Pets at Home and my poor fish

[MrsBauer]

I have had 5 neon Tetras for a few months and about a month ago I increased my tank size so I could add to them.
So last weekend I went to Pets at Home and bought 5 glowlight tetras. On the Monday 1 of the glowlights died and thats when I noticed the other glowlights had white spot. I went to pets at home, looked in the tank and sure enough their glowlights had white spot too. I bought some treatment and told them one had already died and more looked dodgy. They told me they wouldn't refund or replace till the tank was clear of disease.
5 days down the line I have lost 3 glowlights and 3 Neons and I'm absolutley livid and at this stage I'm fully expecting to lose the rest.

Is it my fault for not noticing and for being stupid enough to buy at Pets at home? Or should I go in there and give them hell and insist they give me the money to restock my tank (from elsewhere of course).

I have recently had a problem with a pets at home guinea pig food. I called the number on the bag and they did offer good service. They provided me with cleaner, hay etc plus toys and food. They gave my ASD son a £5 voucher that I had to stop him eating! LOL and had all products ready for my collection when I explained my son would have his own agenda and standing around while mummy chats woulodn't be part of it!

A day or so later I had a letter clarifying the problem and offering a home pest control and cleaning service if necessary (thank goodness it wasn't) and another £25.

I don't usually use pets at home but I do think that in this instance they dealt with me well.

Until such time as ALL petshops follow the same guidelines such as places like the RSPCA with hutch sizes they will always sell smaller hutches....mainly down to the cost of buying larger hutches. They cost an absolute bomb. Having said that you can buy large hutches relatively cheaply on the internet/eBay.

I also had a problem with buying bales of hay from PAH recently. DH went to buy some for me and brought home two bags of straw in hay bags. I mentioned this to a member of staff some time later and they GAVE me two fresh bags of hay, despite me not returning the straw.

You can't fault PAH for their customer care or after sales service.

I've just started buying online with them too. I ordered 8 bags of hay, a large bag of guinea pig food and some wipes to clean the hutches. All delivered within 48hrs with free delivery. Excellent. (atleast by buying online I'm not tempted to go and look at the rescue section!)

I bought a lead from PAH which snapped when I was walking my pup near a busy road. PAH sent me a gift voucher which refunded the cost & notified their supplier, who then sent me not one but two identity barrel thingies for the pup's collar. Very useful - not!

Anyone want one?

my sisters fish all popped their clogs-all from pets at home

Think we should have a two minute silence for all the wee fishies

I really like our pets at home, its a great store and my fish are now 13 months old!

Some rescue ideas:

1. what treatment are you using? Have you removed any carbon from your filter (as that takes medication right out). I'm also a big fan of using Melafix and Pimafix as general fish "tonics" when they're sick.

2. most fish carry white spot as a dormant illness, it re-emerges when fish are stressed and run down. Re-evaluate how you add fish to your tank when you have new fish - do you make sure that all lights are off in the tank for 24hrs, that you allow half an hour to gradually acclimatise (float the bag in the tank adding a bit of your tank water into the bag every five minutes or so to gradually introduce them to conditions in your tank - this reduces stress).

3. turn the lights off in the tank while treating, turn the temperature up (white spot is a parasite - the warmer the temperature the quicker the cycle allowing the treatment to kill of the parasite quicker - about 28C is best though do it gradually, no more than 1C a day), keep the water conditions PERFECT with daily water changes if necessary. Have you a home water testing kit? You should regularly check pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate as a minimum and if any parameters are off immediately do a partial water change. Remember, anything you do to keep your fish in tip top health will help them fight off the parasite.

4. some people swear by adding a bit of aquarium salt to the water as well, but read the packet very carefully and not all fish respond well to that.

5. Parasite life cycle is about 2 weeks, so keep up treatment long after there is no further sign.

6. Do NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES add any new fish until you've had no deaths or sign of illness for at least 2 weeks.

Hope that helps and that your fishies recover soon. Tank wipeouts happen to the best of us and are always heartbreaking. You can take steps to minimize the damage though. Fingers crossed

Oh ...

7. "hoover" the substrate with an aquarium vacuum cleaner daily for a while (can do a partial water change just after too) to make sure no parasites are lurking dormant in the substrate.

Basically, you treat white spot in fish as you would treat nits or worms in humans - treat the whole tank and CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN until you're sick of cleaning (but not too clean so you destroy the good bacteria in your tank).

Also be aware that your tank might go into a mini cycle after treatment is over because the treatments can upset the balance of the tank.