Dirty Fish Tanks at Stores?

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wanna

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I've been looking around and I was pretty grossed out over how extremely dirty looking the fish tanks were at both one of the big chain pet stores and at the local mom and pop. The local mom and pop place had really dirty tanks. The big chain store actually had dead fish in several of the tanks, with the live fish eating at them. Needless to say I think, I will NOT be purchasing any fish there. Even if it's perfectly okay -which I cannot think it is- it's the principle of the thing. But I keep hearing that I should support my local fish store, so I just thought I'd ask. Is it healthy to have such dirty looking tanks. Black, they were black. The water wasn't black I guess, but cloudy, and black film coated the sides. Algae I guess.

Cool? Or not cool?

Also, do these fish shops tend to get in different stock on a regular basis, or just the same fish over and over again?
 
Big chain stores get the same fish in over and over. The stickers and labels you see, are the only ones theyll get it. They also have a cleaning schedule that they tend to stick to, regardless of what the tanks look like.

Local stores get the common fish in, and they also get in uncommon fish if their supplier has them for a good price. Mine rarely gets in arowanas or blue jack dempseys, but when the price is good, they ship em in. These shops also have a routine cleaning schedule, but they tend to clean the tanks when it starts looking dirty.

Im surprised your local store looks like that. Most local stores look so much better than chain stores.
 
they get the same fish over and over because they have this contract. also that store is messed up. my petco has the best quality ever. tank size and water. like 3 ottos in a 5 gallon. 2 african cichlids in the tank.
 
they get the same fish over and over because they have this contract. also that store is messed up. my petco has the best quality ever. tank size and water. like 3 ottos in a 5 gallon. 2 african cichlids in the tank.
 
My local fish store has VERY clean tanks, excluding the saltwater which are a SUPREME pain to keep clean or more accurately prevent algae partially due to the fact that some algae are beneficial to the tank ecosystem

she buys her fish from sunpet.com so whatever they have online she can order for you no extra charge.

but quality of store is subject to the owners

just make sure you look REALLY close at any fish you're interested in buying so you can make sure they don't have any diseases.

if their lateral line is very visible stay away they might have HLLE (head and lateral line erosion) which is VERY difficult to treat as well as often fatal if they appear to have a white sheen to their scales that they normally shouldn't (as in the species isn't milky white) they probably have a bacterial infection.

I would say if the water quality is really poor don't buy because poor water conditions can lead to illnesses.
 
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