Ben Ochart. What size tank as the sump should be used on a 210 gallon well stocked tank with African cichlids?

All the stores have terrible looking fish now. Worse then 20 years ago.

I have two PetSmart's and two Petco's where I live. It is totally up to the store manager. I have one PetSmart and 1 Petco is good. I won't go to the others. Sadly the LFS is bad also.

I work at an un-named fishstore, lately the guppies come in DOA, so we do not even order them. Neons die off in a day or two. If only we had space for quarantine tanks! We get some customers who have quarantine tanks and follow proper protocols. Others look at you like you are nuts. I do refuse to sell any fish that looks off, I also try to teach the customer to look at each tank and look at the fish in that as a whole. Look at the behavior, do they look stressed? Swimming strangely? Spots? I tell them straight up,do not buy that fish. It is frustrating that we cannot spend more time educating, cleaning, everything is rush rush rush. I have no control when not on shift. Trying to get everyone to use s clean net between tanks. I do suggest to each customer various videos. I would love a pamphlet to hand out and a link to a video to give the customer. We simply do not have the time to do an in-depth education. In the small animal & reptile departments, same thing. If the manager knew how often I sent them home empty-handed, way too often, telling them to do more research. I am allowed to outright refuse to sell someone a fish, animal or reptile. I refuse to sell fish and a new setup at the same time. I tell them to go home, set it up, and let it sit. In the mean time watch videos and study. And bring a water sample back. Also, I encourage start slowly, do not stock the tank in one fell swoop. I could go on and on. Great video and topic.

It depends on many things, but mainly what will move the needle and spur action on the part of Petsmart is a hell of a lot more feedback from unhappy clients regarding this issue. Corporate entities really don't give a damn about their clientele until we start dropping the shovels and going home.

Hi Ben im a discus keeper with my discus they are Malasian imports the water has to be 30 degrees Celsius with the Discus i have Altum angels and Congo Tettras i used to have cardinal tetras but my very large discus ate almost all of them Rummy nose did allright

Another awesome video, Mr. Ben I think the bottom line is quarantine all fish that are bought from any fish store.

It sounds like empty rhetoric to me! I've never seen PetSmart or Petco quarantine fish at my local stores. Their new shipments go directly into the display tanks. At my PetSmart, I have seen dead fish floating in the tank and the ones alive are clearly infected with Ick. I will notify an employee and they act like they don't care. Sometimes they don't even bother to take the dead ones out. On top of that I have never seen my local PetSmart or Petco quarantine fish or put signs up and treat diseased/sick fish. The only chain store that has treated sick fish and put quarantine signs up that they are sick and they are off limits is my local Pet Supplies Plus.

Would need to have a lot of people complain in a short amount of time for them to make any meaningful changes. Also congrats on your specially labeled Northfin food! I look forward to trying it when it becomes available in the US!

Its the business model for those large box stores. There is enough information on KZbin on how to take care of aquarium fish. And I believe this is the gateway for people to get into the hobby now.Btw Ben why not just use plastic containers for emergency quarantine purposes?.

They get new fish so fast and sell them so fast there isn't time for them to do anything. Even healthy fish from a local fish shop can get ick in the process of bringing them home and putting them in a tank. You run a risk adding new fish from anywhere.

If any petshop is quarantining their neons youll be paying 5 to 10 dollars each. Its just not feasible to do so. I know you're an experienced fish keeper but when you quarantine fish at home they should be in their own tank. Also neons can carry a "neon tetra disease" that is incurable. Thanks for the video ✌️

Good evening 1/4/25 Happy New Year to you and your familia

Wow I do agree that these box stores have some questionable practices and their Associates are not that well versed. But, part of the issue was that you added fish to a quarantine tank that had fish in it already that had been there for some time and were on the later stages of quarantining. The new fish should have went into a total separate tank.

From my experience. Ordering high grade fish is better ☝️ Than from diseased Petsmart

Lip service.

Hey Ben, Hello from Morristown, Tennessee. I think discus would be a great addition to your fishroom. I've had discus for a little over a year now. I treat them just like all my other tanks, except for a lil higher temperature (82-83 degrees) is what I keep them as well as "weekly" water changes (about 30-40 percent). I have several tank breed along with a few wild caught. I lost 2 in the beginning, but since then all has been well. I think you can do it. Good luck in the New Year & I love your channel. Thank you for the videos you make.

They don’t care

I’d be scared, it’s looking amazing but I wouldn’t want to add something that could kill everything. Very very small 🤙

My local petsmart is dismal at stocking and maintaining its fish. Often has warnings posted to not buy fish due to an outbreak in the system! lol I will give them props for the warning though. On the other hand my local Petco has an awesome fish department. The staff are all experienced fish keepers themselves. The manager orders fish beyond the normal set list at least every other week. Keeps two isolated quarantine tanks for stressed and sick fish. I’m lucky to have it

I wish I didn’t agree with your quarantine tank comment. EVEN IF YOU TRUST THE FISH STORE!!!! I failed on that this year

Heard more BS from Biden, theses big box stores have all the resources to get it perfect just like mum and dad stores do. Simply a company that puts profits before the health care of fish. Don’t buy anything from them and then they might do something about it.

Yep. They gave me the same song and dance almost word for word when the fish I got from them had Epistylus.

The letter from PetSmart was fluff. Not sincere. You should have heard from an actual human being and they should have offered a “laurel” (a gift certificate, for example). The staff at my local PerSmart are good people, but corporate is another story.

I very much like watching your channel. But I can't say I'm in agreement with today's concerns over big box stores. I honestly thought most people understood they are a retailer and basically a layover for animals. Expecting them to have quarantine tanks and a month of time for every fish is absolutely crazy. You would never see a fish for under twenty bucks again if this were the case. That's why they give you two to four week guarantees. I've been in the hobby longer than most of their Salesforce have been alive. I don't expect them to know what I know and no one else should either. Can all this quarantine be done? Sure. But any store doing that is going to lose business to everyone else except advanced hobbyists willing to spend extra. All of us have access to learning materials on FB, KZbin, etc. My Petco was fantastic but that was due to one kid who was a bigger fish nerd than me and he knew his stuff. They lost him to a local SW store and their fish department went downhill immediately. But keep in mind, these box stores simply have departments. They aren't fish stores and holding them to those standards just isn't right. You are expecting far too much!!

So, to me it sounds like you got an A.I. generated response, working with it in the way I do, it seems like that is what they did, lol!

Why would Discus need a bare bottom tank?

They replace your fish that you lost

You know petsmart has to get them from somebody else.

You know we all need a 10gal aquarium to put the fish in for a month then put them in with the fish

I lost some fish because of parasite

I lost some fish because of parasite

The store should make sure the fish are safe

The only fish stores near me are Petsmart and Petland. So I have neccesarily bought fish from both stores. I noticed the petsmart near me has to suspend sales periodically in order to quarantine their fish because of an outbreak of something. Probably because all the tanks are connected. I quarantine my fish for 4 weeks before adding them to any tanks. And this has been mostly successful for me.

I think if you luck out and walk in to a chain store that actually has employees who know aquaria you're probably ok... (they'll be doing the right things) But if not, they probably aren't going out of their way to train them correctly. If no one there really knows what they are doing how can anyone get trained correctly.

It is very important to remember; we are in the throws of a renewed era of corporate monopolies that require the consumer to return to the time of the Industrial Revolution and adopt the “buyers beware” philosophy.

That’s why it comes with that white plastic grid sheet bruv. You didn’t follow instructions

I will also like to add that if you can't afford to pay a minimum wage which is still very low in the grand scheme of things, the real issue that should be addressed is corporate CEO's wages. They make millions/billions a year and then whine about having to pay a McDonald's worker more money. That's the real issue. Corporate greed.

The first job I had was at PetSmart Distribution Center in Newnan, GA and we shipped to, and were responsible for keeping the entire southeast stocked! I worked there when they started receiving and shipping their own fish, before that their stores were stocked with fish straight from the breeders! But they wanted to cut cost! Imagine that, a corporate giant retailer wants to cut costs! Anyhow, I applied for a position in the new to come fish department at the time and got it no problem, and my job was to bag fish orders for stores and then take to the fish shipping area where they aired up the bags and prepared them for shipping! When the fish department first started up, they had a lot of issues, such as not being able to keep the water stable, more die off than they wanted to have, etc. However they did hire a guy for a permanent position as a quality control guy, and he was very knowledgeable about fish, water parameters, etc, he knew his stuff for sure, and within just three months the department ran so smooth, with no fish deaths(in house), no water issues. Anyhow my point is to say that I worked there from 2005 - 2014 (2007 - 2014 in fish) and once they got up and running and got the people in place to properly house, take care of, and ship the fish, I can attest that they took the fish’s health, the water parameters, their diet, everything about the fish very seriously and having dealt with the fish on a daily basis, I can attest that the fish were happy and healthy. However as a fish keeper myself, no matter where I get my fish from I always quarantine new fish to avoid potential issues, because I don’t know the fish’s full chain of custody and their practices…

The empire strikes back vibes :)

Fantastic Video Ben…and the music at the end after the video was over was simply GREAT! Love me a little jazz!

I like your idea of offering to do a five minute video but I would add a recommendation that all employees hired to work in the aquatic department should watch the video. Also, I feel like their response was pretty standard. It would've been nice if they had offered to refund the expenses you incurred.

whoa, hold on Ben! my favorite beverage is wild turkey 101 on ice, if i drink a cup of that this early in the morning i wont get anything done! i think i'll just have a coffee.

I say no go on the discus. I can already see them not eating well and getting skinny and adding meds to that tank will kill a lot of snails and spike the ammonia in the tank bc of it. Or you’ll have to keep the tank so clean the snail population dies back and spikes the tank. They are supper skittish and more maintenance then I’d like but hey if you can find some healthy ones all the same size so they don’t stunt each others growth go for it

Honestly, they are very easy to raise as long as you get a few of them at least 4+, I would recommend 6+. Now here is the tricky part, if you want to grow out smaller ones like you are wanting, you are going to have to do a lot of work to not get them stunted (water changes and 5x feedings). If you don't care about stunting, then you can feed less. Now, if you do care about stunting and don't want to feed so much but just 2-3 times a day, I would recommend to get at least 4 inches+, but prefer 5 to 6 inch because I don't like when they get stunted with the bigger eyes. Water changes are around 20% a week for 5 to 6 inches but you can do much less if you have a bigger aquarium. Another problem is having faster fish eat the discus's food (discus are slow at eating) and since I think I saw a rainbow on that 55, I'm sure you are going to get the discus stunted since they will get out competed. Again that's not a problem if you don't care about it.

I think both PetSmart and Costco has the same quality control standards.

Sure that would look great, love disus

Does it need to be refrigerated?

Yes I like to see you put some Dis in the tank

Nice Channel I just subscribed.... where did you get the plastic plants from in your African cichlid tank