It Looks Like S**t

[Dan-25]

Mornin

went into an lfs yesterday to just have a look round. asked one of the guys that worked there if they had any red betta's, he had'nt got a clue what i meant so i had to explain to him that i wanted to look at a red siamese fighter.

his words were and i quote - yeah, theres one in that tetra tank but it looks like f*****g s**t but im having some more in tomorrow.

i couldnt believe what he said and because i was in work hours (having a scive) i left,

but i m going back today to rescue it.

ill post pics when i get him

dan

 

[stang1]

That's awful Dan. What was actually wrong with him?

 

[Dan-25]

he looked a bit sorry for him self just jitting on the bottom of the tank and his fins were in a bad way ripped and torn,

he should be a better betta when he is in my 16 gallon all to him self

 

[catxx]

what a professional fellow that LFS working is!
swearing in front of customers indeed.
putting bettas in tetra tanks indeed.
INDEED.

 

[my fat fish]

16gallon ?!?!?! he will love u for ever whish i had a ank like that for a betta

 

[ileopard]

If it's a chain, I would go to corporate. That is unacceptable to be swearing in front of customers. Not only that, but putting a betta in with tetras is unacceptable too. If it's not a chain, go to the owner.

 

[DarkEntity]

There is nothing wrong with keeping Betta with Tetra's. My Females are in with Glowlights and my Male is in with Penguin Tetra and also Boesman Rainbow Fish.

If anything my PK Male bosses all the other fish about especially at about 7pm when its feeding time

 

[liz2]

I went into a aquatic place at weekend. I said to the chap have you got any bettas? Pardon? Siamese fighters! Yep....a very pretty blue one. I said oh a vt. Pardon? ignoring last comment I said do you just have just vts, or cts and pks. Having some more in next week he said. Ok I said and walked out trying not to laugh. Could see he thought just sell this customer my last betta she dont know better

 

[Kyrielle]

Heh, while we're swapping poor personnel stories...

I went to Petland up the road to see if they had any nice plants. Well when we got there (I seem to remember the place being much more reputable than it is now), the two guys working in the fish area completely ignored us when we entered. There was no "Hi, can I help you?" Not only that but one of them was chowing down on a sandwich WHILE working in the area. So we asked what kinds of plants they had...they gave us a basic idea of what was in the tank, though I'm not sure the guys had "all the lights on upstairs" so to speak. When we left my mother turned to me and said, "Those two were so baked." Needless to say I wanted to march right back in there and slap them until they got a clue about professionalism. It would be fine if they were uninformed about fish in general, I've come to expect that. But for goodness sake, have some sense of professionalism! They're doing nothing but hurting themselves by appearing to be lazy potheads while on the job.

The same type of issue happened at a Petco near us. The "fish lady" was also a manager and while I hoped she would be somewhat informed about plants or at least give me an answer that did NOT consist of "Well I dunnoooo what those aaaare." There are a million better ways to have said that. At any rate, maybe I was just hoping for someone to know more than I do (which is to say not much at all) and say something like: "Oh yes those, no we don't carry them this week. Might I suggest these [insert plant/fish]? They require the same conditions and are slightly prettier/hardier/etc."

And maybe I'm just one of those geeks that if I had a job in the fish department, I would have a field day learning about all the fish the store carried and which plants were what and what was best.

 

[my fat fish]

hehe i would like to work ina fish shop just so i ould give the right advise i get agitated if i hear badd advise now soo much that i have 2 butt in or it boathers me sommat aufel lol so needless to say im not liked ina few pet stores
my best examplt is a FS trying to sell a plec to a young lady telling her it would grow to about 4" she had a rakord 80 no way near big nuff for a common plec so i butted in and said "well acualy thats wrong they will grow to well over 12", so she asked me for advice on algae eaters then left as they had no others i also recomended not getting any kind of plec for an algae eater
dont really go back ther anymor as they are a bit harsh 2 me now

 

[ileopard]

Tetras can be aggressive fin nippers.

 

[puddle_inc]

poor betta, thank god for the people like you that know to take him to a better home.

i saved a couple fantail goldfish that had ick in walmart, i wasn't able to save either of them, i just didn't get the little guys in time

 

[lisa_perry75]

Yes tetras can be nippy. Unfortunately alot of what people know is from their own personal experience, so where some people may have no problems with say Glowlights and bettas I know one person has witnessed a glowlight nipping a chunk out of a betta.

Whereas I tell my customers bettas may ONLY go with cories and ottos other people may disagree! Its very hard, especially when you get certain customers who think they know stuff when they dont, and say "I thought fish only grew to the size of the tank"... Yes then they die cos they are supposed to grow bigger.

I do try to learn as much as I can, but generally the majority of people want guppies and neons. Seriously... Plus its hard to learn about all the fish our shop sell as we have about 30 tanks of cichlids alone!

And then you have the customers that rudely tell you things which immediately gets my back up. Thing is you dont know if they know anything or if they dont. One customer had a tank but hadn't heard of de-chlorinator and one customer brought back an oscar cos he was eating his cardinals. Either you insult people by assuming they know nothing and they get funny with you or they don't know anything and bring back unsuitable fish in a huff.

But I do do my bit, I feed the bettas bloodworm. Try to give them a 100% water change once a week. Try to make sure they don't go to a horrible home. People that care might get one

So please please please if you want to say something to assisstants please realise sometimes it isn't our fault, and we might want better things for the fish but can't. And please speak nicely

 

[jollysue]

I personnally have great fish assistant people. Even in PetSmart. The only place I ever had trouble was a clerk at the counter in Petco, that wanted to bawl me out for bringing back something that didn't work. But I have much better experiences usually. Not all clerks know what they are talking about. But most of the people that I run into in the pet departments do care, even when sometimes they don't know much.

Now as far as nippy Tetras: My Tetras have killed and maimed more fish than my Cichlids. (Well actually that is a bit overstated: My Cichlids have vever hurt anyone. ) I lost a Black Phantom the other day. One of his tail lobes was bit completely off. One of the female Black Phantoms had her dorsal chomped in two. She survived. I think my phantoms have reached a maturity stage. The boys have to put on their man face and act tough. And don't get me started on the Great Hi Fin Serpae War of 2004! I was frantic and paniced

 

[ileopard]

The PetSmart fish employees are usually pretty good over here. I heard a fish employee saying something along the lines of "no, I'm not going to sell you [fish - something with cichlids], you already have [some kind - I think african?] cichlids and those are aggressive". That's pretty good, and it shows that the employee clearly cares for the fish.