I've walked into a Walmart fish section and dumped a gallon of chlorine into one of the tanks
that'll teach em to treat their fish better
that'll teach em to treat their fish better
PetSmart, or PetCo Employed?
- Thread starter Aquaman_95
- Start date
Can't remember the last time I walk into a petsmart, petco or even the fish section of Walmart. I don't like to see depressed fishes.
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Never knew a true fish lover who stayed at any of the big box stores very long. Sooner or later they tangled with management and lost. I'm not saying that you can't learn a lot there, you can. You just have to sift through what you're told and compare it to what people with fish over 10 years old tell you. I'm shooting for my dad's 18 year plecostomus record. Lips Jr. was 27" long when he died.
Just like any profession, there are good and bad employees.
The hardest part for a hobbyist to understand from the outside is that these are businesses, and fish are product. They make choices based on the most long term profit for the company. They are not in it to save animals, they are in it to sell them.
Sure, you get the $8/hr employees. Think of the inverse. All pet shops hire aquarium experts, and now are kicking out $50,000+ year salaries to keep them. Your $5 fish just skyrocketed to a $90 fish to cover the cost of paying staff.
Fish people are start somewhere. You don't walk out of high school or college and get picked up by National Geographic to be a fish expert on international TV. Working a local shop is a good way to learn species ID, fish diseases ID (and hopefully treatment), dietary needs, water quality parameters/adjustment, species compatibility, work ethic (showing up on time, time management etc....), customer relation and communication skills etc....
The hardest part for a hobbyist to understand from the outside is that these are businesses, and fish are product. They make choices based on the most long term profit for the company. They are not in it to save animals, they are in it to sell them.
Sure, you get the $8/hr employees. Think of the inverse. All pet shops hire aquarium experts, and now are kicking out $50,000+ year salaries to keep them. Your $5 fish just skyrocketed to a $90 fish to cover the cost of paying staff.
Fish people are start somewhere. You don't walk out of high school or college and get picked up by National Geographic to be a fish expert on international TV. Working a local shop is a good way to learn species ID, fish diseases ID (and hopefully treatment), dietary needs, water quality parameters/adjustment, species compatibility, work ethic (showing up on time, time management etc....), customer relation and communication skills etc....
It is cheaper to buy entire shipments of new fish than it is to treat the sick ones you already have. c_c That is the true heartbreak of many fish stores.
Heather and zoolander, how dare you write logical posts. The fish keeping community isn't ready to listen. They'd rather piss and moan about the knowledge of minimum wage employees
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I worked at petco in 2006-2007 and was the reptiles and aquatics specialist. It was really easy but really horrible cuz everyone except me and 1 other guy knew absolutely nothing. People would come in and ask for me by name or if it was birds, they'd ask for the other guy but if I wasn't there they'd come back another day
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I LOL'd.
For the record, right out of high school I worked for a state wildlife agency. When I went to college, I could only do a part time job. That job was the only place in town that sold fish - Petco. We all start somewhere.
