Horrible Sight at my LFS

[Mr.Rocc]

So my LFS had this guy in a 10g tank. It kinda really made me upset but I couldn't afford buying him or have the tank for him.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

:/ do they move a lot of fish or is it one of those stores where they lose more than they sell?

 

[Mr.Rocc]

Ive seen a Hippo tang in a ten gallon. It was in there for about 4-5 months and then it was gone... idk if it died or was bought but they just like "shimmy" in the tank not swim.

 

[AcroNem]

That's pathetic, I hope it doesn't end up dying in that thing.

 

[d2mini]

Most LFS have fish in tanks much smaller than optimal.
When you have to separate fish and need to optimize your stock per sq ft it's kinda unavoidable.
It's supposed to be a temporary situation.

 

[AcroNem]

That's the kind of excuse we really need to stop giving. It's just more evidence that's it's more about the money than it is about the life of that long-and-fast swimming fish.

 

[Water Dog]

I try not to get worked up. It's essentially a holding tank for the fish until they sell. No different (space constraint wise) in my mind than doing a full 6 week quarantine in a small QT tank. Also, from the business owner's perspective, retail space is at a premium so it'd be difficult and very expensive to have massive tanks to hold fish that should turnover within a relatively short period of time. Also, imagine how ridiculously difficult it would be for their employees to chase and net fish out of a 120 gallon tank!

 

[sebastiaan1985]

I try not to get worked up. It's essentially a holding tank for the fish until they sell. No different in my mind than doing a full 6 week quarantine in a small QT tank. Also, from the business owner's perspective, retail space is at a premium so it'd be difficult and very expensive to have massive tanks to hold fish that should turnover within a relatively short period of time. Also, imagine how ridiculously difficult it would be for their employees to chase and net fish out of a 120 gallon tank!

And the stress it would cause on all the fish in the tank being chased for a longer period... So I agree with above statement.

 

[4FordFamily]

I am a huge proponent for large tanks and tangs, and tangs in general -- I see this like a quarantine situation. They live in small quarters temporarily.

I don't like it either, but if we want lfs to be profitable (and thus exist at all), we have to understand that it would be cost prohibitive to house fish in sizable tanks. It would be ideal, it's just not plausible, unfortunately.

 

[Ted_C]

Absolutely nothing wrong with this. Your LFS is probably an experienced professional who's done this a thousand times. As others have already stated - it's temporary.

 

[Mr.Rocc]

Unfortunately like I stated I have seen fish in these "quarantines" for months not just temporary. But its just sad that something so amazing like this tang has to be in such a tiny tank

 

[AcroNem]

We all agree that it's supposed to be temporary, and that the holding systems are almost always smaller than they should be. But I'm just astounded by how many of you are condoning a 10 gallon for a fish like this even as a quarantine system. We talk about keeping this hobby around and giving it a good image yet here we are saying this practice is okay. I'm not saying we should use 300g tanks as a quarantine system, but we're better than that.

 

[Jonty]

This is just retail holding get a grip of yourself , the holding in wholesale was probably much more constrained.

 

[sde1500]

If you think that is bad, you should see the bag they were shipped in!

 

[Mr.Rocc]

I feel like this is turning into more of an argument instead of a discussion where we are all saying the same thing in our own words. Putting a 3-4" Achilles Tang in a 10 gallon tank is not a good thing.

 

[d2mini]

I feel like this is turning into more of an argument instead of a discussion where we are all saying the same thing in our own words. Putting a 3-4" Achilles Tang in a 10 gallon tank is not a good thing.

But we're not all saying that in this particular case because we are talking about temporary retail holding space.
This is probably a luxury hotel compared to what the poor fish have experienced since time of capture.

 

[sc50964]

This following link is what whole sale looks like. It's not good but this kind of thing is unavoidable in this biz. How much is your LFS selling the Achilles?

 

[BoomCorals]

That's the kind of excuse we really need to stop giving. It's just more evidence that's it's more about the money than it is about the life of that long-and-fast swimming fish.

Then we wouldn't have LFS at all. They can't afford to run huge 6' long tanks for temporarily holding fish, not to mention it isn't practical. I don't put my tangs into a 6' QT tank, do you?

 

[NeuroticAquatics]

I kinda agree with both sides. Almost every LFS I have ever been to have a variety of tank sizes for displaying fish. Most display fish like this in at least a 30-40g tank. If this LFS only displays fish in 10g tanks, that is surprising. The "it's temporary" argument is probably true, but for more expensive fish, it could take a while to sell. The unfortunate thing here is that Achilles are already a fairly fragile fish. Tight quarters aren't helping it. There is no chance I would buy a fish like that coming from such a small tank.

 

[AcroNem]

Then we wouldn't have LFS at all. They can't afford to run huge 6' long tanks for temporarily holding fish, not to mention it isn't practical. I don't put my tangs into a 6' QT tank, do you?

That's incorrect, the majority of stores in my area use racks of 55g and 90g as their holding systems. Seriously though I'm not saying we need bigger holding systems for every fish, some just don't need it, but this one does. I do actually, I have a 30g a 55g and a 125g available for quarantine purposes. Itjust isn't responsible to do something like that. If you're shelling out the money for a fish you better be paying the money to treat it better.