Hi All
As I work in the Carlow area I have from time to time called in on a pet super store(Should I name the store?) for a few of the basics and cheched out the tanks. A nice sellection of fish on my 1st visit about 3 months ago. Called in againg about 6 week ago and seen a few dead fish and told the staff about it and was told "oh No, not again". The Problems I guessed would be sorted out, I was wrong. I was there yesterday getting a tub of food and counted 65 dead fish and bits of dead fish. I asked a member of staff what was the problem and was told there is nothing wrong, it's normal.
I'm only fishing keeping since xmas and kinda new but surly this is not normal? I have never bought fish there, and only have bought fish from one of our sponcors and have never seen a dead fish in that shop.
Does any of the members live or shop in the carlow area? I think they need some advise from someone more experience than I.

Pat

Hi,

No, it's not normal to have tanks full of dead fish. At the very least they could make the effort to take the dead fish out of the tanks.

Yes, it is normal that there is a mortality rate in fish deliveries, that is why the better aquatic shops operate a quarantine system and don't sell any of the fish for a week after delivery, that way they know they are healthy and free from disease.

I know of one of these "super" stores that gets fish deliveries every Thursday and the fish are put on sale as soon as they arrive. I have bought fish from here in the past, and to be honest, I have had lots of losses within a few days from these purchases.

On the other hand, I have made the effort to travel to some of our sponsors shops (one in particular), and can hand on heart say that I have never had a dead fish yet from this particular shop in the first couple of weeks. They also made the effort to ask what other fish I had in the tank, and what my water parameters were. That's the way it should be done !!

There is a big difference between a pet shop that sells fish and a proper aquatic shop.

I think I know the particular garden centre that you refer to. I'm not going to name it. Every time i've called in the tanks are full of dead or sick fish.

I questioned a manager on it one day and they seemed to think it was normal too. Clueless.

Just another reason to stick to sponsors shops and specialist sellers. I don't buy fish from tree sellers.

I raised this issue before also and it certainly is a case of know your pet shop before you go buying. I have 2 pet shops in my area. One is a garden centre and continues to have dead fish above the norm. Coupled with the fact that when I looked for Shrimp last week the shop owner said "Shrimp is it,Id say try the supermarket!". So the other shop didnt have shrimp either but gave lots of advise where to get them etc..I only ever deal with the pet shop dedicated to the Fish. They have about 20 tanks at least and have an array of fish and are well informed.(Lucky for me its only a 4 min walk from my house also!). So for anyone unsure of buying from pet shops, remember its a business to them,they will sell you whatever they want. The shops who tell you no you cant stock an angel with baby fry etc..they are the shops to do the business with as they know what fishkeeping is about.

Gavin

Andy T, just a note to say that it is a pet shop and not a garden centre. This place does have a fine selection of fish and tanks and should have some staff that knows about fish. I did over hear a member of staff saying that they offer a 48 hour replacement for your fish if they die. I don't think that good enough, not that they will replace the dead fish in 48 hours but that fact that they seem to need to offer that policy. It really is a fine shop and could be a great shop if only they had someone that knew about fish keeping.

Anyway, I only have ever been to one of our sponcors shops and would never dream of buying fish anywhere else but its an hour and a half for me and as I work the Carlow area I have to get some basic stuff somewhere.

Well done to the sponcors shop for running a zero dead fish policy.

Pat

Pat, apologies. I had a different place in mind (which is a garden centre) Glad I didn't name them now!

Its not a Carlow thing anyway, over in the West its a knightmare to, every time I go tot he fish shops there are always to many dead fish than there should be. And the advise can be very poor, no wonder people end up buying the wrong fish for there tanks, I overheard a conversation with a member of staff to a customer no the Plecs dont get very big at all! the customer didnt have a clue what she was buying and the staff didnt ask the right questions, most just want the sale. I have managed to get down to one of the local sponsors twice (its well over an hours drive) but each time its been just before new stock has come in, so unfortuantly havnt had mush quality browsing time as of yet, but the staff there knew what they were talking about and were very friendly.

Its not a Carlow thing anyway, over in the West its a knightmare to, every time I go tot he fish shops there are always to many dead fish than there should be. And the advise can be very poor, no wonder people end up buying the wrong fish for there tanks, I overheard a conversation with a member of staff to a customer no the Plecs dont get very big at all! the customer didnt have a clue what she was buying and the staff didnt ask the right questions, most just want the sale. I have managed to get down to one of the local sponsors twice (its well over an hours drive) but each time its been just before new stock has come in, so unfortuantly havnt had mush quality browsing time as of yet, but the staff there knew what they were talking about and were very friendly.

hey guys can some one pm me withe the name of the shops in question as i dont want to go down there tks ill keep it quiet promise

A shop is only ever as good as a) its stock and b) the person charged with looking after that stock.

So, just maybe an approach might be able to be made to the shop mentioned by Pat and others in this thread with offer of advice...perhaps they'll not be interested in being helped, in which case they will then deserve
all this criticism and more - but let's try to help first...

So, if anyone has some sort of point of contact for this establishment perhaps they'll pass it on and Admin can see what might be done...
A web or email address would be most helpful - or even a good old-fashioned mailing address, we can but try.

But I must stress the name should be sent to Admin by Personal Message, it wouldn't do for the name to be posted on open Forum.

John