What do you do?

[ikevi]

SO what do you do in this situation.

You walk into a petstore that you know has a reputation for having bad fish. You see one that looks like it is being beaten on by some other fish, but you like the type of fish... You notice in other tanks there are dead fish or ich or some other big warning sign...

What would you do... and why? (I am bored and I have seen enough thread of people doing just this, just wanted to see the general consensus of the people here.)

 

[pcfriedrich]

I've seen the occasional dead fish in a tank or two in my LFS. I usually don't say anything. those guys don't seem to care too much about FW fish. I'm always interupting their conversations about coral and inverts. maybe I should try to get a pt job there. I don't profess to know everything about fish, but I do know enough to check the tanks, take out dead fish, and find the reason they are dying/unhealthy.

this is the only specialized fish store in town. then there's petsmart, and pet supermarket.

they have no selection, and are more expensive than my LFS.

 

[Fish Eat Fish]

if you save it...it will just be replaced by another fish that will get picked on

 

[pcfriedrich]

if you save it...it will just be replaced by another fish that will get picked on

exactly. don't go out of your way to save a fish you didn't originally want. and definately not for one that you don't have room for.

 

[ikevi]

OH I am sure people know what they should do... IE if you are trying to make the stores better you would only buy fish from well kept places... But from what I have seen I think there are a lot more people out there that tend to do what they no they shouldn't since they feel they have to save some poor fish.

 

[Tongue33]

I work hard to not buy from known infestations.

 

[Mystix212]

I wouldn't give them a dime. If I save another fish, I just finance thier store to buy more fish and potentialy have the same effect to the last fish which was badly damaged.

Stores like that should have the integrity to know to take out bad fish and or maintain tanks.

 

[53special]

Why would you go into a store that you know is like that, in the first place?

 

[japes]

Voted half off because this story is exactly the story behind my Chocolate Cichlid.

Terrible store that I shouldn't have shopped at in the first place, but they had 1 Chocolate Cichlid (albeit a ripped fin beaten up Chocolate) in stock. Fish in the same tank as him with a fuzzed over eye and sunken stomach, all of the fish in all of their tanks showed absolutely no colour and I don't even want to imagine what their nitrates are. Worth the risk I said to myself as I got this reasonably nice looking young girl to get the fish for me.

First No-No was she used water from a tank she was siphoning from, I let that slide because they had centralized filtration, even though this tank was on another wall I presumed it was on the first sump. She netted him out (2-3" fish), walked over with the fish in a jug to bag him, poured the water with the fish in it into a bag (another booboo really but I'll let that slide too).

Proceeds to drop bag from shoulder height before tying it closed, fish and water all over the floor. In a panic she scooped water from the nearest tank, their planted tank which is cold water with Molly's (Fish in planted tanks = boo boo, water from different tank/temp/parameters = boo boo). Fish looks pretty much gone but still breathing heavily. She walks back over to the tank to put him back in and net another one, point at G. brasiliensis saying they're Chocolate Cichlids. I'm honestly not suprised as all of their fish are so pale they look close to the same.

I said "Look, I'll take him for half price, if he doesn't make it that's my problem". Speed home at 140km/h on the highway for the half hour trip home while this poor guy is in cold water. Get home, get a bucket, start acclimatization process. Notice fish isn't moving. Pick the poor little guy up with my bare hands and he's not moving, but breathing, no fight at all. I basically just said to myself, well, bugger, he's better off just being chucked into healthy water than dying in this crap, diluted or not.

Put him in, he's floating at a 75 degree angle upwards and looking terrible, unfortunately I lost the photo I took. 2 days later he was feeding, 5 days later he was in the 140 with fully healed fins and the appetite of a small dog.

Rawr. 2 months and 2 weeks down the track he's 5" long and healthy as can be. Not bad for a AUD$5 Rescue

 

[tunerX]

Walk out then buy from a vendor on MFK...