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Hey, guys... yeah, I know I haven't posted on here in forever, but I decided to get on a soapbox once again. I hope I'm not going to cause a flame war or name calling, but I do want people to chip in with opinions if there's anything more to say.

I just read a thread in which a member chipped in with an "enlightened" piece of advice for someone else. He wanted him to know he could never trust a pet store employee, suggeting that they're always out to sell something. This is not a personal attack on the poster, as it appears to be true for the most part.

However, I have to take offense to that, at least on a small note, because I work at a pet store with people at the "top" of the hobby. We're all advanced hobbyists and will refuse to sell animals to people on a daily basis after seeing a horrible water test or hearing that they've only had their tank set up for a few hours.

There are a lot of pet stores out there that are AWESOME and wouldn't have a problem telling someone that their stocking idea is potentially diastrous. I'm not sticking up for the idiot pet store employees becauses they obviously shouldn't be trusted, but don't stick all the stores out there in one large, ignorant cluster.

There are a lot of books and places online that can be just as bad, so information should be backed up several times over before believing it. When a store is found that is going to support the interest of the animals and not their own bankrolls, that's the store to support. Sometimes you may have to spend a buck or two more, but once a good store is found, stick with it. There's nothing more annoying than reading posts by people who have gotten good info at a LFS and then skipped out to buy the animal or equipment at a chain store to save the extra 50 cents.

Okay, I've gone off on a tangent. I'm going to stop now before I get too carried away on the evils of chain stores. Just remember guys, there are still a few good stores mixed in all those bad ones. You only have to look around a bit.

Good advice wolfie and well said, in a nutshell, don't just take one persons opinions. Do your research, ask several people....those are both traits of a responsible aquarist.

I work at a fish store, and I couldn't agree with you more, Wolfie.

A lot of the times people come into the store not believe a word I say to them, because they think I'm just trying to sell stuff they don't need or make them buy the more expensive fish. This is quite the opposite of what I actually do, and I usually don't even mention the rare and expensive fish to people that don't seem like advanced hobbyists... I usually try to "save" these fish for people who either specialize in that kind of fish or are adavnced general hobbyists that have the right home for the fish.

I do that with a lot of the rare plecos we get in, but unfortunately some people don't. One of my co-workers, who only does saltwater and knows basically nothing about freshwater, sold a green phantom pleco to a person who had a 10 gallon tank.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I'd have to slap a coworker who did that. Where I work, we're divided into fresh and salt and aren't supposed to help out the customers in the other discipline. If that guy was working with me, he'd probably have been fired or at least reprimanded.

happens in other retail locations too - including what I work in - a photolab/camera store.

Not to belittle your position, but at least, in a photolab, animals don't die if people make mistakes.

To be fair, I (a herpetologist and long-time aquarist) have worked at a petshop with a marine-biologist co-worker, and co-owned my own shop, but situations like that are the exception rather than the rule....especially when it comes to chain shops (in most cases where employees are on comission or have high sales quotas).

Last edited by Toirtis at 05-Nov-2004 01:56

I think for the most part, i'd have to agree with the poster tho, i mean, even within the stores that i trust, there are employees that know SBA and are just out for a quick buck, and worst of all, they act like they know it all!

having said that, there is a load of codswallop in books and on the internet too, i mean, you all know how fast net rumours spread!

i'm more likely to trust advice on fish in an aquarium shop than a pet shop, as most often, pet shop employees are there for the puppies and kittens.

whoever said up above that one should shop around for advice, thats spot on in my mind



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

The local pet shop was sold recently here, and the lady who took over has NFI idea... her tanks were cloudy for a good two months after she took the reigns, and I was lucky enough to hear her talking to someone who was keeping angels, goldfish and neons in a tank "this big" (i.e. about a foot)...

I pointed out the inconsistencies in her statements about the angle being fine with the others and that it would "stay small in a tank of that size" etc etc

On the bright side, the good LFS near here was able to back me up on some choices my friend was gonna make re: stocking... the staff there are all knowledgeable and honest... they past on about a $50 AUS sale in doing so, but made me even more sure that it's them I'll be spending my buck at in the future (for the record, the good shop was The Pet Centre at Macquarie Centre in Ryde, NSW, Aust.)

Dex

yes, i'm with you on that Dex, very good shop. A few staff members like putting goldies in soupbowl-size tanks, but you can't win them all.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

ditto dextrose, that store is very good considering its a petshop.

there are afew aquarium stores round whos staff r full of #%&* but yes, there are also some awesome ones out there. you can usually tell a owner who is passionate about his/her fish.

another angle to look at is the limited resources some of these places have to survive. i have a friend who wants to open a petshop in norwest, sydney (for those who duno, between castle hill and blacktown) and you know how much he has to pay rent?? $10,000 PER MONTH!?!?! and thats not even taking into account other expenses like wages and caring for the fish/animals etc. and good help is hard to find, especially cheap good help! if alot of these places could afford to have proper staff and properly educate buyers theyd probably all go bankrupt! its not like LFS are blowing their noses with $100 notes and are just too lazy to educate people, im sure alot of them are just getting by.

anyway thats my 2cents worth, i hope it made sense, its late and m too lazy to correct it/write anymore