high temperature

[cocoa_pleco]

One thing i forgot to say.

When i looked at wal-marts tanks in seattle, they had gravel, but the temperature was at a friggin 92F! I cant believe all the fish didnt just shoot themselves or something. I was gonna stick my hand in there and turn it down myself. The next day, they put up a huge sign, LEAVE THE TEMPERATURE AT 77F

[jeffs99dime]

that doesn't suprise me one bit! that's walmart for ya'.

[Lady Hobbs]

If there was a sign on the tank the following day, they probably had some idiot adjusting the heater. Some nob-head trying to be funny. You really should have told them about it as they apparently didn't know.

I noticed the fish store where I go (have to/no choice) has individual bio-wheels on every one of their tanks. Only problem is, they have about 4 inches to try to reach them and how they ever change out the filter media is beyond me. I bet the inside of those filters are one slimmy, stinking mess. If mine don't get cleaned out every other month......oweeeeee. They have no room to even replace a filter if it goes out. They'd have to pull the tank out.

Walmart has a cool system. One huge filter system that cleans all the tanks. It was a pretty neat set-up really.

[Nautilus29]

the bio-wheels on the walmart tanks are amazing!! Ill give them that. they are one big wheel.

the only problem with the one filter for all is that all fish like different water parameters. they keep livebearers in the same water as tetras which both need different ph levels.

[Lady Hobbs]

These store have no time to mess with pH. These fish come into the store in huge bags and are dumped in the tanks no matter what the pH is. Most community fish, no matter what kind, do fine with a pH of 6.8 to 7.8 so they have a wide range.

[Chrona]

A lot of stores have the central wet/dry system. Efficient I guess, but a really bad idea since any fish getting disease = every fish getting that disease. Imagine trying to control an ich outbreak in 30 tanks. One of my LFS keeps row and rows of 10g tanks all with seperate in tank filtration. Water changes are a bit of a hassle, but they have a system where they can do a 50% water change weekly in about 4 hours. Saves them lots of money on meds, livestock and they have MUCH healthier fish.

[cocoa_pleco]

the problem with one main system is if one tank gets ich, it spreads.

[jeffs99dime]

the problem with one main system is if one tank gets ich, it spreads.

or a lot of other diseases as well

[cocoa_pleco]

pretty much. ich, fin rot, parasites, and other stuff are easily transferred

[Drumachine09]

I thought fin rot was cuased buy a laceration or abraision on the fin or at the base of the fin?

[cocoa_pleco]

Its a catchable bacteria or fungi. It often starts at the tip of the fin and works its way to the body. Theres fungus fin rot or bacterial.

[Rue]

You know...I'm not convinced that the chains have such a bad system...

Our big stores inevitably have healthier looking stock than the family run stores...I think all those individual tanks are just too hard and expensive to look after properly, and get neglected quickly...

[Chrona]

You know...I'm not convinced that the chains have such a bad system...

Our big stores inevitably have healthier looking stock than the family run stores...I think all those individual tanks are just too hard and expensive to look after properly, and get neglected quickly...

I think those mom and pop stores just need to get a good routine down. The LFS I was talking about had this giant container on wheels that rolled out of the backroom, filled with fresh, treated tap water heated up to the proper temp. They have some kind of giant Python that sucks up water quite quickly, and a pump to pump water from the container into each tank. I watched for a bit and each water change took about 5 minutes (including gravel vacuuming). 4 hours of labor is at most, the equivalent of oh, 80 dollars of labor expense per week, which is nothing when you consider they only have 3-4 fish die a week out of hundreds. It makes for a great business model as well: Good business through better products. Because their fish are so healthy, they have immensely good business despite being a small mom and pop store, so they actually MAKE money on livestock instead of losing money like a lot of LFS.

[cocoa_pleco]

In seattle, i found a pet store by the ocean where the salt fish got actual sea water, and it was one of those tanks that constantly has water flowing down- no actual filter needed. New water comes in, old is returned to the ocean. They even had a jellyfish display with 45 jellyfish, all extremely healthy.

[Chrona]

In seattle, i found a pet store by the ocean where the salt fish got actual sea water, and it was one of those tanks that constantly has water flowing down- no actual filter needed. New water comes in, old is returned to the ocean. They even had a jellyfish display with 45 jellyfish, all extremely healthy.

That's bad lol. Saltwater near the shore usually has a lot of toxins. Plus the instant ocean mix you get has a lot more trace elements.

[Drumachine09]

That's bad lol. Saltwater near the shore usually has a lot of toxins. Plus the instant ocean mix you get has a lot more trace elements.


Yea, not to mention all of the cr@p that gets pulled in.

[cocoa_pleco]

They have MASSIVE machines that clean the saltwater, and i mean MASSIVE. Its amazing how complex they get their machines

[Incredulous_Ed]

That would be pretty cool!

Anyway, the wal mart people were probablt trying to sto ick by keeping the temp so high.

[cocoa_pleco]

82f for ich is okay, high 90's is like sticking a baby in a oven (bad image, i know)

[xoolooxunny]

My lfs store has seperate filters for their rows of fish. The longest row is the FW fish row (minus livebearers and cichlids, which have their own rows/seperate filtration) and then a loach row, a goldfish row, and a couple of feeder tanks that have seperate filtration/constant water change. Their saltwater system is out of control, its massive, a couple people could sit in this tank of macro algae!! and it's not for sale! I love the coral tables they have set up. Oh! and i almost forgot! They have a GIANT tank up by the register that they are in the process of turning into saltwater right now, and a koi pond with koi that could swallow a couple fingers, and boy do they try!