Just For Fun - What's The Biggest Whopper A Lfs Has Told You?

[tunagirll]

We've all experienced those moments in a local fish store - you know the ones. The staff member gives out a sage piece of advice, and you leave wondering how the heck they keep on breathing (or how they keep a straight face!).
 
So, what's the biggest whopper you've heard in a fish store?

 

[Chad]

NOTE-fun thread but please don't mention particular store or employee names.

 

[Lillefishy]

The most recent one was that you can keep a Betta in a coldwater fishbowl with a fancy goldfish!

 

[techen]

The most recent one was that you can keep a Betta in a coldwater fishbowl with a fancy goldfish!

 
I thought this was somewhat possible, Coldwater with a betta but I'd think the goldfish would eat it.
 
I've been told that putting "live rock" into your FW tank can lower PH. Of course, Its crushed coral and not salty live rock ¬.¬

 

[joe17]

A single Serpae tetra would thrive in my 10 gallon tank full of male fancy guppies. Since there were other fish in the tank it didn't need a proper-sized school and would never bother the guppies ...

 

[Nikki77D]

"Its okay to put a common pleco in a 10 gal" and "I didn't know puffers eat snails"

 

[Ch4rlie]

"Yes, of course you can put 4 angels in a 60 litre tank with guppies"....................

 
Overheard this LFS staff talking to a dad with 2 young girls! 

 

[DrRob]

Well you CAN, they'll fit after all. So it wasn't incorrect that one, just plain wrong.

 

[wrightt3]

Yeah, I don't see why you couldn't keep a Severum in a 15g for life...?

 

[TooManyChoices]

I've got a real whopper!

I was looking at a little angel fish in a plant tank, and the fish sales guy,
Maybe 19 or 20 yr old, comes up and starts to tell me about why the angel fish is in there. Basically if you didn't know, during the day, plants suck heaps and heaps of nutrients out of the water until there's practically nothing left. Then at night they release them all. The angel fish can then absorb these and doesn't need to be fed.

I swear to whomever it is that you hold most dear. That is legimately what he told me!

 

[Ch4rlie]

I was looking at a little angel fish in a plant tank, and the fish sales guy,
Maybe 19 or 20 yr old, comes up and starts to tell me about why the angel fish is in there. Basically if you didn't know, during the day, plants suck heaps and heaps of nutrients out of the water until there's practically nothing left. Then at night they release them all. The angel fish can then absorb these and doesn't need to be fed.

 

  Words fail me.....

 

[Garbolino]

(lfs)     you can add fish after 3 days,
 
 (me)     what about the fishless cycle?
 
(lfs)       whats that

 

[MBOU]

I prefer the "what could the idiot customers possibly come out with next?"...
 
I regularly wonder how people cope with day to day life if they are so....dim!
 
For example... on a daily basis... we get from at least 2-4 people "so whats the difference between salt water and freshwater?" or alternatively "whats the difference between tropical and coldwater? which one is the nemos?".....
 
That said, a good friend had an awesome mind blank when serving a customer once.... she was trying to explain to the customer that they needed to 'acclimatise' their fish but as it sometimes happens, she just couldn't come up with the word 'acclimatise' and had to resort to the word 'marinate'... certainly got raised eyebrows!! haha

Or the customers that tell me they have a HUGE tank (big enough for the 14" plec I am refusing to sell them) and they keep gesticulating sizes and they point at our sump tanks and say 'oohhh about that size!'... my answer is always "ooh about 4 ft? 250 odd litres??"... "yeah that's right!!"... "then nope... you cant have that fish.... that tank you indicated is over 5 ft long and 700L, I am definitely not selling a plec to something that isn't even half the size...". 
 
Or better still.... the parents and kids.... when they ask for fish and I ask how big  their tank is and they indicate the size of something about 100L and the kids response is "don't be silly, its not that big as its on the table.. its this big..." and indicates a size about 25L... Busted I think.... the kid doesn't lie!

 

[DrRob]

 the kid doesn't lie!

 
You definitely don't have children.
 
Saw someone recently trying to convince an LFS to part with an oscar. They were somewhat suspicious when told that they'd kept loads of them before so asked what they usually kept them with, as they thought that they made good tankmates for nemo's. The customer agreed wholeheartedly and left with nothing.

 

[TallTree01]

I heard this come from an employee at an aquarium from Melbourne just last week:

Customer: can I put this red tail catfish in my 4 foot tank with my neon tetras?
Employee: oh yeah sure mate. These only get to about 5-6 inches.



Thankfully the customer went with a shoal of cories after some guidance from me.