Venting about LFS

[dacia]

I was at my LFS today becuase I wanted to add to my cleaning crew. I bought a cleaner shrimp and some hermits. While I was waiting on the lady to finish closing the bag with the hermits, I overheard a conversation between her and another employee. The younger employee said, "There is a customer on the other side of the store with a 29 gallon tank. In it he already has a yellow tang and a blue tang. He wants to know if it would be OK to add another yellow tang." The owner of the store said, "It's OK as long as you sell him a smaller yellow tang."
Then I overheard another conversation between the owner and another customer. The woman has been having problems regulating the pH in her reef tank and has had about half of her fish to die in the past couple of weeks. The advice that was given to her about the pH sounded good, HOWEVER, she turned right around and sold her 3 bags full of fish!
Sometimes I wish I could just go to these LFS's, stand outside the door, and educate people about taking care of their fish BEFORE they go inside. It would save fish lives and customer money.

 

[bdhough]

ALL RIGHT MORE DEAD FISH......
Maybe if we start describing fish death in terms of cats and dogs. If you put a fish in a tank like that its like sticking a cat or dog in a bug bombed room in progress and hopeing he lives. I think people don't realize some of the severity of a fish death since they are so small compared to your average house pet.... I'm at a loss otherwise....

 

[jp0379]

Agreed............most people don't think of fish being equal as pets as dogs and cats. We (wife, kids, and I) name every fish we have, and we "talk" to 'em just like we "talk" to our two beagle puppies we have. Our fish also each have their own personality, just like the dogs do. Okay, I just read what I just typed.....are we nuts?

 

[chevman3171]

Not a bit. My damsel is named Spaz, Mandy my maroon clown is quite happy, and I'm still thinking of a name for my longnose hawkfish on the way.
However, it would be scary if you thought the fish would talk back to you......

 

[aarone]

no just admit it, we are nuts!

 

[harlequinnut]

Your LFS, a place you love to hate. You love to go there even if it means you'll have to lie to your wife about where you've been for so long . A place you hate for all the bad advice they gave you and others just to make a sale . I think that pretty much sums it up.

 

[wablondie98664]

pet stores are unfornuatly just after a profit! *L* i name my fish too. also i'm glad to hear i'm not the only one who talks to my fish

 

[smokinstarfish]

I talk to my cats constantly. I might mutter a few complementary words to my fish now and then. But my friends think I'm a real whack job talking like a little girl to all four of my cats!

 

[terminus est]

there are some bad ones out there but some that arent totally bad. I have mentioned my own LFS here several times but today they did something that totally made me change my view of them. Some kids came in the store and were bugging the parents really annoyingly about buying a Nemo and Dori, I cringe every time I hear those names in the fish store. Well finally the parent had enough and asked the LFS person(owners wife) how much for the Nemo and Dori. The LFS lady answered with what sized tank do you have? Rather than go thru the entire dialogue it basically came down to the LFS refusing to sell because all the lady was going to do was put them in a goldfish bowl. She started to explain how to set up a tank and that those fish, even the clown by itself needed a bigger tank and needed to already be set up. The mother even interrupted at one point asking if the LFS person had this happen alot and she said yes, and that they havent sold any more fish than usual of those species because they know most people are not prepared to keep them.
Even with all the BS info they give me, like my Puerto Rican hi fin blenny(I think its a varient of a barnicle blenny) and a couple things here and there, at least they kept their integrity and ethics in line rather than pursue what was easy money for them. IBecause of this I wont bash them too hard for awhile heheh. At least until the novelty wears off heheh.

 

[harlequinnut]

 

[steelchromis]

Like Terminus said, not all stores are bad. My LFS is very helpful and gives the same information that I would receive in one of these forums. The owners are very respectable people and take pride in knowing that not everytime a person walks through the door, that it equals a sale. This is the main reason that I go there.

 

[dacia]

My LFS isn't totally bad, or I wouldn't ever go there. They have always given me good advice about how to keep fish, what to do if something happens to the fish or the water, etc... They just ALSO seem to love to make that buck even if it means selling the wrong fish to people with the wrong tank.

 

[sohotang]

I live in Iowa and we have several lfs to choose from and the other day there was a lady who wanted 14 "Nemo's" to put in betta bowls and give away at her sons birthday party 2 of the lfs said no but the third sold her the fish, do not think I'll do much business there any more.

 

[chris23]

MY local fish store has a bad habit of selling fish tanks to children and their uneducated parents. They often think because the fish are smaller, they don’t need their space. We all know that isn’t the case. I think it is the person whom is buying the fish aquarium to do the research first. It is sad to think people take this hobby up for the sole purpose of decorating. If you like decorating your house get a new coffee table, not a fish aquarium. Fish are pets too!!!

 

[dacia]

Chris,
I agree with what you said completely! I have had arguments with many people about freshwater bettas...they just stick the poor things in glass vases where hardly any air gets in and they barely have room to turn around, let alone swim. People will tell you that bettas don't need to swim much, but for God's sakes they are FISH! Fish like to SWIM! That's why mine was kept in a 5 gallon tank all by himself...well, him and the snail that he made a meal of.

 

[polarpooch]

there was a lady who wanted 14 "Nemo's" to put in betta bowls and give away at her sons birthday party
How incredibly inane. This is why I have a love/hate thing with these cute animal cartoons and movies.
Husky owners (like me) reeled when Disney's "Snow Dogs" was released. I don't even want to know how many huskies wound up in dog pounds after kids and parents realized these dogs don't behave like Golden Retrievers. Thank God it wasn't a blockbuster hit.
Dalmatian lovers already know the pain of those movies.
Clownfish in Betta bowls. That's just freaking brilliant. That any LFS sold that dumb woman those fish is beyond the pale.

 

[balashark21]

quote:there was a lady who wanted 14 "Nemo's" to put in betta bowls and give away at her sons birthday party
that makes me sick to my stomach honestly! i bet she put them in tapwater!! that is the saddest thing i have ever heard!!! and thats saying alot!! my dad had friends in highschool who would take piranahs to japaneese resturaunts and put them in the fishtanks!! and that is not as bad as this!(my dad didnt do it just his friends!

 

[aarone]

wow thats pretty mean. I like going to my hibachi. they have a beautiful koi pond around the restaraunt. I guess thats why i have never seen them take out the trash
I love japanese food!

 

[jp0379]

Originally posted by Dacia
Chris,
I agree with what you said completely! I have had arguments with many people about freshwater bettas...they just stick the poor things in glass vases where hardly any air gets in and they barely have room to turn around, let alone swim. People will tell you that bettas don't need to swim much, but for God's sakes they are FISH! Fish like to SWIM! That's why mine was kept in a 5 gallon tank all by himself...well, him and the snail that he made a meal of.

Agreed! And the worst part of it is that bettas won't go after anything but other male betta's..........we have one in our freshwater tank thats been in there for almost a year. GORGEOUS fish, and doesn't mess with anyone.........not guppies, tetra's, nobody!.......just swims around enjoying himself!

 

[dacia]

Glad to hear it! I had mine in a tropical tank too before I gave him a home of his own. But, after 2 and a half years with him, he passed on this July. I decided to use my 5 gallon tank as a QT tank for SW fish since the fish that I buy are small (and I get one at a time)...and I haven't enough money to buy a huge tank for QT.
~*Karen*~