Ugh! Such Bad Advice!

[modaz]

Although, I do have a few great LFS, there is still many chains around. My first tank I bought was a 29g starter kit...it came with $15 credit for fish with the store. Not knowing too much at that time, I asked for some good community fish. Lets just say I came home with 2 iridescent sharks.

the most recent one going around our area is "water change 10% every month and do a 100% change of filter media once a week, god knows which shop it is coming from but im sure gunna find out. but i've got good idea its a local chain store.

 

[Truck]

its a local chain store.

now why doesnt that suprise me *cough P@H*

maiden head is the only decent chain round here

 

[modaz]

its a local chain store.

now why doesnt that suprise me *cough P@H*

maiden head is the only decent chain round here

cough cough cough , . maiden head are pretty good here for fish but questions are usually replied with a grunt and pass the buck attitude but will always recommend them for any stock we didnt sell as long as the customer wanted to pay their prices.

 

[dcarmor927]

just today a guy at my LFS told me i should keep my 5 clown loaches in a 10 gallon tank instead of rehoming them...my jaw literally dropped

 

[Fisses]

I asked my LFS about snails and how to get rid, they mentioned chemicals but i said i;d rather not, and then she mentioned getting a clown loach!!!!

my tank is only 60litre!!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Miss Wiggle may be suppried to know that one one on my old collegues with whom she spoke to alot at work before he left had never kept a fish before in his life untill about a year ago, but was probibly amongst the most popular staff member's we ever had, and was usualy giving good advice, purely through reading books...

no i knew he didn't have his own tanks, but you just had to look at things like his planted display tank to know he could do it! and likewise from my experience his advice was usually spot on.

 

[Athena]

I have been given all the following bad information/comments in the past (a lot of which I believed when I was a newbie and had to learn the hard way):

1) Male and female bettas CAN be kept in the same tank together (so I did and the female almost killed my male!)

2) ADFs don't need any particular foods - they just eat bits of flake food they find on the gravel (my poor ADFs were practically starved for a couple of weeks till I found out the correct way to feed them)

3) 2 clown loaches will be fine in a 3 foot community tank (no no no)

4) To cycle a new tank just leave it running for 2 weeks! (no no no - although yes yes yes I actually did this in the early days, as did the majority of clueless fishkeepers back then)

5) It's perfectly ok to have a Rainbow Shark, a Red Tail Shark and an Albino Shark all in the same tank together!! (oh what an expensive mistake this was - ended up having to buy 2 new tanks to separate them).

6) Yes, you can put two Silver Sharks in a 3ft tank (luckily I double-checked this info before buying - and when I found out how huge they grow I told them at the LFS there's no way you should put two in a 3ft tank)

7) An albino frog (African Clawed Frog btw) won't grow much bigger than a couple of inches!! (Ha! The one they sold me had to be returned a week later after I learned the truth!)

8) Feeding frozen bloodworms - just chuck the whole cube into the tank... (no, not for small fish in a 2ft or 3ft tank - causes water pollution)

9) "Melafix? Never heard of it. No, there isn't any medication for ripped or damaged fins..." (Strangely enough there was a whole stack of it on the shelf!)

10) You should change the filter sponges every couple of months (advice given on first set-up many years ago - had no idea what torture I was putting my fish through doing that!)

11) What do you need a liquid test kit for? (LOL, you just gotta laugh at that! Perhaps I'm out of orange juice and fancy something a little different to drink eh? )

There's probably more but those are all I can remember at the moment.

Athena

 

[matchstickman47]

i over hear someone in the fish store saying you can kee male bettas together? waaaaaaaa?

 

[calsonic]

1)royal panaques dont need wood as part of a there diet
2)discus dont like warm water
3)ro water is bad for fish
4)my favouret one is "plecos should have thin bellies and you dont have to supliment there diet"

 

[rdd1952]

Oddly enough, this is one of those threads that even though it is over a year old and I'm sure resurrected via Similar Topics, still has relevance.

I was fortunate that my son was already into fishkeeping and gave me good advice from the start (liquid tests and not strips for instance). I have heard some really bad stuff while in fish stores. Probably the worst was a Petsmart where the lady who I am pretty sure was the manager of the fish department, was telling a potential betta buyer that all she needed to do was put it in a vase with a plant and it would eat the plant roots and didn't need feeding. When I corrected her, she got mad and said she kept several like that and they were fine. The customer ended up leaving and not buying any at that time.

 

[Loony Fish]

i've been told you can keep 15 discus in a 15 gallon
NO JOKE
and much, much more

 

[kevinthecow]

My bala won't grow anymore. (stunt) If I kept it in my 29g.
Well I really believed the guy 'cause he convinced me with his years of fishkeeping.

Now, I don't know if I can trade back the bala as it has grown 3x the size of the baby ones they're selling.

 

[jourdy288]

The first time, the employee was very knowledgeable (he was keeping fish for years) and gave me great advice. But something odd I heard from someone else was a recommendation of CAEs. But, she thought I was some sort of fish genius because of how much I knew of each fish in the shop.

 

[griddlebone]

I work in a petstore and i have to agree, some of my coworkers no nothing about fish dispite working there for years. think of it this way, they would rather sell you a few clown loaches at 9.99 each for your 30 gal then a few tetras at 2-3$ each... ive seen it myself, but i gotta say, its not always easy to give accurate information all the time unless your the fish GOD and know everything about everything fish related. I TRY to learn about fish in my spare time, I read things here, ask questions and learn, but most people DONT. Honestly, i know squat about discus, we dont sell them, and if someone asked me how many i could stick in whatever sized tank, what kind of water it perfers etc. In that situation, its either tell them nothing, you dont know, or try to sound like you know something about fish, cause you work in a fish store. I usually tell them i have no clue, and about half the time they dont mind, but half the time they get mad at my not knowing about fish we dont even sell. With so many hours of this kind of environment, it gets very stressful, and sometimes you dont even know what your saying anymore( especailly if you work closing shift and theres only one person in your department for 6 hours...) Sorry if i offended anyone, but i really get sad when I hear people talk so bad about people in these stores, when alot of them are beginners and haven't learned or have never been told. Instead of laughing at them, why not try to help them a bit? Ive learned quite a bit from some the people who come in the store, Im not saying ignorance is bliss , but i gotta say, most of the bad advice is just ignorant and not ill intended.

 

[fatheadminnow]

I was told, never do a water change when doing a fish-in cycle, even when the levels become toxic to the fish....