Hey guys. This isn’t my LFS, but one I visited out of town (Gerber’s Tropical Fish in Dayton, OH, if anyone is familiar; it’s a huge and very cool place). I’ve been in the hobby since the beginning of this year and have gotten familiar with the LFS’s in my area, but I’m always curious whether what I’m seeing is considered “good” or at least normal practice. I’m still green, so I guess I want some perspective from people who know what they’re looking at. Obviously, the goal is to sell stock that’s being kept temporarily, and I keep that in mind when I see things that I think look cruel or unusual, and also of course that a lot of work and upkeep is going on that I don’t see. For the most part I really love my LFS, these are just things I notice sometimes in more than one location that I don’t feel are super ethical:
• Bettas being kept together with little to no plant coverage; they almost always look sick, sad and damaged, even if they’re in their own little tanks
• Visibly sick, deformed or dead fish in tanks (I get that not every one can be caught between hundreds of tanks, though)
• Giant tanks overstocked with monster fish; the cichlid tank is cool, but the 1000g full of pacu, oscars, koi, a clown knife, and a red-tailed cat makes me 👀. Also, they’re hundreds of dollars – and literally too big for home aquariums – so it’s not like they move very quickly.
• 5 gallon tanks being used to hold singular monster fish, sometimes with smaller tank mates
• Giant bags of fish being just floated for acclimation; I guess this is probably just the easiest way for hardy fish, could use some clarification here. I saw that bag of plecos and it made me itchy
• Brackish fish/animals being sold as freshwater (seems notorious for mudskippers and bumbles bee gobies as well)
Please don’t read this as a list of complaints, just observations that I’ve made that I want more perspective on. Again, I realize these are temporary setups and that the goal is ultimately to make money. I just want to know if this is just the reality of the hobby, or if I could be making a more ethical choice going with somewhere else.
Posted by stringoffrogs
1 Comment
For me a good LFS will meet the following standards:
* Knowledgeable employees – if one doesn’t have the info I need, they will seek out a colleague who does. It’s okay to admit you don’t know something! Along with this, the employees should be willing to deny you a sale if they believe it’s against the best interest of the animal.
* Healthy fish – I get that occasional deaths can happen, but there’s no excuse for dead/visibly sick fish to stay in the stock tanks for long enough that a client will see it.
* Sales tanks are different from display tanks. A goldfish doesn’t need to have 20 gallons to itself in a sales tank, the whole point is that it won’t be in there for long, as long as there’s a very clear indication of how its final home should look. Display tanks with some not-for-sale stocking are an awesome way of setting realistic buyer expectations.
* Monster or specific-care fish aren’t part of their standard stocking, but will be readily available on order. This means things like oscar, koi fish, puffers, elephant fish, etc
* They sell live food and actively recommend it