My local pah are actually very good nowadays. Wasnt always great to be honest but recently they have really upped their game. Tanks are all spotless and fish all look healthy and active. Last twice I've been in they have asked customers all the right questions and giving good advice on the nitrogen cycle.

Pet's at home are okay for dry dog food and that's about it. Stay away.

They’re not that bad. For instance I was in The Leigh store one a few months back. A buyer wanted to purchase a goldfish and the store woman said, “have you got a tank, filtration and adequate means of changing water once a week?” The buyer said, “what for a fking goldfish? I have a bowl at my house for it, it’s for my kid.” Credit to pets at home, they refused to sell the goldfish to this customer. The mentality of most people thinking this is just a fish is a much bigger problem if you ask me. I think way over 50% of people who have fish have no idea how to keep them correctly.

With respect to ich and sharing water on a central system - having had a fierce argument with Pets at Home about this myself - they assured me that running UV sterilisers prevents cross contamination between tanks. I don’t mind Pets at Home for dry goods. In the South East they use the same wholesalers my LFS so would rather support an independent business for livestock purchases.

Same situation in my one! Shocking husbandry. Decent for Tropica bits and bobs though, especially the packet plants and tissue culture.

my friend used to be "the fish guy" in our local pets at home, he said that the training provided was very simple and alot of what he learned was from doing his own research online. this was almost 5 years ago though so maybe it has gotten better. i always used to go in for stuff but i tended to stick to dry goods and plants, although recently they have removed the fresh plant section so we only have the tropica range in the plastic boxes and the diversity of what they stock has dropped vastly as well.

I'm very glad you made this video an ad, a friend bought a betta from Pets at Home and it had fin rot she was devastated. I really hope more people find this video, Pets at Home is a nice store but the treatment of their animals and fish isn't the best.

Thanks for the great advice. 🐠

I'm a beginner fish keeper, and I was told by pets at home to come back after my tank had been running for 24 hours to buy my fish, the woman recommended I get some platy fish after I said my tank was only 10L and asked which fish would be happy in a small tank. So I took 2 platy fish home, she didnt tell me about them being live bearers, and you should have 2-3 females to every male, she gave me 1 male and 1 female. So what started as me wanting some tiny fish in a little tank on my desk, now meant I had to buy a 50L and 2 more females, I went back asking for 2 females and again, I was sold 1 male and 1 female. So I still don't have the right ratio. My hamster was also sold to me as male and turned out to be female, and I brought my hamster to the vet when he was sick and the vet said there was nothing wrong with him but to spend £72 on antibiotics, the hamster recovered and got sick quickly after, the vet said he would be fine and he died shortly after (I'm just used to calling my hamster he) My second hamster was from the adoption section and was very sick when she was sold to me and she didn't last long at all. My cat was neutred at the vets4pets and they gave him a much too small cone and he ended up biting his stitches, infected and really sick, I had to buy a 5 day course of antibiotics from them (he's on day 2 now and recovering nicely) after the next post-op checkup this week, I will NEVER step foot in that shop/vets again.

Yep ...I’ve rescued the odd betta myself ....some with all their fins nipped off!...then slowly bring them back to health to such a standard that I’ve shown them at fish shows or auction them off..I have seven bettas at moment, 5 were rescued, in their own 5 gallon tanks...but have to admit that when I’ve visited Pets at Home in Harrogate the standard of stock and staff and cleanliness, was very high indeed...!

Not been in a PAH for fish in over 10yrs. Prefer shops in Paisley Road West, Glasgow.

thanks for the heads up, I'll check out my local aquatics store instead, how much did you pay for the betta if you remember? thanks

Normally I wouldn't buy fish from a place like pets at home but I got my second betta from there and it's doing so well and is so happy. My first one brought from an actual aquatic shop was sick and died a few days later. I do get most of my other supplies from pets at home though as its convenient.

Very pretty Betta...love his deep deep blue color.

All my fish from Pets at home have lasted a lot longer than ones from other shops 🤷🏻‍♂️

The blackmoors are always under quarantine

you made this video just as i was about to post my opinion on them, i've had HORRIBLE experiences with their fish. i went to pick some cherry shrimp up and they were grey, they looked so ill

Bought two goldfish from there, they are about five years old now and very healthy :)

I went to pets at home to day just to get a tank and to be fair i met a nice guy that allowed me to ask any and all questions i wanted to just to say knowledge test and i was surprised to how much he was willing to offer in way of help and guidance to say find a fish that works for myself but also said there are ways of say a zero cycle fish tank idea but he did mention this also means water ph etc has to be to a degree safe for the fish and other factors but all in all we just shot the shit regarding methods of introducing fish to a tank based on how soon would i like my fish per say but also how many points say a tank is worth to then lead to generalising how many fish in a tank can seem to many which i am happy with because he looked maybe 25 years old at beat but still was able to help someone with autism and learning challenges to understand not just what i asked but also what fish i wished to work with which i give the chap his dues and mad respect to pets at home Tamworth at ventura retail park they least had someone on a day i just wanted to in better terms of pick on for what i wished to know and i use the term pick on lightly due to wanting to keep it as helpful to all as possible

Thanks for this. I've been planning to get a betta, there's a pets at home 5 minutes from me but after watching this i'll probably get from a local tropical fish breeder instead

I'm looking to get myself a betta fish so I'm watching as many videos and doing a much research as I can so I have all the info when I'm get round to it, I try to be a bit wary of Pets At Home as my dog had been going to their vets for years and it was only when we changed over did we find she had a heart murmur (luckily she's alright and is 10 years old and pretty healthy) but then we also adopted guinea pigs from there though we didn't know their age they all lived between 5 to 7 years and then we adopted again and were told these boys were 7 months old and now they're nearly 2 and totally healthy so I guess it generally depends on which one you go to and which member of staff you speak to 😅 great video, very helpful 😊

Wow, an actual useful and interesting video in my ads instead of the usual zealous religious nutjobs. Miracles do happen!

went there recently and saw a mature group of bronze cories that layed eggs on the glass. tempted to get them and give them a nice home

Not sure I fully agree. Maybe it's different store to store. Great service and care of fish at my local shops in South London - Croydon, Sydenham and Old Kent Road. I always get a grilling regarding tank size, cycling, other fish in the tank etc. I also go to the local independent stores too but at times find them slightly overbearing.

At my pets at home they always seem to have that beta fish and a red beta

I've bought dry goods from there as well as foods but never fish. Played devil's advocate once, attempted to buy fish, they asked how long my tank had been set up, I said this morning, however I'm using a fully cycled filter and cycled substrate and lots of plants. The sales assistant looked at me agog and said my tank needed 3 days to mature 😅, meanwhile bacteria starve, cycle crashes and left starting again, got to wharf aquatics in Pinxton, they sorted me straight out, well worth a visit! Lots of fish nerd staff that are always mega helpful, all tanks running off air on their own systems, awesome place. Did you get chance to look at their plants? Every now and then they have some great plants that are reasonably cheap, and ours have started doing tissue cultures, but they still love selling terrestrial plants that they chuck in water and pass off as aquatic species 🙈

Recently, I've had problems sourcing nice healthy guppies. I have some nice ones from maidenhead aquatics, but they have all now died. They didn't breed, and I'm not sure why. My tank tests are good. Anyway, I was thinking of trying to buy my guppies from pets at home as they are the alternative round here, but I'm worried I'm going to end up with a disease of some kind, help. What should I do

We had the 'Has your tank been set up for a day?' while standing there with it under my arm... They need to teach their staff to say the same spiele as 4 different members of staff gave us 4 different kinds of information, the day we bought the tank and the day we bought the fish. With one trying to wow us with his knowledge, and being adamant we needed a heater until I pointed out on the sign that temperate fish don't need one, he looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up.

Been to Pets at Home in Newcastle the 2 store's Kingston Park store the tanks are clean and all fish looked healthy Bought 2 Electric Blue Rams £18 which is pricey compared to other stores. Byker store some tanks looked clean but lots of dead fish in few of the tanks bought some yo yo loaches and a brisslenose catfish but waited ages as staff seem to hid in the back of the store. Best time to go to pets at home is when the stock just comes in and they need to clean the tanks for the new fishes. Also don't like how they want to know everything before they give you the fish as half of the times their tanks are not the healthiest looking.

A doubt. Which aquarium do you recommend buying a 28 liter brand for a betta fish? Greetings, nice day

Also I worked at pah for a week for school work experience and we took really good care of all animals and I done fish checks three times a day and cleaned them with there own sponge for each tank never used the same sponge on two tanks

You need to put a heater in the tank for the betta

I love them fish I’m also looking to get fish what would u recommend for a 25 to 30 litre tank

In the same boat as you, never like to buy from here due to their poor standards but saw a Betta I really liked the look of & went against my usual rules & bought it, lasted 5 days in a mature tank I've had at least 20 years, lesson learned (again)

Only ever been to two pets at homes. Polar opposite experiences. First (the one closest to me) was great bought 12 neon tetras and some plants for a new tank. All were in really good health staff new what they were doing good expreience. I decided to go to the pets at home a little bit further away from my house and OH MY GOD! It was like something from a horror scene. Dead fish random eyes floating around in the tanks. Some tanks looked like they had never been cleaned and the pets at home I had previously been to (the good one) was a lot smaller than this one but with way more staff. Of course I didn’t buy anything from this shop. Don’t know whether it is just me but these big brand shops are really inconsistent.

ive always found thar every pets at home store is different, some will sell you fish with no questions asked and others will ask you about literally everything.

I've bought a red tailed shark from pets at home that died after 1 day (the tank had been running for a few years) I also bought an Indian whisker shrimp from them and that lived for 8 years

Their reptiles are kept in terrible conditions with wrong jeat not temp guage ect too!!!

I been to pets at home there was a dead fish still in the tank they got rid of it tho

Can’t comment on aquatic stuff but I brought a crested gecko from my local 3 years ago, long story short this poor little guy was under fed and never handed (despite being told he was handled every day) it honestly took about a year or so for him to not run and hide from being handled and to take live food of me. Because he was sharing a cage with another male at the shop (which is a known big no no by the way) the other gecko clearly took most of the food put in there viv. Long story short it’s taken a lot of hard work to get him healthy and feeding because of how he was just left to his devices at pets at home. (This particular one stopped selling reptiles shortly after which I’m so thankful for as other then very basic training they don’t know enough.) They housed bearded dragons together so they had absolutely no clue. I wouldn’t buy a live animal from them again. Get my accessories online now. Just my experience thou.

support your local fish store is all good!!!!! BUT there is plenty of local fish stores which have worse practises and corner cutting to just get some money in the till !!!!!!! - BEST ADVISE always quarintinne your fish for 2 weeks and ensure you have separate equipment like nets buckets etc.

Anyone know any good local fish stores near Edinburgh?

I buy my pets from an independent pet shop business that has 3 shops in Hertfordshire. They have good customer services.

My local has that exact same sign and yep there is a sticker over it saying 1 day. I did wonder what the original number was... not that it makes the statement any less pointless!

Just found your video yeah I saw today it said set up your tank and get your fish the next day emm.

I've bought fish from there before I did buy a smaller tank at the same time but was fir my pregnant fish as I like them to have more space than a birthing pod but she dident even ask me how big my tank was or if it had been filtered out local pet store got rid of their fish because people were just going to pets at home as it was slightly cheaper which is a shame my two fish from the local store had to go to my mum's tank as they were really healthy and grew massive sadly one is going to have to get put to sleep after 4 years due to a growth on its head :( I've now swapped to tropical and will happily be rescuing some fish on Monday morning as my tank should be all ready by then and everything as it should be so far we are on track

I got a hamster from there and within a few months he died of ringworm. I’ve heard a lot of stories of small mammals from pets at home having ringworm :/

Not fish related, but I once asked a girl who worked there where their hamsters come from, and was told it's 'classified information' that they can't disclose 🤔 so basically breeding mills.

We had a wee fish for 5yrs, an wen he died we wanted to replace him so went to this store. Explained the tank had been cleaned and treated for about a week....because I already had another fish in the 16L tank she wod not sell me a fish. Apparently 2 goldfish need a bigger tank? She said its their policy about animal welfare ect ect.....personally I think she cud not have been arsed, as I had to go an look about staff to serve me. Has anyone else had this experience?

Pets at home needs a much aquatic oversear nationwide ... They could make so much more dollar and give maiden head aquatics a run for their money IMO

Bought all my fish from pets at home 3 years ago goldfish and temperate.. they are still here

Okay serious question. Where can I buy my first Betta fish and insure that its healthy? I am currently cycling my tank and getting ready for one.

I think it's the same with any shop weather it is a big chain store or single family owned shop you are going to get good and bad, I seem to be lucky and have good staff at my local PAH and it is the single family owned shop i won't go back to i was in their shop for half an hour and I was the only one in there and they didn't even look up from their phone, see you later, nice betta by the way 👍

The guy getting my fish put the bag he was using for my fish in the tank next to him which was being treated because the fish were sick. nice! :)

I go to a big name place simply because its rare to find anything else in my area.

Most big-box stores have the same flaws as many local fish stores, they often spread misinformation and either don't know it is bad information or don't care because that's what they were told to say. If I set up a tank using 50% water from an existing tank, 50% gravel from an existing tank, plants, Decorative Stone, and some filter media, all from an existing tank, then my tank is not brand new but is in fact well-established... Well established meaning that the beneficial bacterias needed are in abundance in the tank. Some companies use the three-day rule because they imagined three days is enough time for some beneficial bacteria to build up in a tank that basically has no waste in it... Which is silly. Some stores use the one day rule because they want to give time for chlorine to evaporate off if people are using chlorinated water and might not use dechlorinator or use it properly. Some stores are suggesting ridiculous amounts of time including up to a couple of weeks, for people to stock up the tank. And usually all this bad advice comes from people who have not had years of fish keeping but who may have dabbled in it a little bit or who have just been told something is correct so they believe it is correct. I find that if you are nice and have honest conversation offering common sense explanations for various fishkeeping situations, then employees and even management are normally decent about listening to you. I got my local fish store to understand that people could indeed if stock new tanks but that they will need to make small and frequent water changes in order to keep nitrates and nitrites down to safe levels while allowing beneficial bacteria to build up. But to suggest that clean water is somehow going to hurt fish is absurd. The people who buy 10 fish for a 10 gallon tank and don't change the water until it's cloudy and brown need our expertise. I recommend inviting people you see looking at fish tanks to check out your KZfaq channel, explaining to them that they can ask you questions in the remarks section and that you as an experienced fishkeeper will be thrilled to help them out. Sorry for writing a novel, but I am passionate about people not giving up on big box stores but instead offering advice as they can to the employees in order to make them better fish keepers.

I love betta fish. I have 2 females and decided to buy 2 more. My local fish shops gone down hill so decided to uses pets at home. I picked the one with the worse fin rot I’ve ever seen and one little one with the most vivid stress lines I’ve ever seen. I had to rescue them and heal them. Unfortunately I later realised they also had ick! Was super pissed off. Went to PAH pointed it out all their fish were covered. They couldn’t give 2 shits didn’t help them and continue to sell them and the guy offered me the wrong product to help them! Charged me full price for a bottle of white spot remover and told me I should keep the sick fish in the same tank as my healthy fish as buying another tank is a expensive waste. I was just like how are you working giving people advice on fish!

Haha he looks like my betta Simon! Except he doesn't have much black. I'm lucky that 1 of the pets at home near me is a fish nut so really looks after them, however most of them are there working just a job, like asda or tesco (Walmart...)! The rams always seem to look well though, although I've heard that a lot of rams are given steroids.

I find PAH to have higher standards than local independent fish stores. They have more to lose from any media backlash. They refused to sell my friend a goldfish because her tank wasn’t big enough; They advised her to wait at least 3wks before adding any fish; They wanted a water sample before adding a second fish etc. All good really. The small local pet stores here still happily sell goldfish with a tiny goldfish bowl to anyone, no questions asked. No advice given except ‘clean the bowl once a week’.

What does he mean by 'monster tank busters'??? I'm worried now, i have a common pleco who is about over 7 inches long now and i'm now worried because that isnt baby sized and he said that now. (had him since i was 8/9, didnt know much about fish, 17 rn and know a bit more, mostly about bettas and tetras though.)

If I I get a nother fish. I won't get one at pets at home.

You should check out a store called Daves Aquarium a lot of the animals are kept in poor conditions and have a single meerkat on display

There rabbits dont live long enough 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I bought a frog from our pet store in Colorado and he escaped..12 years later, I visited England and went into Pets at Home and to my utter surprise, there was my frog Cuntspawn staring at me from inside a tank. I stole him back and Cuntspawn is back where he belongs in Denver, Colorado..🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🐍🐍🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐍🐍🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

I always buy my fish from there that’s my only local fish shop

It is. I'm a newbie fish owner thanks to their advice and poor quality fish not only I received sick fish (2 days later I went back and the tank I bought fish from was under treatment) that pretty much died instantly and massively overstocked the fish tank 12 tropical fishes in a 25l tank? I don't think so. Overall I've spent over 250 quid to try to keep my fishes alive on top of the initial cost of fishtank and fishes and all the chemicals they pushed to buy... Shouldn't have listened to their shit advice and do my research myself. I'll never shop there again.

Never done anything to my fish

I bought two small goldfish from PAH, one died in 5 days. The other is fine.

Just had a 6 minute advert from Fluval before I watched this. Not had one that long before. Interesting though

When I was like 8 my parents got a dog called Buster from pets at home, luckily he's still barking at the postman. (Hes still alive)

bought 2 clown loach from P. A. H couple of years ago, knowing that they are particularly susceptible to ich, I made sure they had safe places to hide and feel comfortable. Within days one of the loaches started exhibiting ich, then the other then the whole tank of neon tetras loads of them perished. I'm afraid once bitten (severely) twice shy for getting fish from them. I do buy tank stuff from them still , substrate bits and bobs etc

I went to a pat on the south coast with my brother...... I took several slabs of tripe to the till, the checkout girl then calmly asked "would you like a bag"......quick as a flash my brother replies "I'll eat it now thanks" couldn't keep a straight face.

It's funny how they go through phases of vetting customers. I've bought from them often and sometimes they give you the third degree. I went in today to buy fish and they just stuffed them in a bag and what was worse they tried to double charge me. I think they pay staff peanuts and they feel like they should do no more than act like monkeys.

is it ok to get supplies from there? just not fish

It's great, better than tesco the fish are fresh.

its only 1 day now lol

I go to Pets at Home very infrequently to look at their fish, but when I do, although they do not have much choice, what they do have seems healthy with clean looking tanks. I would never buy a fish from any store that did not look completely healthy and so have not had any worse results from any bought in Pets at Home. ....... As a .big plus point, Pets at Home are the ONLY store that ask questions about your tank setup and tank mates, before selling me a fish. Also they take my name and address...... as apparently this is a legal requirement. Not one of the many other fish stores I go to ,do this, although they are much better fish stores in every way for choice and professional knowledge. The main thing that DOES let down Pets at Home , is as you mentioned....... the three day \ one day tank water maturation rubbish. This is tragically bad advice,. Why this is policy to advise on , I just don't know.. Other than this though, I have no issues with them and get some good deals on fish compared to other stores at times 😊

Rather get a dodgy motor from phil mitchell

I love all pets

i hate pets at home for fish they make you feel like a idiot and its a farse ... prefer my lfs ( the woman who ownes the lfs has all tanks running seperately also has seperate nets etc for each tank there great

I’m new here

Please may u be quiet because I bought three fish from pets at home and they lived five years and they were called angle fish 🐠 u should get some!!!

My local PAH told me that the fish need nitrates in the water and you should aim for a minimum of 40ppm. When i asked why they need it they couldn't provide an answer. It's like they pass around false information between themselves and take it as gospel.

When ever I go to pets at home there are always like 5 dead neon tetra on the floor of the tank and the people that work there do see them but can’t be bothered to get them out and when ever a new fish keeper asks a question they always give bad answers and I listen in and scof in descust

13 second mark.

Pets at home is my damned Local Fish store LOL Thankfully I have a Maidenhead too. But LFS.. Zip

I don't own a pet 🐒 but I like to look around at the animals ect Once there were no animals on display asked at checkout was told rude we don't have any in or they be on display Rude attitude and hey pets at home your life stock are not toys to be discarded which was certainly the impression I got from the assistant attitude

I just bought my last batch at pets at home. Very impressed with quality. They even showed me the meds they QT with Normally I'd say they are rubbish. But my local one has gotten better They still know zero about fish. The only question they had were tank size and how many fish. Nothing specific The water quality was poor. I tested there water. Nitrates 160+ I actually don't care if the fish display illness after I bring them home as I would add meds anyway... I'd prefer for them to have good separation and QT.. But I've bought a few times. No issues I much prefer Maidenhead aquatics

The awkward moment when the only person talking shit about pets at home is you 😂

It's a shop, all the staff are there to do is retail stuff like the till and putting stuff on the shelves. Do your own research or if you can't be arsed, then don't keep fish.

Went In my local store yesterday and all the tanks were empty and the employee was saying R.I.P fish