Overcrowding in pet stores??

[I Am Drunk]

Serious question here...I've noticed throughout my travels on the internet that a lot of people are real strict about how many fish they put together in one tank.

Yet every pet store I go to (be it a LFS, Chain) they all seem to have no problem putting like 15 fish in a 10 gallon tank with like one stupid rock or plant in it.

Fish that when I read about them it says they require 70 gallon minimum etc.

I would just like someone to explain to me how come overstocking is so frowned upon in a regular tank but the fish at the pet stores always seem to be doing just fine.

I understand that it would be super impractical to have 5 fish per 10 gallon tank, but how come nothing catastrophic ever happens in these overstocked tanks?

Thanks

 

[DoctaQ]

continuous water change system, plumbing, short stay , its more like a hotel ya kno

 

[Ozymandias]

ya fast turn over in stock and lots of water changes.

 

[XanAvaloni]

DoctaQ covers the essence of it. Plus if you look closely I bet you will find 1-4 fish dead or obviously dying in virtually every tank. You figure they get these from the wholesalers for a literally nickles and dimes--the big crowding is usually in the tetra-molly-guppy tanks that have high turnover and low cost. Wander over to the saltwater area of the store and the stocking levels are lower and prices are high.

Every retailer has some formula for stock loss built in to the business plan. Usually it's shoplifting and employee theft; for an lfs it's fish death.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

In addition, lets not forget that most of the fish sold in pet stores are juveniles, while hobbyists stock their tanks with the full grown adult size in mind. Young fish are much smaller: thus less waste production and less aggression issues.

 

[sorberj]

Additionally, a lot of the pet store systems use a sump system which increases the volume beyond what you see, and UV sterilizers to keep disease from spreading too much.
One of my local LFSs nearby actually does daily 30% water changes on all of its tanks. Again, it's not the best practice for long-term due to overall health and quality of life issues, but for short term storage, it can work.

 

[ponderingky]

If you ever get a chance - ask to see their filtering system. One of the bigger chains showed me a very large bio-filter set up under the wall of tanks w/uv sterilizer. Very impressive - helped me understand how they could stock so heavy.

 

[chefjamesscott]

let us also not forget you do not see the body count because a good lfs will net the dead as soon as they die!

 

[tanker]

continuous water change system, plumbing, short stay , its more like a hotel ya kno

More like a crowded commuter train from farm/exporter to final home.

 

[excuzzzeme]

Much of what you may consider overcrowding is short lived in a pet store. The stock turnover is too fast for it to matter.