Frustrated with some people...!

[Talvari]

I work at a LFS in the pet care department. Yes, I sell people fish. I'm one of the people that gets a bad rap from all the associates out there that are either poorly trained or just don't care about the animals they work with.

I usually REALLY love my job. I've been around and working with animals for as long as I can remember, I've got a tech degree in animal science, and if I find something I don't know about a certain type of animal... I try to research or at least ask someone who knows more.

I usually really enjoy my customers, as well... But let me tell you how frustrating it is to talk to some people. At my store, we technically are allowed to refuse a sale... But our manager discourages that. Heavily discourages that.... As in, possible disciplinary action for "poor customer service".... Anyways... Types of customers that frustrate me:

1- "Its just a fish, who cares if it dies?".... Its a living breathing thing. If you have that sort of attitude over it, then you shouldn't be getting it. This is most often said by people who want to put comets in bowls.

2- "You are just trying to make me spend more money!"... No, the water conditioner I am selling you is really important, especially when you have city water. Yes, you really should have a filter for your tank... No a fancy goldfish needs like a 20 gallon tank... Not a 1 gallon bowl.

3- This is just a general "I know someone who did something and it worked for them" sort. I had a lady tell me she knew someone who kept an oscar with angels 'and it worked fine'. She ignored the question of how big the oscar was. I had gentleman tell me he knew someone who kept a irri shark in a 20 gallon tank. He ignored the 'how big is it, and how long did it live' question.

4- "Fish grow to the size of their tank"... and don't believe anything else you try to tell them. Plecos in 10 gallon tanks? African cichlids in a 5 gallon tank? Comets in a bowl?

5- "well.. Ill just get the tank and fish today. That cycle thing cant be that important, and I dont want the kids to throw a temper tantrum because we cant get fish today." Okay, so your kids can throw a bigger fit when their fish die?

6- "Im getting this tank as a surprise for..." No, please. If someone wants an animal for a pet... they will get it themselves. Please dont push an animal off on someone unless they know about it because too often the animal dies because said person doesnt want the responsibility!


Do any of you have pet peeves like this?

 

[ILikeFishesALot36]

The one you listed as number 4 irritates me the most. My father has a friend who keeps 2 Japanese koi in a 100 gallon tank. He says they grow to the size of their tank and that they have been living in there for 40 years so far. I don't believe it.

 

[Matt68005]

My pet peeve is people who work at pet stores who don't know anything but still give advice, that turns out to be wrong. Another pet peeve is the prices of stuff being jacked way up. Or buying fish and following directions exactly only to have them to die no matter what you do for them. There are some LFS that can be cool, but lately they have been closing down in favor of petco and petsmart. Petsmart is okay. Petco is not. Petco cannot keep their fish alive no matter how hard they try. When i ask them a question, i find myself answering it. There is this one guy who works there who is like 6'5 300 pounds who kept following me around to everything that i looked at asking me "if i needed help" literally 6 or 7 times in a row. I only go to them out of absolute necissity.

 

[Flossie]

Sheesh... I'd go crazy !!! Lol

 

[absolutangel04]

NUMBER 3!!!!!
I hear that all the time! That sort of "evidence" is the worst. I agree with what you are saying! What size was the fish? How long did it live? There are sooooooooo many variables which mean that "evidence" like that doesn't work. Also, I don't understand why people think that just because a fish didn't drop dead that it must be very happy in its current situation. I hear things like, "well, I have this oscar in a 5g tank with 2 neons, 10 guppies, and a clown loach, but I haven't had any problems in the last 30 minutes and all my fish are happy!" Ok, thats an exaggeration, but its not too far off from what some people think are situations where their fish are happy. Just because a fish is alive does not man its happy. Just because it is swimming does not mean its happy. Is it active, does it have color, are the water parameters decent, is it exhibiting behavior specific to its species, is it the proper size, are its fins up and not clamped against its body, is it breathing normally? I don't think fish feel emotions like us, but they can still have a good quality of life and stuffing them into tiny tanks with ridiculous tankmates and crazy ammonia doesn't lend to a good quality of life. I wish people would quit kidding themselves into thinking thats whats best for fish. IMO, they should be appreciated for what they are, not what we want them to be. Just a random example, clown loaches should be appreciated for being big, silly schoolers with clownish habits, not for being tiny snail eaters sent in to rid some random tank of its snail problem before eventually dying from growth stunting.
Wow, it felt good to say that. Well, it felt good to type that....

 

[bruinsbro1997]

2 3 and 4 are on my nerves the most! I hate it when I walk into the store and people just ignore the advice of the workers, just a couple of days ago a couple was buying a betta with their newly bought bowl for it and although the owner was frowning and looked disapproving they had this total "been there, done that", "i know what i'm doing" feel to them. Don't like those people at all.

 

[Talvari]

Yeah... really. I mean, I have other irritating scenarios, but those are really the worst...

Bruinsbro- Another pet peeve? The "Oh, I want to breed!" People...

I had a lady come and want to breed bettas. She was an "expert" because she read a book on it... She picked out two of the first bettas she found and was like "oh they will make beautiful babies!".... The male wasn't all that bright and his fins were less than ordinary and the female was the smallest in our sorority tank and often was picked on... Great choices. I asked her what she knew about breeding and this is what I got:

Oh, it cant be that difficult. You just put them in the same tank, let them do their thing, and then separate them... Then the boy takes care of the babies.

She knew nothing about conditioning them, or separating them for awhile beforehand, or letting the male blow a nest first (she didnt even know what a bubble nest was) and most importantly... She didn't know what the heck she was going to do with the fry! WHY would you breed?! Get some guppies if you really want to breed... at least you can keep those in the same tank!

 

[Fishguy2727]

For number three you can explain that even years of 'success' isn't success until those fish live to be 8-10 or more. If tetras die at age three it isn't old age, effectively no fish die of old age. They die from long term care issues. Just because something wasn't so bad that it killed them immediately doesn't mean it didn't kill them slowly over the years. When tetras can live to be eight and oscars can live to be twenty, those same fish dying at three or five doesn't mean that person succeeded.

One thing that I have seen multiple times is what I call old tank syndrome. This is when a tank is neglected for years, the owner thinking they are all fine. They don't do water changes, they feed low quality food, etc. There are no obvious signs of problems so they keep doing what they are doing. Eventually they reach a tipping point and everything becomes very sick seemingly out of nowhere. If they are lucky a few fish make it and it serves as a wake up call for the owner (usually not, they find something coincidental besides themselves to blame). The real cause is the years of neglect produced horrible water quality that the fish acclimate to as it happens.

A warning sign for this is problems with new additions with no problems with the established fish. The established fish were in the tank as it happened but the new ones are suddenly exposed to horrible water quality (frequently still crystal clear thanks to the overuse of carbon filtration that hides the symptom without treating the problem).

One of my pet peeves is people using low quality foods because it has been good enough so far. I have seen people (somehow) accidentally breed certain fish on things like Tetra, but that doesn't mean it is the healthiest for them long term. But people cheap out (why Tetra and Ol' Roy are the best selling fish and dog foods). Then I try to let them know how important nutrition is, but they don't belive me. I hope they aren't feeding their kids chicken nuggets every night...

 

[absolutangel04]

For number three you can explain that even years of 'success' isn't success until those fish live to be 8-10 or more. If tetras die at age three it isn't old age, effectively no fish die of old age. They die from long term care issues. Just because something wasn't so bad that it killed them immediately doesn't mean it didn't kill them slowly over the years. When tetras can live to be eight and oscars can live to be twenty, those same fish dying at three or five doesn't mean that person succeeded.

One thing that I have seen multiple times is what I call old tank syndrome. This is when a tank is neglected for years, the owner thinking they are all fine. They don't do water changes, they feed low quality food, etc. There are no obvious signs of problems so they keep doing what they are doing. Eventually they reach a tipping point and everything becomes very sick seemingly out of nowhere. If they are lucky a few fish make it and it serves as a wake up call for the owner (usually not, they find something coincidental besides themselves to blame). The real cause is the years of neglect produced horrible water quality that the fish acclimate to as it happens.

A warning sign for this is problems with new additions with no problems with the established fish. The established fish were in the tank as it happened but the new ones are suddenly exposed to horrible water quality (frequently still crystal clear thanks to the overuse of carbon filtration that hides the symptom without treating the problem).

One of my pet peeves is people using low quality foods because it has been good enough so far. I have seen people (somehow) accidentally breed certain fish on things like Tetra, but that doesn't mean it is the healthiest for them long term. But people cheap out (why Tetra and Ol' Roy are the best selling fish and dog foods). Then I try to let them know how important nutrition is, but they don't belive me. I hope they aren't feeding their kids chicken nuggets every night...

I agree wholeheartedly.
Recently, I actually heard somebody specifically advise against water changes! They said that pwc are not actually necessary and basically made it sounds like pwc are just a hoax created by self-righteous tank owners. They also said that they never do pwc and don't have any problems. Except, I know the person and happen to know that they had OTS like crazy! I just saw 5 fish die in their tank this month!
Some people seem to be in denial about this. If you put up a thread and say "my fish are dying," you have a problem! But then, a day or 2 later, they seem to forget that and suddenly say that their tank is perfect and all their fish are happy. Seriously? Can you say, "selective amnesia?"

Another peeve of mine, "my water is clear, so it is pristine in quality." Nope. As fishguy said, there are other ways to get clear water. Heck, bleach is clear, but I wouldn't put my fish in it!

 

[Johny]

I was at a LFS a few weeks ago looking at fish with my daughters (just to take a break from running errands). There was a couple with 3 kids looking at fish. It didn't take long to figure out that they were going to buy everything that day: tank, filter, fish...everything. It was hard to tell who was more excited about it, the kids or the parents. They were all giddy like school girls.

I didn't try and dissuade them, it was obvious that they wouldn't listen. I casually engaged the dad in conversation and confirmed my suspicions. He asked me a couple questions (what kind of fish we have, how big of a tank). I then said "Can I offer one piece of advice that will save you a lot of money?" At this the wife's ears perked up and she started paying attention to our conversation. I told him to find a good forum (then mentioned this one) and do some research. I told him how we started with a used/established tank thinking we would save a lot of money and then ended up spending as much or more than we would have if we had bought new because we had no idea what we were doing and neither did the people we bought our tank from. He lost all interest in talking to me, and the wife sneered at me. They turned and walked away from me without saying anything else.

Guess they fit # 5 pretty well. Oh well I tried. Didn't stay around to see what they bought.

 

[KatieJ]

I honestly think it should be illegal for LFSs to sell faulty advice to their customers... they're blatantly LYING in order to make a profit. That's illegal to do when pharmaceutical companies sell medicine and stuff (when you hear a commercial for this awesome new drug but half of it is the side-effects)... why not require pet shops to do the same? >.> I mean, yeah, you're not endangering human life here, but you're endangering the lives of your fish. Shops that tell their customers they have to wait 24 hours and then buy all these fish are, in my opinion, supporting animal cruelty.

 

[absolutangel04]

I got another one! People frustrate me who think schooling fish don't need to be in schools. Again, I hear this colloquial "evidence" of people who are saying they keep them and its fine. Nobody just pulled the idea of schools out of thin air, its not a tactic to sell more fish, its a natural behavior exhibited in the wild. Again, just because your fish didn't drop dead does not mean its happy or that you are doing right by the fish. Like Fishguy said, IMO the real evidence comes from the lifespan of the fish in those situations. I just do not believe somebody who tells me their fish are fine and perfectly happy because they managed to not drop dead in couple of months. Good luck with that in the long run. Talk to me after YEARS, then maybe I will put some stock into what you say. Just my opinion.

 

[Talvari]

Haha... I remembered another one, and this one goes with the whole, 'oh my fish are happy' mentality.

"But my fish lived a long time (and/or) stayed really small!"

Examples: My comet lived three whole years (at only four inches long)!
My common pleco lived 3 whole years (happily! in a 20 gallon tank! at six inches!)
My betta lived a whole year! (happily! sure.. he was kinda pale.. and didnt swim much...)

 

[absolutangel04]

Haha... I remembered another one, and this one goes with the whole, 'oh my fish are happy' mentality.

"But my fish lived a long time (and/or) stayed really small!"

Examples: My comet lived three whole years (at only four inches long)!
My common pleco lived 3 whole years (happily! in a 20 gallon tank! at six inches!)
My betta lived a whole year! (happily! sure.. he was kinda pale.. and didnt swim much...)

Yep. This is just my opinion and maybe its off-base, but I seriously think some people just have too much pride to admit they are treating their fish poorly. It seems like they would rather damage the fish than just admit that maybe they were wrong IMO. Or, maybe some of them just seriously do not understand other living things. I mean, why do fish school? Its a survival strategy ingrained in them over soooo many generations. Thats why they get stressed when they can't school, because their insticts say they are not safe. To say that schools are just a selling tactic invented by people who want to sell more fish is crazy. Look in a lake! To me, that goes with the size thing too. Fish are supposed to grow, not stay tiny. Again, look in a lake, do you see tiny adult fish thriving there? Nope.

 

[Fishguy2727]

I don't think it is pride. They see their fish doing well, as far as they can tell, so what is the problem? The bigger issue is that even if there is a problem, it is a natural instinct to try to blame something other than yourself, anything else as long as you can convince yourself you didn't cause the problem (no matter how irrational).

 

[absolutangel04]

I don't think it is pride. They see their fish doing well, as far as they can tell, so what is the problem? The bigger issue is that even if there is a problem, it is a natural instinct to try to blame something other than yourself, anything else as long as you can convince yourself you didn't cause the problem (no matter how irrational).

Thats fair. I do still think its pride for some people, but I shouldn't have made it sound like its that way with a lot of people.

 

[adeebm]

What I hate the most is not people that are misinformed, but people that just don't care. Misinformation, while not a justifiable excuse(for adults at least) is still understandable. Misinformation and mistakes are part of human nature. It's far worse when people know that what they are doing will cause their fish to die, or long term harm, and continue with their ways. I think it boils down to whether or not you appreciate life. To some, a fish is just a fish, and if it does, no harm done. Unfortunately, when someone doesn't value life, there's not much you can do to change their opinion.

--Adeeb

 

[absolutangel04]

What I hate the most is not people that are misinformed, but people that just don't care. Misinformation, while not a justifiable excuse(for adults at least) is still understandable. Misinformation and mistakes are part of human nature. It's far worse when people know that what they are doing will cause their fish to die, or long term harm, and continue with their ways. I think it boils down to whether or not you appreciate life. To some, a fish is just a fish, and if it does, no harm done. Unfortunately, when someone doesn't value life, there's not much you can do to change their opinion.

--Adeeb

I agree with you. People who don't care certainly frustrate those who do.