:jaw-dropping::jaw-dropping::jaw-dropping::jaw-dropping::jaw-dropping::angryfire::angryfire::angryfire::angryfire::angryfire::angryfire:
I am paraphrasing an email I just sent to corporate - but the main the long and short of it....
I went to a big box over the weekend for cat food, and, of course, went to look at the fish. To my dismay, the tanks were filled with DEAD fish. Read below for the full story, and images.
Images: http://imgur.com/a/eSEIx#xOKZf
I typically buy all of my fish and supplies at a local fish shop, but this weekend, I saw the episode of Tanked and I thought I would swing by on Sunday to check out what they had in stock (since it looked pretty legitimate on TV). It could not have been more of a different scenario. At first things looked fine, not overly impressive, but fine. Then I noticed one tank that had a fish dead on the bottom and another breathing heavy and struggling at the surface. As I continued to go down the rows of tanks, it became evident that nearly EVERY tank had at least 1 dead fish in it (most had multiple dead fish, or at least ones that were severely struggling). I understand that some fish will die in the tanks, just the way it is, but I would not expect that such a large number of fish would 1) die and 2) not be cleaned out of the tanks. There were multiple tanks that had fish stuck to the filtration intakes that were so deteriorated that it looked as if they had been there for at least days (one of these was a clown fish that you can see in the pictures discussed below).
The experience got even more unbelievable when I spoke with the employee helping in aquatics. He stated to me that it's just the way it is, that the fish die - That corporate forces them to overstock tanks for selection, and that is why so many die. Essentially eluding to the fact that the health of the fish is secondary or even tertiary to appearance of the set up. Which doesn't make sense to me, since a tank with dead fish is much more detrimental to sales than a low stocked tank. (On a side note, every fish store I have ever been too has tanks overstocked with fish for display, but have adequate filtration to handle this - which, I would like to assume you also do).
After being thoroughly disgusted at the fresh and saltwater aquarium fish, I continued to walk around the aquatics department only to find tanks of guppies and goldfish 80-90% dead. These fish were balled up in piles of dead fish on the bottoms of the tanks, with the few surviving fish feeding on them (also shown in pictures).
To put icing on the cake, I went to look at the betas and saw a number of dead betas on display as well as multiple display containers that look like the water has not been changed in weeks.
Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to share. Has anyone else had similar experiences at other big box pet stores? I'd love to hear people's thoughts, opinions, etc... I am officially never patronizing them again. Not even for cat toys.
Russ
I am paraphrasing an email I just sent to corporate - but the main the long and short of it....
I went to a big box over the weekend for cat food, and, of course, went to look at the fish. To my dismay, the tanks were filled with DEAD fish. Read below for the full story, and images.
Images: http://imgur.com/a/eSEIx#xOKZf
I typically buy all of my fish and supplies at a local fish shop, but this weekend, I saw the episode of Tanked and I thought I would swing by on Sunday to check out what they had in stock (since it looked pretty legitimate on TV). It could not have been more of a different scenario. At first things looked fine, not overly impressive, but fine. Then I noticed one tank that had a fish dead on the bottom and another breathing heavy and struggling at the surface. As I continued to go down the rows of tanks, it became evident that nearly EVERY tank had at least 1 dead fish in it (most had multiple dead fish, or at least ones that were severely struggling). I understand that some fish will die in the tanks, just the way it is, but I would not expect that such a large number of fish would 1) die and 2) not be cleaned out of the tanks. There were multiple tanks that had fish stuck to the filtration intakes that were so deteriorated that it looked as if they had been there for at least days (one of these was a clown fish that you can see in the pictures discussed below).
The experience got even more unbelievable when I spoke with the employee helping in aquatics. He stated to me that it's just the way it is, that the fish die - That corporate forces them to overstock tanks for selection, and that is why so many die. Essentially eluding to the fact that the health of the fish is secondary or even tertiary to appearance of the set up. Which doesn't make sense to me, since a tank with dead fish is much more detrimental to sales than a low stocked tank. (On a side note, every fish store I have ever been too has tanks overstocked with fish for display, but have adequate filtration to handle this - which, I would like to assume you also do).
After being thoroughly disgusted at the fresh and saltwater aquarium fish, I continued to walk around the aquatics department only to find tanks of guppies and goldfish 80-90% dead. These fish were balled up in piles of dead fish on the bottoms of the tanks, with the few surviving fish feeding on them (also shown in pictures).
To put icing on the cake, I went to look at the betas and saw a number of dead betas on display as well as multiple display containers that look like the water has not been changed in weeks.
Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to share. Has anyone else had similar experiences at other big box pet stores? I'd love to hear people's thoughts, opinions, etc... I am officially never patronizing them again. Not even for cat toys.
Russ
Last edited by a moderator:
