What is your biggest pet peeve about your LFS?

dalto

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I am lucky to live in a place with quite a few stores. They are not all good but there are some good ones.

At the best store in town the prices can be high on dry goods but the staff is knowledgeable and the livestock is good. The fish are correctly identified and labeled with reasonable names. Honestly, I don't have much to complain about. I guess if I had a complaint it would be that they don't qt new arrivals.

I still buy a lot of fish online and have them shipped to me because I generally want specific stuff that my store doesn't carry. I see little reason in having them shipped to a store, put in their tanks and then moved into mine.
 
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dalto

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If you have complaints about your LFS tell them. If they don't work with you, go elsewhere.
Good advice

My main pet peeve is how certain stores net fish out... they can be quite hard on them, and i've seen them drop more than one expensive fish on the floor before...
Seriously? You would think people who net fish all day long would develop some skill with it.

I have seen the occasional small tetra a barb slip out but that is about it.
 

Hendre

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I have 2 main shops that I go to, nothing majorly bad at either but still have peeves.

At shop A it's big, lots of tanks, and relatively good staff. Problem is they often have a lack of meds and such available and a lot of common stuff is all they really have, and when they get something cool it's rather pricey. Unfortunately their tank prices have gone up about 30% recently too. On the plus side knowledgeable staff and a wide range of equipment :)

Shop B is awesome, I know the owner who also runs a major hatchery nearby, staff are awesome and everything. Problem there is they had to move to a smaller shop and there's very few tanks to choose fish from which isn't the end of the world since they have good kit and plants. Main real peeve is that they have a perfectly good bowfront with angels, barbs and Madagascan rainbowfish... With a chest air ornament, plastic plants and green and blue gravel which drives me nuts. I wanna rescape for em
 

Kittiee Katt

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Main real peeve is that they have a perfectly good bowfront with angels, barbs and Madagascan rainbowfish... With a chest air ornament, plastic plants and green and blue gravel which drives me nuts. I wanna rescape for em
Wow. That would drive me NUTS! Maybe you could offer to rescape it for them? I'm sure if you showed the manager a few pics of your tanks he'd be confident in your scaping skills :D they may come at it, they may not. You won't know until you ask. ;)


Pet peeves... Mainly the lack of knowledge of the staff - this only applies to the chain stores, the little family owned one in town is exempt from this.

Now, I'm not talking about the 17 year olds with their first after school job. I'm talking about the 35-40 year olds that have worked in the stores for 10+ years that still don't know what they're talking about. Believe me, nothing is more infuriating that hearing a 30+ year old woman (who has been at the store for at least 7 years specifically in the fish section) tell someone that the nitrogen cycle is a myth, just to sell a few white cloud minnows then and there. :mad:

Otherwise I can't really complain too much because I mainly go to the little family owned one. Their only downfall is they don't sell prime :(
 
A

AquaAlex1993

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Lack of variety and quality is my biggest complaint about the fish stores near me. My absolute favorite fish shop is 2hrs away. So many amazing fish. Ones I've only read about and seen on here. Seeing them in person is so awesome. I just went back today. I got a couple koi and some guppies.
I'm waiting to see if the owner can find a certain koi for me. Him and his wife are very nice and helpful. I hope they never shut down.
That is awesome to hear about your favorite LFS. Makes me happy to read this.
Alex

1) expensive hardware

Eg: a 3ft made in china led light costs about $100-150 in LFS, i get the same from China website for $50 all in
a 4 outlet air pump costs $60 in LFS, i get mine for less than $20 include shipping

If you all can buy from china.... you all gonna have a wheel of a time
Yea, I always wonder why fish stores charge ridiculous prices for stuff you can get on your own for way less,
Alex
My main pet peeve is how certain stores net fish out... they can be quite hard on them, and i've seen them drop more than one expensive fish on the floor before...

Kills me everytime i see that happen...
Oh god! I have some stories about those as well. I can understand a jumping fish like an arowana, flagtail prochilodus, etc... But when, your dropping silver dollars discus or angelfish for example, then there is something wrong with you and you don't care for fish and shouldn't be netting them.

I am lucky to live in a place with quite a few stores. They are not all good but there are some good ones.

At the best store in town the prices can be high on dry goods but the staff is knowledgeable and the livestock is good. The fish are correctly identified and labeled with reasonable names. Honestly, I don't have much to complain about. I guess if I had a complaint it would be that they don't qt new arrivals.

I still buy a lot of fish online and have them shipped to me because I generally want specific stuff that my store doesn't carry. I see little reason in having them shipped to a store, put in their tanks and then moved into mine.
Yea, equipment and dry good price seem to vary from state to state, up here at my local fish stores the prices are somewhat good. While one LFS may have expensive equipment, another will have awesome and fair prices, so can't complain.
That's awesome that they have good staff and great live stock and are knowledgeable about the fish. Most fish stores don't qt fish, but I wish they did.
I buy some fish online too, mostly the ones I can't find locally.

I have 2 main shops that I go to, nothing majorly bad at either but still have peeves.

At shop A it's big, lots of tanks, and relatively good staff. Problem is they often have a lack of meds and such available and a lot of common stuff is all they really have, and when they get something cool it's rather pricey. Unfortunately their tank prices have gone up about 30% recently too. On the plus side knowledgeable staff and a wide range of equipment :)

Shop B is awesome, I know the owner who also runs a major hatchery nearby, staff are awesome and everything. Problem there is they had to move to a smaller shop and there's very few tanks to choose fish from which isn't the end of the world since they have good kit and plants. Main real peeve is that they have a perfectly good bowfront with angels, barbs and Madagascan rainbowfish... With a chest air ornament, plastic plants and green and blue gravel which drives me nuts. I wanna rescape for em[/QUOTE]
I'm quite sure you can convince them to let you aquascape. :)
Wow. That would drive me NUTS! Maybe you could offer to rescape it for them? I'm sure if you showed the manager a few pics of your tanks he'd be confident in your scaping skills :D they may come at it, they may not. You won't know until you ask. ;)


Pet peeves... Mainly the lack of knowledge of the staff - this only applies to the chain stores, the little family owned one in town is exempt from this.

Now, I'm not talking about the 17 year olds with their first after school job. I'm talking about the 35-40 year olds that have worked in the stores for 10+ years that still don't know what they're talking about. Believe me, nothing is more infuriating that hearing a 30+ year old woman (who has been at the store for at least 7 years specifically in the fish section) tell someone that the nitrogen cycle is a myth, just to sell a few white cloud minnows then and there.
:mad:

Otherwise I can't really complain too much because I mainly go to the little family owned one. Their only downfall is they don't sell prime :(
I understand 100 percent what your saying. Some of my lfs have employees that have been there for years, yet don't know much if anything at all. They will say anything to make a sale.
 

james99

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Places over charging for fish given to them. I took a 5" scianochromis fryeri out of my male hap/peacock tank for bullying. Gave him to the lfs, went back a week later and another guy tried to sell him to me for $80. I only paid $20 when I originally bought him. The guy looked really embarrassed when I told him that's the fish I gave yall last week. I understand making a profit but that's a little extreme.
 
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MrsE88

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My main pet peeve is how certain stores net fish out... they can be quite hard on them, and i've seen them drop more than one expensive fish on the floor before...

Kills me everytime i see that happen...
I forgot to add that to my list. Worse is when they drop it and they don't offer you a different fish or say to come back if it dies. I had a girl drop an oscar and took her at least a minute to catch it. I just died. She didn't offer to give me a different one either. The poor thing died. I'd rather net fish myself.
 

krichardson

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I forgot to add that to my list. Worse is when they drop it and they don't offer you a different fish or say to come back if it dies. I had a girl drop an oscar and took her at least a minute to catch it. I just died. She didn't offer to give me a different one either. The poor thing died. I'd rather net fish myself.
So,did you accept that oscar and it later died in your tank?
 

Yuki Rihwa

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Tong's Tropical Fish store in Fountain Valley California is a good example for a store that NOT giving customer store credit for trade in then turn around trying to sell it for profit right in front of your eyes as they writing down the price 10x higher than the credit you were asked them for store credit but they refused.
 
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