just a thought.....

AbbeysDad

It seems to me a lot of folks expect too much from the LPS/LFS. C'mon folks, think about it.
Is it a car saleman's job to ensure he only sell cars to safe drivers?
Is the local pet store responsible if someone buys a dog and abuses it or starves it to death.

The responsibility here is not on the pet store, it's solely with the person that becomes the care taker for the creature they choose as a pet.

The real trouble here I think is that fish are at the bottom of the pet totem pole. When other animals are mistreated, Animal Control and/or the SPCA get involved and charges are filed. When fish die, they unceremoniously get flushed or go in the trash and no one is the wiser.

On the plus side, I think a lot of fish have suffered from new tank syndrome. I believe with so many good bacteria supplement products now on the market, this will soon be a thing of the past. The next thing is tank mate awareness and tank maintenance education.

Ultimately it is the responsibility of the owner to properly care for a 'pet', not the pet store.

Sanguinefox

I am going to have to half-way agree here that at the end of the day it is the responsibility of the pet owner. That of course the optimistic side of things and the world well..isn't perfect. Unfortunately it is a given that enough people walk into a pet store not informing themselves that it doesn't hurt to have staff that know what they are talking about. They then can inform people, and push them as is done here in the forum for people to educate themselves.

I'm of the mind that unless you know about keeping fish and have kept fish you shouldn't sell fish. Otherwise you get people who are just as clueless as the new buyers...and that's double dangerous. My experience with poorly run LFS is often with managers that just don't care, or they do but they end up with workers who flat out don't care or don't know anything about what they were hired to do. They go through very little basic training and as such contribute to poor treatment of fish by treating them poorly in their display tanks.

Yes you should research but that doesn't completely excuse the stores from the responsibility of trying to educate people, and keeping their own workers educated.

Romad

I think a lot of people stroll into the pet chain stores and impulse buy so haven't done research prior to purchasing. They rely on the store employees to tell them about the fish requirements.

I think the pet stores need to employ people that are somewhat knowledgable of at least basic fish care. And every single one of the fish departments I've been in have a computer at their station. If they don't know the answer to the question, it takes no time at all to Google it.

I've given shoppers at Petco this forum address more than once :)

rhymon78

I totally agree with you AbbeysDad, it is the responsibility of the pet owner to know enough about their chosen pets to keep them healthy and happy.

My original post wasn't supposed to be an exercise in LFS bashing, merely an observation. And a point of discussion. At the end of the day, they're in a business and there to make money, so if someone wants to buy a tank and a bunch of fish that ultimately will not cohabit well, what do they care. It's up to us to know about the best conditions possible for a particular species, so we can best recreate a natural and stimulating environment that is as close to their usual habitat as possible... that's the whole point of this hobby no?

It just surprises me as a newcomer to this hobby, and as someone that has done an awful lot of reading and researching about the hobby in the short time I have been around it, that there is nothing stopping a complete beginner from walking into a store, buying a tank, and buying a load of incompatible fish.... and ultimately either killing them or needing to be rescued by the wonderful and helpful people in this forum.

Thank god there are places like this people can go for help and advice, I for one have learnt soo much just from reading others posts, and all the many many articles and profiles etc.

Anyway, maybe it's my virginal innocence in regard to the nitty gritty facts of life about this hobby, and all it entails that has provoked these feelings... Who am I but a newbie?

I will endeavour to do the best for my fish, and try to help others when I can, and try not to tut too loudly when I over hear people picking fish based on their colours.....

Peace always...