Working

[nicky b]

Hey I are thinking about getting a job in a fish shop just because I love to be around and talk about the fish I love all day every day but I was thinking would I get fed up of being round them and talking about them all day and then coming home to them to ?

 

[mike455555]

good idea... although, would be willing to fish out dead fish all day long. unbox them to fine some are dead as well?

i wanted a job at my LFS as well (i might get one there to be honest, in a gap year (last year at collage)

it depends on how much you love fish. if you really love them that much and want to help people set up there tanks then go for it

 

[thereverendturtle]

I did it for five years, it was both a pleasure and a nightmare. My hobby became my job. After scrubbing tanks and doing water changes 40 hours a week. I lost interest in fish keeping for about 5 years. I now enjoy keeping them once again, I never lost interest in fish themselves, just the maintenance.

 

[creeker]

I worked retail fish for about 7 years, then worked wholesale as sales manager for a wholesaler (sells to fish stores) for another 5 years. I loved it. I got to see so many different types of fish, got great deals on the ones I bought,and tons of experience keeping all types of fish without having to buy them. I mean, what's better than working at something you love? Generally though, the pay is not great. Eventually I had to leave it for something more lucrative.

 

[micko]

Wouldn't fancy it myself. A fair few LFS's believe that a cycle is just leaving a tank with water, heater and a filter running for a few days is a cycle and won't change that opinion. Wouldn't sit well with me having to then go against what I believe in order to get money into the till. Selling fish that aren't compatable with each other too just because the person wants it and if you say no then you could be out of a job.
Would be entirely different I suppose if you owned the LFS but then again, there is so much more to deal with.

 

[minnnt]

LOL!! If i were you i would get a job in the Gibbiceps, Discus and Oscar section...

 

[minnnt]

Wouldn't fancy it myself. A fair few LFS's believe that a cycle is just leaving a tank with water, heater and a filter running for a few days is a cycle and won't change that opinion. Wouldn't sit well with me having to then go against what I believe in order to get money into the till. Selling fish that aren't compatable with each other too just because the person wants it and if you say no then you could be out of a job.
Would be entirely different I suppose if you owned the LFS but then again, there is so much more to deal with.

Very true matey, but if you owned your own LFS and stuck to everything we know is correct we would be closed in less than 6 months due to lack of people buying fish because we wouldn't sell them 10 guppies to keep with their Oscars.

 

[micko]

Exactly what I was meaning Minnnt. I know I definitely couldn't sell off fish that I knew were going to die very soon in that persons tank.

 

[minnnt]

Exactly. Don't get me wrong, alot of LFS are really good and have to rely on information given to them by the customer actually being correct. I wonder how many Oscars have been brought for a 100 litre tank after actually claiming it's 6 foot.

I think thereverandturtle said it perfectly. It would probably lead to losing interest in your own tanks at home after doing it all week. I know the last thing i want to do after mowing bowling greens all day is come home and cut my lawn. Rather like a bus mans holiday so to speak.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

I owned a little pet shop in a small village (extension of my hobby) and since I still had a day job..... my wife was my only employee...

At the same time, I was running the local branch of the SPCA (parttime and voluntarily) where my wife was also my sole assistant..... so... bottom line is, we knew all the "Bad animal" people in the village from our experiences at the SPCA and this inspired my wife NOT to sell anything live to these people.... excusing that whatever they are interested in is either not for sale or was already sold..... now.... on those grounds, how could I run a successful business???

 

[creeker]

I worked for five different owners over the years. All of them allowed me to have the final say on what was sold to whom. I always kept grown Oscars, Pacus, JD's, Texas Cichlids, Plecos, Tinfoil Barbs, Bala Sharks, etc. in the shop, so I could show people their eventual size. Aggressive fish were kept in one part of the fishroom, peaceful in another. Anybody buying a potential big/aggressive fish was questioned about it's homing. I think it's better to have people that know about fish selling them, so I hesitate discouraging a hobbyist that wants to get into this field. I mean, someone has to do it, why not someone knowledgeable. I talked to a worker at Petsmart recently (the biggest pet chain in the states with over 1,210 stores.) I asked her what did she do when someone wanted to buy an innappropriate fish for their tank, and she told me she would decline to sell it. I asked what if that person then went to the manager to complain, and she told me the manager would back her up because the company puts the pets welfare first over anything. She even knew about cycling a tank, although they do seem promote a lightly stocked fish in cycle.

 

[StandbySetting]

A jobs a job, you can't be picky what with the current economic climate, you'll be as lucky as hell to get a job in a pet store, if you get the opportunity, take it.

 

[MBOU]

Dont do it if there is a better paid job out there (not difficult!), you will end up HATING people, realising that 99% of customers have incurable stupidity and their kids are vile

Honestly... i wanted kids until i started working in retail.

Today i caught a woman chucking coins in our koi pond and i rushed outside to stop her and ask what she was doing... they were laughing because the ki were grabbing the money and trying to eat it! >.<

Not only that but she was standing her 3/4 year old kid on the narrow ledge of bricks on the edge on the pond..... a 7ft deep pond with ice around the edges... i mean honestly... what the heck!?

Im the one that has to go in if her kid falls in! How can anyone be so stupid?

Its just constand... signs saying "the pond section is now closed off until it warms up in the spring" with a huge plank of wood covering the entrance and a big 'workmen' sign thats about 1m square and I still have to keep going outside to kick people out after they pull the sign out the way to go in... and all i keep getting is "oh, i didnt realise..."

Drives me mad, i dont have fish at home atm and I am loving the break, it did get to the point where i would spend all day working and algae scrubbing and gravel cleaning and then go home and i really didnt want to do the work and i didnt enjoy it, i loved the fish but not th work.

Now i have had a break, i am seeing more exciting fish, its kind of changed my view, before it was all more.... 'i see a fish and buy it'. Was bargains and putting all the kinds of fish i liked in a tank and if they didnt go in, i got another tank... lol

Now I would go down the route of a Biotope or just a species tank, i would probably keep it small, i dont have the time or energy for big tanks, thought if i was going to do big, i would do big properly, i would love a 15ft+ tank lol... 15ft x 6ft x 6ft.

 

[nicky b]

micko and minnnt what you have to see Is LFS sell fish to anyone who what's to but them for a sale they don't care what tank or how much the person knows about them they just what to sell them and get them out they way, its all about money and the end of the day its business and if I worked in a fish shop and someone wanted to but a oscar or anything that got big I would ask them what tank they had and how big its was and if it was to small or crappy I would try and put them off in buying them I mean I got my self some oscars just being I love them they way they look and everything then when I looked about and read up about them I soon knew I got in to deep and I needed to go and but a bigger tank and so on that's why I am going to rehome my oscars after xmad because I did not know what I had at the time of buying them

 

[minnnt]

micko and minnnt what you have to see Is LFS sell fish to anyone who what's to but them for a sale they don't care what tank or how much the person knows about them they just what to sell them and get them out they way, its all about money and the end of the day its business and if I worked in a fish shop and someone wanted to but a oscar or anything that got big I would ask them what tank they had and how big its was and if it was to small or crappy I would try and put them off in buying them I mean I got my self some oscars just being I love them they way they look and everything then when I looked about and read up about them I soon knew I got in to deep and I needed to go and but a bigger tank and so on that's why I am going to rehome my oscars after xmad because I did not know what I had at the time of buying them