White Tiny Bits on LFS Fish

EtherealGirl · 03-06-2009, 11:31 PM

Last week I visited my LFS to get a new hood for my 10g. Even though I was still waiting for my tank to cycle, I went to take a look at their fish (for future reference). Several of the freshwater fish had little white flecks, kind of like tiny lint balls on their tails (and I think their fins, too, but I can't remeber for sure). I may be a complete amateur at all this Fishy Business, but I was thinking that white flecky lint balls were not a good sign. Can anyone take a guess at what this was, or would you need more info?

Jay · 03-07-2009, 07:46 AM

Could be ICK could be a fungus caused by ICH damage to the body.

It clearly says something about the management of the lfs. IMO if diseased fish are offered for sale and not quarantined and treated, that is inexcusable. There is a large lfs near me that always has ICH in the tanks...they do not get my business, but they sell a lot of fish.

Jay

louistheloach · 03-07-2009, 04:36 PM

I heartily agree. There are a couple of lfs within a certain radius of me that do not care for their fish...not only do I not buy fish there, it is rare that I buy any supplies from them if at all possible.....I may be just one consumer, but I will cast my vote.

ltl

EtherealGirl · 03-07-2009, 10:37 PM

Pretty much what I guessed (about the "lint balls")... and also what I thought about not buying there. Too bad, too, cuz the first time I visited I spoke with a helpful, knowledgeable Fish-Guy, who said they'd "adopt" my slightly-too-aggressive platy if he couldn't "play nice with others" and even offered me mature filter media to help me cycle my stubborn 10g, so I thought: "Wow this place is so much better than Petsmart, where nobody knows anything about fish, they refuse to adopt "unwanted" fish, and they'd never give anything away for free. Then tonight, since we had no other choices, we went to PetSmart to buy our new "Celebrate the Cycle" fish, and we got a guy who actually had his own fishtank(s)! Was very helpful and relatively knowledgable. Just goes to show, you can't judge a book by it's giant corporate neon sign!

louistheloach · 03-08-2009, 12:09 AM

I know a lot is said about those giant corporations and some of their policies not being so great, but I think we would be surprised of many things that take place at the corporate level of other businesses that we interact with. For me when it comes down to it, if the store that is near me has knowledgable people, make a reasonable attempt at caring for the animals in their store and it is one of a few limited choices....then I will shop there. I also think those chains can be very different from store to store. The petsmart near me does a fairly good job.....I don't think it could be said of all petsmarts.

On another note, dont forget to give the other guy a second chance. What you encountered could have been the exception rather than the rule. There was a little shop I heard of once from someone else. The first time I went in there, the place was a mess. I couldnt believe these people actually only bought their fish there. I have been back there several times and it has always looked really good. Turns out the person who was in charge of that department had been out sick for some time and the others were just not trained to know what to do.

have fun with your new fish.....

ltl

gregpape23 · 03-18-2009, 08:56 PM

Not to hijack this thread or anything, but does anyone else seem like all silver dollars have ick on them? Because for the longest time I wanted to buy a silver dollar but they all had ick, only recently was I able to find one w/o ick. lol