Helping out a Newbie

[guppymonkey]

I am the only Fish guy at the pet store that I work at. I know that a lot of stores are bad but I try my best to educate customers and my fellow employees.

Today I had a woman come in who said that her new tank was very very dirty after just a few days. It seems that the local WalMart sold her TWO oscars for a TEN GALLON TANK!!!! I couldn't believe it! They told her that they would only grow to the size of the tank and like a lot of people she just went with whatever she was told and didn't do any research. Luckily she came in and asked for advice otherwise those two fish would have suffered for who knows how long. ARGH!!!! I hate it when things like this happen!

 

[GirlinWayside]

I honestly feel that department stores should NOT be allowed to sell fish. there should be some kinda law against it..

I am glad she came in as soon as she did. What did she do with the oscars??

 

[guppymonkey]

I told her to try to return the oscars but my store will take in small fish sometimes. We don't give credit though, I would but I don't own the place. I don't want the oscars to come to our store because they most likely have a disease or parasites coming from wally world.

 

[GirlinWayside]

yep, more than likely they do.. thats sad

 

[Fishist]

It is sad that the majority of department stores keep and sell fish in such appalling conditions with the employees seeming to have very little knowledge about the subject.

There was a thread here about this topic a few months ago and many people talked about the poor conditions at various Wal-Mart stores around the country.... it seems like a bit of a trend with Wal-Mart unfortunately.

However, there are exceptions out there such as our local Petco in Escondido. The staff are extremely knowledgeable and do a great job with the upkeep of dozens of tanks. Perhaps this is because Petco is a "pets only" store and maybe they attract more qualified staff.