ATTN: LFS employees

[Cahooligan]

This is mine. Me being the costumer, and having multiple employees involved....
As I'm walking out of the lfs I ask the guy behind the counter: "hey, you wouldn't by any chance know how I could get dinoflagellates out of a seahorse tank right?" (I explained how I've tried carbon, phosphate removers, wet skimming, siphoning, reduced photoperiod etc.... and asked if there was a method such as raising ph or shutting off all lights for a few weeks that was seahorse friendly as I knew both Of these are not.) he replies: "yes" he walks down one of the isles, and hands me a bottle of Kick-Ich, and says this should get rid of it. I said: "no its not Ich, or any sort of parasite, it's called dinoflagellates it's sort of like a bacteria that grows on the rocks during the day while it is able to photosynthesize, and at night it leaves the rocks, and dissolves into the water" he then says that an emerald crab or snail would eat it. I replied: "no, nothing eats it, if anything was to eat it, it would die, as it is toxic" he asks what it's called, which I answer. And he asks other employees and not one of them knew what I was talking about.

This is, from what I've heard, one of the top fish stores in new jersey. I don't remember 100% of the conversation, but other parts included me saying what it looks like and such. I had to explain to him that it was not any type of algae, and that no, I could not see it swimming in the water, and that it wasn't attached to the fish etc.... I told him to look it up, as it is an actual thing....

overall I was very shocked that not one of the maybe 8 employees that were there knew what I was talking about...these weren't kids either. They were adults. Mid 20s-30s and I've dealt with them before, I was just shocked that they had no idea what I was talking about. I'm only 17 so when I walk in and start talking about all this, they look at me like I'm the one who has no idea...now I can't guarantee that all I have said about dinos is true, but I had a better idea than they did.

Love this thread btw....I'm surprised to see how arrogant some people can be when they are the ones who have made the mistakes. Haha Happy Reefing

 

[awholelota]

i love this thread so much!

 

[AlexS95]

Had a guy come in and look in our biggest tank which had a Naso Tang and Emperor Angel and looked at me and asked, dead serious, if both of those fish were saltwater.

 

[Sever0n]

I actually had someone ask me if that fish had to be in water. :headwally:

 

[Matthew91]

So I went to Petsmart when my heater exploded in my sump a couple months back and I asked the guy in charge of running the aquatics dept. if they had fully submersible heaters to place in my sump. He looked really puzzled so I had to explain what a sump is.. 20 minutes later he pointed me to a heater that wouldn't fit in my sump and I told him I needed to fit in my sump and that I didn't want to place it in my aquarium. He asked why I didn't want it in my aquarium?? So I had to explain to him what a sump is used for again. I still don't think he got it...

 

[Reefing102]

Not really a story about a customer but about one of our other employees:

On Thursday, we got our saltwater fish shipment in. We, the fish manager and I, start unpacking the fish part first, all is well and one of our younger employees is just watching and looking at all the "cool" fish. After finishing up the fish we open the first of 3 live rock boxes. With the younger employee standing there as we open the box, she (the younger employee) says this stinks and covers her nose. Me and the fish manager smell the rock and says it smells good. The craziest look crosses over our coworkers face. After explaining that a more oceany type smell is good and if it smelled like dead rotting stuff it was bad she finally understood that it was just saltwater thing. She did say she liked the colors on the rock though.

 

[Poorcollegereef]

Ouch.

After the marineland stealth heater explosion fiasco (they were defective), I heard a store had one in their main SPS/rare item display and it blew-up on their closed days. Killed thousands of dollars worth of stuff. Marineland sent them a check to cover their livestock loss, but if you were a general consumer, they only covered the cost of the heater replacement. However, some customers wondered why the fish in the fish system were "ok" but not the display. Others asked who bought all the stuff, and they said marineland.

 

[Matthew91]

Ouch.

After the marineland stealth heater explosion fiasco (they were defective), I heard a store had one in their main SPS/rare item display and it blew-up on their closed days. Killed thousands of dollars worth of stuff. Marineland sent them a check to cover their livestock loss, but if you were a general consumer, they only covered the cost of the heater replacement. However, some customers wondered why the fish in the fish system were "ok" but not the display. Others asked who bought all the stuff, and they said marineland.

I heard about the defected heaters. Mine wasn't a stealth however. That's gotta suck for that store. I feel bad.

Thank goodness there were so adverse effects when it exploded in my sump. The only livestock I had were snails and live rock to cycle my tank.

Here's a story about some idiot kids and his family and tell me if I am wrong for not saying anything. Here is some background about me so you can understand a little better. I am not the person who goes up to someone and tell them what they are doing is wrong. Here we go... I was at my lfs staring at their beautiful SW display tank and I over here this younger kid crying about how he wanted a red tail trigger fish. This fish is quite pricy IMO and his family was very hesitant about buying him this fish. Well when the employee was bagging the fish at the station, I overheard the family talking about how they know it's going to die and that his tank is too small and that every fish they have ever bought him has died. Apparently this kid has a 55g tank.. I never kept triggers but I know this fish is way to big for that tank. Was I wrong for not saying anything? I have read this thread of its entirety and I have read that employees wouldn't allow them to sell the fish. So now I feel kind of guilty for not saying anything.

 

[Matthew91]

I take no credit for this. it is from an earlier post in 2007 #318 by Neezy

I want to keep this thread alive

i had someone ask me if they had to buy a larger shell for their tortoise when it got older...

a lady screamed at me for feeding a tiny dog to a ball python (it was a white mouse)...

one guy peed in his tank to get the cycle going...

I also had one guy go on HERE and complain about me and my LFS after i refused to sell him an adult snowflake eel the day after had bought a juvi blue tang and 2 baby percs (for the same tank)...

one person just stared at me when i told that YES, you need to FEED your fish

countless get ****ed when i refuse to sell them nemo because he wont live in a fish bowl...

Beat those i dare you guys (ps- im from chicago)

 

[Everyones Hero]

I too worked for Petco for a couple months, big mistake. I was hired as the aquatics specialist, but that's where the job title ended. I was supposed to maintain all the tanks FW & SW in only 3 or 4 hours a week. The GM of the store told me that they had problems with their SW systems, well when they do water changes they didnt have anything to pre mix the SW, you poured some salt in the sump, added FW that was straight out of the faucet and when the sump was full, turn on pump, turn it off when sump was low then do it all over again until the tanks and sumpo was full. I saw the GM and other managers sell fish to people when it clearly shouldnt have been sold. One time I refused to sell some oscars to a girl who had a 10 gallon tank in her cart and told me she was gonna set it up for the oscars that day and add the fish. Another time a guy came in and bought an Aqueon 10 gallon kit and a small box of IO salt then wanted to buy a yellow tang and clownfish we had. I told him 1. he needed a bigger tnak then 10 gallon for those fish 2. need to get it set up and stable before adding the fish I left him alone for a few minutes and an assistant manager was bagging the fish for him! Later when I came back from my lunch I was pulled into the office and told that I am to sell any fish to someone who wants it, and if they found out I was reufsing to sell fish I would be fired. Yet somehow it was my fault when our sales dollars were down because people were bringing dead fish back.

lulz. Glad I'm not the only one that had to deal with that BS.

I broke the store record in SW sales & had more than doubled the average weekly sales. Then the person in charge of animal care for the entire area restricted our ability to do special orders. Sales went back to doo doo & I left.

The new Aquatic Specialist still sends me messages on FB asking why their angels keep coming in, getting sick, & dieing. I told her to either find a reference book or come on here & research different fish diseases.

 

[xCry0x]

Funny thread...working in retail blows, it is seriously the biggest reason I had to finish school. I did not work at a fish store but I worked at a bank and having to listen to people explain how overdrafts were not their fault when I could see they went bar hopping all night made me hate people.


Read a few pages back, why do people care if others call clowns Nemo fish? Getting all up in arms about it makes you look really pretentious.

 

[Everyones Hero]

Funny thread...working in retail blows, it is seriously the biggest reason I had to finish school. I did not work at a fish store but I worked at a bank and having to listen to people explain how overdrafts were not their fault when I could see they went bar hopping all night made me hate people.


Read a few pages back, why do people care if others call clowns Nemo fish? Getting all up in arms about it makes you look really pretentious.

I think it has to do with how people act more than what they say. It's like they turn into little children. It would be like calling every dog "Lassy" or every cat "Fluffy".

 

[xCry0x]

Could it not be that some people might have more important things going on in their life than learning the correct names of everything in the world? It does not hurt or affect you in any way if someone calls a fish by a commercialized name. Now if someone sat and argued that the clown's actual breed was Nemo instead of Ocellaris then sure, call them an idiot.

 

[xCry0x]

Oh and calling every dog lassie is a lot different than calling a clown fish nemo because sorry to break it to you, the character 'nemo' WAS a clown fish. Now if someone was calling every single fish in the store a nemo, that would be the same. Calling every rough collie a lassie dog would be the same as calling every ocellaris clown a nemo fish and I doubt many rough collie owners would be like OMG this is a rough collie and her name is princess not lassie you moron!



--edit--

Lol just re-read my posts, sorry if they sound sassy not trying to attack anyone!

 

[Everyones Hero]

Like I said, it's not just them calling the clowns "Nemo" but the way they revert to acting like children which is what bothered me. It's kind of like how guys act like morons when they see a pretty girl; but it's "adults" doing it instead.

"OH MY GOD! IT'S A NEEEEEEMOOOOOOOO! OH MY GOD! Look Charlie, it's a NEMO! Say hi to the Nemo! Wave to the Nemo!"

edit: And it's the interwebs. They shouldn't be taken too seriously so if you were being sassy you are forgiven.

 

[AlexS95]

It doesn't bother me when kids do it, but when full grown adults do it...

 

[xCry0x]

Lol, well I am going to start referring to clowns purely as nemo fish just to IRK all the fish store employees.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Lol, well I am going to start referring to clowns purely as nemo fish just to IRK all the fish store employees.

:lol:

 

[Matthew91]

Enough bickering reefers.. Let's keep this thread alive. Let's share our lfs stories.

 

[phish guy]

had a good one the other day. lady comes in, buys a tank and all the stuff to go along, and of course wants the fish that day as well. not even little goldfish big like $20 ones. i tell her what a bad idea it is and that they will probably die. two days later she comes in all ****ed that her goldfish died. surprise surprise. she throws a fit and calls the cops on us because we wont refund her money. our policy on dead fish is clearly post in the store. gave us here a good laugh. man she was ornery