Testing your LFS/petsmart's knowledge

[Plec123]

I enjoy doing it for chuckles and to see if they are honest.

i had just bought an oscar, so i needed some appropriate food, i asked the employee if this could be fed to oscar fish (on the front label, there was a large picture of an oscar), they spent around 10 minutes until i had to tell them it was on the front, they blushed.

i have a can of mini krill with a pic of a killifish on the front but theres no way in hell a hilli would be able to eat the whole krill. and, i have a can of wardley shrimp pellets with a pic of a cory on the front, but my cories have never touched the pellets.

and stop doing those little tests.... they make you look like a jerk and if anyone figures out that youre testing them theyll be pissed.

 

[Saterus]

^^ I agree, they will be pissed but most petco/petsmart/major chain employees don't know and don't care what they know, this activity is just a waste of their time to procure enjoyment to those that find it funny.
I used to waste time watching the fish in such stores waiting for customers to ask for advice, THAT is where I got my enjoyment/torture because I would offer some real advice. Most of the people in those stores want an "easy" pet out of fish, something cool, colorful, large, active and extremely low maintenence.
I work in an LFS so I feel dirty trolling like that now and sick seeing some of their starving/dying fish.
When I did troll though, UGH, I heard all the same things I hear now except now I hear them from another LFS' standpoint. Just 2 days ago I had a couple that couldn't understand why the 20 fish they bought for a 10g a week ago all died.. turns out they didn't dechlorinate the water, didn't cycle the tank, didn't have a heater, mixed tropical fish with several goldfish and couldn't understand why it went wrong. The store had offered absolutely no advice, warnings, tips or anything.
AFTER I explained things, why they were left with only a pleco surviving.. I suggested they exchange the pleco, here or there, and recommended a few fish that maybe they could take care of on the *one* flake food they had. Unfortunately, fish are marketed as easy pets to have and people that have started won't hear otherwise. I tried to explain the nitrogen cycle and they pretended they heard more than 2 words of it. Fact is, MOST people won't be bothered to do things right and all you can be left with is the hope that they will come back to someone who will tell them what they did wrong.
Those people probably will kill all the fish I sold them. I know that and I feel terrible for it. However, if I refuse to sell fish to a customer they almost always go to the manager (and he happens to be the owner) and he will chew my ass out for refusing a sale. If they don't go to him, I know they're going back to one of the stores that set them up to fail and kill fish in the first place!
I DO warn people that fish will grow to X feet long and need a 300 gallon tank within a few years, I DO tell them it will hurt/kill their other fish, I DO tell them it is a BAD choice for their setup/size/community/other aggressive fish/etc. but people don't care.
That's really it, people don't care. They want it and they want it NOW and no minimum wage petsmart job is going to do anything but set the fishkeeping world back, especially with people in "testing" them and pointing out how useless they are.
I've been tested. Sadly, I did pretty good. I've found people who "test" LFS' on a regular basis WANT them to fail the longer they've been doing it. They have a bitterness and will seek out any shortcoming the person has even if they know their stuff.
I had a person in a few weeks ago "testing" me that first wanted to buy a fish so I bagged it. Then they started asking about other fish, and more fish and more fish, ALWAYS fish that were not compatible with the one I had bagged or were far too big for the tanks he described having.
Eventually we got to the point where his own stories were running together and I got pissed off and called him out asking "Exactly how many cycled tanks of what sizes do you have and what lives in them? Answer that and I will tell you what fish you could potentially add!"

Well, after wasting an hour and a half discussing all manner of fishkeeping with a seemingly interested individual it turns out he feels he knows far more than I could ever teach him and he was "just testing to see if I knew my stuff".


Do you have any idea how insanely irritating that is?
It makes it harder and harder to give that attention to people that really DO want to learn and have the potential to be diehard fish enthusiasts if someone would just point them in the right direction.
"Yeah, I just wasted almost 2 hours on some guy who claims he knows more than I ever will, here's some ammo-lock and a couple oscars for your 10 gallon.."

 

[Cholly]

Ya maybe so, just don't think the LFS is the ideal place to gain knowledge.

Most aren't. But you take it where you find it, just troll a little for confirmation or test it yourself if it sounds good enough. I've found sound knowledge at a PetSmart from a guy over 20 years younger than me. Guy no longer works there. He did leave some disciples behind though, that are much better than average. This PetSmarts's fish are much better cared for than most.

 

[johnd651]

interesting little debate...and i have to agree with most of you in one way or another...
you should know what your getting before you even go, but it is nice to know that once in a while there is someone at the LFS that has some clue of what is going on in the aquarium, not just shuttling fish from farm>bag>tank>bag>my tank. i only have a petsmart within an hour of me, and only one employee knows anything about fish, the other ones sell "easy, colorful, pets". but u need to take what you have, offer help if you can...at least you tried...there money, there time, there problem

do feel bad for the poor fish though

 

[nfored]

I don't expect petco or petsmart to know anything more then is printed on the card, any more then I expect them to know advanced training with dogs. I had pitbulls that I weight trained to do pull's and tree climbs, I only expect pet smart to tell me where the food is located.

With that said I do expect that they tell you about the cycle and de-chlorinated water, almost all of the ones I have been to do. As a matter of fact each petco and petsmart has pamphlets that tell you about the cycle and chemical breakdown and water changes.

In the end as its said in everyone of these threads its the fish keepers job to know, and with the wide availability of credible inforation there is no excuse not to know.

The notion that you should test them to see if they know enough, has no point. In the end its a business there to make money. Do you have any idea what the fish keeping hobby would be like if it where only mom and pop stores? Sky rocketed prices, extremely limited supply, not every town has a LFS some only have petco type stores.

You can look at it like the price difference from buying a part for your car from a dealership and buying that same part from a autozone. You will always feel the pain of limited availability also no as competition.

 

[SpeshulEd]

It's always fun to rip on people who are trying to make a living.

Sorry, but I say poor form.

 

[[enjoyable_attempt]]

When I worked in lfs', any customer that presented him/herself as a condescending PITA usually got the "It's already sold and on hold" for whatever they wanted.
Customers that were pleasant with the staff received liberal price cuts for repeat business, forcasts of what was coming in, and the effort to obtain them the species they were looking for. It's always best to treat others as you wish to be treated.

I work at a fish store and live by that policy. When you follow this its really easy to get a nice group of "regulars" who know what they are talking about and know what they want.

 

[SimonL]

I should totally bother the OP at whatever menial drudgery he does for a living, and see how he likes being told he's flipping those burgers wrong...

Or try the reverse, have the LFS workers at Petsmart (who have to work the entire livestock section) quiz you about birds, reptiles, small animals, etc...Condescending people are frequently only knowledgable about one particular subject...LFS workers have to be able to give advice about freshwater community, African cichlids, plants, goldfish, ponds, marine aquariums, etc...

 

[nes999]

ive shopped at the same petco or smart im horrible at names that they recognize me and they have asked me questions before im happy to help. i hate when they treat you like you know absolotly nothing. and i do admit when they do this i start talking scientific names and other stuff that the employees havent a chance of knowing. i shouldnt get hasseled when im buying 4 dozen crickets and a bottle of prime. (gets off the soap box) that happened today so im still poed

 

[shannon666]

Yup, i know when i go to any lfs's i try to be less of a hassle as possible, if asked if i need help i politely say "no, thank you, im just looking." spend a good 30+ mins looking through every tank, then go over again incase i miss something. If i happen to find something i like, spend aboot 10 minutes or so watching the fish checking health etc. and figuring out exactly which one/s of the bunch i want, get them bagged and im gone!
I do however politely explain to new aquiriast's that are looking and wondering about fish what may work for them and have had several longenjoyful convo's with them as well.
Although there have been times when i am talking to someone and a worker will start saying im wrong, like apparently 1 inch clown loaches being at there max size and suitable for 5g's same with the 2" kissing gourami's that we're being housed in the tank =S *sigh* but even then, i politely state my views and their max size.