Part Time LFS employees UGH

[wds21921]

I walked into one of our LFS today and found a part time employee handing out wisdom and advice that made me cringe.

A young girl with her father was asking about some of the animals in a few tanks.

"What about these, what are they?" Referring to a tank with nudibrancs in them.

The reply by the employee: "No you don't want to get them they're saltwater only and they need to have special food that you feed filter feeders like plankton and things."

Ugh what a bafoon, but it gets worse.....

The girl then asks: "How about discus fish?"

Part timer: "Oh no you definitely don't want to get those, they're so hard to take care of and the water quality has to be absolutely perfect."

Part of what bothered me was that he made up answers to things he didn't know about or fed information that is outdated and incorrect at best.
By the time they were done they (the girl and her father) simply left the store with nothing at all.

Instead of promoting the advances in care and giving them good quality knowledge they got what I've seen in so many fish stores, misinformation.

The longer I stayed there the angrier I got out how much stuff this guy was making up.

But he tops himself yet again......

He walks to the back and nets a few guppies. Then he proudly walks up to the lionfish in a small corner tank and says "now watch this, this is so cool".
As he drops in the guppies he hollers YOU GO BOY, AHHH WATCH THAT ONE, HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.
Then he proudly displays his lack of any character and the girl is somewhat horrified but semi-interested at the same time. She eventually walks away after the feeding frenzy and is very much uncomfortable about the part timers display.

I know this is (hopefully) an exception to the rule but it reminded me very much that it's idiots like this who are ruining the hobby 1-2 customers at a time.

 

[Ciarán]

Sadistic idiot. Glad we dont have employees like that at my LFS but yeah, its disgraceful. How do these people get employment with live animals in the first place?

 

[wds21921]

I could even deal with (somewhat) the sadistic part.
The enjoyment he had (almost screaming like a girl) really bothered me though as well as the misinformation part.

I thought about mentioning it to the owners but they're on vacation until tomorrow. They themselves haven't always been the best source of accuarate info either but then again they weren't overly sadistic.

 

[wayne in norway]

If you ignore the cruelty part what misinformation did he give out? The stuff about nudibranchs is partially correct, s is the stuff re: discus

 

[RicksReefs]

ya, at least he was talking them out of things, usually it's 'sure that nudi will be great for your tank' or 'neons and oscars go great together'. except for being indelicate to the presentation of the food web to children, he was better than some I've seen.
my favorite so far was the selling of 'rare, white spotted red velvet swordtails' i.e. ich covered swords.

 

[billsreef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7757276#post7757276 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RicksReefs
my favorite so far was the selling of 'rare, white spotted red velvet swordtails' i.e. ich covered swords.

Sometimes I've had customers come up to me and ask for the most obviously infested fish in a quarantined tank :eek1:

 

[wds21921]

Many nudis are sponges eaters. Both of the species in the tank were partial to yellow and brown sponges had he bothered to read up on them. Had anyone gotten them they would have surely starved to death.
Feeding them planktonic food would have done little to nothing.

More than that though is why even sell them if the survival rate is so dismal?

 

[wds21921]

RicksReef is right though, even if he was wrong in his approach (the part-timer) it's better left unsold. Although eventually the results may be the same?

 

[Gawain1974]

I really don't understand your attitude. Instead of getting all huffy and self-righteous, why didn't you just tell the kid when you had the chance about the feeding habit of the particular nudis the store had? His advice, especially about the discus doesn't seem that bad at all. Maybe he got the food wrong for the nudis, but at least he was pointing out that they have specialized feeding needs.

As far as feeding the guppies to the lionfish, big deal. What's cruel about feeding feeders to a fish that eats live food? So, he thought it was cool, well you know what, so do most of the people who buy fish that take live foods.

It's amazing that people expect folks working at a LFS to be experts on the 100s of different species kept at the store. Yeah, you may have guessed, I work part-time at LFS. I was hired for my SW knowledge, and I'm the first to admit when I don't know something when I get asked a question, especially when it comes to FW fish. It's taken me ages to relearn most of the FW stuff, and if someone asks me about cichlids, my eyes just glaze over because there are just too many different species to know specific details. One thing I love about working there (besides that it's more like fun time than work) is that I get to learn so much from my co-workers and customers who know their stuff. I am grateful when a customer tells me something about a fish, coral, or plant I didn't know before.

I don't mean to come across as a jerk, but I've been in the fish hobby since '92, and I still didn't feel qualified to work at a fish store when I took the job. I just think that we need to have a little more realistic expectations from kids working in a LFS.

 

[JDrex]

Yea, there are a lot of idiots working at LFS. HAHA the best ones are the ones working at PetCo. Just go talk to them about saltwater fish sometime...its fun

 

[wds21921]

"I don't mean to come across as a jerk,"

Hmm I'd comment but why waste my time?

 

[Peter Eichler]

I agree with others, that is nothing and is better than most. Telling someone wrong info on a nudi ikn order to not sell it is far better than selling some poor guy with a 29 gallon saltwater tank a Moorish Idol or Goniopora.

 

[Steven Pro]

I would rather hear of someone being talked out of buying something than talked into it.

 

[onereefnotenuf]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7831238#post7831238 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Steven Pro
I would rather hear of someone being talked out of buying something than talked into it.

that would be the proverbial nail on the head. If they would have bought the nudi or the discus what would be the chance of survival of either in a non educated persons tank? when it comes to hard to keep fish/inverts my feeling is if you aren't familiar with them you probably shouldn't be taking them home. looking up info after the purchase is the wrong time to do it and almost guarantees the demise of the animal.

 

[e850]

the only good thing about this situation is that the customers DIDN'T end up purchasing anything, from what i could tell, they seemed to know nothing about fish

 

[Chad Vossen]

my boss tells everyone that sets up a saltwater or reef tank that they need the under gravel filter and pc lights and seaclone skimmer.

when i talk to people about equipment, i let them know that the skimmer they bought just isnt good enough and that they would do best researching and buying one off the internet. i often recomend coming to reefcentral to do their research and ask questions.

i dont argue with my boss, he pulls the "this is how iv done it for 30+ years" or the "what do you know?"... he believes that running the skimmer constantly is more harmful than good yet he adds suplements regularly. he also believes that water changes arent needed. yes he has a 125 gallon reef tank, the caroline covered rocks that he bought turned green, his leather corals are rotting, his stony corals bleached. he doesnt see a problem running the tank temp at 68-71, the heater broke and he doesnt want to add another.

i just wanted to show that its not just the employees that dont know their stuff. when i got my job there, i didnt know much about saltwater. i know lots about reptiles and general stuff about freshwater. now that i have learned so much, i can see the mistakes of my own boss. unfortunatly yesterday was my last day working here and aside from the boss, nobody else knows anything about anything.

 

[snarfe]

discus would prolly be the worst thing to ever start a newb with cause they would not be in this hobby for very long. way too many waterchanges for alot of people.

 

[tacomareefer]

I think its good that he at least he tried to talk them out of buying them instead of the old ya that will do great in your tank. And at least he didn't try to set them up with a reef tank and sell them a canister filter, crushed coral, and pc's like some of he lfs around here do it. Lionfish fish usually only eat live food when they first come in who cares if he fed him some guppies. Maybe he didn't go about it in the right way but oh well could have been much worse.

 

[dcombs44]

Yeah.....i agree that this could have been much worse....When i bought my first tank having zero knowledge on the topic, I was sold a canister filter and told that a 20 watt "marine glow" fluorescent light bulb would be enough to keep anything that i wanted. I've definitely come a long way from day one......oh and yes, I bought the seaclone, which was one of the "best skimmers on the market" according to the salesman. Of course, like some have said, it was as much my fault as their's for not researching before i jumped in

 

[goda]

i work at an lfs and sometimes the best way to explain somthing isnt for you is to over simplify it. such as with nudi's i just say. they are impossiable to feed. cause i know if it ell them they eat a type of sponge they run around the store asking " is this the sponge" over and over again even after i tell them we dont carry it anyways after this shipment of nudis we arnt carrying them anmore till we can get the food source in.


as for throwing fish into a tank and letting people watch them eat.. no problom with doing that. really just a problom with screaming while they do it lol. lots of times its the feedings that get people intrested in the saltwater fish. and then withtime they move past it and become a real hobbiest. ( same with snakes.. only reason any one ever admits to getting one is to see it eat.. and i think that is the dumbest thing ever.)

but we had a 1 ft grouper in the past few weeks and we were throwing large goldfish in there and the people enjoyed seeing them hunt them. also mudskippers. people cant belive how crazy they get over crickets. ( ill admit it is fun to watch them hop halfway across a tank and grab a cricket then put up their fin like " im better then the rest of you")

btw my boss hardly knows anything about fish( new owner) but its nice that she listens to the employees and dosnt pullt he " i know more then you" bs like the nudis. we told her NO and now they want to find the food so we can try to keep them