neglect

[calsonic]

i went to a local garden center that has a animal section today and i was appaled at the way they kept there fish they had a royal panaque there i felt so sorry for it they had it in a tank with just gravel and a couple of chunks of slate.you could tell the poor thing was starving its bellie was all sunken and its eyes were withdrawn it was in such a state if i had my qt tank set up i would have bought it and tried to get it back to health they had loads of dead fish in there tanks i counted six dead red tails in one tank the whole place was just wrong i have never seen fish so badly negleted the only thing i could do was call the rspca when i got in and there going to look in to it i think thoe there neeeds to be more traning given to staff selling fish they should be made to take courses or something sorry for ranting on but i was wondering if there was anything else i could do about it

[Marc van Arc]

I understand from your post that you are angry, but to make it more readable pls use some full stops now and then.
Furthermore I'd advise you NOT to buy fish like the Royal you describe. It'll cost you, the fish is most likely to die and you'll give the LFS the impression that they can even get away with selling very poor quality fishes, in which case you'll make the exact opposite statement of the one you want to make.

[MatsP]

I agree with Marc, don't buy fish out of pity. However, contacting the local branch of RSPCA or perhaps your local council, as I believe trading in live-stock (be it fish or otherwise) is licensed by the local council.

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Mats

[Richard B]

I agree with Marc, don't buy fish out of pity. However, contacting the local branch of RSPCA or perhaps your local council, as I believe trading in live-stock (be it fish or otherwise) is licensed by the local council.

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Mats

I believe this (above in bold)is correct & is a good approach to take.

Also, no matter how heart wrenching, please don't buy fish you feel sorry for.....no matter how difficult it is....

[MatsP]

A friend of my wifes family worked for the council as "pest control and dog catcher" (I'm sure he had a different wording on his business cards!), and he once went up to the staff at one of the local garden centres, waved his badge and said something along the lines of "If you don't take care of those dead fish NOW, I'll tell my boss, and you will no longer be having an aquatics department here..." - next time we went there, the dead-fish-count was zero. Still some eclectic mixes of fish and no clue staff, but you can only get so far...

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Mats