its funny ive read posts with people complaining about fish stores selling big fish to people with tiny tanks and now i get to read about people *****ing about questions that are intended to prevent this.I always ask about tank size and tankmates and as far as mystry fish ive kept fish fo 20yrs and i still get stuff that im clueless about.A few months ago i got a creature with some coral i dont know what it is no one i know knows what it is the guy that shipped it was at a loss but anyone with a problem with "mystry fish" can come over and id it for me
lfs employees!
- Thread starter dmopar74
- Start date
thanks everyone for sticking up for us nosey fish store employees. i work at a local petco(as much as i dislike petco, it was the only place around that had fish and was hiring) and am the only one there who actually know anything about fish, my specialty is brackish water but i'm fairly knowledgeable about most freshwater fish, saltwater fish, planted tanks, inverts and equipment(partially from being on forums like this one and wetwebfotos.com for several years and partially from my own experience) but my weak points are disease(i haven't dealt with anything, other than once finding ich in on of my tanks, in the last 5yrs) monster fish, rainbows and cichlids because they've never caught my interest, and i will freely admit when i don't know the answer and will give them a piece of paper with either this site on it for monster fish, wetwebfotos for everything and occasionally nano-reef, plantedtank or reefcentral for specific issues that i can't adequately address or am not comforable discussing in the store. i try to screen EVERYONE whom i sell fish to because we do have alot of idiots come through who have a 10g and think that automatically they can put any fish we carry into their tanks, i've stopped several people from throwing cichlids in with their tetras and platies or getting half a dozen goldfish for their 1g bowl. i absolutely despise arrogant customers. one of the worst was a guy buying goldfish for his reed fish, i always ask new customers what their feeding, partially because i'm curious, mostly because i want to help them and partially because they may have a species i'm not familiar with and i would like to take the opportunity to learn more about it. anyway when the guy said reed fish i assumed it was a E. calabaricus because they're fairly common and i've always heard them called rope fish or reed fish. i thought that they weren't very predatory and probably wouldn't do well on a diet of 3" long goldfish, when i tried to get a conversation going with the guy he was very defensive and sarcastically told me that they were indeed very predatory. when i asked the scientific name he said Bichir bichir, i pronounce the word bichir *bite-ch-er* becase that was how i've heard it pronounced the few time i've ever heard anybody say it, however the guy pronounced it *biker* anyway all attempt to initiate conversation failed, the guy was an ass and all i was trying to do was help him. see, our feeders were showing up with anchor worms, fish louse, and bacterial infections for weeks and our fancy goldfish has just been wiped out by costia, ich and a strain of cyprinid herpes, i had been talking to everybody buying feeders and informing them of this as well as convincing many of them that their fish didn't need a diet of live goldfish and would do better on a varied diet of prepared foods and live fish as only an occasional treat with minnows being preferable over goldfish and home bred feeders being the best of all.
I am also a part time petco employee...
I love when customers are knowledgeable and can carry on a great conversation, it always makes a boring day nicer. But, most people are beginners and doing it completely wrong. Like others have said, you can't want LFS employees to not question you but grill every beginner. Because like someone said, there is no t-shirt.
Which by the way, i wish i had a t-shirt that said all about my experience, tanks, and almost completed biology degree...for the snobs and know-it-alls.
This thread has a very different feel to it than most "dumb customer " threads. Maybe because its pointed at the opposite side. Working as someone who bags fish and gives advice is being at the frontlines of the industry. It carries a lot of criticism, thats expected.
But if you ask me there is no excuse for stupid advice. I don't care where you work, if a manager isn't going to train you then do some basic research on your own (what i did). Misinformed/assuming/lazy lfs employees are just as bad as the corresponding customers.
I love when customers are knowledgeable and can carry on a great conversation, it always makes a boring day nicer. But, most people are beginners and doing it completely wrong. Like others have said, you can't want LFS employees to not question you but grill every beginner. Because like someone said, there is no t-shirt.
Which by the way, i wish i had a t-shirt that said all about my experience, tanks, and almost completed biology degree...for the snobs and know-it-alls.
This thread has a very different feel to it than most "dumb customer " threads. Maybe because its pointed at the opposite side. Working as someone who bags fish and gives advice is being at the frontlines of the industry. It carries a lot of criticism, thats expected.
But if you ask me there is no excuse for stupid advice. I don't care where you work, if a manager isn't going to train you then do some basic research on your own (what i did). Misinformed/assuming/lazy lfs employees are just as bad as the corresponding customers.
I used to work at a lfs. I almost never really talk to the person about what they're about to purchase unless they ask me or if I over hear what their intentions are (you know..."this Oscar would look cute with our neons"). I'm not very knowledgable on marine so when people come in buy fish, I admit that I usually aske them stuff. The only thing I learned about working with marine fish was to turn this knob to fill the sump. That was the only thing they taught me over there about saltwater. 
that's pretty much the training that petco gives you, i've read throught the aquatic specialist training books(i was hired to replace the head of aquatics, but it looks like they might be thinking about replacing me) and they are idiotic, incredibly basic in information, inconsistant and only teaches you how to sell the fish. the chick who is supposed to be the aquatic expert because she took the quiz and passed it can't even sex livebearers and doesn't even have the basic concepts down yet she's supposed to be an expert and guide newbies into the hobby.
I also used to work/voolenteer at various pet stores. I was young, but I did my homework(fish homework that is) and I sure did know alot. More then the owner at times. There where some things I just couldn't do like selling fish to "bad" people. So I got outta that business. I can't stand how owners don't care about the animal but the profit.
Some time later...
I was with my friend at pet smart because he wanted some fish. While I was loking around, he asked for a pair of Convict Cichlids. The worker had no idea how to tell them apart. I explained the common aspcts on how to tell them apart and he told my friend to listen to me insted of himself. I was happy about one thing thow. Another time I was in their and some guy wanted to buy a 1G tank and a TSN at the same time. Another worker told him that that would not work, and did not sell him the fish.
Z
Some time later...
I was with my friend at pet smart because he wanted some fish. While I was loking around, he asked for a pair of Convict Cichlids. The worker had no idea how to tell them apart. I explained the common aspcts on how to tell them apart and he told my friend to listen to me insted of himself. I was happy about one thing thow. Another time I was in their and some guy wanted to buy a 1G tank and a TSN at the same time. Another worker told him that that would not work, and did not sell him the fish.
Z
yep, and yet i failed to get 90% the first time i took my compain animal test(the first general one) mostly because i was in a hurry and didn't really care though.
me i like it when the ppl at the lfs ask me questions i like it for 2 reason
1 they may know something i dont and it will help me out
2 i may know something they dont and i will help them out
one of the lsf places i go the lady is really nice and we chat everytime i go there
she ask how my fish are and how they liked what i got last time or just little chit-chat
but the best thing is the last time i was there she was talking to some other customers and they were trying to find out why all the fish they buy die and she looked at me and said maybe you can help i know you come in often and you may think of some thing i didnt so i started question the ppl asking her what was wrong but i had no clue and at the time i didnt know about this site so dont know what happened but the next time the ppl at the lsf dont know and i dont know this will be where i send them to find out what is wrong
1 they may know something i dont and it will help me out
2 i may know something they dont and i will help them out
one of the lsf places i go the lady is really nice and we chat everytime i go there
she ask how my fish are and how they liked what i got last time or just little chit-chat
but the best thing is the last time i was there she was talking to some other customers and they were trying to find out why all the fish they buy die and she looked at me and said maybe you can help i know you come in often and you may think of some thing i didnt so i started question the ppl asking her what was wrong but i had no clue and at the time i didnt know about this site so dont know what happened but the next time the ppl at the lsf dont know and i dont know this will be where i send them to find out what is wrong
I often see a fishes in different stores that are either toorare for the staff to know what they are,or the staff has made up a new name for them, in either case they dont know what itis that they are selling but they do know that they have to sell it for a high price.
