my expierance at the pet store today.

[Ky'smommy]

i took my dad shopping and convinced him to get three more female guppys for his two males. in his ten gallon.
tank is stocked with two mollys and one adult male and one baby male guppy and she told us we couldnt get any more fish in there.
umm excuse me yes we can . between us we have 8 tanks. and i was going to be setting up my 29 gallon later this week and taking his mollies anyways.
and i tried to tell the lady this and she said no sorry my dad freaked, like this is coming from the most stupidest pet store. they told my bil that he could have like 30 or more Lake malawi cichlids in his 55g. and all we want was three fricken fish.
oh well i conviced my dad to go to walmart and get them . well at least this way they will live longer.
i never lost a fish i bought from walmart. lol.
but any of the big fancy stores i dont have 3 out of how many.
thats why i prefer to drive two hours for my stuff and fish that way i know they are ok.

 

[WaterPond]

people at pet stores can be like that. but at the wal-mark where i live, most often all of the fish there have ich or fin rot, or are dead for no apparent reason. I stick to my small fish store and my pond fish breeder. I hope you were able to find your fish.

 

[Ky'smommy]

yah sometimes the walmart does to. but usually i wont buy from it then.
we only have petland and pet smart and walmart for fish no lfs.
which kinda sucks.

 

[Hara]

I commend the LFS person for attempting to keep you from over stocking your tank. Most would just take your money and sell you whatever you wanted, usually to your detriment.
Kudos to them for caring.

 

[plecoperson]

I commend the LFS person for attempting to keep you from over stocking your tank. Most would just take your money and sell you whatever you wanted, usually to your detriment.
Kudos to them for caring.

Amen-what a change from the usual "don't ask, don't care" how big the tank is, how long it's been set up, what else is in there....etc.

 

[Andos99]

I've never heard of a LFS (or any retailer for that matter) refusing to sell someone a product. That's just bad business.

 

[Hara]

I don't think it is bad business at all, in fact, it could only improve the reputation of the small business owner. The usual scenario, (exageration intended), goes into a store, buys a large number of fish, suitable or not, takes them home, dumps them into the tank, fish die. What do you suppose they tell everyone? The LFS sold me a bunch of sick fish!

It is rare that it happens, but there are those that do care about the animals they sell and the reputation that they have.

 

[Jchillin]

At some point a balance must be struck lest the LFS continue to get a bad name (most of which they certainly deserve).

We constantly harp that a LFS sells someone too many fish or the wrong fish for the tank the customer wants. Given the age old retail credo "the customer is always right", what does a LFS employee do when they percieve that selling the customer a particular or group of fish isn't right and refuse to sell it? Is the employee correct? Have they just lost a customer who will obtain these fish elsewhere?

In the above case, it looks the the store is trying but they are not consistent as yet.

 

[Fluff]

The last two fish stores I was in asked me about my tanks before they would sell me the fish. It's a good practice and I admire the fact that they take the time to train these employees and care enough to ask. While I may not agree that you couldn't have added two more guppies to the tank, I commend them on what they were trying to do and wish more places cared enough to try.

 

[Cinder]

I completely agree with Fluff. If a store was concerned enough to potentially loose a sale because of giving good advice I would give my business to that store.
As far as your adding the three more Guppies I agree that wasn't overstocking your tank, especially since you were moving the Mollies (I assume to a brackish tank) in the next week. I would have suggested you talk with the store manager and explained the situation, told him that you did appreciate the employee trying to do what was best for the fish but felt like you had the experience to add the fish. I'm sure they would have sold them to you. That employee needed to be commended for her desire to keep you from overstocking but needed a lesson on listening and hearing the whole situation and understanding that you weren't a complete newbie fish person.

 

[plecoperson]

I've never heard of a LFS (or any retailer for that matter) refusing to sell someone a product. That's just bad business.

If someone insists on buying the wrong, say, housepaint...well, then sell it to them and at least you tried.

Dealing with living things, though, brings another responsibility; to the things yer selling, not just the customer or the bottom line. And yes, if you sell someone 3 fish, tipping the tank into crashing, you bet the customer is going to say "they sold me these sick fish and my whole tank died-don't shop there."

There is much more to good business in the pet trade than just making the largest sale you can at that particular visit. There is an obligation to question, inform, and refuse a sale if it's likely to end badly for the animal(s). If the customer's tank stays healthy and happy, that is a very good advertisement for your livestock!

 

[Ky'smommy]

its not over stocked hello. the fish are about an inch. and ones a baby.
and these three were tiny.
so im sure for a week it wouldnt be overstocked.
and i agree that they shouldnt if it was overstocked but it wouldnt have been.
but im saying they are trying to sell fish to someone who is overstocked and tell them they can put all these fish in.
and then when there is lots of room in a tank they dont.
unless i said something wrong in my post.
so its only 3.5 inches of fish in a ten. i know thats not a total rule of it but still if hes moving the fish out in less then a week, it still wouldnt be overstocked
thats my point.
i wouldnt be buying fish if my tank was overstocked.

 

[joannde]

Ky - you need to think of the adult size of the fish - not the size they are right now.

 

[Ky'smommy]

i know that too. the mollys which will be bigger will be moved in a week.
and there will be 4 guppies left. in a week. not all of them will be in there.
every tank i have had i measure there full size.
i understand what you all are thinking but its not like that at all.
im not trying to overstock a tank. it wouldnt be overstocked for a week or even longer.
so im sorry if you think im bad for understocking at and rearranging things so it works for my dad. but i am wouldnt be overstocking

 

[joannde]

No, I don't think you're bad - I'm just wondering if maybe the fish store person didn't know (or hear) that you're moving most of the fish out.

The only reason I pointed it out is because people way down the line will do searches and see this post and we need to be clear so that they can understand what needs to be measured (ie: adult size, not to mention messy/non-messy fish) when they think about stocking their tanks.

 

[Ky'smommy]

ok thanks. i thought people missunderstood me on here. and are getting mad like im trying to overstock it and im not.
and i told her we were moving the fish out and that he had 3 other bigger tanks that he could move them to if the need be that i cant move them in sooner and shes like no, no no.

 

[Hara]

nobody got mad at you. some of us just dont see the LFS employee as being entirely in the wrong.

 

[Ky'smommy]

how do you figure they arent?

 

[Jchillin]

how do you figure they arent?

I had mentioned in my earlier post that we in this hobby are always harping and screaming that the LFS doesn't care about what they sell; that they don't care whether you are putting an 18" shark in a 5g tank or not.

When they are well informed and make the attempt not to sell fish based on their interview and/or perception, the customer will more than likely get angry and take their business elsewhere.

What everyone is basically saying is, it is refreshing to see a LFS making the attempt. In your case, it wasn't properly applied but it was an attempt. Once the good balance is reached between the knowledge of LFS employees and the general public as a whole, we will no longer see posts about LFS other than "Lookie what I got!"

 

[Cinder]

Because the LFS person was concerned about the fish. Most fish store personal really don't care about the fish - they just want to make a sale. They don't ask anything about the tank or situation that the fish is being sold into.
Whether the salesperson was right or wrong in not selling you the fish she/he was right in wanting to know the size of your tank, etc. and being concerned that the fish wouldn't fit in.
If someone is going to err - err on the side of the fish not the person wanting to buy it. Does that make sense?
No one is mad at you we just to show both sides and that an actual salesperson cared about the fish.