LFS the bad and the good!

[lilacamy931]

I went back to the place quite local to me to have a look again, this was were I first met the puffers and had brief chat with the guy in there and will most definately not buy from them....I had phoned during the week to ask what the species were (thought they only had one at the time)

I asked about the ones I had seen and if they were F8's (they were about 2 inches long) and said yes and they are marine. Confusedly I said but they are brackish surely? He then showed me a singular puff that was no bigger than my finger nail and said that was a F8 also but brackish! I mentioned Ceylons a couple of times but he didnt budge and said that there was the marine and brackish versions...hmm... just made me so uneasy.

I then asked on water changes and he said 3-4 weeks perhaps if not longer, he also looked shocked when I mentioned snails for their teeth to trim and said they do not supply them. He mentioned a particular fish he said they could trim on the bones inside when eating and that would be enough..oh dear.

The larger ones I think were ceylons (looked like large F8's but fader markings on back) and there were two in a tank, stupdily forgot to take camera (got some on phone but fuzzy, may try to figure out if can download later, have to go back to the store anyway for something else so will take camera pics then), they kept to the back together huddled and only explored the back of the glass wall (on Saturday one did come say hi to me). One looked like it had silver scar marks all along its back, it didnt look like infection more like attacked perhaps at feeding time. The absolute tiny one was being kept in a separate tank (i say tank but these are all small boxes) and he was housed with I think gobies or mollies much larger and he kept darting up and down one side away from them. Didnt get a chance to look at any of the bellies. The tanks themselves are small glass boxes that isn't much room for the larger fish (including the lionfish they had). I had to ask who was working there are they seemed kids in casualwear (probably twenties, I am 24 btw) though Saturday there was an older man but he also confirmed F8's.

I may have got the wrong end of the stick and getting uppitity on the wrong thing but what do you guys think? Being where I live I will have to branch much much further (however willing my parents are as I dont drive) to get some healthier and correct species fish.

I did just feel uneasy about the entire thing and my stumbling questions didnt get properly answered which made me feel unable to ask more..

One last thing, they did have a dwarf fuzzy lionfish which I enquired about for my partner who is still thinking about it and the guys response was 'oh yeah that can go with your marine puffer in the 110 litre tank!' I was like no, definatley separate tanks and jokingly said 'his' and 'hers' fish...Maybe reading into everything told to much dont know.

I will go back and try to take more piccys and see what you guys think (unless you can tell me how to download pics off my phone to PC, I am hopeless)

One question to go with this rambling.. the F8 (small) if that what it was, it was the size of a fingernail, I would get two together but even so will I be able to even see them in a 110liter! He was hard to spot in the tiny box tanks at the LFS!

[lilacamy931]

Today I managed to get to a fantastic store out to the outskirts of my county (don't drive, wonderful parents took me).

I walked in and it was..HEAVEN! Amazing tanks for all the fish, no over crowding. They had a beautiful Porc, Valentini and another SW puffer in a tank with a fuzzy lion (tank was huge!) and everybody was happy. They all (excluding the lion) came to say hi, they looked in good spirits, the porc had the wonderful iridescent eyes and they all had healthy white bellies. The porc seemed attached to me and I had fallen in love with him, but NO must stick to the game plan of Figure 8's at least to begin with.

Had a nice chat with the 'specialist' in the store and he really did seem to know his stuff, he also was a fish enthusiast and was completely honest with me (also telling me if he didnt know the answer as Figure 8s not his specialty field). Absolutely wonderful place and picked up some cheap goodies, have to go back on payday to stock up more!! I thought I would post all this as it was truly wonderful to find a excellent fish store not too far away after the bad experiences from the other one. He did say they didnt do brackish tanks though they could order from dealer direct and I would have to pick up on the day of delivery as they wouldnt have tanks for them, he was completely honest and said if I could find a dealer that I could go and see and observe them first and not have to rush so completely on the species then he urged me to do so over them. I mentioned that I would use them for all my supplies (and I will as they are fantastic) and he said that in the meantime he would brush up on his Figure 8 knowledge to help in future (how true this is don't know but he seemed genuine all over, not pushy and recommended on our needs not sales).

I have to say I am really tempted by the sweetie porcupine, but will only have a 110 litre and know they need a lot more space (average 110-120 gallons if not bigger?) but he knew how to perform!

The only muddle I had coming away was live or false plants. I was always going to go with plastic/silk but seeing the selection and the knowing that it helps oxgenate I am not sure anymore!!

Do others find they have a brilliant stores and bad stores?

I am going to our local Oceanarium on Monday and they have fantastic porcupines that always greet me, unfortunately my favourite named Stubby (he had hardly a tail) died. I was extremely upset as he always came to see me and we have been going for 7 years! Will try to get some good piccys to show on here if people do not mind

[Pufferpunk]

Those darn, stuck-up lionfish! Coluldn't give ya the time of day, huh?

[lilacamy931]

Nope he was definately the "bad boy" of the tank lol

[CaptainMorgan_SOS]

as for the pics from your phone to the computer... a way i've done it in the past whenididnt have the correct cord is to send the pic to my email account. you just go to send it to a new number on your phone but type in your email address instead of a phone number.

and today i went to one of our lfs, not the one i usually go to, i hadn't been to this one yet, and let me tell you...they got me real hot headed today!

i was looking at their GSPs they had, just to look not to buy, and i was asking if they kept them in a brackish tank. the girl then said "yes we just raised the pH to 8.5 because they started to get real pale" . i them proceeded to tell her i meant do they put salt in it... she said and i quote "you dont need salt in a brackish tank! a brackish tank just means that it is a higher pH tank. some people add salt to a tank to only raise the pH, but i wouldnt recomend it. only marine fish need salt. and only aquarium salt,marine salt can carry diseases" then she went to say "i think someone has been giving you bad info." and then just walked off! i about blew up on her!!!! no wonder all the GSPs had balck bellies ! and there were about 8-10 4" ones in a 40 gallon breeder! and not to mention there were 2 dead ones in there too... actually almost every tank in there had at least one dead fish in it! they also had anothr 40 gallon breedr tank with 5 full grown oscars in it!!! (these fish get abut 12" long, almost 2" wide and 7-8" tall, in case soeone who read this did not know)

Sorry for the rant... i had to blow off some steam...

as to answer your question...

- one store by me doesnt have a lot of fish, but an excellent variety and they are very knowledgeable.

- another one here is petsmart and they have good looking fish that are well taken care of(this one here to my amazement also has knowledgeable people). and alll the decorations one could want

- and the other one...the one i was ranting about is absolutely terrible! i will never go back there again.

so if i were you, i would stick to the one on the outskirts of your county.

[lilacamy931]

LOL rant away. I have only just got into fish and I feel passionate and sorry for the appalling conditions some can be kept in. I will certainly use that main one on the outskirts (also rung them today for a random question and even though they sounded hectic he took the time to get me the correct info), the customer service is just excellent and the animals on a first visit seemed all cared for properly!! I dont drive but luckily my sister admits to popping out their frequently so this will be a good ending for a great store!

Those poor GSPs , it is frightening the conditions that they can be kept in.. I think it is awful when viewing tanks and a lot of them have dead ones, some will be natural to shock but if there are many then the balance doesnt seem right. Glad you could blow off steam here and not have a blow at her!

[CaptainMorgan_SOS]

that would not have been very gentleman like of me

[lilacamy931]

LOL too true, too true. I would not have either being as a mouse.

[splitadams]

about 2 weeks ago i went to pet city in mt gravatt brisbane, and asked they guy there if they had puffers, he showed me a tank that was about 100 litres with 15 banded puffers all about 8-10 cm long and he told me that about 10 had died in the past week, all were fighting, every puffer exept 2 had perfect circle bite holes all over theyre body's there were 3 that were at the top of the tank breathing heavily, i instantly told the guy they needed a bigger tank and/or they needed to be seperated and that they were all going to die if this didnt happen asap.

about 2 days later i went in and decided to check on the puffers to make sure it had been taken care of, and to my surprise there was only 2 puffers in the tank , the 2 that were completely bite free, i thought the guy had taken my advice, so i ask another guy who works there, "where did you move the other puffers to?" he replied sadly "the garbage".

apparently the first sales man i spoke to, not only left them all together but also did a large water change with fresh water and that day every injured or already unhealthy puffer died

thats around 23 puffers dead all up within 2 weeks, because a worker is lazy, i know they had free tanks because theres like 5 tanks that surround the puffer tank with no fish in them, since then i refuse to buy anything from them

very disapointed in these so called fish experts

[Puffer_holic]

When I first wanted to get a puffer fish, the only place we saw were the "cute little puffers" in Walmart. They were in fresh water and a few of them were dead on the bottom of their tiny tank like things. Those poor GSPs. We were going to get some. They looked so unhealthy. Most of them just swam around slowly. Thank goodness we ran into a lady who told us not to get fish from Walmart. She told us about a fish store down the road. We went to the fish store and it was beautiful. Tons of tanks, marine, brackish, and freshwater. The fish all buzzed around in their tanks. There was also a beautiful koi pond with huge koi. One tank caught my eye. A big marine tank with beautiful colored fish and a friendly porcupine puffer. An employee immediately came up to greet us. He told us how f8 and green spotteds were brackish and that green spotteds would eventually have to be put in high brackish to full marine. They seemed to know the answer to every question I could ask. Turns out that most of the employees were fish hobbiests before working at Aqua Serene. This is my absolute favorite fish store. It may be a bit spendy but the quality is really good, and the fish are healthy.

[lilacamy931]

Thank goodness we don't get Walmarts in the UK! They sound terrible for things like fish and livestock

That other store sounds brilliant though, I love visiting really good stores like that (even though I am new!!)