View Full Version : Petsmart Screw Up
gotglock
01-03-2009, 7:52 PM
Well, last night I decided to go to Petsmart to buy my new gravel vac and CO2 system. I decided to see what snails they had and to my suprise they were keeping loaches in a snail tank. :swear:
I feel bad for the manager, I gave her an earful for that screw up. :banher:
Atleast I got 3 snails for half off. :P
DarrylR
01-03-2009, 8:02 PM
Careful with those CO2 packets, I found a few to be expired a few years. So best to check them before opening.
gotglock
01-03-2009, 8:05 PM
Careful with those CO2 packets, I found a few to be expired a few years. So best to check them before opening.
That may explain why mine hasnt made bubbles in over 12 hours...
what kind of loaches were they, if I'm not mistaken, some loaches are snail-safe, right?
DoN_WoN
01-03-2009, 8:08 PM
ya the kuhlii loaches are snail safe
gotglock
01-03-2009, 8:09 PM
what kind of loaches were they, if I'm not mistaken, some loaches are snail-safe, right?
4 inch Clown Loaches,
A lot of cracked shells and empty ones were laying in that tank.
jackiomy
01-03-2009, 8:10 PM
Well, last night I decided to go to Petsmart to buy my new gravel vac and CO2 system. I decided to see what snails they had and to my suprise they were keeping loaches in a snail tank. :swear:
I feel bad for the manager, I gave her an earful for that screw up. :banher:
Atleast I got 3 snails for half off. :P
Not literally I hope! :lol:
jpappy789
01-03-2009, 8:11 PM
From what I've read......Not all loaches have the mouth structure to dine on healthy snails. The "snake-like" loaches, such as kuhlis and dojos, fit this case. Botias, on the other hand, will snack on snails.
What type of snails? If they were "pests" such as pond snails, MTS, or ramhorns they could have been there for population control...just a thought.
clown loaches, huh? a deserved tongue lashing then :)
gotglock
01-03-2009, 8:13 PM
Not literally I hope! :lol:
There were more snails, though the poor things had there trapdoors in so far I though they'd disapear in there shells!
I only picked up 3 because they are for my sister, she wanted some blue brigs :)
jackiomy
01-03-2009, 8:19 PM
There were more snails, though the poor things had there trapdoors in so far I though they'd disapear in there shells!
I only picked up 3 because they are for my sister, she wanted some blue brigs :)
This is how I got most of my snails. I have to stay away from the LFS and Wallyworld. I get in trouble for taking the employees to task for the tank inhabitants.I got my last blue because he was housed with barbs and they were pecking the poor snails to death.
jpappy789
01-03-2009, 8:20 PM
Ah...so brigs with CLs? That's bad.
justahannah
01-03-2009, 8:30 PM
just as bad, the store I work for has copper piping, so we were keeping our snails in a separate tank off the main system. A couple weeks ago the district manage came through and flipped, making my manager move them to their "designated tanks" immediately despite our protests and reasoning. So we're losing all of our snails within 2-3 days of recieving them, as well as killing other fish because the decaying snails are tanking our parameters. I'm pissed. My manager is compiling the evidence, but in the meantime since district says so, we're stuck. I rescued an ivory out of pity last delivery, I'll probably end up with more before this is fixed. Grrr...
jpappy789
01-03-2009, 8:39 PM
^Now that's just plain dumb...
just as bad, the store I work for has copper piping, so we were keeping our snails in a separate tank off the main system. A couple weeks ago the district manage came through and flipped, making my manager move them to their "designated tanks" immediately despite our protests and reasoning. So we're losing all of our snails within 2-3 days of recieving them, as well as killing other fish because the decaying snails are tanking our parameters. I'm pissed. My manager is compiling the evidence, but in the meantime since district says so, we're stuck. I rescued an ivory out of pity last delivery, I'll probably end up with more before this is fixed. Grrr...
gah, corporate blockheads! Why did your district manager flip out in the first place?
justahannah
01-03-2009, 9:21 PM
She was in to check up on our store, and our snails were in a separate tank from the rest of our fish rather than in their corporate designated tank numbers/with the proper tank mates. This is apparently unacceptable even though it was keeping them alive and healthy. Tthe display system takes precedence over keeping the copper sensitive stock alive.
Dwarf Puffers
01-03-2009, 9:57 PM
just as bad, the store I work for has copper piping, so we were keeping our snails in a separate tank off the main system. A couple weeks ago the district manage came through and flipped, making my manager move them to their "designated tanks" immediately despite our protests and reasoning. So we're losing all of our snails within 2-3 days of recieving them, as well as killing other fish because the decaying snails are tanking our parameters. I'm pissed. My manager is compiling the evidence, but in the meantime since district says so, we're stuck. I rescued an ivory out of pity last delivery, I'll probably end up with more before this is fixed. Grrr...
She was in to check up on our store, and our snails were in a separate tank from the rest of our fish rather than in their corporate designated tank numbers/with the proper tank mates. This is apparently unacceptable even though it was keeping them alive and healthy. Tthe display system takes precedence over keeping the copper sensitive stock alive.
Grrr. A wasted brig is a huge waste:mad2:
excuzzzeme
01-04-2009, 12:18 AM
If you have copper piping, allowing the water to flush through before use will prevent an impact . Failing to flush the lines will most certainly kill copper-sensitive stock. Also the addition of a filter before the tanks will work.
In our area, 99% of commercial and residential is still copper. I have absolutely no problems as long as I flush the lines first.
justahannah
01-04-2009, 12:36 AM
It's not the building that has the copper piping, it's the actual aquatics system with the 90+ connected tanks and sump and whatnot (ours is an older set-up), so the water is constantly looping through it and copper continually leaching into the closed system. We did have a 10g set up with an HOB for the snails on a rack near the main tanks and we were doing WCs out of our utility sink in the back with no issue...little extra work, but the critters were doing well and totally worth it. It's actually our main set-up that's the problem, and that's where corporate wants the snails.
4 inch Clown Loaches,
A lot of cracked shells and empty ones were laying in that tank.
Cracked shells? Must be lack of calcium or insufficient amount thereof besides manhandling. Poor snails.:(
1oooop
01-04-2009, 5:56 AM
It's not the building that has the copper piping, it's the actual aquatics system with the 90+ connected tanks and sump and whatnot (ours is an older set-up), so the water is constantly looping through it and copper continually leaching into the closed system. We did have a 10g set up with an HOB for the snails on a rack near the main tanks and we were doing WCs out of our utility sink in the back with no issue...little extra work, but the critters were doing well and totally worth it. It's actually our main set-up that's the problem, and that's where corporate wants the snails.
lmao... that is just plain stupid it is a great example why large corporations are ruining the aquatic business.... because "corporal blockheads" don't know ANYTHING about what they're doing... this is a message... a huge discerning message to all experienced aquarists, all future generations of aquarists, young aquarists, and all who were in the aquarium hobby... this may just be the beginning of reform of all large blockhead-based corperations... we may be soon seeing large crouds outside all of the strongholds of large corperations...
oh shoot... sorry I went a little too far :) all is good... I just think I had too much ice cream :) sorry for the huge work... hehe :evil_lol:
Dwarf Puffers
01-04-2009, 8:48 AM
It's not the building that has the copper piping, it's the actual aquatics system with the 90+ connected tanks and sump and whatnot (ours is an older set-up), so the water is constantly looping through it and copper continually leaching into the closed system. We did have a 10g set up with an HOB for the snails on a rack near the main tanks and we were doing WCs out of our utility sink in the back with no issue...little extra work, but the critters were doing well and totally worth it. It's actually our main set-up that's the problem, and that's where corporate wants the snails.
Stop ordering snails and other inverts until this problem is fixed? I suppose that'd get corporate PO'd too, though. :headshake2:
yonsu
01-04-2009, 12:18 PM
just as bad, the store I work for has copper piping, so we were keeping our snails in a separate tank off the main system. A couple weeks ago the district manage came through and flipped, making my manager move them to their "designated tanks" immediately despite our protests and reasoning. So we're losing all of our snails within 2-3 days of recieving them, as well as killing other fish because the decaying snails are tanking our parameters. I'm pissed. My manager is compiling the evidence, but in the meantime since district says so, we're stuck. I rescued an ivory out of pity last delivery, I'll probably end up with more before this is fixed. Grrr...
Having worked for PetSmart, I can tell you that leeched copper in the water supply is not a new issue. Tell your manager to contact Dr. Nick Saint-Erne, one of the corporate vets, and he can forward her detailed instructions on how to detoxify the copper with the addition of a chelating agent to the sump daily. It is a pretty easy fix.
gotglock
01-04-2009, 2:02 PM
I returned again to Petsmart today to return the out of date (As in it went bad in 2005 -.- ) CO2 activator packets. I talked with the manager about it and she felt bad at how out of date the packets were. She gave me a full refund on them and I got some plants instead. I informed her about them going bad and both of us checked 15 boxes of packets. All of them were expired by atleast 3 years.
Needles to say, I got plants instead and went to jewel and bought yeast. The CO2 is now working AWESOME with my own mixture.
PaulJ69
01-04-2009, 3:14 PM
I work for Petsmart, and we have PVC piping, I wish we had copper piping so all the MTS and pond snails would go away.... But on another note. Mostly all of my managers that might deal with fish know about the fish and other things to know what can go together and what cannot. I feel I am contributing a good amount of knowlegde to my store! Thanks to this website!
Born4spd
01-04-2009, 3:38 PM
just as bad, the store I work for has copper piping, so we were keeping our snails in a separate tank off the main system. A couple weeks ago the district manage came through and flipped, making my manager move them to their "designated tanks" immediately despite our protests and reasoning. So we're losing all of our snails within 2-3 days of recieving them, as well as killing other fish because the decaying snails are tanking our parameters. I'm pissed. My manager is compiling the evidence, but in the meantime since district says so, we're stuck. I rescued an ivory out of pity last delivery, I'll probably end up with more before this is fixed. Grrr...
Im in the same situation, also do you guys treat the system with "quick cure".
It kills the snails too :(
Stupid Corporate Run Store\
We are adding sodium thisulfate to remove the copper after we dose the stuff..
I dont see why we cant use something else altogethor?
PaulJ69
01-04-2009, 4:43 PM
Is that what the soduim thisulfate does!? Adn yes we treat the system with quick cure... It turns everything BLUE. including you fingers. But after we treat we never have any snails die. The MTS just come up from the gravel and stay in the current.
But we dont have copper piping at all, execpt for the sink directly from the hot water heater.
justahannah
01-04-2009, 6:29 PM
Sorry Gotglock, didn't mean to hijack this thread! It's slick you got some plants out of the deal, even if the reason isn 't so cool.
We only use quick cure in the QT tanks in back. Sodium thiosulfate is the only thing we dose the main system with (it's in a big thing that does a slow drip into the sump), but I was only aware that it works as a basic dechlorinator and don't think it detoxes anything else.
PaulJ69
01-04-2009, 8:42 PM
Well at least your store has a slow dripper thing. I don't think anyone knows how to use it, or if it still works. I'm just wondering how our system is running still. We are down to one out of the three heaters, barely.
Anyone know whats in the quick cure that doesn't do well with inverts?
Sorry to hijack the thread:evil_lol:
gotglock
01-04-2009, 8:54 PM
I find it kind of funny how fast teh topic transitioned. So no worries :)
Im going back tomorrow to let my mom pick out some fancy guppies for the high tech 10 gallon plant tank im planning. Should be freaking sweet once I get it up and running :)
AquaGem
01-10-2009, 9:35 PM
Ugh, I cannot even talk about PetSmart. All of my snails from them died even though the water was great (I tested), they had lovely snail jello and greens, and a healthy dose of calcium. One of them I got had a shell that was so eroded when I got him, I don't think he had a chance :(
On a good note I just went to the pet store today (a different one, lol) with MY mom and got some fancy guppies! Great minds and all that, lol.
Ugh, I cannot even talk about PetSmart. All of my snails from them died even though the water was great (I tested), they had lovely snail jello and greens, and a healthy dose of calcium. One of them I got had a shell that was so eroded when I got him, I don't think he had a chance :(
On a good note I just went to the pet store today (a different one, lol) with MY mom and got some fancy guppies! Great minds and all that, lol.
Sorry to hear about your snails.:( Could have been exposure to toxic chemicals, manhandling and improper acclimation on the part of the chain store. Just thew few possible culprits for their short lifespan.
AquaGem
01-11-2009, 12:23 PM
Sorry to hear about your snails.:( Could have been exposure to toxic chemicals, manhandling and improper acclimation on the part of the chain store. Just thew few possible culprits for their short lifespan.
Yeah I think it might have been exposure to toxic chemicals and definitely some manhandling. It was horrible because they got really weak. Thanks for the possibilities.
I'm hopefully going to get some from MsJinkzd. It's only my second day on here and already I'm buying stuff lol. From what I've seen and heard her snails are super :)
you heard right, you won't be disappointed. I personally got my first brigs and shrimp from jinkzie, and they're great :)