Ugh! Such Bad Advice!

[Amunet]

We went to one of the locally owned fish shops here today to pick up some more rasboras and a plant or 2, etc.
Well their planted tanks have become infested with pest snails, and fiance really didn't want to do the bleaching method again since that ended up killing some of the plants we did it with before (we did do it right hehe).
So anywho.... after getting some help from one of the guys there, he pointed us in the direction of the freshwater "expert".
Fiance asked him what were good ways of getting rid of snails, and the things that came out of this guys mouth.. just UGH.

The first thing that came out of his mouth was, clown loach. Fiance knows about clowns b/c of the research I've done on them so asked the guy about the size they'd get to and the size of our tank. This guy THEN proceeds to tell us that we could get 1 or 2 and that even if we keep them in a small aquarium, it will stunt their growth so we don't have to worry about them getting too big for our tank!!! As if stunting a fish's growth is a good thing or something!
I just totally stopped listening to the guy after that. Me and fiance just looked at eachother and rolled our eyes.

This fish store is really nice with healthy fish, but good lord... some of their employees are morons.

 

[dthoffsett]

I know I've told this story several times before, but it still ticks me off.

A few months after I set up (and cycled of course) my 75 gal mbuna tank, a really virulent bacterial infection hit, I lost 10 fish in about 24 hours, it was horrible, never did figure out what introduced it. It certainly wasn't bad water quality as ammonia and nitrite were always 0 and nitrate was never over 20, and I did weekly water changes.

Anyways, I went to one of my local LPS to get some meds to treat the fish that were still alive. I never go to that particular LPS because their tanks are always full of dead and dying fish, but it was next door to my job so it was convenient. So I go in, and since I had to treat the entire tank, I asked one of the sale people if they had a larger pack of the medication I was getting so I wouldn't have to buy several smaller packs. The sales person asks me why I wanted so much meds and I explained what happened. The next thing I know I've got 2 sales people asking me a bunch of questions, one of them even got on the phone to talk to their "fish expert". The conclusion they came to was that I got the bacterial infection because, I changed my water too frequently. I just looked at the girl with my mouth hanging open as she proceeded to tell me that if you change more than 10% of your water, more than once per month you are destroying all of your beneficial bacteria. Did you know that all of your beneficial bacteria lives in the water, yup, according to them it does, all your filter does is suck up the poo. She also told me that my tank was way overstocked which also contributed to the infection. I had 18 juveniles under 1.5" in a 75 gallon tank with filters turning over the tank just shy of 10x per hour.

I finally just looked at the girl and said, "I know what I'm doing, now do you have the medication in larger packs or not?", she said no, but that she has worked in LPS's for over 5 years and knew what was right for my tank. So I fired back that I had been keeping fish for over 10 years, and obviously knew more than her.

I was so mad, I've never been back to that shop. Ok, rant over.

 

[CFC]

I've been told that i change my water too frequently by the lfs before as well, i had to laugh.

I was looking at some new filter media which claimed to adsorb nitrates and asked the guy if he knew if it was any good or not, a short conversation followed and he was puzzled why i was worried about nitrates in a freshwater tank, so i explained that i keep stingrays and large catfish that can be sensative to nitrates and that because of the nature of their diet and the quality of London tapwater i had difficulties maintaining nitrates below 50ppm despite doing 40% water changes weekly. Straight away he told me that my problem was i was changing my water too frequently and that i should only do a small water change about once every 6 months to allow my tank to settle and then the filter would lower reduce the nitrates.
I couldnt help but burst out laughing and had to walk away.

 

[Straydum]

it would be nice if you had to have some qualifications to work in a lfs

 

[jakeroberts]

i must be lucking all my lfs are really good

 

[windhopper]

One of my lfs's told me when i first started out that i could keep: 1 male and 2 female bettas in a tank, with 2 male guppies and 3 female guppies, well my fav guppy had its tail ripped off! Was not impressed

And yesterday was in one and they were saying 2 goldfish could go in a biorb!

 

[rabbut]

This is an old thread, so probibly not too relivant now but since it's been digged up anyway...

it would be nice if you had to have some qualifications to work in a lfs

I'd dissagree. All the good LFS staff would be removed from their positions if you had to be qualifyed with a certificate or other piece of meaningless paper, myself included...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Bigbadbaz]

My sister has just sent me a text meaasge saying that her friend had been given a fish tank for valentines day. (alarm bells ringing?) A small fish she had in it had been sucked into filter and died so where could they get more fish from? I asked what size the tank was and what was in it. The reply was 17 litres and 2 goldfish. I am going to ask her which shop sold them it so I can go in and give them some advice..

 

[Gilli]

I think you have to be an idiot to work in most fish shops. I was also informed I changed my water too much by doing a 30% water change weekly. The guy in the fish shop said that was " way to much -we dont even do that here - once a month would be ample "!!!!

 

[Straydum]

This is an old thread, so probibly not too relivant now but since it's been digged up anyway...

it would be nice if you had to have some qualifications to work in a lfs

I'd dissagree. All the good LFS staff would be removed from their positions if you had to be qualifyed with a certificate or other piece of meaningless paper, myself included...

All the best
Rabbut

didn't mean it that way. i was thinking along the lines of personal fish keeping experience and such, not degrees or certs

 

[rabbut]

This is an old thread, so probibly not too relivant now but since it's been digged up anyway...

it would be nice if you had to have some qualifications to work in a lfs

I'd dissagree. All the good LFS staff would be removed from their positions if you had to be qualifyed with a certificate or other piece of meaningless paper, myself included...

All the best
Rabbut

didn't mean it that way. i was thinking along the lines of personal fish keeping experience and such, not degrees or certs

But then you make things complex. Most of the poor LFS staff have personal experience round here, but aren't greatly researched/knowlagable. On paper though, they are better qualifyed than most of the good ones, with like 25-30 years practice, vs the good ones with mebe 10... They also are rather confident and good at sounding like they know what they are on about...

Miss Wiggle may be suppried to know that one one on my old collegues with whom she spoke to alot at work before he left had never kept a fish before in his life untill about a year ago, but was probibly amongst the most popular staff member's we ever had, and was usualy giving good advice, purely through reading books...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[silverrabbit]

I was told by someone in a supposedly reputable LFS that my idea of cycling was completely wrong (she looked extremely confused when I said I added ammonia etc). I was told I had wated my time completely and would have to start from scratch, despite me telling her my water stats from a liquid kit - which were all as expected for a cycled tank/filter. She told me the best way to cycle was to leave the tank and filter running with NOTHING added to it (like ammonia or some fish food), and that the WATER would cycle itself.

Hmm.

A guy from the same shop also told me that I was too generous with my bettas, because they would be happier living in a pint glass

Oooh, and only the other day I was told by yet another "reputable" LFS that gouramis are livebearers, and that it was ridiculous that I thought a male was needed to facilitate the females releasing her fry.... must've been little alien bubbles coming out of my gourami then, cos she certainly ain't been letting any fry out.

 

[Night61]

i was told by the store owner that ottocats didn't eat algae.

 

[blodhi74]

i was told by the store owner that ottocats didn't eat algae.

 

[TropicDan]

Although, I do have a few great LFS, there is still many chains around. My first tank I bought was a 29g starter kit...it came with $15 credit for fish with the store. Not knowing too much at that time, I asked for some good community fish. Lets just say I came home with 2 iridescent sharks.