Well, now we are getting into the responsibility argument. Is it the responsibility of the person at the LFS to ask what size is the person's tank, what do they have in their tank, how long their tank has been set-up, when was the last time a water change is done, what are the water levels, what they feed their fish, what kind of filtration they have, etc. Should a person who works in the LFS tell every single person he or she helps how to acclimate a fish? Should they also say that every fish needs to be quarantined? There would be a lot of unreceptive and unhappy people if the person catching the fish were to say that they fish needs to be drip acclimated for 2 to 4 hours and needs to be quarantined for 3 to 4 weeks. Furthermore, this entire process would take too long and there are too many customers at some shops without enough employees to do this with each customer. Where is the line drawn? Should this process also be done with the mother and father who come into to buy fish for their child's 30 gallon freshwater fish tank?
There are a lot of issues where I am SURE the person working at the LFS would love to speak up and say something. Take for instance feeder fish. Everyone who works at reputable LFS' know that feeder fish are not good sources of food for any fish (oscars or lionfish, respectively). They cause disease in both fish (hole in head for cichlids, fatty liver disease for saltwater). However, if the person were to tell the customer that or refuse to sell them the feeders, they would just go somewhere else and spend their money somewhere else where they will sell them the feeders without the speech. The same issue with live damsels to cycle a tank. The employee can tell the customer that it is not good to cycle a tank with fish, but the majority of the people out there WANT to see something in their tank. They do not care that it is not right - it is their tank and their money. How do you deal with something like that? Do you turn away the customer by making them mad when all they asked for was some damsels?
For a lot of people, ignorance is truly bliss. Just look at some of the responses even on this message board. There are a ton of people who refuse to set up a 10 gallon quarantine tank to quarantine new additions even after they continue to lose fish after fish to disease. Many people would rather dump a 25 dollar bottle of "medication" in their tank than to correct the problem rightfully. Can you imagine how many people would leave the LFS unahppy and refusing to come back if all sales associates told them that all animals need to be quarantined. The ones who know nothing about the hobby would think that the stores fish are all sick and would not understand that a parasite can be there without seeing it initially.
Shouldn't the customer ask the questions that they are not sure about? This is a live animal that they are taking home. A person wouldn't just buy a dog or cat without knowing anything about it. Why would they buy a fish that way?
