What's The Strangest, Most Incorrect Advice You've Received In

[voo]

This weekend i asked the assistant for an Otto.
She netted me a paradise fish .... Even though the label for Otto had a picture on it!!

 

[dthoffsett]

As some of you may have read, about a month ago I had an extremely bad bacterial infection hit my 75gal african cichlid tank. It's stocking level at the time was 17 juveniles all under 2 inches, 3 adults of 5 inches or less, and 3 pim pictus around 5 inches. So fairly average stocking for cichlids.

Anyway, I stopped by Petco on my way home from work to pick up some tetracycline. They had some small packs of it, and 1 large pack, since I had to treat the entire tank, I stupidly asked an associate if they had anymore large packs. They next think I know, I have 2 different people "helping" me, all asking me for the fishes symptoms, my cleaning habits, etc. Finally one guy goes to look for more meds after agreeing with me that they needed to be treated. But I get stuck with this girl who decides to call their fish "expert", after repeating the symptoms and my cleaning habits again, and continuing to say that I only want the tetracycline in a larger pack if they have it, the girl on the phone and the "expert" decide: get this, are you ready for it? The reason my fish got sick is because I have too many fish, and I change my water more than once a month, and that I shouldn't be changing more than 30% when I do!

Can you believe that crap. I just looked at the girl and said, I know how to take care of my tank, I just want the meds. She says, "If it were me, I'd wouldn't treat them and just let it run its course, theres really nothing you can do for them now." I said that's ridiculous. She says, " I've been working in pet stores for 5 years, so I know what I'm talking about." And I said, "I've been keeping fish for 10 years. Just give me the meds." Ooooo that still pisses me off, the little twit.

So I ended up getting the meds they had, and a couple of days later I got the rest from Petsmart, who at least has a few employees with a clue. And I managed to save 13 fish, all of the fish that died, did before treatment started, and guess what, I still continue to change my water every week, and no dead or sick fish, imagine that.

 

[callum_parsons]

i remember my cousin saying that her Lfs said that it would be okay to put a few convict cichlids in her 60L commumity tank contaning only tetras and a few cherry barbs.
god that would be a nightmare in the tank the violence!

 

[MHunt]

I've had a couple of shockers, mainly from LFS's attached to garden centres near me.

The first one, i bought two small goldfish, and introduced fish lice to my existing tank, only my original goldfish survived.

Most recently, i had to tell the assistant at a different garden centre the difference between a male and a female platy. The females i bought are now dead, and infected my tank with whitespot.

My best experiences have been at the small local fish shops, that only sell fish. One near me gives really good advice, and knows loads about the fish he's selling.

 

[Graeme Edwards]

WOW some really poor advice been puked out by some dodgy FS.

I had an argument with a FS owners mother , I was buying some ottos to put into my fleshless cycled planted tank ( it had been up and running for about 2 months) apparently my tank cant be mature unless I added some guppy's or plattys, why oh why would i buy fish that I don't want, we argued for a while but i got my way.
Makes me feel sorry for all the guppy's and plattys that go into day old tanks that have been set up on poor advice, all they are doing is sending poor fish to an almost certain death.

 

[confusion]

forgot a good one. not directed at me though. I was at a petsmart by my office a few months ago waiting in line to get a fish. The employee was helping two girls in their early 20's. One of the girls told the employee that she wanted to get a "sucker fish" for her boyfriend's tank - probably something small. The tank was a 55G (I think that's what it was). The employee pointed out the common plecos. The girl knew enough to ask the question "it says that this fish gets to 18", wouldn't that be too big". The employee said something like "yes, but think about how cool it will be for him to have such a huge fish in his tank. They look really cool now, wait until it gets bigger".
During a lull in the conversation between them, I walked over and suggested looking at some oto's they had. The employee got pissy with me, telling me that she was doing just fine by herself.

Ugh.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

I got a new tank a few months ago and fishless cycled it, well I tried at least but there were eggs of some sort that must have been attached to the plants that I bought because after about a month I had two little guy's swimming around in there. anyway I let them do their thing and before long I couldn't find them, oh well! So I decided when the tank was cycled, to add a few oto's to bring down the algae (I had a huge problem but have since eradicated it) and one of them crawled under a rock and died! the other stayed in there and was thriving. a few weeks later I went to the LFS to get some more fish and decided on Peacock Gudgeons, I had recieved advice on them here that said that they were fairly simple to keep and the LFS had said the same thing, so I bought 2. They both died within a day or so but I took them back and got another (they guarantee the fish for 7 days) then he died almost instantly.

This is getting long so I'll cut to the chase. I took the third one back and asked for credit toward some other fish because I fely that perhaps there was something going on with their gudgeons, they must have gotten tired of shelling out free fish because they then tried to convince me that oto's are extremely aggressive and that is what killed my fish, and that they could not guarantee any more fish for me because of the predatory nature of my Oto.

The store is good and they know their stuff but they are crooked and will assume that everyone in there is an idiot! I should also mention that the employee that told me that oto's were agressive is the same one who told me that they would be suitable tankmates for the Gudgeons!

SLC

 

[Lynden]

No, male bettas should not ever be kept with a female betta. He will pester her and pester her until she's ripped to shreds if she doesn't spawn, and after spawning, she's in a lot of danger because his main concern is keeping her from the nest as many females will eat the eggs. Even if there are two females, it won't help. And of course, not with other males either. Females together is kind of debatable, depends on tank space and hiding space, when you introduce them and in how many numbers, etc.

That's unusual... I always used to keep bettas in pairs in my community tanks.


Well, this is not really bad advice, but I will vent...

The manager of my pet store is about the worst buisness man I have ever had the displeasure to meet. He's so bad he makes other "Total Pet"s look bad (it's a BC chain store). Every other Total Pet I have ever visited is a wonderful pet store with an excellent selection of fish, equipment, ect., all at reasonable prices. Each of the managers of these other Total Pet stores are veritable fishkeeping gurus, and give very helpful advice, as well as being very good buisiness people able to make good deals with customers.

But unfortunately, the manager of my Total Pet was a second choice because the guy that was supposed to manage the store declined. So now I'm stuck with this guy, who only hires people he knows are inexperienced in order to make himself feel smarter, cuts off the prices of the order lists before he let's customers browse them so that they are unable to see the immense markup he puts on them, ect., and generally is a terrible buisness man. Arrghh...

-Lynden

 

[Loko17]

My LFS gives good advice, Especially if Jim is working that day. I know that Jim guy personally just from going in there all the time and when I turn 15 he's already offered me a job there since I express my knowledge to him all the time. But I did go in there one time and one of the teenagers workin there sold me a dead snail. But other than that my LFS is great.

 

[Arfie]

My favourite, I had (and still have) a 24" x 12" x 12" (approx 10uk gal) tank, not only was I sold a Gibbiceps plec which can reach 18" along with 12 neons all added to an uncyled tank, but the following week was advised to get a 2nd Gibbi to keep it company which I did along with 4 corys and 6 harlequin rasbora, fortunately they fought so I took one back.

The remaining Gibbi died a few weeks after being added to the 4 foot tank, most of the neons (all bar 1) perished over the next 2 years, probably weakened form the cycle, but I still have 4 of my harlequins and all the corys

Arfie

 

[raptorrex]

the closest LFS (seems to be a bit flattering to me) i have is full of usful information.
he firmly asserts that:
a betta or 2 are perfect fish for a community tank.
"pond start" will avoid the need to cycle
his names for fish are different because, "a lot of LFS's dont know their field"!! and was selling a "blue" molli? a female and pregnant. on research it turned out to be a "potbellied molli" and a male to boot!!!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

meh you think your lfs's are bad.,..... the closest one to us used to have a live crocodile in one of they're pond tanks it didn't even have room to turn around the poor thing.... they got shut down after numerous complaints.... they've no re-opened with the same manager and all the same staff just a different name, and although they got rid of the croc they still have loads of fish that are so poorly they shouldn't be on sale or kept in entirley unsitable conditions, i've seen them sell someone a dead fish before and they never ask about the size of the tank, if it's cycled etc etc. It's absolutely disgraceful, I won't even go in there now it upset's me too much

 

[demonmagus]

My LFS gives good advice, Especially if Jim is working that day. I know that Jim guy personally just from going in there all the time and when I turn 15 he's already offered me a job there since I express my knowledge to him all the time. But I did go in there one time and one of the teenagers workin there sold me a dead snail. But other than that my LFS is great.

the dead snail thing made me laugh for some reason

well, I only have petsathome and some awful shop near me, so if I need stuff (dry) I ususally go to the petsathome. Tbh the fish aren't that bad, the only bad thing is the advice and I don't ask. I go to wharf aquatics for fish because they have more stuff.

 

[Themuleous]

I overheard a shop assistant tell a couple to get a clown loach to control their snail population, no mention that they need to be in group of at least 4. He did say they grow though, to a 'massive' 4", I had to butt in, it was going in a 10G as well! Don't think the assistant appreciated me doing that, but hopefully they didn't get one.

Sam

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I havn't received any strange advise really, but generally i never ask lfs for advice- generally the only time i do is to test their knowledge .

Most of the worst advice is the usual stuff like "Chinese Algae Eaters make good small aquarium community algae eating fish" or "You can tell a male guppy from a female by its coloring" or "Goldfish don't need large tanks or filtration" or "Common/sailfin plecs will grow to the size of the tank" etc..
However, i have read some pretty bad advice on the internet in the past, probably one of the worst peice of advice i have read was that you need a plant in a betta tank as they survive by eating the plants roots .