Horrible LFS "Recommendations" and "Facts"!

[Jon0807]

This Dory fish will be fine in your 36g for at least a couple of years. Then you can trade it in for something else. But you'll probably have a bigger tank by then so I'm sure you'll keep it

[dt204]

"You know, they put little bits of metal in sinking fish food. Otherwise it would just float. That's why there are rust spots in the tank when you empty it out."
😕

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[heathlindner25]

To be honest, I haven't heard much of any of this in my local fish stores, but I have a lot of great stores around me.

[Sk8r]

"Sea apples are neat. They clean up your tank." Translation: if this fleshy grapefruit-sized invert dies in your tank---and it will---you'll NEED to clean up your tank.

[SeaCucumberFan]

My LFS is actually a bit quirky, some guys (like the owner) you can trust and some other (like one of the employees) you should not trust

[ayrkpatrickla]

There is no such thing and they don't. My then-eight-year-old called him out on that.

[C.Eymann]

Originally Posted by SeaCucumberFan

My LFS is actually a bit quirky, some guys (like the owner) you can trust and some other (like one of the employees) you should not trust

Usually, its the other way around in my experiences.


"Moorish Idols are easy to keep, and completely reef safe"

translation: "It hasn't eaten at all since we got it in, so please buy it before it dies on me."

[ScienceRulez]

my wife fell for the "that baby horseshoe crab will do just fine in a 10 gallon tank"

[nmotz]

I've been pretty fortunate with my LFS experiences too. Most of the owners are older and seem to actually care about fish/coral/inverts.

I have seen some pretty bad stigmas against mantis shrimp though. I'm not saying mantis shrimp won't wreak havoc if you just throw one into your reef tank, but in the right application they are really, really cool and beginner friendly too (certain species). Many LFS owners don't know much about mantis shrimp and sell them labeled as the wrong species or whatever and that obviously doesn't enhance the reputation of mantis shrimp when they are sold like that.

[FishyKat]

When I very first started, I was looking into a 10 gallon reef. The LFS sold me:

Tank with basic hood canopy
cheap HOB filter
Blue gravel (not sand, blue aquarium gravel)- he said it'd make the colors pop
the stuff to "instantly cycle" and tap water dechlorinator.
Plastic decor and plants (no rocks)
salt
and a yellow tang with a pair of clowns. all the same day.
he also told me tap water was OK to use. Mix with salt and instant cycle, check salinity then throw the fish in.

Tang died in a few days.
Clowns I had for almost 3 years before I sold the tank to a friend since I was moving out of my parents house.

I remember being excited to show off on the forums.. man the back-lash I got by well meaning people! They were quick to educate me and helped me make the correct adjustments.. and since then I've decided not to listen to LFS and do my own research!

EDIT: This LFS is no longer in business. I wonder why.

[SeaCucumberFan]

Originally Posted by FishyKat

(a)Blue gravel (not sand, blue aquarium gravel)- he said it'd make the colors pop
(b)the stuff to "instantly cycle"
(c)Plastic decor and plants (no rocks)
(d)and a yellow tang with a pair of clowns. all the same day.
(e)he also told me tap water was OK to use. Mix with salt and instant cycle, check salinity then throw the fish in.


(f)EDIT: This LFS is no longer in business. I wonder why.

(a)The weird plastic stuff?
(b)"Bottle of patience" Lol
(c)A kindergartener should know about "natural habitats"
(d) This has happened to me too, foxface, naso, and sailfin in a 25 gallon.
(e)I use tapwater for "refilling"
(f)The people liked it too much

[Sk8r]

[Good reasons for us all to go light and go nice when somebody comes in straight from the lfs that's advised him--- One is permitted a discreet OMG, but then take a deep breath and talk to the newcomer as gently as you can saying that 5 out of 10 items he has are just not going to work. Not everybody comes here first. And if the first stop has been one of THOSE lfs's, the newcomer needs kind words---I mean, good straight advice can come with it, but kindly. Cushioned. With tea and sympathy.]

Now back to the diet of 'Worst Advice Ever Given a Newbie...' and the lols that go with it---from the perspective of years past.

[SeaCucumberFan]

No cherry on top?

[eastlake]

"An alligator will grow to the size tank that its in. So, if you put in in that 20 gallon long it'll stay the size it is now." I'm so happy my friend had the foresight to call and ask before she pulled the trigger on that one.

[Tanthaitrung]

"Don't worry, this salt is the best, just mix with tap water"

[Lrfox]

Originally Posted by heathlindner25

I've always been fond of the " dwarf horseshoe crab"

Haha, I saw that pitch made to someone the other day at my LFS. "Only $11.99! and they're much smaller than what you see at the beach."

Ummm.. yeah. Because they're babies.


I, unfortunately, went for this one- "We don't have any nassarius snails in stock. We do have a sand sifting star which is pretty and will take care of any detritus and leftover food on the bottom."

Mine's insatiable and I'm posting it to a local club site to give away. I should have googled before I agreed to it...

[Lrfox]

Originally Posted by FishyKat

Blue gravel (not sand, blue aquarium gravel)- he said it'd make the colors pop
the stuff to "instantly cycle" and tap water dechlorinator.
Plastic decor and plants (no rocks)
salt
and a yellow tang with a pair of clowns. all the same day.
he also told me tap water was OK to use. Mix with salt and instant cycle, check salinity then throw the fish in.


EDIT: This LFS is no longer in business. I wonder why.

What's funny, and sad, is that unfortunately, there's a balance that needs to be struck to appeal to the novices, and cater to the long-time hobbyists. It's not easy for many owners to balance the hobby with the business.

The best one near me probably appears to a newbie to be "bad" because they guy and his wife focus on corals and are very, very, very picky about the types of fish they sell and specimens of each type that they'll keep. They also make it clear (they have a big sign on the door and by the register) that they're hobbyists first and business people second. They say they will ask about your tank and they will refuse to sell you a fish, invert, or coral if they don't think you have the right setup.

To a newbie, it might appear that they are A) rude and unhelpful, and B) struggling to stay in business because they have so few fish. But to the people in the area who have been in the hobby for a while, it's the only place they shop because the livestock is perfect, and the knowledge of the owners can't be topped. They've been in business for 12 years, but it would be easy to see why a shop like theirs wouldn't make it.

On the flip side, there are a few places nearby that always have TONS of fish in their tanks and will sell any customer anything and do it with a smile. What the newbie sees is "good service!" "great selection!" "so helpful!" "doing a great business!" What the long-time hobbyist sees is "overcrowded tanks!" "sick fish!" "sleazy, unethical sales!" "pushing product just to stay in the black!"

When I started my first tank over 10 years ago, I was a sucker for the latter. I bought a lot of sick fish, took a lot of bad advice (cycle with damsels, crappy fake decor- some of which I still have and use along with actual live rock because it looks OK when covered in coralline, etc.). Coming back to the hobby, I'm still making mistakes (scraping my spaghetti worm's tentacles off the glass because I was convinced it was cyno), but I've at least learned to see through the B.S. to an extent (see my sand-sifting star story).

[SeaCucumberFan]

@Lrfox Get a cuke instead

[ReefsandGeeks]

Although There are good and bad LFSs, which do have lots of cring worthy advice, I'm +1ing what Sk8tr said. If you're new to the hobby, first fish tank ever (we all did at one point) why would you have any reason to think that the specialty fishstore doesn't know everything you need to know about setting up the tank and livestock advice? I probably would have belived most anything they said before I got into the hobby. Then the new comer comes on here asking advice to hear that the LFS steared them WAY in the wrong direction? that can be a tough one to take right after you just dropped a bunch of $ on a setup. Just makes it all that much more important to have good LFSs.

On that note, I have to contribute an actual comment: "If you add a large enough clean up crew, your tank won't go through a cycle because they will just eat all of the detritus"

[Deinonych]

"Your fish has ich? Here, try this product. It's reef safe and works every time!"

[tjm9331]

"that's not ich, some sand blew around and got stuck on the fish"

That's was said to another customer while I was "window" shopping, I waited until the clerk left and quickly told the other customer that it was most likely either ich or velvet

[ScienceRulez]

My first fish tank was a 10 gallon and I got it at a local Wal-Mart, along with a really cheap air powered HOB filter,a lid, 2 incandescent lights (one red and one blue), and 7 comet goldfish. A week later they all died so I went to a pet store and was told my fish were swimming in a toxic sludge. Thus was the beginning of my pain. Now I am the care taker of a 560 gallon salt water tank FOWLR, with several hermit crabs, lots of choc. chip sea stars, 3 fish, and enough aptasia to make a carpet. Oh and I donated the horse shoe crab my wife bought for $12. Unfortunately it died a month later and I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure I want another one.

I'm not a fan of our LFS

[Greybeard]

Indirect, but...

Was looking around a LFS about 20 years back, little kid and his mother were ooohing and ahhing over a 3" blue ring octopus. Said they had a 20g salt tank... guy was ready to sell it to them, telling them how hardy they were, easy to take care of... never mentioning that the damn thing was potentially lethal.

He was mad as hell at me for killing the sale. One shop I never went back in.

Used to be fairly common, but I haven't seen one in a pet store in many years. Hopefully, I never will again.

[jd371]

"Pods what pods, I feed the Mandarins the same stuff as the other fish. This one here has been in the shop for 2 months."

[SeaCucumberFan]

"Yes, this pipefish is very hardy and easy to care for." I ask,"What does it eat?" Guy replies, "We haven't gotten it to eat though." That was one of the employees