# Fish Store Workers Say the Darndest Things



## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

What is the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard a fish store worker say?


----------



## szar (Apr 8, 2010)

How ebjd are terrors so aggressive will kill anything, then saw it being spooked by a freaking guppy.


----------



## Holidays (Apr 18, 2010)

szar said:


> How ebjd are terrors so aggressive will kill anything, then saw it being spooked by a freaking guppy.


never mind need to read eheh


----------



## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

Big Al's North York employees...enough said


----------



## fishclubgirl (Mar 4, 2010)

I was in one lfs and overheard the employee ask the customer if her tank was "stable". She replied with "yes, it's sitting on a desk". I had to walk away!!!


----------



## Jsu (Dec 4, 2009)

fishclubgirl said:


> I was in one lfs and overheard the employee ask the customer if her tank was "stable". She replied with "yes, it's sitting on a desk". I had to walk away!!!


Then the Employee ask, " Well, is your desk "stable"."


----------



## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

fishclubgirl said:


> I was in one lfs and overheard the employee ask the customer if her tank was "stable". She replied with "yes, it's sitting on a desk". I had to walk away!!!


ROFL!!! ahhhh.. too funny!


----------



## harana (Jul 9, 2010)

Young guy at a Big Al's tried to refuse to sell me giant danios to put in my Tanganyikan tank whilst awaiting a shipment of cyps to fufil the same purpose... I had to explain the concept of dither fish... Didn't seem to get it.....


----------



## Holidays (Apr 18, 2010)

harana said:


> Young guy at a Big Al's tried to refuse to sell me giant danios to put in my Tanganyikan tank whilst awaiting a shipment of cyps to fufil the same purpose... I had to explain the concept of dither fish... Didn't seem to get it.....


whats in the tank frontosas?


----------



## GuppiesAndBetta (Jul 27, 2009)

One guy at Big Als NY told me not to eat shark fin soup because of the procedure of killing the shark and dumping it back into the ocean because I am asian.


----------



## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

My most ridiculous was:
"You need to buy 2 or 3 of them, or they'll be lonely" from an employee at Lucky's who was talking about MAP TURTLES.


----------



## vaporize (Apr 10, 2006)

At Lucky's:

Customer: "My new angel fish always face the powerhead and have current blow into their mouth, then they die a week later"

Lucky: "Yes, alot of salt water fish love to blow water"


----------



## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

vaporize said:


> At Lucky's:
> 
> Customer: "My new angel fish always face the powerhead and have current blow into their mouth, then they die a week later"
> 
> Lucky: "Yes, alot of salt water fish love to blow water"


Don't put them in fresh water then. lol


----------



## fishclubgirl (Mar 4, 2010)

I agree that there's many funny things that lfs workers say but wanted to add some support for them. They don't make an easy living, yet are expected to be "experts". After 35 years of fishkeeping, I'm sure that I would say plenty of "mistakes" too and I always make it clear that I'm no expert. So take it easy on them and get your advice from other sources too.


----------



## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

fishclubgirl said:


> I agree that there's many funny things that lfs workers say but wanted to add some support for them. They don't make an easy living, yet are expected to be "experts". After 35 years of fishkeeping, I'm sure that I would say plenty of "mistakes" too and I always make it clear that I'm no expert. So take it easy on them and get your advice from other sources too.


Yes, of course we can't generalize ALL workers like that. People do have their rough days. But at the same time, it is up to the store to hire knowledgable employees. You can simply do this by hiring a group like: 2 people who specialize in cichlids (different types), 1 who specialize in invertebrates, 1 in livebearers and egg layers such as neon tetras, and one in algae-eater such as otos and plecos. Usually though, someone who knows invertebrates will also know about algae-eaters such as otos, as otos and shrimp make good tankmates.


----------



## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

Joeee said:


> Yes, of course we can't generalize ALL workers like that. People do have their rough days. But at the same time, it is up to the store to hire knowledgable employees. You can simply do this by hiring a group like: 2 people who specialize in cichlids (different types), 1 who specialize in invertebrates, 1 in livebearers and egg layers such as neon tetras, and one in algae-eater such as otos and plecos. Usually though, someone who knows invertebrates will also know about algae-eaters such as otos, as otos and shrimp make good tankmates.


Not only is this an over-generalization, but how is the owner supposed to schedule the group to work all at the same time? How many people will you need to hire to have a staff member that specializes in cichlids on the clock at all times? This isn't feasible. Its ultimately the aquariast's responsibility to educate themselves on their own purchases.


----------



## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I never bs'd anyone when I worked at an LFS. For example.. I don't know squat about cichlids and if we didn't have anyone in at the time who didn't know I would just find their hours and let the customer know when they would be in. 

I did loose a sale but I just couldn't do it.. LOL I am also horrible at upselling.. I wont sell you some stupid jug of snake oil just to make my sales better.

My sales were never as big as they could have been.. >.>


----------



## harana (Jul 9, 2010)

Holidays said:


> whats in the tank frontosas?


Nah... Julies, Calvus, Brichardi and some synos


----------



## fishclubgirl (Mar 4, 2010)

Ciddian said:


> I never bs'd anyone when I worked at an LFS. For example.. I don't know squat about cichlids and if we didn't have anyone in at the time who didn't know I would just find their hours and let the customer know when they would be in.
> 
> I did loose a sale but I just couldn't do it.. LOL I am also horrible at upselling.. I wont sell you some stupid jug of snake oil just to make my sales better.
> 
> My sales were never as big as they could have been.. >.>


Excellent point as they are salespeople too!! Also there are opinions and there's facts. Until I see something scientifically proven, it's just an opinion and we're all entitled our own. As for some of the staff at the lfs, they can be using their or someone else's opinions and have never seen a staff member grab a fish book or the internet. Back to the "overheard at the lfs", was picking up something and have the young gentlemen tell me that plecos eat plants. Even though I've kept fish longer than he's alive, I also knew the value of not arguing with him. However later...... was sending fish home with a friend and was in a hurry. Of course, he shows up to help. Eyes bugged out when I pulled out breather bags and explained how they work. Suspect he'll treat me differently from now on,lol!!


----------



## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

Darkside said:


> how is the owner supposed to schedule the group to work all at the same time?


The same way they schedule the cashiers to work as at the same time as janitors and sales associates.



Darkside said:


> How many people will you need to hire to have a staff member that specializes in cichlids on the clock at all times? This isn't feasible


You immediately beg the question by saying that you will have to hire a lot of people just to have one person that knows a lot about cichlids. In reality, you wouldn't hire 10 people and hope that one knows about cichlids, you would obviously have preliminary interviews and final interviews. The people who don't know anything about fish at all can be easily weeded out during preliminary interviews.



Darkside said:


> Its ultimately the aquariast's responsibility to educate themselves on their own purchases.


It is, however we akk jniw that it happens more often than preferable that the LFS worker is the avenue to this "knowledge".


----------



## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

Joeee said:


> The same way they schedule the cashiers to work as at the same time as janitors and sales associates.
> 
> You immediately beg the question by saying that you will have to hire a lot of people just to have one person that knows a lot about cichlids. In reality, you wouldn't hire 10 people and hope that one knows about cichlids, you would obviously have preliminary interviews and final interviews. The people who don't know anything about fish at all can be easily weeded out during preliminary interviews.
> 
> It is, however we akk jniw that it happens more often than preferable that the LFS worker is the avenue to this "knowledge".


What I meant is that you'll have to hire more than 1 individual who knows about cichlids to make it feasible. You'll probably need to hire at least 3 people in every category to make sure that the staff is well equipped to handle all the questions posed by customers during business hours. No one is going to work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day at a fish store. People will need time off. That and you have to consider peak times and how many employees you need on the floor at a given time of day. Fish stores conduct more business on weekends and after the 9:00-5:00 gets out. This is why its not feasible to hire so many specialists. For half of the day they'll be sitting around with little to do, eating into the overhead.


----------



## sugarglidder (Mar 26, 2010)

Ive been at a LFS!! not saying the large store here in kitchener. but I had an employee ask me to help a customer with a issue they had!! of course I dont mind!! 

the most I hate about LFS is the darn up selling!! selling something a poor helpless new hobbiest that doesnt relize he or she doesnt really need it!! like a $400 canister filter when a $200 canister filter would be fine. as buy a store made product instead of a better quality product because they know they make more money on it then the name brand. water conditioners!!!!!! 

I also had a friend buy the finding nemo fish!! and the store sold them the tank, salt, sand, light!! and get this!! the fish all in the same day and said you should have no problem!!! SHOULD, that's crap!! but how do you police this!! you cant! you have to trust in that the company has done its best to screen out the crappy employees!!


I will say the large LFS in kitchener is now one of the best ones I have been to in a long time. they hire people in the hobby and much more knowledgable people!!! I apprieciate that for sure!!!


dont get me started on the united states employees!! I had one tell me where to buy the fish cheaper then his store and gave me the wholesalers phone number!! LOL wait a go petco!!! lol


thanks for looking


john


----------



## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

What kind of "expert" (at anything) works for $10 an hour? A store will hire someone with retail experience over someone with fish experience.


----------



## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

BillD said:


> What kind of "expert" (at anything) works for $10 an hour? A store will hire someone with retail experience over someone with fish experience.


Bang on.

The only experts at these big fish stores are the managers, and even then the term "expert" should often times be used loosely.


----------



## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

It is true that what I proposed is flawed and not feasible, however a similar system is the only way in which speaking to fish store employees can really be considered a reliable avenue to becoming educated about what you are raising.



BillD said:


> A store will hire someone with retail experience over someone with fish experience.


That is, on the bulleye, 100% true. I don't see why someone with retail experience is superimposed to fish experience. A lot of aquarists, such as the ones on these forums are very nice and like to teach or at least try to teach people how to setup a tank. I personally think the aquarist's passion for their fish, invertebrates, or whatever they have is what would drive them to speak to a customer to help them and the salesperson is driven to simply sell a product. The problem here arises in several of the larger chain stores, at least at some locations [cough] Big Al's [cough], where they are too preoccupied with changing the water or watching the game to help customers. It brings the "I just want to get the job done" attitude out of a person and not the "I'll help someone even if it interupts whatever I'm doing because I want to". It also seems wiser to hire someone with a passion for fish, you know that they'll most likely be happier and therefore bring a positive attitude to the team. I'm not a business person but I'm almost certain that this has business ethics and business implications, a salesperson would sell someone ignorant something that they don't need while someone with the passion with fish would probably tell someone to not buy anything at all.


sugarglidder said:


> I also had a friend buy the finding nemo fish!! and the store sold them the tank, salt, sand, light!! and get this!! the fish all in the same day and said you should have no problem!!! SHOULD, that's crap!! but how do you police this!! you cant! you have to trust in that the company has done its best to screen out the crappy employees!!


The thing about clownfish is that Big Al's Mississauga has one in a FIVE GALLON on display. I'm not a saltwater person, but I know that they need more than five gallons.



sugarglidder said:


> dont get me started on the united states employees!! I had one tell me where to buy the fish cheaper then his store and gave me the wholesalers phone number!! LOL wait a go petco!!! lol


I've been told by people at PetSmart to buy from somewhere else or to go buy somewhere else. I've just never been given the number. I've also been told by some of the employees about how they marked some of the prices wrongly so it's severely cheaper. Like 1G of pond speed-cycling thing for $20 when it was actually $50.


----------



## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Like I said before.. The people who do actually know what they are talking about don't last long. You don't have to be an older person to know something about fish, lots of young students and teens need to get their foot in the door and a LFS is a great place to start.

But if you have low sales, you are out the door. No matter how much people and customers appreciate your advice and experience. (for most stores)

I've found this is true most of the time in bigger stores. You might have one fish guy who knows all of his stuff but is low on sales. Your manager might know how great you are because of the good comments he gets from customers. However... Head office only see's the dollar value and it will catch up with you.

So... the good LFS employee is faced with a problem. Does he or she upsell or send fish out with new tanks the same day or bite the bullet and get fired from their job? 

You need the cash, going to collage... you want to do well. 

I don't tend to be so critical of students or younger people staffed at a LFS.

And yes.. They do fire you for low sales, it sucks..


----------



## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

I've over heard staff telling people that Oscars will stay small as long as you keep them in small tanks.

I've heard someone tell a customer that if they just add twice the recommended amount of Prime to their water the tank will be cycled and ready for fish by the end of the week. 

30 years ago, shortly after getting my first 10 gal tank, a lfs sold me 2 Jewel cichlids, a male and female, for my little fledgling community tank fully ware of what I had in the tank. On the upside it started a life long relationship with cichlids. 

I'll tell you what has irritated me the most over the years though is store staff telling me what I can not do and in some cases getting down right argumentative about it. I certainly agree that I've heard and experienced some crazy stuff at lfs's but in their defense it is pretty much impossible to both please clients expectations price wise and to hire a knowledgeable staff. It is pretty much a one or the other thing.

I've owned a couple of retail stores and my experience is the ones that whine the most are often the same ones that are the quickest to buy it online so to stay in business you are best off to try and keep the price competitive. 

I also see many of my peers act offended that someone would talk down to them when they are "obviously experts themselves" and then seen those same people later get upset that the store failed to tell them something. 

Retail is a losing battle most of the time. When I owned the computer shops my fav saying was "this would be a great business if it wasn't for the customers" .... well that and "your not a professional until you know enough to fully understand how little you know".

Mind you the forums are not much better. Everyone is an expert online and yet 75% of everything I read verges on being crap in some form or another.


----------



## vaporize (Apr 10, 2006)

sugarglidder said:


> dont get me started on the united states employees!! I had one tell me where to buy the fish cheaper then his store and gave me the wholesalers phone number!! LOL wait a go petco!!! lol


John, in your case, the person might just know you are in the industry and doing you a favour


----------



## Cory (May 2, 2008)

My fiance and I had a good laugh at Big Al's NY when we overheard an employee (not a teenaged one either) telling someone an oscar we'd just seen that was clearly not well was, "just stressed and sleeping but would be fine." I've heard many instances of misidentified fish, or fish being described as aggressive when they are docile etc. I've asked for specific numbers of males and females and been asked to sex them myself when the fish should have been sexable to anyone with a basic knowledge of fish. I was once interrogated when I brought back two fish that were doa from Big Al's NY until I had to just stop the guy and say that I had dozens of tanks under my helm with thriving, healthy fish and that I knew what I was talking about. He still insisted on testing my water, and that was the last time I bought fish there. 

I also overheard a guy at NY talking about ponds too and I don't remember what he was saying at the time to the customers (who apparently loved this one employee) but I wanted to jump in and just shout NO NO NO WRONG BAD! I've never been the type to jump in at stores though and I had frozen food and a hungry fiance with me so I let it be. All I remember was thinking that he couldn't possibly be saying it.. but he was!

With respect to some of what was being said before, I don't expect a lfs to be staffed at all times with experts on all things naturally, but at the same time if someone doesn't know what they're talking about I expect them not to act as though they do. It's bad enough when you're in a place like BA that already has lots of mislabeled fish and is rife with disease and you've got little tits spewing out advice that can actually make peoples' experience in the hobby so bad they end up leaving it. Point and case the customer I just moved a tank for. Found out when it was time to re-fill the tank that he'd been sold African cichlid water conditioner as water dechlorinator and had been using it as such for a long time. As a result when he was moving a holding female fish to try out saving the babies, the whole ordeal ended up with her dying and his family being very unhappy about it. Oh, not to mention that when I first met him he was under the impression that African cichlids, in the presence of a female African of any species will fight endlessly to the death. 

I'd probably have fewer satisfied customers if it weren't for the people working at these stores though so I guess I can't complain.


----------



## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

Ciddian said:


> You don't have to be an older person to know something about fish, lots of young students and teens need to get their foot in the door and a LFS is a great place to start.
> 
> I don't tend to be so critical of students or younger people staffed at a LFS.
> 
> And yes.. They do fire you for low sales, it sucks..


You're my new best friend on these forums. Almost everyone uses "teenagers" or "kids in high school" in a review about a fish store and use it very negatively. But I think and hope, that I'm an exception to that I'm 16 but I've been able to help, well sort of "steal" customers from some fish store employees. I've this one guy to not feed just the cichlid pellets and alternate between different foods for his oscar and that feeding HBH turtle bites helps in preventing hole-in-the-head. There was also this other family whose son won a goldfish at school (Horrible, I know) and they kept it in a bowl for about 2-3 months. The employee did not mention that they require about 5 degrees celsius (10 degrees farenheit) less than what the average house temperature is. I pointed out that they require lower temperatures and recommended buying the 5G eclipse which was wrongly priced at $15 (Original price instore is $55). I think I do know considerably more than a lot of fish store workers, the manager at Big Al's Mississauga told me to dose my SHRIMP BREEDING TANK with COPPER to get rid of a damselfly nymph and that the carbon in the filter would remove it. I've also heart so many that the question "Why is there an elastic in there?" from employees at Big Al's when I bought shrimp there. I also know that there are employees at PetSmart and PJ Pets who have turtles and have not heard of soft shell disease or shell rot. But because of the amount of research and reasoning I do before I do anything to my tank, I think I can safely say that I can display more experience than most fish store employees.

Btw, how do they find out if you're working at a store like Big Al's as a sales associate? Don't they just sign the sheets and no one records the sales for every individual sales associate? Or are you just referring to the online selling people? 

The only "teenager fish store" is Dragon Aquarium, I have never seen anyone that looks older than me there. One of the employees couldn't answer a question about why a customer's water was cloudy. They also had like 5 MAP TURTLES in what looks like a 5G sump. The amount of water in there could probably be measures in MILLILITRES. Almost all of their turtles that aren't hatchlings have soft shell and shell rot.


----------



## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

The BA employee is technically right about the copper, but its probably easier to just remove a nymph by hand. I hear and see a lot of bad advice give out in store and on the internet. For instance you can feed a single type of pellet to your fish exclusively and they will never develop HITH disease. I know many aquariasts that feed NLS pellets exclusively to their Tangs and have never had an issue. I personally would never keep goldfish in an aquarium less than 30 gallons (temporarily even) and I hate it when such small aquariums are recommended for such large fish.


----------



## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

Darkside said:


> The BA employee is technically right about the copper, but its probably easier to just remove a nymph by hand.


He is right, but that is bad advice. Enough copper to kill the damselfly would also kill the shrimp, and in a breeding tank that is just counterproductive. He also did not mention that it would kill the shrimp, I had to point it out and then he said that it would be removed by the carbon in the filter.


----------



## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

Well nobody could beat the now out-of-business place near me that shall remain NAMELESS. 

The owner had a bunch of juvenile figure 8 puffers and moved them from freshwater to marine. Acclimation? Bah. They were dying slow in the freshwater. Moving them to marine helped lots. They all died, even faster.

Compared to that, I think the rest of the industry are a bunch of geniuses.



W


----------

