I Get Upset

[alby10]

I visit my Local Fish shops a lot, quite often just to browse or check out any new fish or the latest bit of kit and treat as a bit of a day out ( sad I know).
The thing that spoils it for me is seeing the amount of people buying tanks (often far to small to support any fish that they really want ) and being given the advice to leave the tank 2 weeks before adding fish.
I see mum and dad buying the equipment and little tommy excitedly running round choosing his new friends,and this is when I get upset. cuz I know all his pets are going to be dead within a week or so , it happened to me when first started.
The point I am making is that if I went to the local pound to buy a dog they would interview me and make sure I knew how to look after my pet and tell me what I didnt know to be sure my pet had a good life.
We as a hobby must have the highest mortality rate there is on new start up this cannot be right can it ?
I didnt find out about cycling, stocking densities and compatibility tiil after I had bought all my equipment and my fish had started dying, it was then using forums and the internet I gained the knowledge you need, and even after this I had to imagine my fish being burnt and suffocated buy ammonia and niterite while the tank was cycling, a truly harrowing experience.
How hard could it be for pet shops to hand you an A4 sheet of paper stating the facts and difficulties of starting a new tank and making you read it before you buy your first tank.
it shoud be made law I think, I cant bear the thought of thousands of fish dying in agony every week.

 

[*Lucifer*]

i understand totally. it can be upsetting watching the stupid people at pet shops try and catch the lil blighters and jus shove em in a bag and hand em out, especially as some fish r harder to look after than others, customers should be informed of the fishies overall size, diet and temperment etc, which they DO NOT and then the kid whos tank it is get all polluted and fishies die and then the customers bring them back and request their money back for the shop selling sick fish etc.

not enough info is given to people who r buying fish as newcomers etc.

 

[timmystood]

They don't really care about fish - after all, as they would say 'there's plenty more fish in the sea'

I agree with you though.

 

[Cobe27]

THis sort of thing is very frustrating, and I think it is because a lot of employees aren't very knowledgeable and are just happy to make a sale. The companies are happy enough if it all goes wrong - they know they people will be back to replace the fish they lost.

I prefer to stick to the more knowledgeable places where they won't sell unsuitable fish if they can help it and are able to answer any questions.

Edited to add that not all dog pounds are any better than this!

 

[karlp]

Thankfully my LFS when I first started told us about cycling that tank when I bought the aquarium and did free water tests. Of course it was a fish cycle, but hey, they all survived bar one.

I agree though. Aquatic outlets ought to require some sort of licence or code which governs how they sell fish. Selling fish to people without the correct instruction is just inhumane and incredibly disappointing for whoever has bought them!

 

[itsmedeanna64]

I hear ya Alby. The only LFS I have anywhere around here is PetSmart, the big chain pet store. I go in there and all they have working is teenagers who know nothing in MY experience. I have asked questions and all they do is AGREE with MY idea. Never much useful information at all.....so then I go home and get on the board and find out what I want to know.

I was in this so called LFS the other day to buy food and saw this couple with a small child that had in their basket some HUGE decorations, big bags of gravel, etc. I assumed they were about to set up what looked like a BIG tank......some eavesdropping, it was a 75 gallon. I went to another part of the store and when I went to check out, this couple had I bet 30-40 fish in bags they were buying too! I didn't say anything because I'm not one to just blurt out stuff like that but I did have a sinking feeling in my belly.....

Poor fishies.

If those 'sales associates' knew anything they would have not even sold them those fish.


It's all about the money........

 

[chrismr]

I agree wholeheartedly.

But you will probably find these people bring in a large portion of the cash.

Think about the ways they will make more money from ignorant people:
Firstly there is replacing dead fish.
Later selling the person a larger tank because the first one too small for fish they have.
Selling them all sorts of unnecessary treatments.
etc, etc, etc

Most LFS would probably go out of business if they were 100% responsbile with how they sold. If all people had to wait a month before they could get fish, then how many would still get fish? And I know there are you "completely responsible" fishkeepers out there who have always cycled, but most I imagine never cycled first tank before putting first fish in.

Al I am saying is it makes business sense to sell fish to the uneducated. I am not condoning it.

 

[dwarfgourami]

I agree wholeheartedly.

But you will probably find these people bring in a large portion of the cash.

Think about the ways they will make more money from ignorant people:
Firstly there is replacing dead fish.
Later selling the person a larger tank because the first one too small for fish they have.
Selling them all sorts of unnecessary treatments.
etc, etc, etc

Most LFS would probably go out of business if they were 100% responsbile with how they sold. If all people had to wait a month before they could get fish, then how many would still get fish? And I know there are you "completely responsible" fishkeepers out there who have always cycled, but most I imagine never cycled first tank before putting first fish in.

Al I am saying is it makes business sense to sell fish to the uneducated. I am not condoning it.

No, but you've got a point. To out it bluntly, the honest shop keeper who sold me my current tanks+ fish has not made much money out of me since: the tanks were what I needed and they're still full of fish! If you folks were not corrupting me with your talk of MTS, it might be another 4 years before she sold me anything more expensive than a bit of food and the occasional bottle of dechlorinator. As it is...

 

[Paul_MTS]

Oh yay another lets slag off the fish shop employees topic.

Tell ya what seeing as I'm not your steriotypical employee I'll change to these ways.

 

[Dangerousdan]

.

 

[chrismr]

I hate fish shop workers, all thick as planks

Ummmmmm, my boyfriend works in on of our LFS.....

Oh yay another lets slag off the fish shop employees topic.

Tell ya what seeing as I'm not your steriotypical employee I'll change to these ways.

Its not all of em. You know what people are like with sweeping generalisations... everyone knows that there are some wonderful employees at some excellent LFS

 

[OohFeeshy]

I hate fish shop workers, all thick as planks

Ummmmmm, my boyfriend works in on of our LFS.....

Oh yay another lets slag off the fish shop employees topic.

Tell ya what seeing as I'm not your steriotypical employee I'll change to these ways.

Its not all of em. You know what people are like with sweeping generalisations... everyone knows that there are some wonderful employees at some excellent LFS

*thinks someone missed the sarcasm*

 

[chrismr]

*thinks someone missed the sarcasm*

Yes... perhaps it would help if I had a sense of humour.

 

[RedShark]

Personally, when i worked at a fish store. I always got tired of hearing myself talk. Trying to explain the process of cycling a tank and giving all that information about other requirements for maintaining one often times left the customer feeling very overwhelmed, and turned off by fish. I think lots of people in this world can barely manage their own lives in their surrounding environment, sometimes unable to keep everything balanced. Attempting to balance another life form like an aquarium (even though not as intricate as human life) without the knowledge or even the desire to act on giving these fish the best life one in captivity could possibly have seems half assed and a bit selfish, etc. etc.

Ignorance is bliss, if you have the money to pay for your mistakes.
Some (fish) get stepped on (killed) along the way

Why We Fight - A film by Eugene Jarecki
In select theatres January 20th

I think many of you will appreciate a film like this.
Cheers

 

[littleimp]

Most lfs are exactly what they say on the tin 'shops'. Shops are there to make money, if it doesn't make money their wouldn't be a shop their. If these sort of sales stopped the shop would probably close down. They're has always been & always will be (unless some sort of ban is enforced) small tanks/goldfish bowl type things. It's the same as going into a shop to buy a hamster starter kit for £20. If that starter kit is say £150 (cost of a tank someone would call reasonable & fittings) then they wouldn't sell them.

Most better shops will give advice but very few would not sell the 30cm tank with a couple of goldfish pets at the same time.