LFS frustration

[gale]

I know I'm new and don't know much but...sheesh. Here's how the conversation went tonight:

me: hi. Do you have any harlequin rasboras?
lfs: no, we don't have those.
me: ok, what small schooling fish do you carry? I have a new 10gal that I want to put a small school of fish in.
lfs: let me show you. Here are some that school (pristella tetras). Or I could order the rasboras for you and we would have them next week. (shows me some other fish that "kinda school")
me: my tank is ready to go and I need to put fish in it. I don't want to wait a week. I put filter media and gravel from my cycled tank in there so that it will cycle more quickly and so I don't want to let it sit fishless for a week or the bacteria will die.
lfs: the bacteria won't die. It just stays in there-you don't need to worry about that.
me: doesn't the bacteria need to have fish in there to live?
lfs: no, it won't go anywhere.
me: nevertheless. I want to put fish it in tonight so I'll take 2 of the tetras.
lfs: if you want them to school, you should get 5 or 6.
me: I want to start slow since the tank is new. I'll get two today and more in a few days.
lfs: ok. Should I order the rasboras?
me: no, this is only a 10 gal tank so I'm only going to put one type of schooling fish, plus maybe a couple of ghost shrimp and a couple of oto cats when I need them.
lfs: in that tank you could put 10-12 of the schooling fish. You could put in 5-6 tetras and 5-6 rasboras. (maybe she forgot about the ghost shrimp and oto cats?)

wth? I'm sure this is not true. Is it??

Also, I didn't notice this before but their tanks were nasty tonight. I saw fish bones stuck on the suck up tubes of some filters today (didn't notice this a week ago, but then I didn't look in any tanks last week since we knew exactly what we wanted) and quite a few other dead fish and frogs. And the worst-a dead fish on the floor that had been stepped on until it was part of the floor. Needless to say I'm doing a yellow page search of that town (not local for me) for a different fish shop.

 

[mhoward1999]

Sad to say, but this is a very common scenario. A lot of LFS employees don't bother to learn about all areas of the store. (In my area it's usuallly a pet store, not just fish.) They only care about what they are personally interested in rather than bothering to learn about the other types of "merchandise" they carry. It's really frustrating when you know more than they do, and you are going to them for advise/help.

I know there are others who disagree, but I stick by the 1" of fish per gallon rule, give or take depending on the type of fish. You have to use some common sense, too. A 10" oscar is going to produce a lot more waste than 5 mollies! Good luck on your endeavor, and remember to trust your instincts, and when in doubt, research rather than taking a salesperson's word.

 

[gale]

Well I checked online and found 2 other pet stores in that town (other than petco). One is J&K (I think that's a chain here) and the other is a small independent store so we might go there tomorrow and check it out. I mentioned that I was looking for a new supplier after being unhappy with the other and mentioned their name and she acted like she knew just what I was talking about. We'll see.

 

[lucky62]

Well I checked online and found 2 other pet stores in that town (other than petco). One is J&K (I think that's a chain here) and the other is a small independent store so we might go there tomorrow and check it out. I mentioned that I was looking for a new supplier after being unhappy with the other and mentioned their name and she acted like she knew just what I was talking about. We'll see.

IMO you're better off with individually owned shops , but you still need to be careful.