fcking pets at home - i bought dd1 goldfish for her bday - next day DEAD then guess what

[nailpolish]

frogmarched back to pets at home
took a sample of tank ater

which tey tested it was FINE

they gave us 2 replacement fish - 2 days later

DEAD

wtf is going on? i did everything by the book

i feel i cant go and get another 2 replacement fish in case same thing happens and dd1 will be even more distraught

No, room light is fine unless you try and grow real plants in there.

Like sullysmum we were lucky with our two goldfish from PAH as they are now at least 5 years old and huge. It probably depends a lot on the branch you go to but there are occasional success stories with their fish.

Be warned with real plants. Ours got chewed by the fish and the bits floated off and blocked the filter!

I think it depends on the fish and the plants. Never managed to keep a live plant with a goldfish without it being shredded within days, but by and large my tropical fish leave the plants alone.

Hmmm... maybe tropical fish would be good. They are so pretty. DD has a big tank with just one pearl danio and the killer sucking loach. Quite sad really.

Oh, I put a very grainy and indistinct photo of my tank in my profile, btw

(Yes, some of my plants need replacing - it can be a bit of an experiment to see which thrive best in any given tank!)

I have just come on here for some advice as I got two fish from petsat*home yesterday and today one of the fish has died and the other is not looking too good.....

What is up with the fish (I am in the midlands) why are they dieing? My dd is aswell....

Rubberduck, I was going to say exactly the same thing about the minnows! We had some in a small cold-water tank and they were much easier to keep than the goldfish. When we decided to get a heater and go tropical they adapted really well. They are still there now swimming about happily with some Cherry Barbs and an Angel Fish.

i too advice not to use pah we have a tropical tank and brought a mating pair of pineapple fish ... they never got that far they died along with most of the tank infact we had one suviver our pleco .. he's 5 now and going well and tanks all stocked bk up but not from pah i use our small local aqutics pah are killers don't use them lol plus you end up broke replacing everything

I can second the white cloud mountain minnows, really lovely fish especially if you get a light that brings out their colours, as different lights bring out different colour spectrum, lights are only about £8 for small tank.

It sounds to me like your goldfish were gasping at the surface of the tank, because of lack of oxygen.they require really good aeration and filtration as they create a lot of waste, you definately need charcoal filter to deal with their waste.

Message withdrawn

DS's goldfish "BOB" died last week but he was over 5 years old.

they were gaspngat the bottom of the tank

and i do have a charcoat filter thingybob

purne -

I hate Pets at Home. Bought dd a hamster from there and was dead within 5 days- on reflection it had always been a very quiet little thing. MArched back there with corpse in the cage, demanded a new animal and cage, as I wasn't happy putting a new animal in where a sick one had been. To be fair, they did replace everything, but I know rom talking to people that animals from Pets at Home do seem to shuffle off this mortal coil much more quickly than they should...

only read you Op but i did this 2 year ago for dd's borthday..water tested upteen times and they kept dying/finding water had too much amonia in it even after spending a fortune on water purifying stuff from them!..in the end i found that i shouldnt have been sold 'these' two fish together as one was more 'ornimental'?? and was producing too much amonia which was killing normal gold fish!..i marched back into store with EVERYTHING id bought 2 months before (minus water in tank, but half used food/treatments etc) and demanded my money back..i got it quick as a shot!

thing is we spent 2 week prepping the tank for them, then went to get them and faffed about like this!...friend won one at fair, shoved it in little plastic round bowl with no filter and its still swimming around 6 years on!

god thats so unfair pinkchick

We have just bought a fish tank and have it set up in DD's room awaiting the water to be "just right" before purchasing our fish. After reading this thread, they won't be from Pets At Home.

Lulu - you are evil.

LOL i KNOW NP!..i have goldfish envy

Another one who has had this with PAH.

DS2 adores fish- lots of books, plans a degree in oceanography etc etc- but we gave up after losing far too many: it's me that gets attacjed - I hand fed one poor bastard as he slowly died over weeks.

Its not as if I cant do pet care- Sisters vets target me for their most needy cats as I've had some very ill ones ad do the full kangaroo care bit with them, but fish..... oh no.

We have stick insects atm for ds2 (yuck) but will do the fish agn but tropical, not from PAH and dh will have to buy them (inependent fish shop here sells snakes and I am extremely phobic- typing the work has made me nauseous!)

Argh PAH. Can't even utter the word.
Exdh bought DD's some fish. One has swim bladder problems and swam upside down for days. The other died of natural causes.
Then he went back to PAH to replace said dead fish with a hamster. Poor sod he was. Lovely animal. Caught wet tail within 3 months and died in DD1's arms.

He then went back again to PAH to buy 2 guinea pigs for DD1. Thankfully, these ones are ok and very friendly. Not to mention the half dead mouse we found in their shredded hay bales...

The lone fish I bought from the pet shop 5 years ago has outlived anything he has bought from PAH, and is swimming merrily in the tank.
DD1 has only had the guineas for 8 months so I'm not holding my breath just yet. But anything from PAH has a deathwish IMVHO.
Buy private or from your local high street pet shop...which sells snakes too.

Okay, fish stress very easily. Any slightest change in temperature, over feeding, too much light or slightest movement they all just drop over dead.
I would hold off on the goldfish for a bit. May I suggest something a little more hardy? Like growing a butterfly farm? Or perhaps if you can get an artificial fish aquarium background. No cleaning, no feeding, no dying and therefore no tears. Maybe a song cricket? Hmm a trip to the zoo?
I've done the fish thing with your same result. Children and fish just don't mix. Actually, unless you want to take over all the duties, pets and small children aren't such a great idea...mainly because it is over romanticized and the mum ends up taking care of the pet.

I probably came off as a killjoy in that last post. You can always get a small edible flowers and after they bloom candy them and put them on a cupcake!