petsmart rant and stocking question?

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pocel

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 11, 2007
53
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kansas
After a painful three years of completely Renovating a house and getting moved into this 100 year old beauty. I finally get my 220 out of storage and get it setup.

Driftwood, Lots of Java moss, fake plants from crafts section at wally world on pool filter sand.

DIY chompers drawer style wetdry with a magdrive 2400.

I get 3 oscars , a Midas and a regular pleco from my LFS.

3 weeks later i'm out of town and go into Petsmart i have the girl bag me up a small green terror, small jack dempsey and 3 tinfoil barbs, I tried to buy 2 small bichers but was refused service with them because they are PEACEFUL fish that only eat flake food HMMMM. I am then in formed that these fish are TO MEAN to put more than this amount into a tank at once. LOL. I talk to the girls manager about this "five" fish policy witch she disagreed and tried to sell me more fish. But i told her because of this girls condisending attitude and pure incompitance. or just simple laziness i would take the business to the other shop non corprate across the road. and said good day and left. Without buying the fish.


I ended up buying a nicer green terror. A nicer JD. 5 bristlenoses plecos for two bucks each. a small clown knife, and a med tire track eel plose three tinfoils...

still i have no fatalities and my convicts are breeding like convicts.


So my stock list as of now how does it look do i need more??
1 JD
1 GT
1 Midas
3 red tiger oscars
6 convicts 2 normal 4 patternless
1 clown knife
1 pleco common
5 bristlenose plecos
1 tire track eel
6 tinfoil barbs

say "NO" to corporate pet chains.
just venting
thanks
 
Ah you have just encountered the paradox of LFS service. We expect stores to attempt to sell fish responsibly instead of the "buy as much as you want, whatever you want" attitude. However, that means we have to deal with each person's definition of what is acceptable to go in a tank...each person is different in experience, beliefs, education, intelligence etc.

I personally prefer the LFS method of no restrictions, I don't want people telling me what I can and can't buy, simply because they think it's a bad idea.
 
Sorry, but it sounds like in that situation you were the one that should be ranted about. She probably saved you a little headache to be honest. Unless the polys. were quite large, there is INDEED a high potential that they would be picked on, out competed for food, or even eaten. Her information might not have been completely accurate, but her intentions were correct. Think of the fish first, customer second.

As for the five fish policy, its a fairly good one for new tanks. Throw too many fish in there at once, stress the filters, minicycle. You have a large tank, so that shouldn't be as much of a problem, but you generally get the drift.

The part that annoys me is that you had her bag up the fish, then walked away. That sounds more like a temper tantrum because you didn't get your way, and as a result the fish had to be stressed out for no reason.

Not all pet stores/chain stores do things the way you want them to, but not all of them are bad/trashy. If people stopped paying attention to the negative and focused on the positive you would find out they actually have a lot of good qualities.

Kudos on supporting the LFS across the street though. Show the love. :)
 
I remember someone at Petsmart refusing to sell me a guppy because of some weird policy that they only sell them in "pairs" which would have costed me over $20 (they were selling "rare fancy guppys" for $9.99 each).
 
Her intentions may have been good, but they were based off of opinion, not fact. She did not know his other stock, just the small Jack and small GT, which ime, are good tankmates and the bichir would have been fine. The fact that she told him they only eat flake tells me she really had no idea what she was talking about. Also calling them PEACEFUL makes me wonder what tankmates she would have been happy to sell them along with, since PEACEFUL to petsmart means community, and alot of community fish they sell would eventually become bichir food.
 
Take this for what it's worth, since it's only my opinion and this is a public forum, but I feel even with a 220 that's alot of fish to add at one time. Even if the Polys don't get outcompeted for food, that's alot of stock going in at once.

I've always added fish slowly and I've always quarantined new additions to make sure everybody is healthy and eating well before placement in the display. Id watch my water parameters closely to make sure you don't minicycle, but be ready for water changes when you do.
 
eatingleg4peanut;5023985; said:
Her intentions may have been good, but they were based off of opinion, not fact. She did not know his other stock, just the small Jack and small GT, which ime, are good tankmates and the bichir would have been fine. The fact that she told him they only eat flake tells me she really had no idea what she was talking about. Also calling them PEACEFUL makes me wonder what tankmates she would have been happy to sell them along with, since PEACEFUL to petsmart means community, and alot of community fish they sell would eventually become bichir food.
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True, to a certain extent. I know at the LFS I work at we always ask how large the tank is, how long its been set up, and what the current inhabitants are, if any. I just assumed they would follow the same guidelines, but most likely they do not.

Her labeling of them as peaceful is fairly accurate though. Aggression wise bichirs are down towards the bottom end of the spectrum, making their compatibility issues more restricted to their ability to consume said tankmates.

Not everyone knows everything about fish, and its quite possible that the person who got stuck in the fish section knows nothing but the general basics about fish. Best way to 'educate' them is share what you know, your personal experiences, and do it in a friendly, nonoverbearing manner.
 
I remember someone at Petsmart refusing to sell me a guppy because of some weird policy that they only sell them in "pairs" which would have costed me over $20 (they were selling "rare fancy guppys" for $9.99 each).
Click to expand...

It's not weird, we do it all the time with sexually dimorphic species like guppies, mollies, dwarf gouramis, congo tetras, haplochromine cichlids, etc. Stops people buying all the nice males and leaving us with a tank of ugly brown fish.
 
I agree, and yes Bichir are peacefull, at least compared to cichlids. What worries me about her calling it peaceful and saying that they do not go well with cichlids, is that petsmarts larger peaceful selection is limited. Mainly to gourami, tinfoil barbs and PACU. Since her knowledge has proven to be askew, she's probably under the impression that its more than exceptable to sell them with tetras, danios, guppys, small barbs...not cool, then again thats only an assumption I've made from his experience.

You are exactly right that they probably did not know alot about fish and may have just been covering that section. In that case they should not have been giving out information as fact if they are not certain. Its hard to educate someone if the company they work for tell them "facts" that are not necessarily true.

I will say that was a helluva lot of fish to add all at once and agree that they should have been added over a longer period of time, but I'm happy it worked out for you. When were the 6 cons and other 3 tinnies added?
 
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