I Am Tired Of Pet Stores Giving Wrong Suggestions And How-to's

[KeeperOfFishyPeace]

I was talking with a classmate today and said he once had a tetra. He didn't know that much at all about fishkeeping and the fish person at Wal-Mart told him something totally obsurd. The sales associate said the tank should be cycled for just one week, and he said that my classmate should feed the tetra 3 days after introducing it into the tank. Sadly, but obviously, the tetra died and my classmate was turned away from fishkeeping. I am upset, anyone else have any similar stories?

 

[Spinal]

Yups... just bought a crayfish 2 days ago as an excellent candidate for a "community tank" with snails, mussels, shrimps and small fish...

Thanks to friendly helpful members hes been relocated, but I still can't get over it (and neither can my tank, which has been decimated in population and plantation...)

Michele

 

[K.J.]

Female bettas can be kept in a three gallon tank with another female.
From "personal experiance." Ten bucks says the fish are both dead. Didn't want to say anything, though, might get kicked out. They are so rude there.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

actually, letting the tank run for 1 week first doesn't hurt anything and is a pretty thorough equipment test. i personally tested all of my new canisters this way by running them on a 5g bucket for a week. it gave me confidence that all of the innards were cleaned out and that none of my seals/sprockets were loose. better an empty bucket than my favorite fishies!

"don't feed for 3 days" isn't bad advice either. healthy fish can easily go 2 weeks sans food; most shippers fast fish for 3 days prior to mailing. if someone's cycling with fish, then it's generally better for the fish just to feed them sparingly once a day or once every other day. this limits the amount of ammonia produced and allows for the growing bacteria colony to more easily handle waste levels.

know what was terrible advice? to keep "a tetra". walmart sells no tetra species that should be kept as an individual--they're all schooling fish.

 

[KeeperOfFishyPeace]

tetras need food, they can't go without food for 3 days, that's why his tetra died. he said it look sick and skinny and sure enough, it died...probably other species can go without food for a while but not the little tetra

 

[ox5477]

tetras need food, they can't go without food for 3 days, that's why his tetra died. he said it look sick and skinny and sure enough, it died...probably other species can go without food for a while but not the little tetra

Not just the food aspect....tetras, especially neons (which he prob was sold, and is sold as a "good beginners fish") are sensitive to their water environments and the slightest thing can leave the tank a cemetary over night. The fact that the tank wasn't cycled prob did the most damage, and then the fact that it was alone and it stressed itself out because of it was the second cause. I would put not feeding it in a distant third.

 

[KeeperOfFishyPeace]

true, i forgot that aspect... and yes, they were neons

 

[Bignose]

tetras need food, they can't go without food for 3 days, that's why his tetra died.

Well, shoot, someone should have told my tetras they can't go without food for 3 days last February when I went to Germany for 9 days, with no-one looking after them. They really should have been told that they should have died rather than all be 100% healthy and accounted for. If only they had known...

Ok, all sarcasm aside, if the fish have been well taken care up to that point, a healthy fish can easily go a week before being fed again. In the wild, I would hazard to guess that most fish don't find a meal much more often than once every three day as it is.

 

[KeeperOfFishyPeace]

sorry, sorry, i was wrong about saying they can't live without food for 3 days, anyone have a DIFFERENT story?

 

[Rocky32189]

actually, letting the tank run for 1 week first doesn't hurt anything and is a pretty thorough equipment test. i personally tested all of my new canisters this way by running them on a 5g bucket for a week. it gave me confidence that all of the innards were cleaned out and that none of my seals/sprockets were loose. better an empty bucket than my favorite fishies!

He means cycling as in the Nitrogen cycle with beneficial bacteria which takes at least 4-6 weeks. This is necessary for any new tank. If not, it will either kill your fish or ruin them for life like stunting them or making them less healthy and more suseptible to disease.

 

[PaulasPets]

I hear bad advice in pet stores all the time. They just want to make money and advice accordingly. But its not only the pet stores, go get some advice on which TV or stereo or whatever to buy in the store: you will be adviced to buy the product that lands the salesperson a commission even if some other product is way better. If I want to buy something I always use the internet to look up what I want/need. I make a list of which products I found where the best in my spending range and then see if anything on the list is available in the local stores.

Paula

 

[KeeperOfFishyPeace]

I hear bad advice in pet stores all the time. They just want to make money and advice accordingly. But its not only the pet stores, go get some advice on which TV or stereo or whatever to buy in the store: you will be adviced to buy the product that lands the salesperson a commission even if some other product is way better. If I want to buy something I always use the internet to look up what I want/need. I make a list of which products I found where the best in my spending range and then see if anything on the list is available in the local stores.

Paula

that's where forums, like this wonderful one, come in handy!

 

[PaulasPets]

exactly!

Paula

 

[campbellmay]

I was naive enough to rely on the advice of a PetSmart employee when I bought my first tank for my daycare class. I bought two balloon mollies to start with, and when I asked what my cheapest tank option was, the girl sold me a 5 gallon BOWL. I realize now that much more research was required on my part, but I was totally clueless and figured PetSmart would steer me in the right direction. Luckily I jumped on the internet as soon as I got the fish home and straightened myself out, but incompetent teenage employees and amateur fish owners do not make a good combination, and PetSmart ought to know that.

One time I went with my mom when she took her water to be tested, and the guy started freaking out, going, "Your pH is way high. C'mere, let me show you some products." When I asked him how high it was, and he kept going, "It's way high. You really need to bring it down a lot." So I asked him for a specific number, and he dances around it for a minute before saying, "It's like almost at 7.5. You must have some coral or something in there, 'cause that's really high." Funny how her 2 dwarf gouramis hadn't seemed to object...[/sarcasm]

So he tries to sell her a pH decreaser, a pH stabilizer, and a liquid master test kit. If she'd gone without me, she'd have ended up spending at least $50 on totally unnecessary (and some potentially harmful) products. I don't know if the guy thought he was helping or if he was just trying to rip my mom off, but let's just say we keep to the privately owned shops now.