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Beware The LFS!!!

5K views 36 replies 13 participants last post by  Andyandsue 
#1 ·
Not sure if this is the place for this, but has anyone else had really bad advice from their LFS? When i was setting up my first tank, complete newbie that i was, i relied quite a lot on advice from my LFS. I had a couple of Angels and the yoyo's as well as the plec and i wanted to have something in there to add a little mid/surface colour and fancied the idea of a shoal of something. I saw some pretty little flame tailed guppies and thought that they would be perfect. So i asked the fishman if there were any problems putting them in my tank, specifically would my angels bully them. "No mate, they'll be fine! They're good little fish them, you'll have no problems." so armed with this advice 5 pretty little guppies went into the tank. In less than an hour they'd been run ragged and barely had a tail between them! Fortunately i was able to give them to a mate with a less agressive tank and they are all fine, but i wondered if anyone else fell for bad advice at the start ot things... Name and shame folks!
 
#2 ·
There has been a lot of people here reportedly given bad advice. Best to research more or dig deeper before you follow the advice.:)
 
#4 ·
Ely's Aquarium in NJ. Awful experience!! This man did not want to help us, upset my little girl with his comment about our fish (and his butt crack when he bent over)! The store, the tanks, even the merchandise was gross, dirty and smelled like mold.

Aquatic Visions in East Hanover NJ? The BEST! I have been told only one incorrect thing from one of their employees, and I am able to let that go, it was an honest mistake. They have been great to us even though we are not a "big" customer. I have bought every fish there (except our bettas) and have not had one issue with any of them.
 
#7 ·
mr.bojangles said:
i have great experience with the staff at big al's kitchener. the trick is to find out how long the peron has worked ther. if they've been ther for more than 2 months ther generally pretty good at there job
I'll state my opinion on this.:) The employee's stay in the petshop is not often all that relevant. It all depends on how serious the person is with his work and hobby. If he really enjoys the hobby, then that person does all his homework and tries to learn as much as possible to help willingly to customers and all too often, those who are new to the hobby.

There are people on the other hand who do not try to learn as much as they can during their two months' work. These people are often the ones who cannot even take their time to read a few books or even ask the advice and make observations from experienced hobbyists on how they take care of their aquaria.

A good pet shop employee is the one who is willing to help the customer, takes a book out if he/she cannot answer the question, takes time to entertain his/her customers and knows what he/she is talking about without attempting to mislead or confuse the buyer.

A bad pet shop employee, however, is quite distinguishable from the lighter side. He/She does not take the time to entertain customers, gets disgruntled when bombarded by questions, makes hasty conclusions which are often sounding too fishy and often, takes out all nets and equipments instead and proceed to catch fish without questions.

An advice for beginners:
It is advisable for beginners to take their time to research as well, not just ask the pet shop employees. This will help you save your time and money. If in doubt with a person's advice, always try to research further and don't make hasty decisions if it will work or not.

Hope this helps.:)
 
#8 ·
the ones that stay for 2 months are the 2s wow do ther homework ... if they dont they get fired ... 50% of my time wen im not working at the store i work at im doing research. wen we get a new shipment in almost all of the employees take a list home of the stuff they dont know about so that they can research before ther next shift. the time does matter
 
#9 ·
mr.bojangles said:
the time does matter
I did not say time doesn't matter. I implied in my post that oftentimes, time is not relevant because there are those who, even if they did work for tow months, chose not to take the hobby seriously. I'm not referring to pet shop employees in general. It's only a matter of stating my opinion based on what I had observed in my area.
 
#10 ·
the ppl at pet stores actually have a really problem with ppl not doing ther reasearch. today wen i was working some1 asked me wat to feed ther zoos ... o we had a good laugh after that person left. if ppl did ther research u would make our job easier and we would not hav to spend as much time with each customer ... its busy days with stupid ppl that recs our judgement

also ... its impossible for a single person to hav kept every type of fish available ... so alot of wat we do is generallizatio, nothing can be gauranteed.

the trick is to find some1 u like at the store and work with them only
 
#11 ·
When I first started, I consulted strictly third party sources of information, primarily books I purchased, and internet websites (credible information being that which was present on many different sites rather than just one). Very seldom did I rely on LFS advice unless it were how to use a product (ie. gravel vaccuum, tank size, heater wattage, etc.)
 
#12 ·
hmm i work at a fish store and i only been working for a couple of weeks but i know as much if not more of some of the long term employess . if i dont know the answere to someones question ill either ask another staff member or id look it up in a book ( we got mounds of book and every fish)

just my random 2 cents
 
#13 ·
Wow, i didn't realise that this was such an emotive subject, and i appear to have started a small war between LFS employees and the rest of us! Not my intention at all! Before this degrades into dead fish throwing can i just say that i have met many very helpful and well informed LFSers, and have really only had the one bad experience, so thanks to all you hard working folks out there! I really meant for this to be a humorous thread of the "oh my god i was so naive i can't believe i believed that" type to make me and any other newbies to the hobby feel that we ain't alone in our gullability! So sorry if i've ruffeled any feathers/scales out there!
 
#14 ·
sxcsamman said:
hmm i work at a fish store and i only been working for a couple of weeks but i know as much if not more of some of the long term employess . if i dont know the answere to someones question ill either ask another staff member or id look it up in a book ( we got mounds of book and every fish)

just my random 2 cents
thats exactly wat u hav to do ... the ppl like u are the 1s who last the 2 month mark and end up with cutomers that will only work with u
 
#15 ·
Mating Slinkys said:
Wow, i didn't realise that this was such an emotive subject, and i appear to have started a small war between LFS employees and the rest of us! Not my intention at all! Before this degrades into dead fish throwing can i just say that i have met many very helpful and well informed LFSers, and have really only had the one bad experience, so thanks to all you hard working folks out there! I really meant for this to be a humorous thread of the "oh my god i was so naive i can't believe i believed that" type to make me and any other newbies to the hobby feel that we ain't alone in our gullability! So sorry if i've ruffeled any feathers/scales out there!
grrrr throws moldy old silver aro

but i think it goes both ways as well i could go and tell u some "omg there so dumb" storys from people ive had come in, but ive also had some bad advice like once i went into a fish store and they had oscars for sale and i wanted to test the worked :lol: and i asked how big they would get and he said not much bigger than they were :shock: :shock: there were bearly an inch :shock: :shock: omg so i went and found a differnt employe so u just got to shop around
 
#16 ·
hi folks,hope your all enjoying this sunny
saturday. :)
well,i've had good and bad advise,and in the beginning
i lost many fish. :(
i now know who to talk to and who not to,
although sadly for me,the guy i like has gone back to uni. :) :(
so i tend to just go into the shop,get what i want and leave.
because the others are not much good.(i'm sure they would sell
you their granny before you knew it)
i don't ask them who gets on with who,because
i can either read a book or trawl the net. :)
 
#19 ·
You just have to have caution with the LFS. We have 3 LFS’ in town and two of them I don’t trust. The other has a very cool employee who will give me his honest opinion on things. He has told me his real opinion on fish and accessories that at times was a negative review, it is so cool when the LFS employees actually want to help you and not just sell you on something.

I just think, when you ask a question and they answer without confidence or if it goes against everything you have read or if it just sounds uneducated… Chances are that employee has no idea what is going on! HAVE CAUTION!

ON THE OTHER HAND

The LFS may have people that have specific experience with the climate & water in your area. This is something internet and books most likely will not tell you.

Great Post.
:lol: :p :lol:
 
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