- Location
- Virginia
Just wanted to share my dismay and discourage people from frequenting bad stores. I went into one today (Aquazotic II in Niles, IL) that always had marine stuff, not in the best condition, but also not in the worst either, probably on the lower end of average (I have some pretty great stores in the area). Anyway, they apparently changed ownership, and are redoing their salt section. In the back, they had a dead blue dot stingray that obviously died a tortured death (it was contorted and on its back, and if it was a natural death, it wouldn't be like that). I told an employee that his blue dot was dead, and he said "Yeah, that's all salt back there" and then I got a little mad and told him I said they had killed their ray. The store also had a feeder goldfish tank in which most of the feeders were dead and floating, and the water was milky white. In a large freshwater display tank, they had a set up for small freshwater rays, and besides the rays, they had a dive bag with around 200 large feeder goldfish (again, probably 10% were dead, another 20% on their way) suspended in it. They also had a large flat acrylic display, filled mostly with anemones (a pathetic light fixture was suspended above it, and it didn't even illuminate the display boxes any more than the light from the window), but one chamber had several large dead comet goldfish (did they think that goldfish are saltwater?), another had a decaying mass of something, I'm not sure what it was, and then there was what was probably once a beautiful piece of open brain coral that was completely receded from the edges, with several of its "mouths" gaping wide open. I asked them if I could buy it and save it, and the guy who had asked me if I needed help before (the one I told about the dead ray) said that he needed to get their salt guy. I offered him a buck, and he gave it to me. He said he was gone from there as of next week as he was disgusted by what they had done to the tanks and the stock (the new owners). I'm one to always hunt for deals (used to go to this great place that was in a barn and buy her "feeder" corals for $5-$10, injured ones she fed to difficult butterflies, angels, etc. that looked incredibly healthy to me), but this was too much even for a dedicated bargain hunter/coral salvager. I'm not going back to a store like that again (well, at least not that one) unless they do a complete turn around.
Anyway, thanks for listening to me vent, as a hobbyist, it really pisses me off that stores can kill their stock like that and continue to purchase difficult species.
By the way, when I left 10 minutes later, the dead ray was still in the tank. For the sake of the rest of their fish, I hope it released some toxins into the water, or at least quickly fouled the system, and basically euthanized the rest of the inhabitants, who were probably dying slow deaths.
Anyway, thanks for listening to me vent, as a hobbyist, it really pisses me off that stores can kill their stock like that and continue to purchase difficult species.
By the way, when I left 10 minutes later, the dead ray was still in the tank. For the sake of the rest of their fish, I hope it released some toxins into the water, or at least quickly fouled the system, and basically euthanized the rest of the inhabitants, who were probably dying slow deaths.
