This is a really interesting one!
I do not work in a fish shop but can sympathise with quite a few of the points.
Here is some of the stuff i disagree with:
Paul_MTS
1)can i have some discount
2)customers that think they know better
3)customers that take AGES over picking a certain fish, ok on koi but for goldfish there gonna change colour any way luv
1)What harm is there in asking for discount? If i am buying fish that i feel are maybe a little overpriced or if i am spending a lot of money in the shop why should that be annoying? If you dont ask you dont get!
2)Some customers DO know better! I have been in shops where i have pretended to know very little when buying fish and ended up with some real bargains. For example last saturday i called in a shop and saw a Heros appendiculatus not priced up so i asked "is that one of them severum fish? How much is it?" They returned and said yes it is a severum and it is £12.50, so i had it. Other shops are charging up to 10 times more for this fish!
How many times have i heard a shop employee telling an inexperienced fishkeeper a load of rubbish when it comes to what can live with what.
There is a saying that i go by and it is this:
Those who claim to know everything- know nothing. Those who listen gain great knowledge. Keeping fish is one great big learning curve, no matter how long you have kept them and whatever books you have read there is always something new to learn. I am continually learning more and more.
3)Why shouldn't i pick the fish i am paying for? I do not want the deformed one in my bag or the one that looks a little thin. If i am having a sexed pair thats what i want, especially if 2 fish have paired off in the shops tank. I am sorry to say Paul that you obviously know very little on goldfish if you think a goldfish is a goldfish is a goldfish and they all end up white.
bunjiweb
And yes Paul, I hate it when customers think they know best. Usually they are clearly wrong but if not i am quick to admit my mistakes. You usually find older men that think they know everything about the hobby and have been doing it for 30 years.... Yet they are still doing everything by the standards of old... "In My day" etc...
Sometimes if a senior fish keeper has a method that works for them then why should they have to change it because you tell them another way? This also applies to the answer above (number 2).
Jules H-T Very interesting post which I do agree with. I also take on board what DMan99 is saying. One thing we have got to remember is that if everyone kept fish and cared for them correctly the fish shops would eventually die out as all anyone would need would be dry goods.
Alot of "fish keepers" only go to buy more fish when there stock has died anyway or they want a different coloured fish.
I think there is a line that needs drawing between "fish keepers" and "aquarists keeping fish" and between "fish seller" and "aquarist selling fish".
Now before you think this is an attack on LFS it is not at all. Here is one of the things I hear from buyers that really gets my blood boiling. "I bought these fish from here the other day and 1 died the following day and another 3 are dieing now. What are you going to do about it? I think you should give me some to replace my losses."
I feel like saying "well what have you done about it when the first one died? Checked the water quality (tested)? Were there problems before you purchased more fish, had your current stock been dying?? When did you do your last water change? How much and how often are you feeding? What filteration do you have? etc etc.
And finally....
The Nemo issue....
I think that although the LFS staff and aquarists like myself are fed up with people wanting a Nemo, you must agree that this film has actually done some good in the promotion of the fish keeping hobby. I wonder how many of the people who ask about the Nemo's in the shop had ever been in an aquatic shop before? Possibly never! How many had thought about nicely coloured fish in a tank or thought fish keeping just refered to keeping a goldfish in a bowl.
So there are some benefits.
P.S. The shops I use as my local fish shops are not necessarily all that local but I know they have very good knowledge so I ask them for advice when i encounter problems or need advice.
it's a shame he got sold last week, the last big one isn't as agresive 
