This isn't meant to be a slam on fish stores I was just wondering if this is something that other areas are experiencing.
Today I went on the hunt for some green tiger barbs to go into my 65 gallon tank. I went to 5 LFS/LCS and was surprised at the conditions of the tanks. I'm not one to knock stores for a dead fish here or there nor a store that has sick fish here or there.
What I found is that all five of these stores all in different areas, some chain, some mom and pop had really poor and sickly stock, beyond what I have ever seen or expected. The worst fish off were the Koi. All the koi in all five stores were sick with the same issues. Many were either dead of knocking on deaths door. Many of them were gasping, many of them had red skin lesions, and almost all them in all five stores has serious issue with their scaling. It was as if the scales were coming off. There were sticking up off the body. The other fish that were in extremely bad conditions were the gourami's. 4 of the 5 stores all had gourami's in bad conditions. Any gourami tank I came across had 5-8 dead fish in them, with the others not looking well.
The overall health of the stores stocks has me wondering if this is something that is happing with other stores. All the conditions of the fish were so similar especially with Koi which makes me wonder is there something up with the fish suppliers?
Is anyone else seeing this with their LFS/LCS?
Also just quick note for those who are into tiger barbs. PetSmart at least in my area has stopped selling greens.
RM
Today I went on the hunt for some green tiger barbs to go into my 65 gallon tank. I went to 5 LFS/LCS and was surprised at the conditions of the tanks. I'm not one to knock stores for a dead fish here or there nor a store that has sick fish here or there.
What I found is that all five of these stores all in different areas, some chain, some mom and pop had really poor and sickly stock, beyond what I have ever seen or expected. The worst fish off were the Koi. All the koi in all five stores were sick with the same issues. Many were either dead of knocking on deaths door. Many of them were gasping, many of them had red skin lesions, and almost all them in all five stores has serious issue with their scaling. It was as if the scales were coming off. There were sticking up off the body. The other fish that were in extremely bad conditions were the gourami's. 4 of the 5 stores all had gourami's in bad conditions. Any gourami tank I came across had 5-8 dead fish in them, with the others not looking well.
The overall health of the stores stocks has me wondering if this is something that is happing with other stores. All the conditions of the fish were so similar especially with Koi which makes me wonder is there something up with the fish suppliers?
Is anyone else seeing this with their LFS/LCS?
Also just quick note for those who are into tiger barbs. PetSmart at least in my area has stopped selling greens.
RM
Not sure of your location but quite often stores in certain regions use the same suppliers for their wholesale purchases. If these stores normally do a good job, give them a minute to recover. Talk to the managers. See if there has been a recent change in operations or buyers. Chk the next shipment or two for comparison. If the pattern dosen't improve, inform them of your observations of late & your intentions to take your business & all of your aquarist friends business elsewhere. Might make a difference, might not but at least you tried. "T"
. They usually end up with people bashing big box stores and other people telling them that it really varies location to location, even if they start out by criticizing both mom and pop and big box. 
