Petsmart :(

[Sakura8]

I picked a fight with a Petco employee today over bettas and heaters. I swear, normally I'm afraid to even ask where a product is, let alone argue but I got so mad! She was talking to a guy and asking if he had everything he needed for his betta so I said, "Oh, you need a heater!" The employee was like, no, you don't.
Me: Yes. You do.
Her: No. You don't.
Me: There are countless books that say you do. Every responsible owner in my betta forum says you do.
Her: What temperature? We keep ours at room temperature.
Me: 78-80* ideally.
Her: I heard it was 70-82*, room temperature. Well, I'll look into it but we've always told our customers they can go in room temperature.

I almost said, "And you also tell them they can live in .5 gallon bowls eating plant roots!"

I just don't understand why the pet stores fight this so much. I mean, it makes money for them. It's one more expensive piece of equipment they can sell so why do they argue against it so?

So I let it go there but a few minutes later I saw her follow the guy up to the cash register and spend several minutes talking to him while looking back at the fish section where I was. I can guess she was saying "Don't mind the crazy chick about the heaters, he'll be fine."

*shakes head in despair*

[nel3]

what really gets me going is their idea on water changes. i told them i had an unfilitered 1 gal. they said 25% wc each week, some private betta owners i know only do wc when the water gets slimy. the person at the shop said that 100wc are dangerous and never remove over 25% of the water level during wc.

[Sakura8]

I'm so cynical I think it's a conspiracy to get people to just keep coming back to buy more bettas. Sadly, it's given bettas a bad reputation for being short-lived. Well, you'd be short-lived too if you lived in vast quantities of your own waste and toxic air, you ignorant pet store employees! It's like sticking a human in a port-o-potty, sealing it up tight, and then pumping cigarette smoke in 24 hours a day.

[Schwannsee]

Originally Posted by Sakura8

I'm so cynical I think it's a conspiracy to get people to just keep coming back to buy more bettas. Sadly, it's given bettas a bad reputation for being short-lived. Well, you'd be short-lived too if you lived in vast quantities of your own waste and toxic air, you ignorant pet store employees! It's like sticking a human in a port-o-potty, sealing it up tight, and then pumping cigarette smoke in 24 hours a day.

Oh. Ew.
Thank you for a wonderfully descriptive, yet completely disgusting, analogy.

[Sakura8]

Effective, ain't it? We should make it our betta rights slogan.

[Arashi Takamine]

I don't worry too much about my Petco's betta's because I know their usual fish-care person will take care of it and nearly all the usual employee's have betta's of their own and know how to properly care for them. It breaks my heart when they do get hurt and the usual employee's aren't there. But every other time they were fine.

Now WalMart.....

[MikiMaki]

See I had the problem at PetCo. I went last week and 50% or more of the bettas were dead in their cups, full of brown water. They had ich and bacterial infections up to wazoo. It was ridiculously sad. The bf didn't get why I was so upset, but no one would ever let a cat suffocate to death in it's own waste with out crying abuse and the owner being charged, why is it different for a betta?

[Sakura8]

Originally Posted by MikiMaki

See I had the problem at PetCo. I went last week and 50% or more of the bettas were dead in their cups, full of brown water. They had ich and bacterial infections up to wazoo. It was ridiculously sad. The bf didn't get why I was so upset, but no one would ever let a cat suffocate to death in it's own waste with out crying abuse and the owner being charged, why is it different for a betta?

Yup, so true. But for some reason most humans don't "identify" with fish because they aren't furry cute mammals. Fish are disposable. There were several females at my Petsmart who had parasites. A cat with tapeworms gets meds immediately. But a fish? Nah.