Stories From the LFS

[Stephen]

After my and Marty's post elsewhere I thought I would start a new thread about stories from the LFS (thanks for the title Marty).

Have you any strange or humorous stories from your LFS visit?
Maybe you overheard something strange or even something that made you cringe.
I'll start off with my visit to a LFS last week.

I overheard a customer conversation with the LFS assistant.
One guy bought 4 gourami (not sure which species as I was a distance away, but they were a golden colour, probably a gold variant of Trichopodus trichopterus).
The assistant asked how big his tank was. He didn't really know, started saying 60 ... 65 ... then said 125L.
Mmmm!

What story can you tell?
I'm sure I will have some additional stories to tell in the near future and far worse than the example I gave above.

Stephen

[Cheltgirl]

An LFS employee telling a customer who asked for their water to be tested that it was perfectly fine to add more fish as the results were great.......despite the API nitrite test being very purple.......grrrrr!

[fr499y]

I remember this one time when someone came into our local place ( We know the owner well ) to buy a clown fish as there child likes 'Nemo' So after checking with them that the tank is fully cycled, that they know its a marine fish etc and the tank requirements are totally different, the custom assured us that he kept a marine tank. It wasn't till he was at the till with his card ready to pay, when he said "It will be fine with our guppies won't it?" that we realised this guy didnt have a clue what he was talking about. The response that came after that is not friendly enough to post here, but was bloody hilarious!

Many stories like that came from this shop..

[jacksdad]

I've found that most staff in the shops near me are pretty clueless about water parameters, but otherwise ok, and helpful. In my favourite shop, I bought 2 fish, at £5.95 each. Young sprog served me, great lad, friendly and helpful, he went to the till to do the sale, but it wasn't working: he had to ask the older guy what to charge. I had a tenner and a £2 coin waiting, he took it and gave me £1.20 change 
All yoofs are the same, cannot do anything without a phone or a computer to help them!

[SomersetMatt]

I'll repost this again here.
I was in my local a couple weeks ago looking for small/medium South American Cichlids.
I asked the guy what he had in and he proceeded to point out some tanks containing Gourami, silver dollars plus a a few other species that I can't remember now, and told me "these are all types of Cichlids".
I would of expected it from some of the younger employees, but I've spoken with this guy before and he seemed to know his stuff.....

[Sixo]

2 Bolivian Rams for £22, like it was some sort of good deal.

[Stephen]

2 Bolivian Rams for £22, like it was some sort of good deal.

I would expect to pay around £6-£7 each for Bolivian rams and probably get 4 for £22 at the right LFS.

[Fishtales]

When I first got my 125lt tank (first tank I have ever had gifted by my sister) we got a lot of fish including the Sailfin. They tested my water, and it wasn't good. I had no idea what any of it meant. But they let me go home with the fish, told me to do lots of water changes and come and get the water tested in about 10 days and that I could get more fish then.

Went back and one of the vials was bright red, must have been the nitrate. When I asked the assistant what I could do, as I had been changing my water constantly, an old bloke was behind me at the counter and said loudly, water, water, water. I was completely demented at the time, and proceeded to lecture him about everything I had done, lol. He quickly disappeared, poor man

The shop sold me some sort of Fluval balls for my filter that apparently eat nitrates, and more fish. I found out shortly afterwards from searching the internet my problem no doubt was that I had been cleaning my filter media in tap water! Oh and that I was massively overstocked already!

It's been a long time since I have been able to visit any lfs, but it definitely was a step learning curve. I realized I had a lot to learn

[Martinspuddle]

Just before I changed my tank to a community set-up I decided I would have some Black Ruby Barbs, to my amazement all of my LFS hadn't got any in stock. So I would have look further a field and started calling around North Kent. Finally I found a dealer near Maidstone who had some in stock. The woman on the other end of the phone told me they had and these fish where £10 per barb, she went on to tell me they are quite rare. I checked to see if we'd not misunderstood one another, nope £10 per Barb, I want six, you can see where this going!
The retailer is one of the main aquatic dealers in the UK. I know these barbs are on the Red List at IUCN as their habitat is under threat from deforestation in Sri Lanka but £10 per fish bred for the pet trade more than likely in Singapore seems it bit over the top!?

Later on I found some at £2.99 per Barb although I did have to travel 25 miles for them.

[jacksdad]

Bit off topic but...I bought some reduced bread in my local 7/11 store, but on checking the receipt I was charged full price. £1.55 not 39p, so I went back and the manager was at the tills, so I told him, he believed me (I do go in a lot) so sorted out the refund: after prodding the till a lot, he handed me a pound coin, then said "is that right?"
Errr no, its £1.16 says I...so he handed me another 11p....I gave up at this point