# Dumbest Fish Question You Were Ever Asked



## Bigsexybadguy (Mar 26, 2006)

Ok, some of us have spent hours working diligently in fish rooms for LFS. Myself, I worked at both Big Al's and then at P.J.'s.

One day while at P.J's, I was diligently planting the last shipment of real aquatic plants when a customer started to talk to me. She asked me about a billion questions, nothing out of the ordinary, until she asked the last question. 

After explaining patiently all about lighting and the whole relationship between live plants and fish her last question was:

"Interesting. How often do you have to water them?"

That question almost led to my first involuntary bowel movement, and I had to politely excuse myself to go into the back and bray like a donkey with laughter for the next 1/2 hour.

Anyone else with any other kind of story?

BSB


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

ROFL!! ohh geeze... i dont think i have ever had a question like that.


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Bigsexybadguy said:


> Ok, some of us have spent hours working diligently in fish rooms for LFS. Myself, I worked at both Big Al's and then at P.J.'s.
> 
> One day while at P.J's, I was diligently planting the last shipment of real aquatic plants when a customer started to talk to me. She asked me about a billion questions, nothing out of the ordinary, until she asked the last question.
> 
> ...


That's fantastic. I don't think I have one quite like that. I believe it though... Some wacko's out there.

The closest I can come is the woman who, when Harold was trying to explain how hard seahorses are to care for, told him not to worry "I grew up on a farm with real horses, how different can it be?"

I had someone ask me once if fish can be potty trained to go in one corner so cleanup is easier... but its not 'how do I water something that's underwater'...


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

I like the hamster one you told me Pablo!


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Chris Stewart said:


> I like the hamster one you told me Pablo!


Ya. That guy was level headed too... wasn't a wacko or anything...

For those who don't know- someone asked me if a hamster could be kept on an 'island' made of styro, etc, in a large FW aquarium...


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## Shattered (Feb 13, 2008)

Wow, those are all pretty good. I've got nothing aquarium related yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


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## kweenshaker (Mar 11, 2006)

Pablo said:


> someone asked me if a hamster could be kept on an 'island' made of styro, etc, in a large FW aquarium...


haha that's different!! I actually know someone who set up part of a habitrail system so that it went under water in his fish tank.....I think he had it like that for a couple months, but algae kept growing on it so he could never see his hamster!! (the hamster actually preferred the underwater bits - maybe pretending that he was in the channel tunnel on the way to France? LOL)


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

kweenshaker said:


> haha that's different!! I actually know someone who set up part of a habitrail system so that it went under water in his fish tank.....I think he had it like that for a couple months, but algae kept growing on it so he could never see his hamster!! (the hamster actually preferred the underwater bits - maybe pretending that he was in the channel tunnel on the way to France? LOL)


Hamsters actually burrow in the desert in the wild so he likely enjoyed it


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

Pablo ought to change his name to David Attenborough


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Unlike David Attenborough, I have poor people skills  
I do have a rediculously massive repository of animal factoids though...

Wanna know how the first Hamsters came into the hobby from Syria? I know the story. (I'm not going to break into it but this is the kind of insanity Im dealing with here)


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## Katalyst (Jul 29, 2007)

I sell to a few local Big Al's and last summer brought in a large order of about 300 coloured apple snails. A woman in the store took one look at them and accused me of painting their shells & injecting their bodies with ink to make them colourful. I tried to explain that they were not painted nor were they dyed that the shells were actually tranparent and the colour of their bodies shines through etc. etc. 

Unfortunately the woman would hear none of what I was saying and too busy going absolutely ballistic on me. The store manager even tried to interject and explain to her as well. I don't mind when people are passionate about animals and their care but it also helps when ranting and raving about a specific topic to have an actual idea of what you are talking about.

I'll tell you this if I had to paint all of the new shell growth, inject their bodies with ink and paint their flourescent orange markings on their faces, they'd cost a heck of a lot more then $6-8  

It wasn't really a question but to date one of the silliest things I've heard.


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

ya thats pretty rediculous.

I once was just sort of walking around a PJ's pet center I think waiting for a movie to start... and this young couple walks in, peeved off.

They're waiting for someone to serve them, standing in the fish section, and I can hear the lady going on about how they sold her a salt water fish, but she didn't know it was salt water when she bought it, and when she got it home it died- and the people at the store are idiots because (and I quote) "They're so stupid don't they know they're supposed to sell you the salt WITH the fish? I mean its a salt water fish."

Niice.

Have I ever told you guys about the lady who bought 10 goldfish and an aquaclear 110- but no tank? And spent several minutes explaining to the guy who worked there that, surely, if a filter makes a clean tank, a filter makes a cleaner filter, and could one not just run it into itself...


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## gunnerx (Mar 20, 2008)

My funniest story is still the time when I went to Big Al's in Vaughn to get some small cherry barbs at 3 for $2.99. Two weeks before I bought 6 Blue Gouramis which were rather small at 2 for $1.99. Well, my daughter wanted to be with me so I was carrying her around looking at the fishes and left my wife to talk to the sales person. When I walked back to where the cherry barbs was at, I saw the guy there with my wife and she promptly waved me over and told the guy to talk to me.

The guy then seriously told me that "These Cherry Barbs are NOT feeders! They should not be fed to the Gouramis!". I had to pause for a bit trying to take in what he had said then told him that the Gouramis were not that big.


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

I once had a customer ask for a large venustus from an assorted African cichlid tank. He walked away (which wasn't uncommon) and returned as I was bagging the fish. He produced a 1 gallon goldfish death camp and asked me to make sure that there was enough water in the bag to fill the bowl.

He then lost his temper when I told him I couldn't sell him the fish as it would die within in the day. He informed me that it was for a trade show display and he only needed it for a day anyway. He then told me I was an idiot and I needed to learn a little bit about customer service. 


I had another guy who asked me if he could ask me a really stupid question. 'Fire away', I said. 
'Could I put angelfish in with turtles?' he asked.
I replied that it was a bad idea as the turtles would eat the angelfish.
'Well, what if I put muzzles on the turtles?'
I said, as gently as I could, that it wasn't a solution and that the turtles eating their tankmates was only part of the overall problem.
He then freaked out and said I was being sarcastic and all he wanted was a straight answer and perhaps I had a problem with him because he was short.
It had been a long day. I fired back that my problem with him wasn't that he was short, it was that he was a moron.

Perhaps I did have some issues with customer service.


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

Pablo said:


> Unlike David Attenborough, I have poor people skills
> I do have a rediculously massive repository of animal factoids though...
> 
> Wanna know how the first Hamsters came into the hobby from Syria? I know the story. (I'm not going to break into it but this is the kind of insanity Im dealing with here)


believe it or not, i am actually pretty interested in that sorta thing. i love looking at the domestication of animals through an anthropological point of view.


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Google the story. Interesting stuff. EVERY golden hamster in the world comes from like one pair of hamsters that were captured in Syria. Its one of the most inbred animals in the world


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

aside from Alabamians, of coure.

(jj, have family from the south.)


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Bob's your uncle. And if you're from Alabama chances are he's your pappy too


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

holy hell!

" Recent genetic studies involving Mitochondrial DNA have confirmed that all domestic golden hamsters are descended from one female."

---Hochman B, Ferreira LM, Vilas Bôas FC, Mariano M. Experimental model in hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) to study heterologous graft of scars and cutaneous diseases in plastic surgery. Acta Cir Bras [serial online] 2004 Vol 19 Special Edition


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Yup. That's probably why domestic hamsters are so weak and disease prone


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