Petsmart Rant

[lvandert]

Oh boy are they going to get it today. I'm ticked. So for those of you who saw the thread I was putting together a 55 gallon general community tank. It was a brand new tank, all squeaky clean and ready for fish. So I spent about 70 bucks, initially on fish and then bought roughly another 10-20 bucks finishing off a few schools, and bumping up some numbers in other schools but I still wasn't done. I had one school left to finish off and I wanted to add cory cats, possibly ghost cats, and either otos or a BN pleco to clean the tank.

Anyways a DAY after I had my first installment of fish I noticed two weren't looking too hot. I don't have an isolation tank for sick fish because the tank is so new. so I took them back to the store and exchanged them for healthy fish. I suspected cotton mouth. I kinda chewed them out then because treating a 55 gallon tank is expensive and a ton of work, not to mention the need to buy a new filter, which alone costs 18 bucks.

So I've kept watch on my tank with a strict eye and sure enough one by one my fish are dying. It seems twice, sometimes three times a day I need to get the net out and add one to the bag I had in freezer. I would've gone earlier in the week but with school from 8-3 and then work from 4-9 I just didn't have the time.

So needless to say I'm going to go in there guns a blazing. Because I was SOLD SICK FISH I'm watching 80 bucks die daily and I'm going to be out money either way. And if I feel in the mood during my bout of chewing out management I just might throw something in there about their care for bettas, because they are now the worst in the city (the shop in the mall has most of their bettas in community tanks now).

but here's the question what do I do with my tank? I can either drain it and clean it (there goes the live bacteria I bought to start the tank out 30 bucks), or medicate the whole tank and buy a new filter.

[MSG]

Don't they have a 15 day guarantee on their fish? I went by PS yesterday and they had about 70 bettas, 2 were probably dead. Most were pretty shabby except for this turquoise dragonscale male. I may buy new fish @ PTC because they have a 30 day guarantee & it takes a while for symptoms to show up.

So you're slowly adding one dead fish after another to the freezer bag of dead fish you're bringing to the store?

How many fish do you have left in your tank?

I don't think I would drain it. I would try to nuke the things in the 55G, but I've never had to medicate a whole tank like that. I understand you're upset about the loss of what valuable time you have with school and everything. But yelling at the employees does nothing.

Does a UV sterilizer do anything in a situation like yours?

[SnowySurface]

Personally, I would dump and clean. To my knowledge most treatments for illness harms the good bacteria. So either way your cycle will reset itself. It would probably be best to clean everything thoroughly and start over from scratch since you know your fish died from a contangious disease.

I'm sorry to hear you lost so much money. I hope you can get some type of refund. :(

Edit: I didn't tihnk of a UV sterilizer. If you can buy one of those, or already own one, you may not have to drain the tank. But if you are down to the end of your fish budget, I think sterilizers are expensive. That's part of the reason why I drain my tanks and clean them with diluted bleach when my fish die from disease.

[registereduser]

Wow, you might need to have a smaller QT tank set up then you can be sure what you put into the main tank will be healthy? With a tank that big that is a lot of $$$!

I have had all neons bought at Petco die on me but the cories and otos and bettas I bought there have been fine. Still, I would rather buy from a LFS than Petco.

[aokashi]

ugh, with that many fish, you really should have Qted :/ Deaths get expensive T__T I think they higher stocking numbers, the more cautious you should be with adding new fish.
When did you buy the other fish? may be you can get a refund for them too.

[Olympia]

Huh, what're your readings?

And where on earth are you getting a filter for $18? xD

[lvandert]

I can't find their guarantee on fish, only merchandise. I currently still have 20 fish in the tank. I've lost all but two of my tiger barbs (originally a school of 8) and one neon tetra. It looks like I'll loose a hatchet fish next and then the last of my tiger barbs. I dont plan on yelling at the employees their only doing what their told. I plan on having a nice talk with the manager about their quality of fish. The fish manager takes such pride in the health of his fish, when I brought back the two sick ones he said it was something from my tank causing this.

I know I'll get a refund on the fish I bring back dead, Once I figure out what their exact time constraint is, but after that when my fish continue to die off, I'm in the hole. I'm going to have to figure something out to get a refund or store credit...

As for cleaning I wont be doing the UV sterilization. I talked withe bf about it and he's had the pleasure o working with them, and it'll just end up being too expensive for us.

[registereduser]

If they are like petco they will want to test a sample of your aquarium water.

[Jupiter]

I'm not sure about the Petsmart where you are, but here they offer a 2 week guarantee on fish. When one of my bettas died I was able to get a refund, I just had to take the dead fish there along with a receipt. Good luck!

[MSG]

Black Friday of last year I went to a PS, all fish were virtually being given away and I didn't buy ANY. But I saw a customer with their child getting a free replacement BTA fish from the guarantee. I didn't really know much about their policy until I asked the employees about it.

This is why I emphasis kindness over anger when you enter the store, because they're less likely to help if you're not nice. Oh yeah, you need to bring a sample of your tank water for them to test it with a strip to make sure it's not from your own negligence. Of course there's ways around this.

The UV thing is a common device used by most salt water reefers. I don't know much about them. I've seen the LOWER end versions at PS.

I have many friends in the SW hobby so I know they won't have a problem letting me borrow one of their UVS for a couple weeks or however long it would take to eradicate those microscopic pathogens. I've given them dozens of saltwater related equipment/buffers/etc.... because it has no purpose for me.

Knowing them, I'm pretty sure they have a few spare UVS just sitting around. You just have to convince them into letting you borrow it. I prefer this method over the medications versus the deep cleaning & restart of the whole tank.

I have UV sterilizers for lab equipment, but it's designed for tools & implements like tweezers and other precision tools that can't get wet.

My suggestion is get to know someone in the SW hobby. Most of them have pretty deep pockets. The ones I know have invested at least $1000 in their tanks/equipment/livestock in the FIRST year. Some have over $10k invested, and they know people who have over 100k.

That's why I don't get involved in the reef systems. Those things are on a whole different level and time commitment I don't have. They're good people to be friends with though in a situation like this.