Dumbest Aquarium advice you've ever been given?

[bigfuzzymonster777]

my advice has never been that bad, but that's because i don't ask for it except for on here lol. The worst was probably that my dads overstocked tank was actually understocked because since it was a 55gal, it could house 55 inches of fish. When i confronted the store owner about the bad advice, he immediately went to calling me a stupid kid and an idiot and not to come back to his store and other not very pleasant things.

I sent my dad in

i bet you know much more than he will ever know.

 

[msumpter87]

This isnt really advice but it is still funny. I was looking at my lfs for a smaller qt or growcout tank and i stumbled on a 40 breeder $25. I thought it was to good to be true because it looked brand new. I went to get an employee to ask a few more questions about the tank. I noticed on my second inspection of the tank the center brace was cracked. The employee looked at me and said its fine it was built like that and it lets the glass flex a little. He asked if I wanted it but I just walked back to my car speechless.

 

[Ayi]

This isnt really advice but it is still funny. I was looking at my lfs for a smaller qt or growcout tank and i stumbled on a 40 breeder $25. I thought it was to good to be true because it looked brand new. I went to get an employee to ask a few more questions about the tank. I noticed on my second inspection of the tank the center brace was cracked. The employee looked at me and said its fine it was built like that and it lets the glass flex a little. He asked if I wanted it but I just walked back to my car speechless.

It just shows that people will do anything for money.

 

[bettaowner]

A while back, I was returning some fish to my Lfs and they said I could choose a fish to get in return. I was going to get some male guppies but the employee started trying to sell me a rainbow shark without asking how big my tank was.

 

[AngelFishGirl]

A while back, I was returning some fish to my Lfs and they said I could choose a fish to get in return. I was going to get some male guppies but the employee started trying to sell me a rainbow shark without asking how big my tank was.

Ugh that's awful! What if your tank was only 10 gallons! LFS employees sometimes......

 

[Oohitsae]

Not that this is advice, but kind of ridiculous none the less...
I once had a chain store employee tell me that I couldn't return a pair of guppies because they were still alive. Which is understandable, you don't want to catch any disease in your tanks, but I had only had them 2 days and explained that they had been in their own quarantine tank.
She looked at me like she had no clue why a QT was, and said "sorry, it's still against policy" my reply was "so, you can take dead fish, but won't take back live ones that you are able to resell? Would you prefer if I went back home to euthanize them an bring them back tomorrow so that you can do a return for me then? They simply won't work out in my tank and they have to go somewhere." Not that I'd actually euthanize them, I was just tryin to make a point. Finally after I said that she allowed it.

Then her coworker came over and looked at my bagging Job and saw that it didn't have the stores labeling on it. He asked me if I just went out and bought them somewhere else for cheaper and return them there to make a profit. I was like "yeah, the whole 0.50 I could get on 2 guppies would really be worth it!" (Sarcastically) He asked "then why are they bagged so nice?" .. "Hmmm, maybe because I breed and ship fish" he kind of scoffed and acted like it was impossible to ship live fish but didn't say anything to me after that, and I really wanted to say "how do you think you get your fish in?" But refrained because by then the original girl had processed my refund and I just walked out and haven't been back since lol

 

[Ayi]

Not that this is advice, but kind of ridiculous none the less...
I once had a chain store employee tell me that I couldn't return a pair of guppies because they were still alive. Which is understandable, you don't want to catch any disease in your tanks, but I had only had them 2 days and explained that they had been in their own quarantine tank.
She looked at me like she had no clue why a QT was, and said "sorry, it's still against policy" my reply was "so, you can take dead fish, but won't take back live ones that you are able to resell? Would you prefer if I went back home to euthanize them an bring them back tomorrow so that you can do a return for me then? They simply won't work out in my tank and they have to go somewhere." Not that I'd actually euthanize them, I was just tryin to make a point. Finally after I said that she allowed it.

Then her coworker came over and looked at my bagging Job and saw that it didn't have the stores labeling on it. He asked me if I just went out and bought them somewhere else for cheaper and return them there to make a profit. I was like "yeah, the whole 0.50 I could get on 2 guppies would really be worth it!" (Sarcastically) He asked "then why are they bagged so nice?" .. "Hmmm, maybe because I breed and ship fish" he kind of scoffed and acted like it was impossible to ship live fish but didn't say anything to me after that, and I really wanted to say "how do you think you get your fish in?" But refrained because by then the original girl had processed my refund and I just walked out and haven't been back since lol

I think this is one of the funniest things I've ever read!

 

[fishfan88]

It may have been said already but posted all over my LFS are big signs saying:

REMEMBER! Always run your new tank for 7 days before adding fish!!!

I was told 24 hours. By a pet store employee

 

[Chard56]

7 days is a long time for some impatient people to wait for their fish. I remember having customers put Mollies or even Goldfish in their Saltwater tanks to cycle them years ago. I have had a fish store back in 1977 and have had as many as 50 tanks at home. I have over 20 tanks now from 2 to 90 gallons and have never in my entire life cycled a freshwater tank. I have two 75 gallon stock tanks I keep conditioned aged water in for changing out my over 250 individual Betta containers and various tanks. I occassionally check the parameters but I've never had a problem. Maybe that's just me but I don't have time to cycle every tank.

 

[fishfan88]

Yeah I've never done a fish less cycle before accept when I bought a tank off kijiji, but it was already used and cycled, so that doesn't really count

 

[Mebbid]

The last time I did a fishless cycle I put 3 sponge filters and 2 70g HOB filters on a 10 gallon seeded tank. When the ammonia started dropping it dropped FAST

 

[jwh0818]

The last time I did a fishless cycle I put 3 sponge filters and 2 70g HOB filters on a 10 gallon seeded tank. When the ammonia started dropping it dropped FAST

I wish I had some seeded media!

 

[Platiesareawesome]

This isn't really advice but I was in [store] and there was a HUGE roach floating in a tank with some goldies and disjoin loaches. It was still alive and I told the "expert" fish guy and he said that the goldies eat them.

Hahaha! [store]!

 

[Mebbid]

I wish I had some seeded media!

It makes things soo much easier when you do! But it's okay. When you want to start a new tank after your first you will have all the seeded media you can handle

 

[aquandrew]

not advice either but i was at my local county fair today and they had about 50 hermit crabs in a 10 g 100 goldfish in a 20 and a bunch of glofish in a half filled 5 gallon fluval spec with white trim!!!! i cant believe they had glofish. goldfish were if you made one ping pong ball in the cup, hermits were if you made 3 and glofish were if you made 5 out of 5 throws

 

[fishy_friend]

at a petshop, they sold me two baby neon tetras, saying they don't like to be in big groups, along with a red tail shark. the next day I only had one tetra.

 

[Fishdude3233]

All these stories are awesome

 

[Platiesareawesome]

"Sure, you can have a ram in your 10 gallon with your platies and tetras!" -my lfs

 

[Jonnypro]

My friend caught a sand shark and put it in a 75g bowfront. I told him its way to big for his tank, that it needs to swim in order so get oxygen.

 

[Miyavp]

My friend caught a sand shark and put it in a 75g bowfront. I told him its way to big for his tank, that it needs to swim in order so get oxygen.

Thats a pretty cramped space