As most of you know the people who work at these stores dont know that much about fish, I was told by the female employee that Oscars get bigger than pacus and the white oscars were labeled as albino but had black eyes not pink like true albinos. The tinfoils were labeled as gold tinfoils but had pink eyes and were true albinos. If anyone has not said it enough these chaning stores are a money making business first and knowledge and care of pets 2nd.
Petsmart pacus, and fish named wrongly
- Thread starter brcacti
- Start date
You didn't say the fish weren't taken care of, you just said they were mislabeled. Mislabeling is something that happens from chains to lfs. I've seen it at both. I honestly get tired of these chain bashing threads, like the posters have all the answers. I do however agree with you on part of this. Their size labels are way off on a few of their fish.....pacus being first! These are the type of fish that should be a special order only. And you're right about business first. They have to....they are a business. As far as knowledge, try hiring someone more knowledgable than high school/college kids for $7 an hour.
I agree with you.
I worked at a Petsmart, and tried desperately to disavow any "Petsmart employees don't know anything about their fish" comments.
Basically the kids who work there get put in that department and get told a little about fish. But its not always something they really love or care about.
They get taught how to take care of everything and clean everything - as that's there job.
I was always kind of annoyed that there wasn't an instructional or training regiment to really teach them everything about the fish.
A lot of your concerns annoyed me as well. Mislabeled fish were annoying, but tags saying oscars only get 10" ... and such things.
They aren't doing it wrong... but they certainly aren't doing everything right either.
However you also have to take in mind that they don't always get sent the right things from their suppliers.
What SHOULD have been gold tinfoils are albino, what SHOULD have been albino oscars weren't always.
Not always the kids fault. They're just the faces that it gets stuck to.
I worked at a Petsmart, and tried desperately to disavow any "Petsmart employees don't know anything about their fish" comments.
Basically the kids who work there get put in that department and get told a little about fish. But its not always something they really love or care about.
They get taught how to take care of everything and clean everything - as that's there job.
I was always kind of annoyed that there wasn't an instructional or training regiment to really teach them everything about the fish.
A lot of your concerns annoyed me as well. Mislabeled fish were annoying, but tags saying oscars only get 10" ... and such things.
They aren't doing it wrong... but they certainly aren't doing everything right either.
However you also have to take in mind that they don't always get sent the right things from their suppliers.
What SHOULD have been gold tinfoils are albino, what SHOULD have been albino oscars weren't always.
Not always the kids fault. They're just the faces that it gets stuck to.
Well put. I, like yourself, know the ins and outs of chains such as Petsmart, as I have worked in them as well, and my wife is currently a Petsmart manager. The point about what suppliers ACTUALLY send is very important. Ask your lfs if they've ever had this problem. Vendors here have spoke of this as well.