Yet another LFS horror story!

G

gspille

AC Members
Jan 5, 2008
325
2
18
Illinois
Yesterday while in a store, this sales boy, I mean iterally BOY, about 17, sold a man and his daughter a Giant Goramy and a Pleco, AND a new 20 gallon set up with all the works to 'Have the tank up and running immediately!'

Even after I asked the sales person, and a young lady who worked there if this fish were a true GG that gets like 24+ inches, and was told yes, they still sold them people the set up and fish. Why? Because they told the man that it will never grow like that in this tank, and being only 4 to 5in now they have another good 3 years or so before they'll need a bigger tank. Amazing...sad, but amazing.
 
Yeah every time I go to the LFS I see this occur like 4x, I wonder if other people have better LFS than me that they seem so surprised. Did you ask anyone in management, or alert them to the problem? It is too bad the teenager sold people the fish, but it is not his fault he is a young person who was lucky enough to find a part time job - which are very tough to come by these days when out-of-work adults with flexible schedules and a diploma are applying for the minimum wage jobs - and unfortunately, it happened to be one working with live animals where he was never educated about stunting, proper fish care, etc. It's possible the 2 sales people knew what would befall the gourami and just sold it anyway because they didn't care, but probably more likely that they were "trained" with the "knowledge" that fish grow to the size of the tank or something similar. Unfortunate that more knowledgeable hobbyists do not work at fish stores, and that the owner/management do not properly educate their employees, but I really can't blame an employee for taking a job at a fish store even if they don't come in knowing a lot about fish.
 
Why don't lfs just stop selling the fish that grow large? But if they have to sell them, at least educate the buyers. If that happened, everyone would be happy and they would have more business in the future through good reputation. Isn't that worth more than a couple extra dollars and a crappy reputation?
 
And then there would be no beginners out there looking and learning. Everyone would enter in to the hobby an expert, like the ones we have here. <sarcasm>
 
Well, it is sad this happens..but it is life I spose. The LFS are there to make money and most don't really care what happens to the fish. You should of seen my first set up which was sooooo grossly overstocked but they told me it would be fine to put those columbian, rainbow, bala and irredecent sharks in that 29g..no problems at all!!! Those were not the only fish they sold me either!!!:eek:
 
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