Fish store workers

[moganman]

Yeah congrats on the job Ally.

[LordBarron7692]

Ummm I don't know. LOL

And congrats on the job ally

[moganman]

The best answer for a question you don't know is, "I don't know, but I will gladly ask someone who does know to come help you out.", or "give me a minute and I will find out for you" It's a rule of thumb for excellent customer service. Just giving a plain lie or an "I don't know" is unacceptable.

[allysangels]

danielp- you know it! :) it has already begun. i can only dream to one day build up as great a reputation as that one.

mistahoo- you are correct. nothing in life (human or piscine) is absolute. but we do our best. as sasha said, educated guesses.

everybody else, thank you very much, come see me!

[Ballinxalex]

Congrats ally that store is fancy !!! Lots of nice fish there

[troy tucker]

Ally Congrads. on the New Job. That a great store.
Oh and stop ranting your putting me to sleep. LOL.

[danielp]

by the way, for those of you who don't know yet,

I WORK AT FISH GALLERY NOW!!!!!!!

Ally you are now working with one of the most knowledgable tropical fish experts Houston has with connections we all can only dream about.

Sit back and soak up the knowledge.

[mistahoo]

Ally you do make a lot of valid points, but I just want to mention that all the information isn't readily available in our pockets. Some fish have very little to no information at all. Others may have false or contradicting information on the net. There's a lot of fish that seem like they will not thrive in certain conditions, but then, there's those situations where some other person or people have kept that fish in the very condition that was said to be not very suitable on the net and turns out the fish thrives.

[LooksLater]

A lot of great points here. It's frustrating to see LFS workers being apathetic about what they sell, or pretending knowledge they don't have (sometimes knowingly, sometimes not), and it's also just as likely to get help from someone who cares and can tell you exactly what you need to know (whether you want to hear it or not).

Really, I agree that it's up to us as the customer to educate ourselves, even if that means a couple of trips. In a perfect world, all fish store workers would know everything in the store top to bottom, but it's not likely. A lot of this hobby is research, sharing info and making educated guesses when all else fails...it'd be nice to trust what you're told at the fish store, but it's the same for any info coming from a solitary source- it's better to look for supporting data elsewhere on your own.

[allysangels]

now that everybody has access to all the info in the world right in their pocket, i really see no excuse. it's just too easy to say "i'm not sure, if you have a minute i can look it up for you..." to be honest, at my new store there are a lot of exotic species that i've never come across before and am unfamiliar with. that being said, i don't do salt (yet) and sometimes i even get turned around when trying to tell african cichlids apart. but i'm getting better, fast. :) and i'm learning because (A)- i'm immersing myself in it, and (B)- i look it up or ask when i don't know. there are a lot of people out there who simply don't care, however. they just want to sell the fish, punch out, and go home. that's just plain bad business, however. not only are you not caring for your customer, but you are not caring for your livestock. if some idiot doesn't want to listen when i tell them that they shouldn't buy that 5in arowana and the 8in mbuna for the same tank, i will normally deny the sale of one or the other, simply because it's in the best interest of the fish. maybe it's because i was a veterinary technician and used to work hard to heal sick and injured animals. or maybe it's from my time at petco, where it was common for people to be setting up their first tank and not know what they were doing, and i worked with a bunch of ignorant snot-nosed kids who simply didn't care... i felt like the only one interested in the welfare of the animals in the store. i had a guy scream and curse me out because i refused to sell him fish at the same time he was buying the tank he was going to put them in. i printed out care sheets, info on the nitrogen cycle, tried to explain that they would just die... he told me he was just going to go buy fish at petsmart on his way home, and tossed the papers on the floor as he was leaving. but the important thing to me was that it wasn't on MY conscience. that's the difference. any store that sells live animals is a tricky ethical situation. you are there to make money, and that means you need to sell merchandise. but your merchandise is ALIVE. it's better to pass on a sale today but earn the trust of your customer so that they keep coming back because they trust you, and i like being able to sleep at night and have a sense of pride in what i do. after all, i do it in the first place because i love it. ok, rant over.

[armthehomeless]

Having worked in a fish store in the past, I will say that I was lucky to be surrounded with coworkers that were honest. When they didn't know something, they said so. Researching on the internet and asking for first hand accounts on HFB is how I prefer to gather information nowadays.

I try not to buy anything that I don't already know how to take care of . . . thereby eliminating the need to ask too many questions. If there is something new to me, I'll go home and research it to return the next day.

[BeefyG]

The most dangerous information is the information that you don't know that you don't know. And there are a lot of people out there that have no clue they don't know things.

[mnemenoi]

I suppose it is all about doing your own research and asking if you are completely in the blind. There are many aspects of the hobby and someone who breeds Discus will know little about Tropheus or proper maintenance of a temperate brackish aquarium. Everyone has strong suits and weaknesses, its just the nature of the hobby. I would recommend doing your research and know that any questions you ask could or could not be answered correctly.

[allysangels]

by the way, for those of you who don't know yet,

I WORK AT FISH GALLERY NOW!!!!!!!

[danielp]

If I go into a store and i realize that the employee is just a net dipper I make my own mind up and move on.

There are only 6 or so stores in our area that have employees capable of relating to advanced hobbyist.