$%*~# Lfs!

[LolaLouie]

Why can't LFS ever get it right??

It's so frustrating, you don't go to buy a dog and walk away with a sheep and you don't go to an electronics store to buy a DVD and walk away with a VHS so why is it that LFS staff never seem to know Jack sh*t about what they are selling... grrr.

I'm fairly new to cichlids so although I research the species I buy well before buying them I don't exactly have much experience. Anyway about 3 weeks ago I bought 3 cockatoos 1M 2F recently one of my females has been hiding a lot and being chased a lot by the male, I thought maybe the male just liked her but when i looked closer i realised she was turning into a lovely young male!!! It's so frustrating, I'm now stuck with 2 M 1F, a recipe for disaster!!

So the long and short of it is fish shops should educate their staff and does anyone want to swap a young male cockatoo for anything?!?

 

[Shrimper]

I would ring the shop and see if they will swap it for you.

 

[LolaLouie]

They don't have cockatoos in anymore they just had them as a 1 off

Thanks for the advice though Shrimper

 

[joecoral]

surely if the lfs dont have any more, you can keep the M + F as a pair, and take the other male back and swap it for something else?

 

[australia]

some shops just dont care!

 

[chibi]

I'd give it back and ask for a refund. Pure and simple. They could have just made a mistake. Not all LFS are out to get you.

 

[shroob]

I wouldn't be that angry at the LFS for this, everyone makes mistakes. As you found out for yourself it can be hard to sex some fish, especially if they are young. Yes, you would think that working at a LFS they should know how to sex fish but like I said, it could have been an honest mistake. I mean if you researched the fish and got the sexing wrong, the person selling the fish could have made the same mistake. Its annoying when it happens, but I think best thing to do would be to go back to the shop you got it from and explain the situation.

 

[england]

this isnt the fish shops fault, cichlids are very difficult to sex until they start maturing, obviously by the sounds of yours they were juvis as you say its developing into a young male,,,,,,the best thing that you can do is go to the lfs and exsplain that he lead you to beleive it was a female and that you would like to exchange it for something similar for you tank and price range<better with single pair anyhow caus other would prob get ran out of town,,,,my lfs will always exchange as long as its not ill,dead or beat up

 

[LolaLouie]

Ha ha, sorry the anger may have seemed a bit over the top but the reason why I'm so annoyed is because i just had to return my "male" krib to them who turned out to be female!

When catching the fish at the LFS I said it looked like female but they insisted it was male so I said i'd take it as long as I could return it if it turned out to be female. Got it home and as soon as it coloured up I knew it was female. So just annoyed at them making the same mistake twice!! Also they were very rude when I said I wanted to return the krib and at 1st refused to even give me a credit note.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

It can be very, very difficult to sex young fish especially when they are normally in tanks full of other fish and not fully coloured up or even secually mature. Most LFS I have been to will leave it to you to pick the ones you want so they dont have to deal with people saying they sold them the wrong fish later on (wise policy imo).

Yeah you can go into an electronic store and ask for a dvd player and its easy to pick one out. Different situation though if you went into an electronic store and asked from a dvd player that consumes 5wph of electricity and uses a pfq25 focusing lens on the laser (and none of the dvd players have instructions manuals). In fact I bet if you went into any electronics store and asked if they knew the power consumption rates of anything they sold they wouldn't be able to tell you.

Its the same situation for a LFS, most resonable sized ones will have thousands of fish and while I would expect them to able to tell me the basics of most of the common livestock they keep you cant honestly expect a LFS employing working on min wage to know the breeding habits and how to visually sex every single fish they keep in stock.

 

[LolaLouie]

Yup fair enough but if you went to a DVD store and asked a complicated question like that I bet the staff would admit they didn't know instead of telling you they knew and then selling you the wrong thing based on their "knowledge"!

 

[PRW1988]

Why can't LFS ever get it right??

It's so frustrating, you don't go to buy a dog and walk away with a sheep and you don't go to an electronics store to buy a DVD and walk away with a VHS so why is it that LFS staff never seem to know Jack sh*t about what they are selling... grrr.

I'm fairly new to cichlids so although I research the species I buy well before buying them I don't exactly have much experience. Anyway about 3 weeks ago I bought 3 cockatoos 1M 2F recently one of my females has been hiding a lot and being chased a lot by the male, I thought maybe the male just liked her but when i looked closer i realised she was turning into a lovely young male!!! It's so frustrating, I'm now stuck with 2 M 1F, a recipe for disaster!!

So the long and short of it is fish shops should educate their staff and does anyone want to swap a young male cockatoo for anything?!?

Unfortunatly sexing most Juvi cichlids is rather a difficult task. Chances are that the young male that you were sold as a female wasn't showing colourations in the tank due to stress from the alpha male. This has nothing to do with the LFS store employees, in all actuallity, if you are researching the fish then you should've been able to sex them aswell and you should've pointed out the mistake whilst you were there.

Its the same situation for a LFS, most resonable sized ones will have thousands of fish and while I would expect them to able to tell me the basics of most of the common livestock they keep you cant honestly expect a LFS employing working on min wage to know the breeding habits and how to visually sex every single fish they keep in stock.

This isn't true, I work at a Petsmart and I know how to sex all the species we carry (except for the ones which cannot be sexed until breeding and even then it may be difficult -such as Angelfish, Oscars and eels.) I know the breeding habits of most fish as I research them. I'm being paid $9.26, and just because it's not a large sum doesn't mean I'm not going to try my best to help the customer as much as I can. Anybody in the customer service field will attempt to help you as much as possible and if the store highers good employees then the staff will be knowledgeable, if they don't higher good employees then don't go to that store (walmart for instance knows jack all about fish).

 

[LolaLouie]

This has nothing to do with the LFS store employees, in all actuallity, if you are researching the fish then you should've been able to sex them aswell and you should've pointed out the mistake whilst you were there.

When catching the fish at the LFS I said it looked like female but they insisted it was male

Yup fair enough but if you went to a DVD store and asked a complicated question like that I bet the staff would admit they didn't know instead of telling you they knew and then selling you the wrong thing based on their "knowledge"!

 

[PRW1988]

This has nothing to do with the LFS store employees, in all actuallity, if you are researching the fish then you should've been able to sex them aswell and you should've pointed out the mistake whilst you were there.

When catching the fish at the LFS I said it looked like female but they insisted it was male

Yup fair enough but if you went to a DVD store and asked a complicated question like that I bet the staff would admit they didn't know instead of telling you they knew and then selling you the wrong thing based on their "knowledge"!

Well then if they told you that it looked like a male and you said it was a female it's your fault so it's not something to blame the LFS for and say things like "Can't an LFS ever get it right!?".

You're at fault for not listening so don't blame others.

 

[LolaLouie]

I guess you work in a LFS

As I said I have only kept cichlids for a month so who am I to argue with someone who's job it is to keep them. Also i wouldn't mind so much but after making sure I could return it if they got the sex wrong they were then really sh*tty with me and at 1st refused to even give me a credit note after much arguing they agreed to give me a partial credit note which i could only use on livestock.