for insurance soon though

have seen some locally like that too ...
sadly.

 

[jccaclimber]

Keep in mind that a lot of those stores have one person who can run the salt water section. And when they quit or get hired away....the section goes up in smoke. I've seen that repeatedly around here. The stores do not care. Easy to let stuff die and hire a high school kid who knows how to get it up and running again a couple months later.

That's pretty typical in the box store fish places around here. They look decent when someone that knows what they are doing works that department, and like crap the rest of the time. The problem with having a good employee (getting paid near minimum wage) in that department is that either they suck and things die, or they get promoted to something else and then the conditions degrade anyways.

I try not to 'rescue' fish from these stores because I think it only encourages them to keep selling them.

 

[Alavaster]

Macwilliams, don't go to that petco in fortwalton. . . It's beyond terrible. There is another little LFS in town behind Uptown station, and I remember hearing about a new one in Destin. But I have not found it yet.
Happy Reef keeping from another Emerald coast local!

 

[MacWilliams]

Yea, i do not go to that store anymore. I buy everything i can from Matt's. that place is amazing. Great customer service and a lot of knowledge.

 

[Boston21]

Instead of complaining on here, maybe find a "polite" way to tell the managers, workers, owner's that there tanks are not being properly maintained. Someone might be an a** hole about it but some might respect it. Just an idea, probably wont help though.

 

[MacWilliams]

While I agree with your advice I dont think it would help. What company is going to change the way they do things because 1 customer went in to tell them they were doing it the wrong way? I dont go there anymore, so for me to do that i would have to make a special trip. Not worth the time when a i have a much better LFS near me.