I had to hold back my inner fishkeeper..........

[snork6]

Today I went into town to my LFS. The store is a Pet Supplies Plus which is a chain but not as popular as petsmart petco etc. They mostly have tennagers working there, as usual........... The people there have no idea what so ever about fish keeping. (For example, I asked the guy bagging fish for a certain plant, I showed him the tank it was in and he grabbed a plastic plant instead of a real plant) One of my friends actually works at the store and he told me he just makes up info when customers ask about fish stuff (I angrily scolded him after and told him to learn some stuff) anyways back to the story, so while I was waiting to get my plant two girls were asking the man in the fish section if betta fish can be housed with other fish.......... (I thought to myself surely this guy must know bettas have to be separate) Instead of giving the obvious answer of "no you can't put other fish with them" he asked them how big their tank was. and their response was, "Oh we don't have one yet, we are going to go pick one out at walmart after we buy the fish we want" (The red flags are flying now) the guy then proceeds to tell them "Yeah it will probably be okay if you get something bigger than a bowel" I about died, the girls then asked the guy for two goldfish. Longer story short the two girls walked out of the store headed to walmart to buy a tank with one betta fish and two gold fish. Now you might say why didn't you intervene? I've tried before, but they just look at you weird and think why is this kid talking to me. The moral of the story? People always listen to the person with a name tag.

 

[DutchMuch]

yep
sad story, plus people just don't gaf about animals so

 

[AbbeysDad]

yep
sad story, plus people just don't gaf about animals so

I think most people care about ANIMALS, but for some reason the caring just doesn't apply to fish. I'm not sure why.....perhaps because there are so many and they're inexpensive? I think it's only if you're in the hobby that you grow a conscience large enough to feel about fish as you would your dog, cat rabbit or whatever. Even my own wife, who treats our Lab like an adored child merely shrugs her shoulders if I have a fish die....like an Angel I had for years and was very attached to. Just something about fish puts them low on the list!

It is sad that so many stores have non savvy people in the fish department. Even worse are [often young] people that pretend to be experts about things they know nothing about.
Buyer beware.

 

[Baker]

I had a funny moment he other day in a local petco, they have lucky bamboo all over their fish dept but the employees fully submerge all of them. I just kinda chuckle to myself when I see it but I don't have the patience to tell them all those plants will be dead soon unless they get the leaves out of the water. It does kinda irritate me though because they're selling the bamboo and most likely any buyers are going to be out a plant within a month

 

[AnnAlfie]

Today I went into town to my LFS. The store is a Pet Supplies Plus which is a chain but not as popular as petsmart petco etc. They mostly have tennagers working there, as usual........... The people there have no idea what so ever about fish keeping. (For example, I asked the guy bagging fish for a certain plant, I showed him the tank it was in and he grabbed a plastic plant instead of a real plant) One of my friends actually works at the store and he told me he just makes up info when customers ask about fish stuff (I angrily scolded him after and told him to learn some stuff) anyways back to the story, so while I was waiting to get my plant two girls were asking the man in the fish section if betta fish can be housed with other fish.......... (I thought to myself surely this guy must know bettas have to be separate) Instead of giving the obvious answer of "no you can't put other fish with them" he asked them how big their tank was. and their response was, "Oh we don't have one yet, we are going to go pick one out at walmart after we buy the fish we want" (The red flags are flying now) the guy then proceeds to tell them "Yeah it will probably be okay if you get something bigger than a bowel" I about died, the girls then asked the guy for two goldfish. Longer story short the two girls walked out of the store headed to walmart to buy a tank with one betta fish and two gold fish. Now you might say why didn't you intervene? I've tried before, but they just look at you weird and think why is this kid talking to me. The moral of the story? People always listen to the person with a name tag.

That seems to be the case all over, even here in Europe. When I was living in the States for a few years I bought a Betta fish mainly because I felt sorry for it trying to live in a plastic disposable cup. There were quite a few but sadly I could only take one. It's all about the money. They don't give a hoot about the poor creature in the cup. Very sad.