What NOT to do! "Going to Local fish stores or Petsmart"

[Mjnorcal922]

Ok Everybody i just came to know that most lfs are liers or dont know what there doing....first of all this guy that i took my water to be tested to just put samples into 3 test tubes and the only one i could remember what it looked like was the pH and now that i have a test chart and researched other test charts my pH was higher then 7.6 so it was in the higher pH Range which he didnt test with the high pH range so i couldnt find out what the pH was but all i know is that it is bad............ This guy didn't even look at his test chart when he tested my water he just told me nothing looked to bad......This guy was fat and lazy i could tell he proboly didnt want to go to the back office to get his test chart so he guessed like he is some fish queen expert....he may be an expert is sucky customer service but isnt an expert in fish care because if he woulda been he wouldnt of told me to put 3 damn tablespoons of aquarium rock salt into my tank every 3 days which easily could of gave my oscar or pleco gill burn.............

 

[OrangeCones]

I don't think the salt would have hurt the gills, but likely he was trying to help eleviate the affects of nitrite that would be causing brown blood disease.

So much easier (and more humane) to neutralize the ammonia and nitrite with a proper dechlorinator than to eleviate the symptoms with salt.

I'm not defending the pet store guy, I was mislead many many yrs ago and see the 'bad advice' given all the time. I know not to listen to it now.

 

[ryanoh]

I don't know too much about salt treatments, but I know that you have to be careful of salt with catfish like plecos. It sounds like maybe he should have told you to put in less than that if he knew you had a pleco.

 

[Mjnorcal922]

Yes he knew exactly what i had and my complete setup including food

 

[marvin]

salt is good table spoon per 10 gal.. they arent all lacking in nurotransmiters but working for min wage should tell u something.. your helth is your responsability as is your fish.. spend a little time surfing the net and in about an hour you will know as much as the lps poor person.

 

[Dylandrewsdad]

Hey Marvin can you use some punctuation and maybe spell check please. It is really hard to read your posts......Not trying to be a $*%&$, but I am interested in what most of the posters here say and you are no exception....thanks!

MJ-not all LFS employees are liars or don't care, I have even come across a good one at a local Petsmart. You just need to find one you trust

 

[bassbonediva]

I agree with Dylandrewsdad. When I first started out, I knew absolutely nothing. My first "big" tank was an 18gal tall Eclipse 1 system that housed my first sorority (nine females). I was advised to put a "small" pleco in it to help with the algae. That "small" 2" pleco shot to 6" in the three weeks I had him and eventually fouled my filter. So, I took him back and got a few otos. Those actually survived for over a year (through me not knowing about cycling or anything like that) until my 55gal crashed earlier this year. Then, I upgraded from the 18gal to my 46gal bowfront. Again, I knew nothing and just plopped the fish in the tank without cycling it or anything. Amazingly, I didn't lose any fish from this. I also didn't know about water changes or appropriate stocking. I joined a forum (this one, I believe, actually!) and found out about cycling, so I took some water to be tested at my LFS (had been warned against Petco/Petsmart) because I couldn't afford a test kit. I was told that my pH was too high and my ammonia was off the charts because of the pH being so high. So, I was sold some pH fixer crap and told how to use it (a friend ended up paying for it because I was completely broke). The pH crap made things worse, as it sent my tank into a mini-cycle and I had a MASSIVE bacterial bloom. So, I got pissed and started doing my own research and got myself a master test kit. Imagine how much easier life is now that I don't have to rely on the LFSs or Petco/Petsmart to help with my water parameters or my stocking.

I don't blame the LFS person for what happened with my 46gal, though. I went back and told her what happened and she seemed genuinely perplexed. She had actually showed me the tubes compared to the charts, so I could see for myself that my pH was really high (8.2, which is what it is out of the tap) and that my ammonia was high as well. Most times, LFS people just aren't well-educated enough in aquaria to help out. My LFSs and Petco/Petsmart know me so well now that when I go in to purchase a fish, they don't grill me about my setup and tankmates anymore like they do other customers, they simply ask which tank the fish is going in and then comment on how they think it'll look in that tank (not if it's compatible or not).

 

[riseabovethesun]

You know, in all situations you should take the advice with a grain of salt. Is it the guy's fault for giving you improper advice or yours for accepting it blindly? Take the advice, then recheck. Like getting a doctor's second opinion. And it is actually really offensive to even refer to someone's lack of knowledge being due to them being "fat and lazy" that is so completely wrong. Then to refer to him as a "queen" that's just rude.

I agree that it can be frustrating when an employer doesn't know much about their company or their products. That goes for any employer, period. Sometimes I go to restaurants and people have no clue about the food, fish stores (even lfs) may not always know the best requirements for a tank, an oil change place may use the wrong oil because they didn't know.

It isn't fair that it happens, but you cannot consistently be frustrated with these people, if anything take it as a learning experience and even go back to the store to inform them instead of coming onto a forum and calling them names, you could have shared your experience and new gained knowledge of how to use advice, rather then bashing the worker.

Like Paige said, she didn't blame the gal for what happened, which is so the right thing to do and she learned from her experiences.

 

[unwritten law]

when you work at a fish store or even have been in this hobby enough, you know what the colors on the test kit should be..... I dont have to look to know when I test peoples water at my work...