The other day I was in my favorite chain pet store, the smart one..
I was looking through the filtration systems, when I saw a customer at the fish wall looking at the dragon gobies.. He was asking the younger girl at the podium about the care required to keep the gobies happy. She was a bit hesitant in her answers, so I decided I would chime in and help.
I informed the man that dragon gobies can sometimes be sensitive fish, and the biggest problem with them is finding healthy livestock that are already feeding readily on frozen and other specialty foods. I also informed him that they are technically a brackish fish, and although they can live in freshwater for a good portion of their life, they should eventually be acclimated to saltwater.
The store associate became more interested in what I had to say, as did the customer.. He was curious to know where he could find other brackish tankmates if he did decide to make a brackish tank.
I told him their are alot of freshwater fish that are actually brackish. I showed him the mollys and swordtails, glass tetras, silvertip sharks, and even mentioned the needlefish can live in light brackish. He was very interested in the needlefish, but I helped him understand the care requirements for feeding and he would need atleast a 75g tank to start them, and hopefully 125g+ tank in the future.
He then started asking more questions, about stocking options of South American and African Cichlids.. after realizing he wasn't working with much space (55g), I detoured him from keeping anything but a single SA cichlid in that tank.
I explained to him that their are a variety of interested dwarf cichlids from both SA and Africa, but they can sometimes be hard to find in our area. I gave him a business card for a LFS that carries these rare oddities. He was thankful for that, and said he would check it out sometime.
He said he was into oddball looking fish and just wanted something different than the bread and butter he always sees at the pet store.. I informed he might try to look closer at the picture tags and inside the tanks. I pointed to the tank containing ctenopoma and the tank containing brown knifes and polypterus, and walked back to my filtration systems..
He purchased one of each from the young sales girl who knew nothing about them.
Then as he was leaving the area, he walked through the same aisle as me to thank me for my time and help.. He noticed I was looking at the canister filters, and asked me my opinion of them. I told them that they are very efficient and I like them because of how they hide the filtration under the tank. He really liked that idea and was interested in purchasing one because he said he was having troubles with cloudy water..
I asked him what he had in his tank, and he said he had 3 tinfoil barbs all about 6" long. I asked him what he had for a filter, and he said he had a whisper-60.
He was under the impression that the tinfoil barbs would make good tankmates with the fish he was purchasing because they were all considered 'semi-aggressive'. I explained to him that the barbs are active, aggressive eaters that get quite large and if he wanted to start developing his tank into more of an 'oddball' tank that he would have to get rid of them. He said he didn't like them much and he would trade them in to the LFS asap.
After having a lengthy discussion about nitrifying bacteria, the nitrogen cycle, and bacterial blooms causing cloudy water. He ended up purchasing another Whisper-60 and 4 bags of AquaClear bio-max beads, and Seachem's "Stability" to stabilize his bio-load.
Off he went.. I felt good about myself.. Like I actually might of made a difference and helped, and lucky for him he didn't have to deal with another corporate un-educated pet store employee..
A few months later..
I ran into him in that same aisle, in the same store... He was purchasing one of the Xp3 we we're originally talking about, and had a large container of 'Matrix' biological media.
I asked him how his fish and tank we're doing, and he excitedly replied "Wonderful! I am now up to 4 fish tanks, including a 150g!".. "The cloudy water cleared up, the fish from the other store are amazing, and I am having more fun than I could of ever imagined with fish! It's my new hobby."
He wen't on to tell me how he has a planted dwarf cichlid tank with tetras, a tanginikyan tank with shelldwellers, an african oddball tank, and a 150g aggressive cichlid tank. He thanked me for showing him the LFS that has all of the advanced fish, but said he still purchases his hard goods and basic supplies from P.S. because of the good value and helpful associates..
I did a good deed.. I started someone off in the hobby, who will take it seriously and dedicate themselves.
These type of stories simply don't happen in corporate pet stores.
Except for my store,
It happens in my store every day.
The End.
I was looking through the filtration systems, when I saw a customer at the fish wall looking at the dragon gobies.. He was asking the younger girl at the podium about the care required to keep the gobies happy. She was a bit hesitant in her answers, so I decided I would chime in and help.
I informed the man that dragon gobies can sometimes be sensitive fish, and the biggest problem with them is finding healthy livestock that are already feeding readily on frozen and other specialty foods. I also informed him that they are technically a brackish fish, and although they can live in freshwater for a good portion of their life, they should eventually be acclimated to saltwater.
The store associate became more interested in what I had to say, as did the customer.. He was curious to know where he could find other brackish tankmates if he did decide to make a brackish tank.
I told him their are alot of freshwater fish that are actually brackish. I showed him the mollys and swordtails, glass tetras, silvertip sharks, and even mentioned the needlefish can live in light brackish. He was very interested in the needlefish, but I helped him understand the care requirements for feeding and he would need atleast a 75g tank to start them, and hopefully 125g+ tank in the future.
He then started asking more questions, about stocking options of South American and African Cichlids.. after realizing he wasn't working with much space (55g), I detoured him from keeping anything but a single SA cichlid in that tank.
I explained to him that their are a variety of interested dwarf cichlids from both SA and Africa, but they can sometimes be hard to find in our area. I gave him a business card for a LFS that carries these rare oddities. He was thankful for that, and said he would check it out sometime.
He said he was into oddball looking fish and just wanted something different than the bread and butter he always sees at the pet store.. I informed he might try to look closer at the picture tags and inside the tanks. I pointed to the tank containing ctenopoma and the tank containing brown knifes and polypterus, and walked back to my filtration systems..
He purchased one of each from the young sales girl who knew nothing about them.
Then as he was leaving the area, he walked through the same aisle as me to thank me for my time and help.. He noticed I was looking at the canister filters, and asked me my opinion of them. I told them that they are very efficient and I like them because of how they hide the filtration under the tank. He really liked that idea and was interested in purchasing one because he said he was having troubles with cloudy water..
I asked him what he had in his tank, and he said he had 3 tinfoil barbs all about 6" long. I asked him what he had for a filter, and he said he had a whisper-60.
He was under the impression that the tinfoil barbs would make good tankmates with the fish he was purchasing because they were all considered 'semi-aggressive'. I explained to him that the barbs are active, aggressive eaters that get quite large and if he wanted to start developing his tank into more of an 'oddball' tank that he would have to get rid of them. He said he didn't like them much and he would trade them in to the LFS asap.
After having a lengthy discussion about nitrifying bacteria, the nitrogen cycle, and bacterial blooms causing cloudy water. He ended up purchasing another Whisper-60 and 4 bags of AquaClear bio-max beads, and Seachem's "Stability" to stabilize his bio-load.
Off he went.. I felt good about myself.. Like I actually might of made a difference and helped, and lucky for him he didn't have to deal with another corporate un-educated pet store employee..
A few months later..
I ran into him in that same aisle, in the same store... He was purchasing one of the Xp3 we we're originally talking about, and had a large container of 'Matrix' biological media.
I asked him how his fish and tank we're doing, and he excitedly replied "Wonderful! I am now up to 4 fish tanks, including a 150g!".. "The cloudy water cleared up, the fish from the other store are amazing, and I am having more fun than I could of ever imagined with fish! It's my new hobby."
He wen't on to tell me how he has a planted dwarf cichlid tank with tetras, a tanginikyan tank with shelldwellers, an african oddball tank, and a 150g aggressive cichlid tank. He thanked me for showing him the LFS that has all of the advanced fish, but said he still purchases his hard goods and basic supplies from P.S. because of the good value and helpful associates..
I did a good deed.. I started someone off in the hobby, who will take it seriously and dedicate themselves.
These type of stories simply don't happen in corporate pet stores.
Except for my store,
It happens in my store every day.
The End.
10/10
