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

[Wisperian]

Ah... my lfs once told me that all cichlids were livebearers and that bettas like being kept together 1 male to 1 female. They actually DID this and I told him it was wrong but he said Oh no, they like it like that he's just playing with her. They actually might breed.

 

[dgwebster]

my awful LFS (but the primary one in Dundee, all those in the area know who I am talking about) sold my sister:

a 2 foot 15 gallon tank, with light heat and filter. the light and heater are sufficient but the filter was not quite so good, a little under filtering IMO.

So after filling with water and the "special additive" and leaving for two weeks , it was now rady to stock. back to the store she went.

this is what they gave her on the first trip:

2 angel fish.
10 neon tetras!
two weeks later, back to the store for more.

3 RTBS!
4 Dwarf Gouramis

I was too young and had little interest in the subject at the time to understand this, but when I first started this hobby in December and got books etc and joined this forum, I was suddenly disgusted.

The neons with the angel fish? ok that sometimes works for people.

The 3 RTBS? I would not even put them in on their own in a tank that size.

unsurprisingly, the RTBS bullied each other till there was only one left, which then terrorised the entire tank till there was him and a neon left. oddly, the neon was the last surviving fish, but my sister was put off the hobby all together. she let it see its natural end out and packed up the tank.

 

[Rediahs]

Bettas "don't really jump", and "enjoy small containers".

Oh and anywhere I go, if they find out I'm keeping my bettas in 3.5 gallons each, they look puzzled and go "Why don't you keep them in one of the cute little containers?" Those little containers that are "betta homes" are about a quart in size. This is usually the ONLY thing they sell for a betta to stay in. You know, the tiny plastic things with colourful lids that say "perfect for a betta!"

 

[- Jez -]

I've not been told anything too shocking but I can tell that the staff at one of the LFS's in my area probably aren't fishkeeping enthusiasts (unless they're disguised as bored teenagers). I remember being a bit bemused by the guy who sold me my tank telling me that it was better to use plastic plants than real ones - I must've looked like some kid buying a tank on a whim and not somebody who was prepared to take the whole hobby seriously.

He also gave me the classic "Just fill it up with water and after a week, you can put fish in" line. I knew it was too good to be true. A month and a half later and I'm still cycling, but hey I haven't killed anything. I mean, I haven't actually got anything to kill, but y'know. Taking no chances.

The worst thing I ever saw was actually at the only place I'd consider buying fish from, a branch of Pets@Home. A swordtail had jumped ship and met a sticky end on the shop floor, which was bad enough but it'd obviously been there a while because it was er, nice and crispy, shall we say. It was only discovered when a small child picked it up and handed it to the guy working there. I mean, eww!

 

[guppymonkey]

I work at a locally owned pet store (not one of those chain stores). I have heard some amazing stories that were made up by my fellow coworkers (even though I am in charge of the fish section). One guy started to tell people that salt softened water. He used salt in his water softener so he decided that salt would naturally soften water. I double checked here asking around because I was pretty sure salt does pretty much nothing to the softness or hardness of the water unless it has other things in it like marine salt. Another employee told people that cichlids are brackish water, all cichlids including discus. Another employee sold a Yellow Tang (salt water) for a freshwater tank! Our manager refuses to believe that nitrates are poisonous. She says that they only matter in salt water tanks. Even after I printed off papers about nitrate poisoning and how even in low amounts it can effect health. Sometimes I think I would be better off just finding a new job, its sooooooooooo frustrating to try to teach people the correct way and then have my own store try to tell me that I am making things up! LOL

 

[moeldner]

I went to a small store near my parents place once over a loudspeaker, it was playing directions for newbies for keeping fish (instead of an instore radio).

I must say, it was mostly correct, but it was very incorrect with regards to setting the tank up initially. It took the old "fill it and leave it 2 days beofre adding fish" approach. It did however say only 1-2 fish initially,t hen slowly increase stock over a period of weeks/months.

The other store near my parents had them convinced that goldfish were OK in a tropical tank with dwarf gouramis, silver sharks and guppies. They also were not going to honour the warranty on the tank they sold my parents either after they failed to explain properly how to maintain it (the heater was fixed int he lid, and cracked - can't be replaced without replacing the lid as it is all wired in to the same transformer). I walked out with a new lid in a very short time frame

 

[invader]

I have really horrible things that I have heard, both at work (I work at PetSupermarket) and while going to other fish stores.

1. At Petland once, my boyfriend and I were looking at the fish and I overheard the guy working there talking to a customer about Arrowanas. He told the customer that they get 3 feet long, but if it gets too big for your tank, you could just throw it in a lake!

I live in Florida and this is why we have so many bans on fish... next ones that are going to be illegal are common plecos and arrowanas...

2. While I was at work, a customer was interested in an Albino Bicher Eel. I didn't sell it to him, because he wanted to put it in a brackish tank. Later, I told my Manager and Coworkers that the guy wanted to put it in his brackish tank and they said "All fish can be converted to brackish water!"

Sigh.

 

[Xebadir]

My LFS gives good advice, but there is one thing that frustrates me alot:

They have a plague of apstia in their main marine tank, which they wont inject, despite otherwise keeping a great enviroment: the reason being: it looks pretty *smacks head against wall*


Another store that i no longer go to told me that I could have an oscar (3 inches size) and put it in with any fish, especially 20 or more neon tetras And all that for a question on what I could keep in a 20 gallon . Note they also said that oscars need friends.

 

[Shelly0518]

I have been given loads of bad advice but here is my favorite. My first tank I got 6 tetras for a 55 US gallon tank (before I knew about the fishless cycle) and was just using dipstick testers for the nitrates and I was getting 40-80 ppm of nitrates and water changes were not helping. The manager told me that I didn't have enough gravel and I said I have about 2 inches of gravel. He said "Oh no, you need at least 6-8 inches of gravel, that will lower your nitrates" 8 inches of gravel in a tank that is 19 inches high, what a hoot. I switched to a 2 bottle nitrate tester and have less than 20ppm of nitrates.

 

[afireinside]

I wish there was awesome. I've always gotten good advise from everywhere I go... cept walmart.

 

[gizmo001i]

My LFS has always given me good advice. It is owned by a married couple, he has kept fish for years and she is a qualified marine biologist so they beoth know what they are talking about. But a friend of mine went to a different shop with his daughter as she wanted to start keeping fish. She was sold a 20 gallon tank and told that she could keep 40 fish in the tank and that it didn't matter what fish they were. When I spoke to then, they were cycling the tank with 20 fish in it and were planning on getting another 20 at a later date. Suffice to say, I put them right and they complained to the shop in question.

 

[kimmers318]

I think the worst advice/purchase I experienced at a store was when I wanted to buy clown loaches. I currently had only a 10 gal running, was cycling my 64 gal, and hubby was working on setting up his 90 gal, so I was explaining to the employee that I wanted the clown loaches now since they had some nice looking little ones, did have bigger tanks for them for the future (not the usual, will purchase bigger tanks later if need be), and having read clown loaches liked snails was looking forward to trimming the snail population. He talked me out of purchasing the clown loaches because having them in a 10 gal for even a couple of weeks would be too hard on them (they were maybe 1 1/2 inches at the time) and instead told me that dwarf puffers make great snail eaters. It would stay small, keep the snails in check and were good community fish! Missy did great.....until the snails were gone....then she started nipping all of my other fish like crazy. Never mentioned that dwarfpuffers don't generally eat flake or any of the other "usual" food fed to tropical fish. I quickly separated her and started researching...which led to even more research and finding wonderful forums such as this one. Now Missy is one of my favorites, and shares a 10 gal with Lucy and Gizmo, 2 other dwarf puffers and is happy as can be. So, all's well that ends well, but I hate to think of all of the other dwarf puffers sold to unsuspecting owners!

 

[tetraman]

A high school clerk in my LFS told me I couldn't put any salt in a freshwater tank. Ha! She also couldn't sex platys.

 

[catxx]

the best, well worst, story i heard was from my LFS about a new worker, who had sold a large frog (i don't know what kind) a betta and some neons for someones 10 gallon...apparently the lady came back a day later to ask why the frog had eaten the betta....

 

[deni]

When we were newbies my husband and I were told that the inch-long SAEs in our lfs 'won't get much bigger' . . . A few weeks later the two we bought were about three times that size and we now do our own research before buying anything!