Emily Liebau
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Kirbay Preuss feeds a rescued cat fish inside Preuss Pets in Lansing's Old Town. Her parents, Rick and Debbie Preuss, own the store, which features river that is home to koi and other fish.
Emily Liebau
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Preuss Pets sells a variety of supplies for pet owners. Store employees say they can refuse at the sale of any animal for the safety of that pet.
Emily Liebau
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Rats are the most popular small animal sold at Preuss Pets. There is a waitlist of customers for most of the newly born small animals. An orange note on the cages marks that the animals are not ready to be sold.
Emily Liebau
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An amphibian moves among the foliage inside its tank at Preuss Pets in Lansing.
Emily Liebau
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This school bus was found in a junkyard and converted into the small animals section of the store. There is also a fume hub that helps ventilation for the small animals.
Emily Liebau
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You can find the arachnid corner within the reptiles area. Every year around Halloween, the store hosts a tarantula night to increase awareness about the arachnids and other critters.
Emily Liebau
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Preuss Pets sells a variety of items to customize aquarium tanks, including pre-decorated betta fish bowls.
Emily Liebau
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Some fish tanks in the aquatics area are marked as "under observation." If Preuss Pets employees notice any health concerns or abnormalities in the fish, they are seen by the store's in-house fish veterinarian.
Emily Liebau
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Angel fish were the first type of fish bred in the store when Preuss Pets was founded as the Fish Bowl in Pennsylvania.
Emily Liebau
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Preuss Pets works with the Coral Restoration Foundation, which aims to take coral fragments and put them back into the ocean to restore a reef. All of the coral sold at Preuss Pets is propagated in the store.
Emily Liebau
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A fish swims in a tank at Preuss Pets in Lansing. If a customers has issues with a new fish, Preuss Pets offers a free water test service to help see what might be going on.
Emily Liebau
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Preuss Pets is the first store in the United States to be certified by the Marine Aquarium Council. This means the store has documentation to show where all its fish came from and to prove they have been handled in a humane, ethical and responsible manner. The certification program in part is designed to help protect fish taken from the ocean from becoming endangered or extinct.
Emily Liebau
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When Preuss Pets was founded, it was called the Fish Bowl due to its focus on breeding and selling fish. Fish remain a key focus of the store.
Emily Liebau
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The tiki hut sitting in the middle of the aquatics area is an important spot where customers are taught about the nitrogen cycle. There are about 30 employees in the aquatics area who are trained to educate customers.
Emily Liebau
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The bird section is roped off in Preuss Pets to protect birds from becoming stressed by human traffic. Upstairs is a bird nursery where the baby birds are hand fed before they become old enough to come down to the main floor.
On the corner of Cedar Street and Grand River Avenue, the giant P on the wall above a waterfall marks the location of Preuss Pets.
With a variety of departments from small animals to birds to arachnids, the store employs 65 people. Kirbay Preuss, whose parents, Rick and Debbie Preuss, are the store’s owners, said employees focus on providing a quality experience for pet owners.
Preuss’s grandmother founded the Fish Bowl in Pennsylvania, breeding angelfish for sale. She died in 1999, but aquatic life remains a specialty of Preuss Pets.
“Aquatics is how we were started, and really what we’re known for nationwide,” Kirby Preuss said.
She said the store is committed to protecting natural aquatic life. The story is certified by the Marine Aquarium Council, which promotes humane, ethical and responsible practices.
“Again, this other perception that pet stores are bad, they’re taking away these animals from the ocean,” Preuss said.“Most of our coral we actually grow, and actually because of pet stores and really enthusiastic hobbyists, they’re actually kind of leading the research when it comes to what do we do to help protect these different species.”