Rant about the general public and cycling

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

hamburgler

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Messages
100
After a long day at work in the fish department...i have come to the conclusion that 5% of the population knows what cycling a tank means.
Today i saw record numbers of dead fish returns and testing water samples.
After asking a few brief questions about the individual's tank after seeing nitrite/nitrate levels through the roof...it seems as though no one properly sets up a tank.

'So how long has the tank been running, was it properly cycled initially?'
'Uhhh.....yea, i ran the filter and pump for a day before adding fish'
...After lecturing on how to properly cycle a tank and discussing signs of new tank complications i get a lot of:
'I notice that the fish hide a lot, oh yea and the fish float to the top all the time, but they come back to life it seems...its a riot'

Upon further questioning...the most popular tank setups are the following:
-10g with 15-20 fish ranging from neons to common plecos to crayfish.
-30g with assorted tetras, mollies, platies, and gouramis...1 of each fish
-55g with assorted community fish...and 4 bala sharks, 2 pictus cats, and an oscar.

Oh yea...i work at petco.
 
LOL. That must get really frustrating. Getting fish should be more like getting cats and dogs. You should have to know proper care for them and be able to take care of them. But not quit as hard to adopt since fish are fragile, they can die from ich and other diseases they have when you first buy them. So somewhere in the middle. Too bad people just get the urge to get a fish tank and go out and buy one without knowing anything about them...
 
It's actually a double-edged sword...folks new to the hobby usually don't research it before diving in and a great many LFS are inconsistent with providing this essential information. It's refreshing to see a Petco employee who is knowledgeable in this respect...your customer's will appreciate that, no question.
 
At the petsmart I use they actually send you home with some paper work on the cycle if they found out you are a newb.

Can't remember if it was a fishless recomendation our not,but at least it explained it to some extent.

I imagine its to keep down on fish being returned,but whatever the motivation, its a good idea to at least put the idea in peoples head and get them researching a bit on thier own.
 
Well the Topfin tank kits come with literature that tells you it's OK to add fish after 5-7 days. I'm not sure about any other kits. Also, none of the LFS people around here warned me of the long cycle time _before_ I bought. Now they all seem to know about it.

Finally, not many of the "general public" would start an aquarium if they knew that they would have to let the tank sit fishless for 1-2 months. That's just not going to satisfy them. They want fish NOW, or they wouldn't be buying a tank.
 
The fishless cycle is a thing of mystery and is very boring to the customer. It doesnt help that the store doesnt sell anything to kick start the cycle like bio spira.
There are information sheets in the store i send people home with but i highly doubt they take it to heart. Not many people want to put much effort in. So i will continue to see sandwich bags with dead fish come in on a regular basis.
 
I agree that most people do not know about cycling a tank. Growing up my father got a tank. all he knew was to "add some food and let it sit without fish for two weeks" not really cycling the tank, although it was fishless.

this is nothing against you, but... most newbies get there first tank at a large chain store i.e. WAL-MART, Petco, Petsmart... they get a package deal and some fish and go home. example the petco near me has a deal where when you buy a tank you get 5 dollars in free fish. i have nt check to see wether you have to get the fish at the time of tank purchase or not, but i think most newbies do. most of the petco/petsmart employees in my area are just college/high school kids, they probably have a tank or two at home, but they are really not that knowledgeable. Example i stoped at my local petco the other day, they have adoption of dogs and cats from the local shelter on saturday afternoon, my wife and i want a dog. while i was there i thought i would pick up a couple of things. my wife saw a artificial rock with a fossil nautilus shell in one of the tank. she has been looking for one for her 10 gal betta tank. she found an employee after looking down every aisle and then having a casher page one, and ask the young (18-19) mad where she could get one. now she used big words (where can i get the rock with the ammonite fossil in it?)(we are both science teachers so...) first the guy brought her to the african cichlid tank! "No" she said "the rock with the shell in it in that tank" so he brings her to the fake coral shelf! finally she tanks him buy the hand like a little kid and takes him to the tank and says "that thing right there..." that" he said "is not a rock it is a sword fish!" buy this time i had joined the chase and so i reach into the tank and pull the rock out and show it to him. he id not like that and said very curtly "that is the only one we have!" and walked away. did not even check. i don't know, maybe is was just baked or something, but how can you mistake a rock for a fish twice...?
do not even get me started on walmart!

anyways i am sure that you are a good fish department worker.
the general public is dumb, i know i was when i got my first tank! i think store owners/workers in general can do more to educate the public.

i have 3 tanks in my classroom at school, and my student are always asking if i can help them set up a tank at home, i give them advice and all that. This next year i will be teaching an elective course on aquatic ecology i plan to get a new tank and go though a cycle and everything to show them the correct way to set up a tank. think of all the science you have learned from your hobby!
 
JDogg, you are right about most people being complete newbies. I only started working there as a reptile specialist in january as a part time weekend thing since i'm in college right now. I am pretty much self taught, i do not even own a tank (yet). I suppose i am on of the few who took the time to look up information online and browse forums like this one. In my store besides myself the asst. manager and one other guy know fish. But when we are not in that leaves the other employees who really dont know much about fish or even my department reptiles.

Honestly i would rather be giving proper information at a large chain store than a non pet store job, but i really wish pet stores could be abolished. Unless there was some licensing agency to inspect stores...that would be something.
 
Rant away, man! It's healthy. :)

I have had inexperienced PetSmart in the past (Sand City, CA) but I must say the staff at the Everett, MA PetSmart are pretty, well, smart about things. They inform people about cycling, the size fish get (no, you can't buy an Oscar for a 10 gallon tank) and push testing kits often. I think there's an education process that needs to happen from places like PetSmart, PetCo etc from the seller to the customer. Yes, the customer may not want to be preached at, but they do need to be informed before they go off and neglect and kill fish.
I think it's a two way street. Yes, blame the customer for being inexperienced, but be an advocate for informing people, too. I, myself have talked to fellow customers at PetSmart and talked to them about how big that Pleco in their baggie is going to get...
:)
 
DPirateRoberts said:
Rant away, man! It's healthy. :)

I think it's a two way street. Yes, blame the customer for being inexperienced, but be an advocate for informing people, too. I, myself have talked to fellow customers at PetSmart and talked to them about how big that Pleco in their baggie is going to get...
:)
i unfortunately made a little girl cry at walmart once. i convinced her father NOT to get her an oscar for her 5 gal "goldfish" bowl.
 
I'm going to resist posting stories, that will be for the next rant...maybe next weekend.

'Need help with anything?'
'Yea i'm gonna get this fish (panther grouper)'
'Do you already have a salt setup, how big is the tank? This fish can grow over 15 inches'
'No i'm putting it in this (pointing to eclipse 3 in hand), salt water? How do i make it salt water?'

Petco should not be allowed to sell any fish growing over 6 inches IMO.
 
hamburgler said:
Petco should not be allowed to sell any fish growing over 6 inches IMO.

I AGREE 100% !!! Seeing all the Oscars they sell is bad enough but when I see Red Belly Pacu's at these stores it just makes me shudder !!!
 
I'm doing a fishless cycle right now (adding pure ammonia) and I frequent the fish store near my house to see what they have. I was standing looking at a fresh shipment of GBRs yesterday when one of the employees asked me what kind of fish I had. I responded with "none, I'm still cycling my tank." She replied "oh, well how long have you been cycling?". I told her two weeks and she said "it should be done by now, how many goldfish did you put in?" When I told her I was doing a fishless cycle she seemed absolutely baffled and said that I should talk to Jeff, their resident fish expert about it (he actually is VERY good).

I'm guessing when you get hired on as an employee at a pet store there is some kind of training required. I honestly blame the training programs. It would take probably half an hour of training to get an employee up to speed on this stuff. I'm amazed at how inconsistent the information given to the consumers is, and that's where 95% of consumers get their information... the place where they are buying their fish.

Oh well, good work Hamburgler. Teach the public one moron at a time.
 
Okay ranting on something is healthy for the most part, and we all do it. However dont forget that at one time we were all newbs to this area, and if at that time someone called us a moron for not knowing what to do would of probably made us very upset and not continued on in the hobby. This seems to be something that not only affects fish but a whole lot of others areas aswell. Im sure in some of our professions we can say the same about the general public. I know I can, and am guilty of it. But to just blast on people because they dont know every little intricacy and expect them to be at a certain level right of the bat is kinda unfair to them. However the fact is that we all are trying to teach new hobbyists the right way to do stuff, is good practice and from what I believe, is what this web site is all about.
 
Can't blame the training at petco...there is none, at my store at least. My first day there was on the floor, given i knew the reptile department well.

lemonheadmech, by all means i am not critisizing those who fail to take the proper steps. It was just a rant. When talking to these people i am nothing but polite, i have to be! Although its often difficult.
 
Back
Top Bottom