Ever just want to choke people...

[Synirr]

My LFS got in a couple of high-fin banded sharks recently. Knowing they can get extremely large (if you can manage to keep them alive long enough,) I was hoping someone had special ordered them, but it turns out that was sadly not the case.
Today I saw someone purchase one of the unfortunate fish, after first asking what it was but not requesting any information about its requirements or adult size. My LFS owner knows her fish and I'm sure she knew these people weren't capable of properly housing it, but the LFS literally cannot afford to miss a sale, since it barely seems to be staying afloat at all, so the owner reluctantly bagged the fish without volunteering any information on it. The person also bought a dyed oscar the same day (it's a mystery why they had dyed fish at all; that LFS is not in the practice of purchasing them.)

I admit, maybe staying quiet about it wasn't the best move, but I didn't want to snatch a sale right out from under the owner's nose... It just makes me so sick sometimes that people buy pets without knowing anything about them! I mean come on, these are living things we're talking about, and they depend on us to take proper care of them!

 

[breezer40]

Fingers crossed the buyer did have some idea what they were buying but sounds like thats not likely

Its a hard call on who should be the responsible party for obtaining/giving information. I always look up any fish that sounds interesting and find out all the details before buying but thats mainly because of the bad lessons I have learned when I first started. In the beginning I remember feeling very unsure about all the information and relied heavly on the LFS to provide the right information (which sometimes wasn't a good idea).

LFS have a duty to ensure they give accurate information about their stock but we have the ultimate responsibility to ensure we double check that information.

 

[Ben]

Gah, i hate it when that happens.

That happened to me once(but it involved a person buying a Jack Dempsy with a Frontosa). But now i get into conversations with people who are buying the wrong things while the owner is bagging the fish,
it goes like this
What tank size do you have?
What fish do you have?
You what would look nice, this fish instead of the fish you're buying(point to 10 neons or a few guppys)
Explain to them about compatibility,
give them this forums web address and my email if they have questions,
They decide to go with the neons and guppys or gourami etc
viola, saved two fish and made a sale for the LFS

DD

 

[Synirr]

I'm usually too meek for that Dwarf_Dude, though I have managed to tell customers at Walmart that the cute little plecs they were buying would eventually get over a foot long before...
My LFS owner did try to lure the customer away from the high-fin and to some "beginner fish", but obviously to no avail

 

[Weaver]

I blame the lfs 100%.Its up to them to at least mention the adult sizes of fish etc.
When I started keeping fish one of my first buys was 3 clown loaches for my 2ft tank.I thought they were adult size in the shop.Never occurred to me they were only youngsters or that petshops sold juvenile fish.
I now realise that I should research fish or at least ask plenty of questions before buying but I didnt realise it in the beginning and Im sure a lot of beginners are the same.
BTW having developed MTS at an early stage my clown loaches were soon moved to a 4ft tank where they lived happily ever after

 

[SPLiSH]

My LFS got in a couple of high-fin banded sharks recently. Knowing they can get extremely large (if you can manage to keep them alive long enough,) I was hoping someone had special ordered them, but it turns out that was sadly not the case.
Today I saw someone purchase one of the unfortunate fish, after first asking what it was but not requesting any information about its requirements or adult size. My LFS owner knows her fish and I'm sure she knew these people weren't capable of properly housing it, but the LFS literally cannot afford to miss a sale, since it barely seems to be staying afloat at all, so the owner reluctantly bagged the fish without volunteering any information on it. The person also bought a dyed oscar the same day (it's a mystery why they had dyed fish at all; that LFS is not in the practice of purchasing them.)

I admit, maybe staying quiet about it wasn't the best move, but I didn't want to snatch a sale right out from under the owner's nose... It just makes me so sick sometimes that people buy pets without knowing anything about them! I mean come on, these are living things we're talking about, and they depend on us to take proper care of them!

[snapback]908959[/snapback]​

I know exactly what you mean! IMO, even worse than forgetting to do research is forgetting to do research and then disregarding help.

I sometimes get dad to drop me off at the LFS when I'm bored (it's approximately 2 minutes away) and just have a browse around and drool over fish I can't afford. This one time, a few months ago, I was watching the african cichlids in the display tank and this woman went over to the goldie tank. She started tapping on the glass and watching the fish.

Jason (LFS owner) asked me if I could bung a few Hikari pellets in the cichlids tank since I was over there and after I did so, the woman watching the goldfish goes to me: 'Excuse me, do you work here?' I told her no, I was just doing Jason a favour but asked if she needed help. She asked me where the goldfish bowls were. I took her to them and asked if she was buying one. 'Yes.' she said. 'I wanna get that nice spotted goldfish over there.' She pointed to a shubunkin goldie. I was really nervous, I didn't want to drive away customers since I don't even work at the LFS but I finally said, 'Do you have anywhere to put him when he's bigger? They can get really big - like a foot long!'

Her tone changed quickly and she turned up her nose and said: 'Sorry sweetie, but goldfish grow to this size of their home and I am a bit more life-experienced than you by the looks of it.' Then she strolled over to an employee and when they told her the same thing I did, she also refused to believe them. The bought a little bowl, the massive shubunkin and left.

 

[OohFeeshy]

What are they doing selling an endangered fish anyway? Maybe you should go and stick post-it notes on the tank? Thats what I'd do. Or print out some basic info and stick it on the tank so you can't fail to notice it.

 

[SPLiSH]

What are they doing selling an endangered fish anyway? Maybe you should go and stick post-it notes on the tank? Thats what I'd do. Or print out some basic info and stick it on the tank so you can't fail to notice it.

[snapback]909024[/snapback]​

Oooh that's a good idea... never thought of that! Thanks Feeshy!

 

[Durbkat]

That same thing sorta happened to me. I was at walmart looking at the fish and this woman picked up a 1 gallon bowl and and some gravel. Then she walked over to the fish and looked at the bala sharks and gold gouramis and said I want 2 bala sharks and 3 gold gouramis. I was like are you crazy? So I interupted her and said are you planning to put those in their? And to my surprise she said yes. And I said you can't do that because first of all they won't have any room and they won't have a filter or heater. I felt good that day knowing I saved 5 fish from a certain death.

 

[trisha1972]

I was at Feeders Supply this week picking up some plants. A family came in to buy a tank and fish, yep both the same day. While waiting for my turn to get my plants, I overheard them saying they wanted three rainbow sharks, 9 neon tetras, 2 opaline gouramis, a pleco, and a spotted pictus. Being the big mouth that I am, I asked if they intended to put them all in the BRAND NEW tank in their cart? Of course was the answer. I then went on to tell them that they needed to cycle their tank before adding fish. Got told that they promised the girls a tank, and they were getting the fish today too! I told them about Bio-Spira (at the other lfs). I then went on to tell them that that was WAY Too many fish and wrong species for their tank. Got told that they were only fish and if the store could keep alot of fish in a 10 gallon, so could they. Seeing that they were dense, I went and spoke to the fish manager. SHE DID NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SPLiSH]

Aw, good on you for trying trisha.

People like that are so frustrating. I would've wanted to say 'Hello! You obviously love your kids since you're dishing out so much cash for them, so do you honestly want to see your daughters upset when their fishies die?'

 

[Durbkat]

Not to be rude but what did you expect from a manager she's not going to stop a sell because most likeley those fish will die from new tank syndrom and they will come back and buy more which means more money for them. And it seems like today in the fish world all fish managers care about is the money not about where their going.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Yup, thats true Durbkat. What you really need to do is to remind them they're the ones spending money (probably lots of it) and the shop is the place benefiting, not you (who is trying to give advice). People hate spending more than they need.

 

[Durbkat]

Yup thats true. Because like with the story I posted about walmart after I said that it seemed like her tone of voice and mood changed. Like she was p***** off (sorry) that she couldn't make a sell. Then after I said that the lady that was going to put those fish in a bowl put the bowl backand said well I'll have to think about getting a bigger tank and she left but the lady working at walmart looked mad at me because I stopped a sell. But I thought well at least I was think of the fish not the profit.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Seems to me the honours are fairly equally divided, between buyers who won't do their research, and sellers who don't encourage them to.

I get mad at people in Petsat who walk in and ask to buy fish they don't even know what they're called and insist on taking it away immediately
- but then again the shop sells 10 gallon tanks labelled "suitable for 3 goldfish", so you cant blame it all on the buyers.

In fairness to newbies, a lot of people might think asking the pet shop manager does count as research, that a pet shop is a place where you can ask for advice about suitable buys. Not everybody can know by instinct a)that fish forums exist b)that they are often a more reliable source of reference.

And in fairness to pet shops, some of them do actually fill that function. My specialist shop advised me very clearly that dwarf gouramis needed a mature tank and that I had better hold off for a few months with buying them. She could have made a sale but preferred keeping a customer.