This bad?

[Cash Turtle]

Is it bad when someone like me whos new to knowing what their doing with an aquarium feels embassaed at the lack of knowege the lfs has?
I was looking at produccst like cycle and i asked the guy how he felt about " these bacteria treatments, im having trouble with my tank cycling"
i guess i could have worded it differently but he took the bottle i was holding (mardel A.C.T.) and said "you have bacteria on your fish" as he was reading the label, me_ ' no thats teh stuff for putting bacteria in for the filter. him " you have bacteria in your filter?..yeah this will work"
me-"?" the phone rings and im free of him i read the container more, whe he comes back I ask for a dozen rosy reds , and he still thinks my problem is that my filter isnt moving water and tells me if i cant fix it i can bring it in and he'll look at it for me, i just said ok, grabbed another bactiar booster and payed,
I ended up with mardels ACT and bio-zyme. he seemed to know nothing about bio-filtration, what would he say if i tolkd him I dont use carbon in my turtles filter , is it jsut the way i worded it that confused him?

 

[Guest]

none of those "bacteria boosters" really works... trust me, i used cycle and it didn't do anything. It's better to get some seeded filter material from someone you know or the fish store. One of the fish stores around here sells bioballs for 25cents a piece that they have floating in all their aquariums. They advertise 1 bio ball per 5 gallons when starting a new aquarium. Pretty neat idea i think.

 

[Cash Turtle]

I guess im ina state of desperation trying to get my tank to cycle, teh bio-zyme was a powder so i thought that might work where a luiquid would fail but i didnt test the water today so i dont know.

 

[Jchillin]

While I agree with Ashley, the LFS guy IMO blew your questions big time. There is no way that is even remotely acceptable.

 

[Cash Turtle]

hmm I guess i'll have to find myself a new fish store, i will still get my catfish from them since their holding it for me, its an easy place to stop at 15 minutes from my house, but they are lacking, i try to give them advice on taking care of their reptiles since thats one area i comfortable advising people on, but i dont see changes madeand he didnt know the difference between a dwarf frog and a clawed frog even after i explained it to him

 

[rubysoho]

I agree with JC on this one. It really is sad and this won't be the last time you'll run across this.

 

[Meredith]

I don't even ask questions anymore at the lfs other than is "this" in, or where is "this"? There are a FEW people that I recognize that know whats what, and other than that, if I have a question, I come here.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I'm with Meredith. I don't ask questions either. It usually ends up with me leaving the store apalled at the employees.

 

[greenmaji]

I ask questions.. to see how much they know and to figure out how they maintain there tanks. Ive found out some very odd things, that made me deside not to purchase fish from some shops, by asking questions and having conversations to LFS staff and owners.

 

[poppab02]

Pretty much everyone comes across this at the lfs. They don't know anything. I would venture to say that very few of the workers keep fish and even fewer actually care about their fish. It's much like shopping for electronics, especially computers. I go into a fish store and ask them "Hey, how many cichlids can I keep in my 20 gallon." They do the 1 inch per gallon rule and tell me I can keep 20 1" africans in that tank. I laugh and leave. I go to best buy and say "Hey which computer is good for me, I need something pretty basic for internet and a few games." They take me straight to the top of the line SOny's and tell me all this load of junk about how good they are. I laugh at the integrated video card they have and leave. It's ridiculous.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

The sad part is that people actually believe that the Cichlids can be kept in the 20 gal tank, no matter what you tell them.