ATTN: LFS employees

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wow, I love this thread!


ok, Im not a LFS employee but I have a LFS owner story. So my old roommate and I go to a high-end LFS. It is a really a good store, but the owner can be a bit "variable". While I am checking out the stock, my roommate starts up a conversation with owner about nano tanks. While my roommate was not a actual hobbyist, he still was an hobbyist by association as well as the top biology student at my undergrad institution. The conversation goes on and eventually ends with the owner saying "well a 100g tank is the smallest tank worth having." The irony was that I was came of the back room when the owner said that with an employee and a freshly drilled 65g tank. The look on his face was priceless... it went from self assured to blank to the "car salesman" smile.

I have a lot of respect for my LFS folks who know there stuff and who have patience with me. I am one of "those" customers who walks around for 2-3 hours thinking things out before talking or picking something out. (I also have to drive an hour to get to the LFS so I want to get my browsing worth). The employees know now to let me be for that first hour... and don't ask if I need help until my fiancee comes in after sitting in the car and telling me it is time to go.

As for the bad stores, I have been "thrown out" of a bad LFS for correcting a real bad employee who was trying to sell a couple some "snow white" carpet anemones for $90ea. The couple were not interested in the nem, but this guy was really pushing the "rescue coral" stuff because they were setting up their first tank.

I feel for yall good LFS guys, I can't even stand the beginners forum anymore. Then again, I worked supervising college freshmen (of various BAC levels) that you don't put your hands through windows, glass doors, or fire alarms panels. Or that if you use your closet door as a beerpong table then you can't hide the beer in the closet and the closet door under the bed. I would like to deal with a million nemo questions than deal with drunk undergrads (especially the ones with a leased Lexus.) I literally had a parent bring beer to their 18yo student and yelled at me when I confiscated it. She dropped off the beer, the students tried a party, it was busted, and the she came back the next day after her child called her complaining that the mean guy took her beer! She demanded that I pay her back for it... it was only a case of Naddy-light!
 
She dropped off the beer, the students tried a party, it was busted, and the she came back the next day after her child called her complaining that the mean guy took her beer! She demanded that I pay her back for it... it was only a case of Naddy-light!
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HAHAHAHAHA omg thats priceless :lol: the nerve of some people....
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14121673#post14121673 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by D to the P
I have a story about an...inexperienced...co-worker of mine. It's almost too embarrassing to tell but,

Guy walks up and says he's having a problem with snails, and ends up describing Stomatella snails. Convo goes like this

Guy: There's so many of them is there any way to get rid of them without hurting my other snails or coral

Smart Co Worker: Can't really think of anything aside from just pulling them out by hand. I mean, they're good snails to have so I wouldn't get rid of too many.

Guy: Yeah, it's just that they're all over the place and I don't think it looks good

Inexperienced Co Worker: What about a frog or a lizard, they eat snails don't they...?

...silence...

Everyone looks at her with a blank stare.

Guy: Yeah, they got frogs in the middle of the ocean now...

He looks at the Smart Co Worker and says thanks, and then leaves.

On a positive note though I had one of the best experiences a LFS employee can have while working. A customer came in, with KNOWLEDGE of what he wanted to do, questions to ask, a notebook for answers, and he already researched keeping salt water tanks. So, after I helped him spend almost $2000 on a whole tank set up (ie tank, stand, sump, pump, skimmer, heaters, RO/DI unit, etc.) he proceeded to compliment my work, and (and this is the good part) wrote an email to my work so all my bosses could hear about it. It doesn't get much better than that :lol:
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Nice job. Now my question is... would the 2 grand he spent there have bought him 3 or 4 grand worth of gear online? The local fish stores near me are so overpriced that it seems possible that it could be possible. What size tank/skimmer/etc did he buy?
 
So this guy called the LFS on the phone, and asked for the fish guy, so I get the call.

Him: Hey I have a large freshwater tank here in my front room, and my fish have almost all died off over the last couple months, and I was wondering if you had any colorful fish there at your store.

Me: We absolutely do sir, were you looking to do a peaceful community type setup, or something more along the lines of african cichlids or perhaps a discus tank?

Him: Oh I have no idea what they're called, I just want ones that are really colorful. What is a discus?

Me: Well, it's a really pretty fish from the amazon, that have been bred over the years to have almost any color of the rainbow. You can find some gorgeous discus these days.

Him: Could you describe them to me?

So I'll skip the next several comments back and forth to save time, but I literally spent 20 minutes describing discus, african cichlids, tetras, and even glofish to this guy, trying to get off the phone. Finally I said

Sir do you have an internet connection?

Him: Yes of course.

Me: Well why don't you write the names of the fish we've talked about and use Google images to see pictures of each one, and then stop in and we'll get you set up.

Him: I can't

Me: What do you mean you can't?

Him: I can't look at pictures on the internet..... I'm blind.


I was dumbfounded.
 
wow, intersting. what the point of color? even fish really, they are meant to be watched. you jerkin us around Shmax?
 
this was told to me by a friend who works in a local LFS:


Busy Saturday afternoon, guy comes in with his wife and 3 kids. Recognize the guy, he's a regular; can't recall ever seeing the rest of the family before...The guy is looking to buy something for his reef; the wife is walking the kids around "oohing and aaahing" at the display tanks. Guy picks out a piece of coral. I bag it up and bring it to the counter.

Wife and kids head over to the clam prop tank. Wife stops dead in her tracks, looks in the prop tank, gets an angry look, marches the kids up to the counter where the husband is completing his purchase. Wife says to me "excuse me, but you really shouldn't have that displayed where children can see..." husband has a confused look on his face like "what are you talking about?" I say to the wife "I'm sorry, what are you referring to?" Woman points to prop tank and says "Those things in there... that's just wrong!" I say "You mean our clams?" She says "whatever they are, that is just wrong, having them out like that where my children can see!"

Now I am totally confused. The husband has a look on his face of embarrassment and says to the wife "what the heck are you talking about?!" I come from behind the counter and ask her to show me what is wrong. She points to the Croceas, Gigas, etc sunning themselves under the halides and says "That!" and she is starting to look very annoyed... I say "those clams look perfectly normal to me - what's wrong with them?"

The husband starts to put his hand over his face as the wife leans in to me, pointing her finger almost in my face and says to me in an angry half -whisper:

"I know that you know exactly what I am talking about... you can see their vaginas ...!"




It was a good 6 months before the guy came back in the store. Never ever saw the wife again after that day...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14159335#post14159335 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by phish guy
wow, intersting. what the point of color? even fish really, they are meant to be watched. you jerkin us around Shmax?
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Not in the least. At first I had the same reaction. Why would a blind guy care what color his fish were... But after thinking about it, I'm sure he had family or something and wanted pretty fish for them to look at. The only question then becomes, why didn't they pick his fish for him? Beats me.

Another of my favorites is a lady called us for service, saying her kids' 10 gallon tank was getting dirty extremely fast, cloudy water, ect.. And she was angry because when she bought the tank they told her it would only need cleaned once every two weeks to a month. So I went to do an evaluation/initial cleaning. When I got there she had pulled the fish out and separated them into various bowls and containers, a fish in each one, so that I wouldn't "scare" them while cleaning the tank. Stocklist for her 10 gallon was: 4 goldfish approximately 4" long, 3 medium sized angelfish, 5 guppies, and 6 zebra danios.
 
I wanted to share another kind of story. Today at work, a kid (proabbly 10 or 11) came in with his mother and was looking at fish. He told me (in minute specifics) everything about his setup. He had a FOWLER 38 that had just finished cycling. We discussed different types of fish, how hardy one species was compared to another, and what would be the best choice for him since he was size limited. We discussed the fact that he would like to turn his tank into a reef one day and therefore wanted to pick fish that would be compatible with this possibility. I recommended the Marine Fishes book by Michael as something he could use as a starting off point for selecting future fish for his tank, and I suggested several sites which would be beneficial to him (including this one). His mom told me that he had only asked for books on keeping saltwater aquariums for Christmas and had already read the 4 she had bought him, plus 3 more from the local library. Since Christmas! He selected the beginnings of a clean up crew and two ocellaris clowns to put into his tank. I reminded him to take things slowly and he was more than happy to hang on every word I told him as we walked around the store. All in all, it may have been my best moment while working in a LFS part time while going to school. I told him and his mom when they left that the future of the hobby depended on young people like him that were interested in keeping fish, but also responsible in doing so. It just truly made me feel good to help this kid who had obviously spent hours reading and learning and was so excited to be getting into the hobby. It was great.
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Great to hear for a change. Good job plyr58 :thumbsup:
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14159341#post14159341 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by carlso63

"I know that you know exactly what I am talking about... you can see their vaginas ...!"
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LMAO. So, would you call that a clamel toe?
 
I thought this was pretty funny and am going to snap a Photo next time im at this LFS.

There is a BRIGHT green poster in the window that reads

"WE HAVE SEAHORSES"
"GET 2 AND RACE YOUR FRIENDS"

haha
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14157898#post14157898 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ccorpse27
Nice job. Now my question is... would the 2 grand he spent there have bought him 3 or 4 grand worth of gear online? The local fish stores near me are so overpriced that it seems possible that it could be possible. What size tank/skimmer/etc did he buy?
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:lol: I know where you're going with this, but don't worry. Where I work our prices are very fair because we also sell online. Can't tell you which store it is though :D

But the tank was a AGA 72 bowfront (he originally wanted a 90 bowfront but I told him the extra height was pretty useless for a reef tank), with the Modern stand and Megaflow kit. He got an ASM G1x, forget which sump (I think it was an AGA megaflow, not my favorite but it's pretty easy to work with. I also told him he could build his own for cheaper but he wasn't interested), mag 7 for return, 2 Eheim Jager heaters, lifeguard digital thermometer, bucket of Reef Crystals, API master saltwater test kit, hydrometer (just to start off, then he's gonna get a refractometer), I think 2 koralia 4's (but he said he'd think about getting the Vortech down the line), Spectrapure Max Cap RO/DI system, some other maintenance items and plumbing parts, a copy of Scott Michael's Marine Fishes, a paper with recommended reading like Robert Fenner's Conscientious Marine Aquarist (we were out) and anything by Julian Sprung, and the address to reefcentral. He wants to get a T5 system so I showed him the Current USA nova extreme pro and the Tek Lights equivalent (well, equivalent number of bulbs, not quality) and it came out to just over $1800. I took about 3-4 hours to walk him through everything (not just the expensive items) and explain how to keep a salt water tank (seeing as how it was his first), but like I said he came in with a notebook with questions to ask, items that he read that he needed (he read one of those "---for dummies" books), and made each choice himself. :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14160474#post14160474 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by adunne
I thought this was pretty funny and am going to snap a Photo next time im at this LFS.

There is a BRIGHT green poster in the window that reads

"WE HAVE SEAHORSES"
"GET 2 AND RACE YOUR FRIENDS"

haha
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Hahaha if you get that picture you should make it your avatar.
 
Wow to the clam story. Wish I were also browsing the store at the time. I'd probably have come over and said something like "And I thought I was the only person who finds a remarkable resemblance."
 
HA! Just ran across this and figured this thread was perfect for the story....

"Thirty-year-old Elbert Starks of Freeport, Long Island, has a problem: He loves sea creatures. He loves them so much, in fact, that he's turned to a life of crime to support his need to be near them.

He stole a credit card from one pet store and used it at another, Parrots of the World, to buy a two-foot-long moray eel. (Let's just set aside the confusing question as to why there are eels at a parrot store.) Then, when that wasn't enough, he stole a shark.

How does one steal a shark, you might ask? With a diversion (perhaps parrot-related) and a large cooler, perhaps? No. Starks stole the young nurse shark by grabbing it out of its tank and putting. it. in. his. jacket. Somehow, the shark survived, but someone saw him do it and he was eventually busted. But there is a silver lining to this insane and bizarre story: For the first time ever, a moray eel and nurse shark met and fell in love! Look at the photo evidence â€" and that's only the PG-13 shot!"

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/01/crime_of_the_day_eelnapping.html
 
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