Favorite LFS "CUSTOMER" STORIES ...

[likestofish]

Well i just started working at my lfs. I don't really have any real knee slappers but one thing just really puzzles me.

This happened 3 times already in the first 2 weeks. People never fail to look around and find "nemo". Now i have no problem with clown fish being called "nemo" but when they ask if the whole store is freshwater, i can't help but stand there and wait for them to say just kidding. It doesn't happen lol. They see the movie and its in the ocean. Do they not understand that lakes and oceans are different. And o boy if i had to invent a word like brackish lol.

You know whats even worse is when they ask what's the difference between fresh and salt.

 

[bradleyagregg]

petsmart by me has a card on tinfoil barbs that says 10 gallon and the very same card says they can grow to 12+inches! I just hope even a newbie can figure out 12 inches wont work in a 10

 

[_Jessica_]

Does anyone else ever get the dbags in that seem to automatically assume you are an idiot just because you work in a LFS? This one kid comes in all the time to try and lecture me on this or that. There was a sw fish that hadn't adjusted well (wasn't doing well) since coming in the previous day, and he went off saying it was heart breaking we don't take care of our fish. He's always commenting on the mandarins..to be honest, I sell one every week, there are a good amount of copepods in the system, and I have the luxury of moving them to different tanks and moving live rock so they continuously get fed...not to mention maybe 1 in 3 will take frozen.

There are some really good people that know their stuff or are trying to learn, and I enjoy chatting. And then some people that probably have a good knowledge base but just seem to be "against" me.

 

[Darth Scohin]

Does anyone else ever get the dbags in that seem to automatically assume you are an idiot just because you work in a LFS?

Hate that kid comes in with his gf and looks at the goldfish ask him the array of questions, and he mentions that he does once a MONTH WC so when he wants to get the moor for his gf I suggest him to up the WC to once a week, he replys "Not to be rude, but I have 30 tanks I know what Im doing"

 

[Citrinellus]

Bump

 

[snyder810]

This is a good one, I have told it to all our other employees and they laughed their @$$es off.

So this guy comes in, and he's a decent guy, done freshwater for years, knows his stuff. He has a 70ish gallon tank, regular T8 light and a fluval 405 filter, and it's empty now. He wants to convert it to saltwater but doesn't know the first thing about it and needs me to explain it to him. Great, that's fine, I set people up with saltwater all day, easy. What he said next was hillarious though. He said he went to Petland and asked them but they just confused the heck out of him. This young girl tells him his fluval filter is useless for saltwater (meanwhile I have the same one on my 55 reef), then they proceed to tell him that in order to use it, he will have to install a light INSIDE his filter and grow CORALS in it
In a fluval 405!

She must have been thinking of a refugium...

So I explained saltwater to him, sold him some live sand, live rock, and some salt, and he was happy he didn't need to light his canister filter. So I say thanks to Petland for that sale and our new happy saltwater customer who will continue to shop at our store and avoid Petland!

no offense but petland lady was half right, canister filters are nitrate factories and really are poor choices for SW filtration unless you really keep up on maintaining them

 

[gazelle]

very interesting i wish i could work part time in a lfs so i could have storie slike this lolol

 

[jalepeno]

I don't work at a fish store, but I love asking the employees at the general stores how big pacu get.

Sadly, most of the responses are: Fish grow to whatever size your aquarium is.

 

[_Jessica_]

Guy says he needs some sucker fish. Points out the common plecos.
Him: I need 3 of those.
Me: Okay, you know these guys get pretty big right? (Thinking he must have a pond)
Him: Yep! Well..how big?
Me: Tops out at about 2 feet.
Him: LOL, yeah right, they won't get that big in my tank!
Me: What size tank do you have?
Him:10g
Me: That is way too small for these guys...*goes off on spiel about 3 plecos in a 10g*, how about a single bristlenose pleco? They stay smaller..
Him: Nah, I WANT THREE, and I don't want to pay the dollar more. I have serious clean up for them to do.



There is going to be more poo than algae in that tank, if they survive!!

 

[leather]

I figure this is a good place to post this story. Kind of the opposite, lfs employee told this to a newbie while I was standing close.
Newbie: I have a 30 gallon tank and I don't know how many fish I can put in it.
employee: You can put as many fish as you want in it. As long as your water is good.
Newbie: How do I know if it is okay?
employee: You only have to check for nitrates once a week and if they are high do a partial water change.
Then the newbie, started to pick out a lot of fish.
Not once was he asked if it was cycled or told that if the nitrates are high after 2 days of being overstocked then they will be high at the weekly test and been tough on the fish for the last 5 days.