Read This Post Before Getting Fish

My 2 cents worth

I agree with the message of this sticky. But sometimes its not only sale people in fish stores that creates the problem. I have 2 goldfish because my 4 year old took swimming lessons at his day care. One day the people running the day care put goldfish in the swimming pool, and had the kids swimming with them. My son caught one, he was so proud that the swim instructor let him keep it. They put the fish in a cup with about 10 oz of pool water. I was to say the least pissed. Not only did I not have a place for the fish, I didn't know how to care for it, I just knew that I would have to explain death to a four year old when his fish would die. So I went to Petco and got a 10 gallon kit with everything, I didn't want to spend too much money on anything because I was sure that the fish would die. Then I started researching on goldfish (that how I found this forum). Imagine my horror when I learned about clorhine and goldfish. That was over a year ago, and surprisingly the fish lived. I did buy another fish for company. And wound up buying a 55 gallon setup for the 2 fishes. And now i have a hobbie, but a year ago i really wanted to choke one swim instructor.
 
Fully agree! I think every fishkeeper needs to know about his responsibility before he buys a fish.

A Chinese restaurant near my house has two bettas in 2 bowls on their counter. When I saw these two fish, I feel so sorry for them.... dirty water, uneaten food on the bottom, fin/tail rot, mouth deformed... etc. I could not believe the keeper showed their customers the poor sick fish.

A couple of days later I went to that restaurant with some bacteria medicine. I knew I was probably rude to do such thing, but I couldn't help myself. Some people treat fish as "inexpensive disposable items", which is really wrong thinking. We should respect "life" no matter it's a dog, a money or a fish.

Reading / doing research are both very helpful for beginners like me.
 
Hello this is my first post here. I have a question. I work for petsmart. We do have a policy that we can refuse any sale. Apparently in some areas there are groups of people with a certain religion(not sure which one) that has a new years type of tradition where they will buy a bunch of comets and literally pack them in a bucket like a can of sardines, and see how long they live or something. I have never encounters these kind of people here but curious as to what I should tell these people since it borders on a religious thing. I can just imagine their response would be like "they are just going to be die while getting fed to something...". What would be a good politically correct way to deny a sale for that reason? Also to cover my behind should I get in trouble if they we to complain to corporate...
Thanks.
 
Refuse the sale and give them the number to a good cruelty shrink.
 
mooters said:
Hello this is my first post here. I have a question. I work for petsmart. We do have a policy that we can refuse any sale. Apparently in some areas there are groups of people with a certain religion(not sure which one) that has a new years type of tradition where they will buy a bunch of comets and literally pack them in a bucket like a can of sardines, and see how long they live or something. I have never encounters these kind of people here but curious as to what I should tell these people since it borders on a religious thing. I can just imagine their response would be like "they are just going to be die while getting fed to something...". What would be a good politically correct way to deny a sale for that reason? Also to cover my behind should I get in trouble if they we to complain to corporate...
Thanks.
Click to expand...

I think you may mean the Persian New Year. It is a tradition to have a goldfish in a small bowl on the table to symbolise life or something. Most people see these fishes as just that - a symbol and don't care the least about the individual. So when celebrations are over they just get rid of the poor creature. But some people do care. My ex used to work at a pet shop and she told me of an Iranian lady who had a large aquarium for all the New Year fishes.

Now, I don't think this is a religious tradition as Iranians are Muslims and to my knowledge there is nothing in the Koran about fishes on the table during New Year celebrations. I think it is just an old tradition. But maybe people regard it as part of their religious celebrations now. And that makes things a lot trickier.

I suppose the only thing you can do is to inform them that you sell pets and you don't want to sell animals that won't be cared for as pets. They will probably get really upset with you and accuse you of discrimination or something. Maybe there is a law against animal abuse where you live? There is one here, so if I were in your situation I would probably just refer to the law and say that according to the law they can't keep the fish that way, so I can't sell it to them.
 
What a great thread. I'm glad it's a sticky. I wish the clerks at my LFS would read this.

Recently i was going to add 3 venustus to an already well stocked cichlid tank (because they looked cool). After research and a little help from the AC community, i realized they would grow too big. Just to see what he would say, i asked the clerk for his opinion. He ASSURED me this would be no problem. Several people here already told me ONE venustus was too much for my tank. Yet this "professional" felt adding THREE was no problem.
 
Yes, LFS people should read this thread. I guess I must have been very lucky, when we got our first fish tank some 35 years ago, the LFS propietor was very good about what we could and couldn't put in the tank, sending us home with our first tank and told to not put fish in it till it had been running for awhile. He sold us test kits and a fishkeeping book but no fish. He'd always tell us of potential problems when we were looking at the cute little Oscar or pretty cichlid as tankmates for our betta and gourami's. The result was that before a year was up we had 3 tanks going including a salt water tank. All full of fish living harmoniously. And we bought every one of them from the guy who refused to sell us the Oscar and the cichlid.
 
I'm a newbie and until now have followed the advice of my LFS manager. She has advised me all along, including ordering and setting up the 46-gal FW tank, cycling, selecting plants and fish, water testing, and establishing the feeding regimen. I'm starting to find areas, such as water testing and fertilizing the plants, where her advice may no longer serve me, so I'm getting excellent help here on AC. I'd like to say, though, that overall her help has been excellent and she's prevented me from unknowingly overloading my tank with fish. I completely agree with the initial post and replies about overstocking and buying fish that will outgrow the tank, but I feel that the responsibility lies with both the fishkeeper (even newbies) and the LFS. Both should be well educated and thoughtful about each step involved in fishkeeping. Everyone makes mistakes (me too), but being new is no excuse for not doing sufficient research. (Nice double negative there!)
Even at home I've had to fend off my husband's wish for a pleco; I have several very small oto cats and cories that work just fine, and I don't want a fish that will be much more than 4" max. He doesn't mean any harm, but this concept seems to escape him. So I expect the same is true of many others who would never intentionally misuse an animal or keep a huge dog in a tiny apartment. They are just carried away with the appeal of the animal as it is now. It's up to the rest of us to gently educate them and do what we can to prevent such situations from happening.
Cheers, Flory
 
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