Okay, so I work part time now at Petsmart, in the aquatics and small animals department. Love it! The only drawback is how attached I am to all the fish and I worry about them when they leave with people who obviously haven't ever, and don't intend to ever, crack a book.
I just can't get over the amount of people who come in the store and say "I need an algae eater" or "I need one of those sucker fish". Thankfully, our store's policy is to find out as much as possible about the tank and other fish before we sell them anything. 9 times out of 10, the person has a 5 gallon tank and it's dirty and they just can't imagine what they're supposed to do about it. When I tell them they can't have a pleco because they get so big, or for that matter, any of the other algae eating fish because most of them get too big, or they tell me they've already got like 9 goldfish in a 10 gallon tank and I'm like, you will kill anything else you put in there, they give me this blank look and say "well, then what do I do about this algae and the dirty stuff on the bottom of my tank?" I say "clean your tank" or "let me introduce you to a very handy tool, mr. syphon, aka the gravel vacuum". Then, I have people who STILL look at me and go, "but isn't there anything I can put in my tank that will help clean up?" At that point, I sell them a mystery snail AND I lecture them that although the snail will clean up, they need to feed them other foods to keep them healthy.
You'd think I had 3 heads the way people look at me when I tell them they actually need to FEED their catfish, plecos and snails! SIGH
OH and tonight, I had a crazy lady accuse me and my manager of being racist because we wouldn't give her store credit or money back for fish she didn't have with her and she had no receipt. Gotta love it!
I do love taking care of the fish though and it's lots of fun when I am able to help people who actually do want to learn how to keep their fish alive and happy.
I had one guy come in after his kid won a goldfish at a fair. After talking over all the details about the fish's needs, future fish, etc., he left with a 20 gallon tank, stand, good chemicals, substrate, lots of decorations, and the whole shebang. That "free" goldfish cost him about $400 that day. LOL
Thanks for listening!
I just can't get over the amount of people who come in the store and say "I need an algae eater" or "I need one of those sucker fish". Thankfully, our store's policy is to find out as much as possible about the tank and other fish before we sell them anything. 9 times out of 10, the person has a 5 gallon tank and it's dirty and they just can't imagine what they're supposed to do about it. When I tell them they can't have a pleco because they get so big, or for that matter, any of the other algae eating fish because most of them get too big, or they tell me they've already got like 9 goldfish in a 10 gallon tank and I'm like, you will kill anything else you put in there, they give me this blank look and say "well, then what do I do about this algae and the dirty stuff on the bottom of my tank?" I say "clean your tank" or "let me introduce you to a very handy tool, mr. syphon, aka the gravel vacuum". Then, I have people who STILL look at me and go, "but isn't there anything I can put in my tank that will help clean up?" At that point, I sell them a mystery snail AND I lecture them that although the snail will clean up, they need to feed them other foods to keep them healthy.
You'd think I had 3 heads the way people look at me when I tell them they actually need to FEED their catfish, plecos and snails! SIGH
OH and tonight, I had a crazy lady accuse me and my manager of being racist because we wouldn't give her store credit or money back for fish she didn't have with her and she had no receipt. Gotta love it!
I do love taking care of the fish though and it's lots of fun when I am able to help people who actually do want to learn how to keep their fish alive and happy.
I had one guy come in after his kid won a goldfish at a fair. After talking over all the details about the fish's needs, future fish, etc., he left with a 20 gallon tank, stand, good chemicals, substrate, lots of decorations, and the whole shebang. That "free" goldfish cost him about $400 that day. LOL
Thanks for listening!
lol Yeah the nutty customers really get on my nerves now. Although after they learned that I wouldn't budge on fish sales they have settled down a bit. I think the worst are the ones who come in and think they know everything (and of course I know nothing because I work at a big bad scary chain store) and argue with me for a while about fish. Just keep on trucking and if you have a bad day where you just want to give up (its been a long week over here) just go hug a hamster or watch the finches and all of it kinda fades away. That and don't listen to the fish store bashing/chain store bashing. Many of us are doing our best and its just unfortunate that bad examples of the store brand us all as animal abusing dummys.
You wouldn't believe most people just top off the water that has evaporated.
erv:
I had warned the employees not to sell their tetras, glass catfish and other schooling fish in less than 3 in number. These fish tend to pine away easily and if the customers are to blame them, it's the customers' fault anyway for not meeting the requirement. I've warned them this part and want to make sure that if they intend to sell the glass catfish, ask the customer first for more details and if he wants them (in case he still hasn't kept them), he make sure he buys all 6 of the glass cats my lfs has.