Ugh! Such Bad Advice!

[TylerFerretLord]

3)ro water is bad for fish

Pure RO water is bad for fish.

 

[Ally555]

I got told that CAE are peaceful and would be fine in a 30 litre tank!!! I don't even what to know how that would have turned out.

 

[joecoral]

So I fired back that I had been keeping fish for over 10 years, and obviously knew more than her.

Whilst in this case it is obvious you knew more than the girl, it does get really annoying when customers tell you to your face they know more than you, when it is very apparent its not true, and won't listed to anything other than what they think.
One occasion spring to mind whilst I was working in an LFS, a woman came in, she had bought 6 standard goldfish (from another shop, not us) and put them in an unfiltered, un-dechlorinated 2ft tank, and unsurprisingly they all died quite quickly afterwards. When I attempted to explain the many ways she had gone wrong and how she should have done things, she merely snapped back "I've been keeping fish younger than you've been alive young man, I think I know more about this than you do", and when I tried to reason with her she just turned around and stormed out.

 

[rabbut]

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...

no i knew he didn't have his own tanks, but you just had to look at things like his planted display tank to know he could do it! and likewise from my experience his advice was usually spot on.

Aye, his knowlage was textbook most of the time and accurate.

As someone has said already, pure RO is bad for fish, so one person's "poor advice" isn't actually that poor If you are remineralising it or using it mixed with tap water, it isn't too bad, but it is more expencive than the plain tap water those fish would likely prefur...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[jonny_dw]

I was told a malawi was a community fish and would be fine with neons

My cousin was told she could keep 2 goldfish in a 10 litre (yes 10 litre) bowl with no filtration etc fine, needless to say they died regardless of how much I tried to save them

 

[matchstickman47]

sorry but i still cant believ that guy said you can keep two male bettas together

i find this topic funny because

when i first strated keeping fish it was the people who told me i couldn't have the realy pretty fish i didnt like but now seeing this thread it sort of makes me respect them i didnt think about it that way that one guy who said it wouldnt be wise to get six goldfish was right i obv know this now and laught at how much i didnt like that man but i was only about 12 years old lol
hahaha it was funny cause when the guy said to them people they could have two male bettas ( knowing they inly had one tank) they said they would purchase .... he wnt off to get em a bag and i said to the people i wouldnt get two if i were you..lol.. when the guy came back they only bought one

my good fishy deed was done

 

[treefella83]

i cant remember when i had bad advice but when searching around the some of my local aquatic shops i hear staff talking to customers and several times ive had to but in and say sorry but no no way!
one of the best ones is a young couple buying 5 pangasius sutchi to add some life to thier 3 ft tank, they were not even asked how big the tank was.
a local pet store chain not too far from me will ask you about your tank and your fish and with that imformation written down they make you sign the piece of paper before you can purchase any new fish to go into that tank, now this is a good idea but the young lad serving me said that he is new to fish keeping and did not know anything about the list of fish names i had just given him and could not even find the fish i was about to purchase.
on a good note if any one lives up near the bishop auckland area try and visit chilton aquatics the shop is not huge but they are well stocked with clean tanks and a good range of odd ball and rare fish and if its not in stock chances are they can get it for you but most of all they do know what they are talking about as they are fish breeders them selves and rather than selling anything to get money in the till they will talk about the fish you have already and point you in the direction of the fish that are siutable. nice people

 

[Inchyally]

5) It's perfectly ok to have a Rainbow Shark, a Red Tail Shark and an Albino Shark all in the same tank together!! (oh what an expensive mistake this was - ended up having to buy 2 new tanks to separate them).

I got the same advice myself! And I didn't know so I too bought an albino and red tail shark.... that didn't last long, albino died from stress in 2 weeks.