ATTN: LFS employees

[Reefing102]

bump up

 

[aznepydna]

Customer: I have a saltwater tank that has lots of algea growing on the glass and rocks. Is there anything that I can put in there that will eat it?

LFS owner: Try a plecostomus.

Customer: Isn't that freshwater?

LFS owner: yes but you can acclimate them to saltwater if you do it very slowly.

Customer: OK. Give me two of them.

 

[Reefing102]

wow,

heres one (just got back from work)

guy comes in

customer - my tank has been set up 2 weeks and I'm lookin to get rock

me - ok (i go to show him the rock)

customer - the coral comes with the rock, right?

me - not really, you have to buy it seperate (i also explain his tank is too young still)

customer - starts looking at coral(looking to buy in the future) and asks about a couple about price and stuff. Particulary a nice large GSP.

me - its 61.99

customer - how many would I need to fill my tank

me - (laughing in my head) its all personal preference some like a one coral tank others like to have a variety.

customer - ok. so the coral you get seperate from rock. (starts looking at the rock)

Customer - how much is the rock

me - 6.99 a pound

customer - is it half gold? I don't see the gold. (in a non joking manner)

me - ummm its taken directly from the ocean plus shipping costs (not sure what exactly to say)


Needless to say he ended up buy about 14 pounds of fiji LR.

just kinda interesting

 

[D to the P]

Damn recession keeping the LFS sales down. How will we ever obtain new stories of funny/dumb moments when its just the same old people over and over again haha.

I don't know how many times I've started to help someone set up a salt water tank only to have them put everything back on the shelf because they (which usually means the price tags) decided that they'd rather just go for freshwater.

I had a guy buy 50 pounds of crushed coral the other day, then he came in and said his pH was really high. (I had to pry with questions to figure out how it could have been 8.3 when it was a freshwater tank). He had to pull all of it out and start over. Not really a funny story I guess, but at least it's keeping this thread alive haha.

 

[Jojoyojimbi]

shoulda just told him to switch to malawi cichlids

 

[Crush Coral]

I used to manage a couple stores in Dallas during the 80s. My favorite story is of a customer who with no other way to discribe was a complete jerk. This guy had a 200g tank with aggressive fish. He had a large dragon moray eel along with other large fish. He would come in complaing once in a while that his eel would eat one of his large angles or some other fish. I sold him a large clown trigger and one night he came home drunk to find that his eel had eaten the clown trigger. He then took off the tops to his tank and tried to strangle the eel. He lost the wresltling match and was unconsious on the floor for days before one of his friends checked up on him. His friend took him to the hospital where the doctor told him he was a few hours from death. The eel had shreaded his arms and he got a real bad infection. I was nearly rid of that problem customer.

 

[D to the P]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13281314#post13281314 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jojoyojimbi
shoulda just told him to switch to malawi cichlids

I did, but he wasn't interested. I told him how colorful they were, how interesting their habits are, how easy it is to breed them, but he had a plan for the tank so there was no changing his mind.

 

[Crush Coral]

bumpola

 

[phish guy]

guy comes in last night, always annoys me. he knows ALL.

guy: what do you keep your salt level at?

me: well that one is 1.024 and the other is at 1.025. i try and keep close to natural sea water.

guy: what? why so high?

me: because i try and keep close to sea water.

guy: i never go higher than . . . 1.017. no parasites. yours is to high.

all i thought was, or ya know you could just keep healthy tank.

 

[aznepydna]

Another top notch LFS in my area.

LFS owner: Hey I am running a great special on ORA acropora frags. $10.00 each.

I proceed to saltwater room and see a 29 gallon tank lit with a 20 watt strip light and see about ten frags that are bare skeleton.

Me: Are these the ones.

LFS: Yes. They should color up good under your lights.

Me: These are all dead. There is no tissue on them.

LFS owner: Oh. Sorry about that. I should toss them out.

I go back a week later and they are still there but marked down to $5.00.

 

[Reefski's]

how sad, how can people like that stay in business?

 

[aznepydna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13284799#post13284799 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefski's
how sad, how can people like that stay in business?

The two stores that my examples came from are still in business and have been for over twenty five years. The first one stopped selling salt water though.

 

[D to the P]

I had a guy the other day that uses quick cure in his salt water tank weekly, with every water change using tap water. Needless to say he's worried about his invertebrates now that he has them because they aren't doing too well. He asked me if the quick cure would mess up a starFISH.

People really need to start using sea star more. To someone who doesn't know any better I can see how it can be confusing...until you look at the sea star and see that it is in no way shape or form a fish.

 

[mcbaes72]

One time at a small family-owned LFS, I was talking to the owner and he complained about a recent employee he had to fire. I asked him what he or she did that got them fired. He said it was a young lady who did mostly cashier work, but sometimes had to get fish for customers if they got extremely busy. Well, she would have lotion on her hands, perfume on her wrist and all that would go into the tanks while she was netting the fw and sw fish. Then, after catching the fish, she had trouble closing the plastic bags and tying it up w/ a rubber band. So, she blew air into the plastic bag right in front of the customers...obviously, not knowing that she's making it worse for the fish. After ringing up the sale, she'd wipe her hands and arms and re-apply more lotion and perfume. Of course, many customer's complained and she was let go.

 

[aznepydna]

Thought two bad stores were bad. We are lucky enough to have three. This store opened up about three years ago. I went in to check it out and the livestock did not look very good. I pointed this out to the owner and offered to help free of charge. First problem was that they could not keep fish alive. I asked if they coppered the water. They did but did not test for it. I brought in my Hach electronic meter and tested the water. It was .9 mg/l. Next the coral display looked really crappy. What type of skimmer do you use? None. What type of lights? 65 watt compact. I said that they should not try selling livestock if they could not properly house it. She responded by telling me to leave and never come back. I did go back when the owner was not there recently and they no longer sell salt water livestock. And these owners wonder why I buy online.

 

[DheereCrossing]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13088860#post13088860 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mdrc
exotic aquatics

Great store. I bought my solana from you at your last big anniversary sale. I still owe you guys a visit. Our hobby is on hold though for now.

 

[dirtyclownfish]

OK, this guy who was obviously intoxicated walks into the LFS stands by the coral tank that I was looking at and asks:

"Dude, is there, um, like, uh, you know, stuff alive in there? That's all fake? Right?"

I respond: "Yes, these are all living corals,"

"No way, really?"

"Yes, most of these must be hand fed also,"

(Slurred Speech) "Look, I am an expert diver and there is no such thing a soft corals! (while looking at the price list) These must be made out of rubber or something!"

"I assure these are all real live specimens,"

(More Slurred) "You sure must be stupid, these guys are just trying to make money! See, those are glued on there!"

I walk away at this point. He ends up leaving with 25 feeder goldfish.

 

[DheereCrossing]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13121116#post13121116 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by phish guy
i may have posted this already but im not sure, so . . .

i have been asked this on 3 seperate occassions and not by an 8yr old, "What's the difference between fresh and salt water?"
its always someone who at least 30. i mean dont they teach that in grade school? or ya know, common sense.

ocean = salt water
rivers/lakes = fresh water

i mean come on. the next person to ask me is just going to get laughed at.

fresh water = water
salt water = water with salt in it

 

[kev apsley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10195263#post10195263 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JJ21
i hate when people call clowns nemos and regal tangs dorys...makes me mad

:lol: people can be so damn annoying and stupid

 

[phish guy]

we have a purple tang that everyone thinks is dori. i mean they are the same family and all but dori is blue with a big black swirl. purple tang, purple no swirl. that gets REAL annoying.