Have You Ever Helped A New Fish Keeper In The Shop

[Jazzzz]

I feel quit pleased that i convinced a young couple with 2 kids to buy a £7.99 filter for there new tiny goldfish bowl

yes i know a bigger tank and cycling advice would have been good but they where slightly hesitant at even buying a filter. Told them they needed to do a water change they didn't realise they had too. and to said to clean debree of the filter sponges in old tank water.

watched them buy it so i am pleased as the fish should have a slightly better life now

 

[kewskills]

Yep always feel i have to give advise, probably cause i think i know everything

 

[shelaghfishface]

i have often wanted to, but fear of condradiction has stopped me, havent seen any horrific mistakes being made tho ,apart from a very old couple buying a 3" oscar and a pot of flakes, .but i expect hes back in the shop by now
and good on you jazz by the way!

 

[Loony Fish]

one time i stopped a guy from putting a baby red tailed catfish in his 10 gallon tank.
could you think of how bad that would be if he did?

 

[Corleone]

I'm the bane of the local Petsmart for stuff like this, especially on the weekends, as the person who runs the fish section then claims to have five years experience, but gives some of the most ridiculous advice ("I've kept ten or twenty oscars, none of them EVER get over four inches" while an 8 inch behemoth stares out of the tank next to her). For some reason people regularly think I work there, which makes it worse.

 

[NottsFishy]

yep i dont even work in a lfs but i ended up stopping a couple with kids from buying a siamese fighter to go in a tank with tiger barbs yet the guy that worked there said it would be fine .
Glad i helped them in the end as i have ended up meeting them a couple more times as they live on the same street as me now lol. (btw there tank is lovely lol )

 

[flash22]

saved people a lot of money from buying snail treatment a few times ( lettuce trick works wonders), thay haven't sold many common and Gibby plecs in one shop i visit

 

[SharonCC]

I'm always giving advice...last week I stopped a woman from buying two Common Plecos for a 10gal. coldwater tank. The funny thing is she was going to get them, even after I explained how big they would get. The clincher was when I told her she needed a heater. Guess she didn't want the extra expense! I usually offer advice if the customer looks receptive. The staff sometimes look irritated....because they don't make a sale.

 

[murphyk32]

i havent had this one happen yet, but good on everybody whos helped people.. shop workers can stuff the lost sale its not worth it

 

[jourdy288]

Well, not too long ago, I stopped a woman from adding mollies to a ten gallon tank.

Well, not too long ago, I stopped a woman from adding mollies to a ten gallon tank.

 

[Amunet]

I'm too shy irl to speak up. I haven't seen anything horrible going on though, and have heard the staff give decent advice before. Like once, a woman wanted to get an algae eater and was going to get a common pleco, but the person helping her talked her out of it, telling her how large they get etc.

 

[drobbyb]

I help people all the time. Just the other day I was walking through Wal-mart and saw a gentleman with a puzzled look on his face. I introduced myself and proceeded to find out what was wrong. By the end of the conversation I had helped this gentleman diagnose and treat his problem and gave him a full set of instructions so that he could avoid this problem in the future. It made me feel good that I made a difference.

 

[tyyrlym]

I've yet to spot someone new really looking and curious that didn't have a sales person attached to them. I typically won't butt in given that its their store.

I did see a Petsmart guy giving a pair of college girls an honest run down of what they'd actually need to keep some guppies properly. They didn't feel like spending fifty bucks on some three dollar fish. He steered them to the bettas but told them they wouldn't get much cheaper.

 

[vinylman]

If the staff are too busy to get to someone right away, I can generally spot a nervy buyer and usually have a word, just something like ''what are you after?'' or ''what have you already got?''. I know the fish man at my LFS well and he doesn't mind.

 

[Scotty001]

I have offered advice once of twice at my local lfs (large chain store in the uk shall name un named but im sure you can guess who),

generally the staff there are good but as with every job your going to have new staff who re not instant experts.

i was in one time when they had a new person in the fish section who was trying to help a customer who was asking questions about getting paradise fish for their tank.

I could see and hear that the member of staff wasn't too sure themselves "more erms and mms" than ive had hot dinners this month, but to my surprise they had the guts to say to the customer that they were not too sure on that species and couldnt offer much advice on the question,

the new staff said they would try and get some one else to help and off he went. as i was browsing myself i started a Little chat with the guy and his girlfriend who were looking to buy the fish,

when the shop worker got back he had said he couldn't find anyone to help, as he noticed i had been speaking to the people he asked if i had any knowledge on the fish, to which i had to reply "erm mmmm erm" lol but i sill managed to give some advice to both the guy and his girlfiend and the staff worker.

The store has a very small section of books they sell which give info on fish species some of the books or sale are not cellophane wrapped so i walked round picked up a few of the books and we started to track the fish down to get some info on it lol (being careful not to damage the books of course)

the store person didnt make a sale on the paradise fish but did make a sale on a much more expensive fish book and the guy and girl walked away with a good resource so they could browse the fish they like and see if they will be suited to their aquarium, also the staff member now knows that if no one else is around he still has a resource he can turn to himself for advice.