Lucky they didn't...

[eudielynn]

Age has nothing to do with knowledge. I am waaaayyyy older than most of you and it disgusts me when my friends try to tell me that my bettas want to be in coffeecup sized bowls and can eat bamboo. When I tell them what bull that is they are like "The fish stores sell them that way and they must know more about them than you do." No matter how old you are hang in there. Some people will listen and you will make life easier for many of our finned friends along the way.

When my son was 10 years old he was the video game expert in our area. He would go into the rental stores and the clerks would have a notepad with questions on it to ask him about release dates, hidden surprises and just his general opinion about the games. I repeat - he was 10 years old and they were adults!!!! Just keep your cool with the hardheads that won't listen and don't waste your time. The ones who care about their pets will realize how much you know and will value your advice when they realize how serious you are.

 

[rdd1952]

Boy, I do I ever feel old. I'm as old as SPLish (13), OohFeeshy (13), MegThe Fish (13) and Dwarf Dude (13) COMBINED....52. If you talk to someone in a LFS and they brush you off, explain how long you have had fish and how many tanks you have. Maybe that will let them know that you do know what you're talking about.

 

[smb7676]

WOW
I can't believe you guys are only 13-18. Some of the best help (with the exception of one stressful night bettamomma helped me) I have read. You all know your stuff and come across very well in your posts. Keep up the knowledge and you may have a career to get into ie owning your own store running an aquarium you knows what maybe even research. I'm 28 and have had the joy to work with kids that are supposed to be underprivliged on the verge of becoming problem kids, and in most cases they just were never listened to. Its amazing what you can gain from listening to people no matter what there age!!! Way to go and some day someone will listen to you.

 

[Kierana]

I may be long past my teens but I can certainly relate. I'm 40 but I'm also female which apparently seems to translate in certain minds into incompetent. It took me 30 minutes to convince a young couple in W-M that a brand new 10 gallon setup would not be sufficient for a Pictus cat much less the cat and the comet goldfish they had just bought on a whim. Of course, the man working in the fish section had no trouble scooping out the cat and comet and loading them up in the cart with the tank.

 

[jflowers]

I am in my thirties and lfs's still treat me as though I know nothing, I am not an expert, but I know a thing or two

My 8 year old girl looks after her own tank with a betta and two ADF's, you should have seen the guys face when she asked if the 'aquatic frogs' (thats how they were labled) were african dwarfs or african clawed

My 10 year old boy is raising 13 krib fry for me in his tank, and they are nearly ready to move on.

I agree age means nothing, its the knowledge that matters. I will ask the lfs assistant about any fish I buy, after researching it myself first, this will give you a good idea about the shop.

Jon

p.s. I feel so old

 

[DMan99]

I'm 17 and ive just started working part time in my LFS so i know im not gonna get ignored and if customers dont listen to me they dont get their fish!!!

 

[jflowers]

I'm 17 and ive just started working part time in my LFS so i know im not gonna get ignored and if customers dont listen to me they dont get their fish!!!

Thats the attitude to have, just hope your manager has the same thoughts.

Jon

 

[DMan99]

I know, its happens at least a few times a day where customers come in tryin to buy tropical fish with a goldfish bowl, or they wanna buy their first fish and tank on the same day or the have a community tank and the wanna buy Lake Malawi cichlids or they have a 60litre and they want a shoal of clown loach! Every day is a struggle but i just think that for every customer i put right, its helped some fish!

 

[One_Trick_Pony]

i agree im only 22 but that real old compared to some of thses guys. dwarf dude, and dwarfs have given me so invaluable advice! guppy girl to has been great! ohh feeshy again a good source of knowledge at least about fish, from what i rmeber gis football team leave somthing to be desired but hey!

age does not equal knowledeg those guys no way mor then me about many things fishey

 

[jflowers]

i agree im only 22 but that real old compared to some of thses guys. dwarf dude, and dwarfs have given me so invaluable advice! guppy girl to has been great! ohh feeshy again a good source of knowledge

I also bow down to thier superior knowledge

Thanks

Jon

 

[x Fish x]

I'm fifteen, turning sixteen in July. Now, I don't usually speak up about things, but if someone says something incredibley stupid near me, I have to say something snarky. To myself, or whoever is with me.

When I bought my girls way back when, there was a sad-looking Betta in an art-deco vase with- no kidding- an inch of water, and a teeny hex with eighty zillion "Emerald Barbs". One lady was cooing over the Betta, and she moved when I set my 10 hundred bags down. I turn to my boyfriend.

"You know, he's probably going to get cold, die, and begin to stink. Like sweet/sour/spicy, you know? The way George (my brother's goldfish) did?"

Lady makes this face, cashier stares at me, and glances at sad-fishie. We're beginning to leave.

"You know... I think you scared that woman."

Fish was proud, that day. Oh yes, so proud.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I walk right up to people when I'm in the store and talk to them about their tanks. Needless to say they hardly ever listen, as I'm nineteen and look about fourteen, so I just give them a look and then go on with what I'm doing. Occasionally, when really pissed off, I have a habit of blurting out something along the lines of 'I hope you like dead fish' and then shrug.

People are stupid, when they can easily go to the library, the internet or something and research fish before they get them but don't I hope their fish die. Repeatedly. In gruesome ways right in front of their eyes...

 

[Ben]

i agree im only 22 but that real old compared to some of thses guys. dwarf dude, and dwarfs have given me so invaluable advice! guppy girl to has been great! ohh feeshy again a good source of knowledge

I also bow down to thier superior knowledge

Thanks

Jon

Thanks

DD

 

[Iron Man]

Unfortunately sometimes the ones stupid enough to just buy a living thing on a whim without any knowledge on how to take care of it won't be very hurt by its death or even slow demise. I've seen it before...sad but true.

I myself am not prejudiced against "kids" as I was 7 when I kept my first fish (tropical fish in a fish bowl) and I have been learning ever since. When my dad used to take me to get a fish at the local dept store, the pet dept. guy and my dad would just laugh because I was so young yet so serious....but the pet dept. guy enjoyed my visits because he could talk with me to no end seriously about fish and other pets.

Humans have a natural sense of social responsibility (I believe this includes taking care of young and animals) at a very young age and the true "fans" of the fish world start very early.....a lot of them anyway.

 

[Iron Man]

Adding more to the original topic....I was at a lfs once that had an african cichlid, an aggressive mbuna no less, in with an oranda goldfish!! You should have seen the constant jumping and terror as the goldfish would, over and over again, slowly waddle into the cichlid's side of the tank only to be terrorized back to the other side. His fins were almost non existant.

I thought about that all week and could have kicked myself for not saying anything.

At the end of that week I went back to see if the goldfish was still in with the cichlid, and if so was he totally destroyed by now...and to my horror both fish were still in that same little tank all by themselves!! But this time there was a new twist....that goldfish must have gotten so fed up by the cichlid, he was chasing IT around!! hehe