What's The Strangest, Most Incorrect Advice You've Received In

[e11cloud]

Hi! I was thinking about this while going to bed last night...about this silly advice I had gotten as a naive newby who didn't know the good from the bad. I had purchased some Oranda goldfish that I just absolutely loved. While purchasing them, I had seen an oranda that was very beautiful and a little bigger than the others, but he was swimming upside down due to swim bladder problems (which at the time of course, I didn't know). I had told the MANAGER, yes I did say manager, of the store that I liked the fish but didn't want to get it as maybe something was wrong with him. The manager replied with, "Oh, that's ok...you can go ahead and purchase the fish. When you get him home, gently grab him with your hand and burp him like a baby underwater. That will fix the problem. He just has a little bit of gas and this is normal for goldies." Since I was new to this, and he was a manager, I figured, ok he knows what he's talking about, and I got the fish. When I got him home and into the tank, I did as was suggested. He swam normally for a short while, (probably freaked out from my hand in there) then went back to swimming upside down. I took the fish back the next day, and got another fish as a replacement. But I thought that would be a funny story to share, and was wondering what other crazy advice, or even commonly made bad advice that is given, since this might help out a few newbies and give others a real laugh.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hear some shocking advice given in an lfs the other day. a customer said they're brand new filter had stopped working after only a week running on the tank....... the salesman told them they needed to replace the filter media WTF!!!! If the tanks only been running a week the media's not even gonna be cycled , let alone mature or ready for replacing. Obviously just didn't wanna help the poor bloke fix the filter and wanted a few quid in the till

 

[OohFeeshy]

The email I got from Hagen was pretty wacky...

Thank you for your recent email, the goldfish on the boxes are fancy goldfish and not the common species of goldfish that you are referring to. Fancy goldfish can grow up to 9cm long but this can take years and are more suited to aquariums than ponds as they are not as tolerant as common goldfish to extreme low water temperatures. We also ensure that our aquarium kits come with adequate filtration to help prevent the build of of toxins. Unfortunately many people still keep goldfish in just glass bowls without adequate filtration.

Mhmm... right... 9cm... and a 2.5" cube of sponge is adequate filtration for goldfish....

Although Tetra reccomends you don't buy their product... (fairly odd parents goldfish bowl)

We suggest that people keep the goldfish in an aquarium.

 

[jarcher1390]

i dont think ma lfs has never given me bad advise. ma friend said 1 of the guys named a fish wrong but every 1 makes mistakes thats the only thing ive heard

 

[sparky_555]

I dont really ask for advice from my lfs because i learn most of the things i know from here. but my lfs does have information cards above the tanks, explaining each fish in the tank. But in one tank that had a betta in, it said on the information a card that these fish do best by having 1 male to 2 females.
Thats the worst thing i've seen at my lfs.

 

[Lynden]

it said on the information a card that these fish do best by having 1 male to 2 females.
Thats the worst thing i've seen at my lfs.

What are you talking about? That card was correct...

 

[e11cloud]

No, male bettas should not ever be kept with a female betta. He will pester her and pester her until she's ripped to shreds if she doesn't spawn, and after spawning, she's in a lot of danger because his main concern is keeping her from the nest as many females will eat the eggs. Even if there are two females, it won't help. And of course, not with other males either. Females together is kind of debatable, depends on tank space and hiding space, when you introduce them and in how many numbers, etc.

 

[Captain Retardo]

At petsmart I asked a guy where I could find the driftwood, and he said it is bad to put real wood into the tank, he advised me to buy the fake wood (that costed like $65). I just went with it, but I ignored him...

Really, the only bad stores in my area are the Petcos and Petsmarts(only good for cheap hardgoods). Otherwise the Private owned LFS's are really good, always with healthier fish, and a much bigger variety.

 

[zedonepilot]

At petsmart I asked a guy where I could find the driftwood, and he said it is bad to put real wood into the tank, he advised me to buy the fake wood (that costed like $65). I just went with it, but I ignored him...

Really, the only bad stores in my area are the Petcos and Petsmarts(only good for cheap hardgoods). Otherwise the Private owned LFS's are really good, always with healthier fish, and a much bigger variety.

i recently showed my lfs the difference between the sexes of common livebearers, i kid you not !
its been up and running for 6 months now
he just bought them in in bags labled males / females
he couldnt even be botherd to find out till i struck up a conversation about them and he said he didnt know the diffrence
ummmm makes you think doesnt it
i now travel 14 miles to another fs compared to that one in my home town !

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

I have various local LFS in my area. Most give good advice, but I remember going into Pets@Home... and they refused to sell me more than 1 Cory.. because they are 'Algae Eaters' and should be kept in 1's or 2's only.

 

[Creature Seeker]

It wasn't advice, but once they sold me a black ghost knife for £2 becuase they didn't know what is was.

...

 

[iroc]

I saw a dead fish in a tank at the Lfs and asked the manager when he was gonna remove it, his answer " Oh the other fish like to play with the dead ones so I usally leave them in for awhile" SMH.....................

 

[CFC]

When asking about how well a nitrate adsorbing media worked the guy asked me why i wanted a nitrate adsorbing media for a freshwater tank, when i told him it was because i keep stingrays and was having trouble keeping the nitrate levels below 50ppm despite twice weekly water changes because of nitrate in the tapwater he told me that the cause of the problem was i was doing too many water changes and that if i cut them down to once a month the tank would settle down and the nitrates would go down of their own accord.

Needless to say i laughed at him and went else where.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Well it's true CFC, just got to get yourself some of those nice nitrate fairies the guy must have had

 

[confusion]

So, early on right after I bought my first tank, a 55G, I was learning the hard lesson of fish-in cycling. I found a few web forums and figured out things pretty quick and decided to try to ask my lfs for some gravel or filter media.

The lfs near me is a good sized, family owned place that has quite a bit of selection, though a bit dirty and unimpressive in appearance. Here's a rough transcript of what happened:
Me: Hi, I'm trying to get my new tank established and wanted to see if I can get or buy some used gravel or filter media from you.
Mr. lfs: ah, you're after the helpful bacteria?
Me: yep. Can you help me?
Mr. LFS: Sure I can, but you have to understand that bacteria doesn't live in gravel or filter media, they live in the water. What you need is some of our R/O water. It'll have everything you need to set up your tank. Just put about 5 gallons of this in and you'll be good to go.
{so at this point, he's already started filling a bucket}
Me: Umm, you know, I think I'll just do it the old fashioned way. But thanks anyhow...

And I left. So, the proposed solution to getting me bacteria was to give me completely pure RO water.... wow, just wow.


One that just happened on this weekend... I bought 2 juvi angel fish from Petsmart. I've been scoping out petsmarts looking for the one's that seem to keep the best care of their tanks. So, I bought 2 from them. I did a slow acclimation, with adding 1/2 cup of tank water every 15 minutes for about an hour. I released them after an hour into my 37G cube. One was pretty active, the other was drifting aimlessly. I knew he was going to die right away. He was dead by morning. I noticed that the other angel had a very light mucus all the way around it. I took him out and put him in my 10G quarentine and put in some pimafix and melafix. He was dead by morning. So, Sunday I took them back to petsmart. They do have a great return policy after all. I explained the situation to the employee for the exchange to be processed. I also took note that their angel tank was COMPLETELY EMPTY. She told me that they are not supposed to exchange angels that die in a tank smaller than a 20G (I think it what she said), because each angel needs 20G of water, and that was why my fish died. Especially the second one that died in QT. But, she did me a favor "just this once" and suggested that my hour long acclimation process isn't gentle enough - I need to perform a drip acclimation next time. Now I'm just venting. my apologies