Worst advice from a fish store employee

[HFBfounder]

So, what's the worst piece of advice you've ever heard an employee at a fish/pet store give an unsuspecting beginner? Mine? I watched as a young family walked into a store(big box store) and headed right for the fish aisle. After picking out a 10 gallon starter kit they headed over to the fish. I was there browsing and they asked the employee to get them 3 of those pretty fish(green terrors) and 3 of those flourescent looking fish(neon tetras). The employee happily abliged, putting them all in the same bag. By this time I had picked my jaw up off of the ground and was already scanning the floor for a manager. As they were walking off I stopped them and the employee and called a manager over and we had a little lesson in fish compatibility, water changes/cycle, temperature, tank size, feeding, etc. They wanted a fish that day, so they ended up leaving with my email address and a single goldfish. I never did hear from them again, but I did get a free bottle of shrimp pellets from the manager. :rockon:

[charliefoxtrot]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

Never got bad advice from a store, but then I usually don't ask.  Although I had to quit going to this one pet store here in town because the nimrods working the fish area, when they went to bag everybody's fish, would top off the fish bags with water from the nearest tank.  I don't know why they felt thay had to do this to begin with, but what made it worse was that they topped off with water from a nearby feeder guppy tank, which was the most diseased feeder tank you ever saw.

Now I'd started to get lax about my QT procedures by this time but you can bet I quarantined the pleco I bought from this place.  Surprise, surprise, it didn't last a day.  Now I'd gotten good business from this place before and they keep their tanks pretty clean.  But I'd be willing to bet that most, if not all of the people that bought fish that day lost their fish.

[shell55]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

Not advice but, I noticed an employee at a lps getting water from a random tank and I asked her why she didn't use water from the tank I was buying fish from.  She said they were all running through the same filtration system anyway. Uh...there were brackish tanks nearby....or at least fish that were supposed to be in brackish tanks.

[Tiapan]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

i can concur that agree that there are a great many fish store emplyees that do this i work with one, she bags fish about 3/4 water to 1/4 air not a good ratio in my opinion, and she will sell too many fish for a new aquarium, (she never listens to me) but then again all she cares about is more pets not so much super happy and healthy (i hear more and more abou her pets dying or getting rid of them) but to tell you the true i know we keep supposedly brackish fish at our store and the water is not what you would consider brackish, we have southamerican dragonfish, leaf fish, mollies love to be brackish, but we do keep a small level of salt in the tank system so that may be what saves them till they go home to more knowledgeable tank owner hopefull not bagged by my blond co-worker

[ItsDubC]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

blond co-worker

LoL?

[Ellen]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

"You have to have the tank running for 2 weeks with no fish in it, then you can add all your fish at once. If you don't run it empty for 2 weeks, all your fish will die. You can try adding fish, though, because thats what I did and some of my original fish are still alive!"  

Yes, I did help the poor people getting this advice. And I asked the chick how long she had her tank set up, get this...a whopping 6 months.

Here comes a rant: How come she got the job at this new store and I didn't??? No wonder chain stores suck! They obviously had at least one (ME) person with fish experience measured in years and instead they chose a person with little fish experience, maybe she lied on her application...  

Ellen

[logan5]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

The worst thing I've seen was at a Pet Sm@rt where the employee actually picked a fish out of the net with his hands to put it into the bag ... then wiped his hands on the back of his jeans and went about getting more fish for the customer ... all of which went into the same bag.

Scary indeed.

Logan5

[Armadillo_Del_Rio]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

When i bought my Lyonsi, having no idea how big it will get. I asked the worker and he told me "average size", "what's average size?" I ask.
"You know around 4-12 inches"...
"OK how about if i place him with my severum? and will he eat my plecos?"
"Uh - there from South America, so it should be ok."
"One more question... do they grow slow?"
"They are slow growers"
And I left...

Later I found they grow to about to 8 inches, And one of the most peaceful from the red devil/midas family (Amphilophus) from Central America. And grow to have fantastic colors, oh and they grow really really fast.

[sproett]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

This is an old thread but I had an interesting experience last week at Petsmart.  I went in to see if they had any healthy looking white clouds and while looking a salesgirl came up to help me.  I had already researched what I wanted but she wanted to make suggestions.  She asked what tank size I have and I told her a 10 gallon planted and I wanted fish that wouldn't take away from the plants.  Her suggestions were severums (don't they get big I ask...no, I've only seen them as big as a quarter she says), bichirs, dragon gobies, peacock eels, african cichlids, glass catfish, african brown knife, etc.  Did I mention my tank was only a 10 gallon?  She was quite disappointed with my selection of white clouds.  I left surprised she didn't insist on a pacu or oscar.  She was a very nice girl, she just thought she knew more than she did.

[Mzungu]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

8O  8O  I can't even think how to respond to that!!  8O  8O

EDIT: Actually, I can now. Initial shock is over. I would just make sure she knew exactly how harmful this misinformation is to the hobby, the fish, and to unsuspecting people who assume (and rightfully so) that someone who works in a pet store knows about pets.  :)

[djmatthewblack]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

I young girl in front of me with her mom and she picked out for what I assume is a small tank, a glass catfish, a cardinal tetra, and a fire-red gourami.  
All cool looking fish, so much for schools.

Also I was buying danios and asked if they had any flourescent danios.  The attendant said that fish like that are probably colored and that the colors will probably fade out.  He said some fishes can be colored to have messages like "I love you" put on them.  I had never heard of or seen this.  Anyone else?

[armthehomeless]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

The glo-light danios are slightly different from the fish that have "I love you" or the American flag tattooed on their sides. I don't know much about glolights in particular.. so someone can expound upon this. The colors o the dyed fish do tend to fade.

Here is a link with pictures of the dyed fish:

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/tattooedfish.jpg

[sproett]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

I've seen the dyed/tatooed fish although the danios aren't.  They somehow splice the eggs with some anenome to make those bright colors.  I've never kept them so I don't know if they fade.  They dye blood parrots (among others) different colors and call them jellybeans.  They also tattoo lipstick, i love you, and flags on them (I've seen giant gouramis like this too.  They also inject dye into glassfish making them have a stripe of neon on the top of them.  Most people say they have shortened life spans and the colors do fade.  

Oh, and yes, Mzungu, that is a true disservice to the hobby.  I tried to be nice, I don't like sounding preachy, but I did say "oh, severums won't work, they get over 8", bichirs won't work, they get over 12", etc.  I feel bad for people that invest money in tanks and get such incompatible fish.  If I had listened to her my plants would be uprooted, eaten, etc, not too mention my surprise in six months when the fish have outgrown my little tank.  They really should train their employees better, at least to read their own guidelines they have posted on their tanks.  I know there are good lfs employees, just not enough.  That's why I research A LOT before I purchase any fish.

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

I wonder that they don't have access to something like the Encyclopedia of Tropical Fishes.  I remember when I was a kid chain stores had a 3"x3" color sticker with a picture of each fish and the price.......

[Hanson77]

Re: Worst advice from a fish store employee

The Glofish, since they are genetically altered, will fade with time just as any other fish would.  

And yes, the tatooed and dyed fish from what I have read have a shortened life span but I can't remember the exact reasons why except for the obvious ones.....LOL.  I can't imagine blue, yellow, green dye being very beneficial to the slimecoat.

I hate to hear when uneducated people that work in LFS give incorrect information.  I usually speak up if I hear something like that happening before me.  I know I got a lot of wrong info when I first started out and had to learn a few lessons the hardway...."Yeah that 4" Green Terror will work just fine in a community tank.".....LOL