I completely disagree with you Rallysman! They pass themselves off as authority figures and give out advice to unsuspecting newcomers to the hobby. If store employees did not give out false advice they would not be responsible. All they would have to say is I do not know. But instead they say sure you can keep 3 oscars in a ten gallon. Therefore they are at least partially at fault. I agree we should take responsibility to know this stuff ahead of time, but if I was a newbie and read AC profiles for instance I would not even have the fraction of the amount of proper information needed to make an informed decision about purchasing tropical fish.
They're gonna ban plecos!!!!!
- Thread starter blackwolfXKAV
- Start date
I completely disagree with you Rallysman! They pass themselves off as authority figures and give out advice to unsuspecting newcomers to the hobby. If store employees did not give out false advice they would not be responsible. All they would have to say is I do not know. But instead they say sure you can keep 3 oscars in a ten gallon. Therefore they are at least partially at fault. I agree we should take responsibility to know this stuff ahead of time, but if I was a newbie and read AC profiles for instance I would not even have the fraction of the amount of proper information needed to make an informed decision about purchasing tropical fish.
This is true to a certain extent, but with the resources so readily available, such as the internet and libraries, there is no need for them to even ask the people working. I'm just bitter at the moment because I'm having similar problems. People getting mad at me because of things that they should be doing. I wont get into detail and make everyone sleep, but people need to think for themselves more often.
This is what I was trying to say. When an LFS employee says that a common pleco or a goldfish are good fish for a 1 gallon bowl, the person is going to believe them. Some people do not have access to computers to find information they need, so instead of going to the library, they just go and ask the LFS employee, because they assume that since they are getting paid to work with fish that they know what they are talking about, which is rarely true.
Florida fish and game (for example) lists common plecos as invasive, but low impact fish. You can catch and release them without penalty. The more dangerous imported fish have to be killed on catch, weather you keep them or not. They also provide cooking tips for baking plecos "in the shell". They go on to say they are good game fish, and provide an exciting catch for fishermen. I don't think it's likely that plecos in general will become banned. The prolific species have already entered the areas they are capable of entering, and achieved stable populations in the local ecologies. The more exotics are far less hardy, and are outcompeted by local species.
I would like to distinguish between LFS's that try to educate or at least put out some good info along with their products(Dr's Foster and Smith)(although you may not always agree totally with them) from those who generally don't(you know who they are in your area). Some of the larger chains certainly have the resources to put out some good info and still make a profit if they wanted to. I am a consultant in a natural resources field and even in my field I feel an ethical responsibility to sell a product that is good for the customer as well as my pocketbook. My point being that I think pet stores have an ethical responsibility. Dogs cats etc. its not just fish.
That said, I think the frankness on this and other sites is beneficial for new people. They need to take responsibility also.
That said, I think the frankness on this and other sites is beneficial for new people. They need to take responsibility also.
prob just mean ban on importing them or something.... maybe banning lfs from selling them. i dont know it just sounds crazy.
