Excellent Example of common fish diseases

[THE V]

I got a gift certificate for Christmas to a big box store, I hate those things just give me cash), so I went in the our local store to see what they had.

I was depressed when I looked at their fish. Every tank had at least one dead fish in it and I was surprised at the sheer number of diseases they had. I saw ich, fin/mouth rot, black spot, dropsy, scepticemia, and some bacteria flesh diseases. Every set of tanks had something different. It was so bad that I didn't even have to look all that closely to see it either. Just a quick walk by.

There was a young couple there looking at buying a fan-tail goldfish (she was holding a 2 gallon aquarium... sigh). I loudly mentioned that the goldfish all had one of the worst cases of ich that I had ever seen and most of them would probably be dead within 2-3 days. The look of total revulsion on the girls face was priceless. The employee with a look of total befuddlement on her face and a net in her hand ask a coworker if the goldfish had ich. He said "yep, real bad" . Let's just say they didn't make the sale.

I'm buying all of my fish from a LFS that will not sell any fish (except feeders) with any sign of disease.

 

[NJ Devils Fan]

Sadly, that is how most of the chain stores are. They don't care about quality because quantity is what puts cash in their pocket. From their perspective, a fish living a few weeks is better than one living months/years for the fact that they assume the consumer will be returning to purchase more fish since they already have everything set up. That, and chain stores look at employees as disposable and could care less about who they hire and whether or not they are understaffed.

 

[clown-lover]

ain't that the truth and isn't it sad...

 

[kuhliloach]

I got a gift certificate for Christmas to a big box store, I hate those things just give me cash), so I went in the our local store to see what they had.

I was depressed when I looked at their fish. Every tank had at least one dead fish in it and I was surprised at the sheer number of diseases they had. I saw ich, fin/mouth rot, black spot, dropsy, scepticemia, and some bacteria flesh diseases. Every set of tanks had something different. It was so bad that I didn't even have to look all that closely to see it either. Just a quick walk by.

There was a young couple there looking at buying a fan-tail goldfish (she was holding a 2 gallon aquarium... sigh). I loudly mentioned that the goldfish all had one of the worst cases of ich that I had ever seen and most of them would probably be dead within 2-3 days. The look of total revulsion on the girls face was priceless. The employee with a look of total befuddlement on her face and a net in her hand ask a coworker if the goldfish had ich. He said "yep, real bad" . Let's just say they didn't make the sale.

I'm buying all of my fish from a LFS that will not sell any fish (except feeders) with any sign of disease.

that sounds sad, maybe you should talk to some of the "higher-up" staff and explain to them politely how dead goldfish aren't gonna make your business sales go up...

 

[the fox]

Ya my LFS only feeds there fish 2 times a week, im not really sure what the excuse is.

 

[the fox]

no angry comments?

 

[furfinsfeathers]

I went to an lfs recently with a very good selection and a reputation for fish that adjust to their new tanks well, but I don't think I'll ever buy from them. Many of their tanks had at least one dead fish and their feeder tanks were horrific. The feeder goldfish tank had many dead fish and one of the worst cases of ich I've ever seen. The feeder guppies, about 1/3 of them looked like dead wasted away corpses, except that they were somehow still swimming. I know their "just feeders", but so are cattle and poultry, and I wouldn't want them treated like that either. Plus I would think they would introduce disease into the tank of whatever they're feeding.