# Tales from the LFS



## kingdave (Mar 9, 2007)

I thought it might be fun to start a thread for all of us to relate all of the absurd things we have been told by well meaning, yet uninformed employees at the LFS. I'll start:

I had scoped out a particular LFS while I was cycling my tank. I was searching for a good source for mbuna. After seeing the mbuna stock never change at this particular store, week after week, I asked an employee (the owner actually) when they get their shipments of mbuna. The employee told me that since it was Spring, they hadn't gotten a shipment recently because the folks that collect the fish from the wild like to go in the summer when the weather is nice to catch "the cool looking ones". The store sells $4.95 yellow labs and other common mbuna... certainly not wild caught! I got the impression that this guy didn't now that the vast majority of fish in his store are captive bred.


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## secrest (Mar 22, 2004)

Thats awesome, gotta love it.

I recently moved to Appleton, Wisconsin from Salt Lake City and figured I would go take a look at the LFS here in town (yep the only one in town, besides petco and petsmart). Now the LFS's that I had been to in Utah were amazing...wild caught, great color, no mixed tanks, all separated by scientific name....so I guess I was a little spoiled....So anyway....I walk into this LFS here in Appleton and there are three tanks with cichlids all mixed :-? One has mixed juvies, another mixed mbuna, and another mixed haps and peacocks....

Ends up I see a little male Red Empress in the bunch and figure I may as well snag him...he was only 6 bucks...so I ask the guy working there to grab him for me.

Now I get scared, he looks to me and says while pointing to the mbuna tank..."this tank has the same exact fish and their cheaper I would highly recommend you just get this one, its the same fish only brighter" and points to a red top zebra 

I immediately walked out.....guess I'll be doing all my fish shopping online now


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## CichlidAndrew (Jun 29, 2005)

I dont have any great stories but I had a guy positive that there were no gobies in lake Tanganyika.:-?


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## secrest (Mar 22, 2004)

There are:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/c ... php?cat=10


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## sickchild (Jan 17, 2006)

I had a guy try to sell me "naturally occuring" AER fry imported from lake malawi. And then he told me that all Aulonocara Jacobfreibergi are "ruby red eurekas". :lol: :lol: :lol: This guy is still a bit confused these days...


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

secrest said:


> There are:
> 
> http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/c ... php?cat=10


That isn't a goby, that's a cichlid. Are there gobies in lake Tanganyika? I'm not so sure...


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## diavids (Dec 28, 2007)

Enjoying this thread. Though i'll add a recent happening to me. I was looking at some catfish which quite appealed to me, I knew from looking at them they had to be a synodontis of some kind. After 20 min of waiting I finally found someone to help me, well he insisted they were pepper cory's, just like these in this other tank he told me. okay pepper cory's grey, right.... these cats to start were brown striped. "So how many do you want he asked, 4/6"... since I knew they had to get much larger than cory's I took two home at the price of pepper cory's. Went to planet catfish and they are Synodontis brichardi. Its a bit dishearting, this store used to be my favourite for selection, and knowable staff. Before I asked about the catfish I mentioned that I'm thinking about setting up a 10 gal tank with maybe a betta, but wondered if he had any suggestions, well he waves his arm about and says, anything here would work as long as they don't get too big. Gee, that was very helpful, I feel sorry for anyone new into fish. i don't think I'll be going back there, I slipped on something greasy on their floor a few weeks ago, while the clerk saw me slip, he did not come to my aid, Of course I was more worried about the fish I was carrying more than myself. dianne


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## darkenedkaven (Apr 18, 2008)

I was new to the hobby, and had to return an aggressive convict. The lady offered me to get another fish. There were no more convicts, she said the assorted african will get along with my convict because cichlids all get along with each other usually.

I recently bought a tank and stuck the newest one in a 55 gallon and bought more mbunas that he'd get along with.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

I'll allow this thread to continue as long as no names of local fish stores are named.


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## Jeepguy (Mar 19, 2008)

I am in SC, and my LFS is great. he normally deals in marine tanks, but is very knowledgable on fresh. Plus it is a cool place to hang out, except when he tries to sell me on a reef tank. Been there done that.


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## Joels fish (Nov 17, 2007)

Once many years ago I was at my LFS and I offered to donate some Firemouth fry to them to get them off my hands . The lady who was working that day told me that "we don't accept fish from our customers because we can get them cheaper ." I once again stated to her,thinking that she misunderstood my intentions, that they would be a donation and I was not trying to sell them to which she said " sorry I can get them cheaper than that." 
If anyone out there knows where I can find fish cheaper than free , please let me know! :lol: 
The irony of this story is that this is the same LFS that a few months later was gladly accepting my fry for store credit , and later paying cash for them. After that I made it a point to bring in my fish on the days she was working!


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## jd_7655 (Jul 23, 2004)

I bought a Frontosa from a LFS in my area and when I got it home it had a messed up swim bladder. I paid $100 for the fish so I went back to the store and the manager wouldn't give me my money back or another fish. I hadn't even taken it out of the bag when I noticed something was wronge.

So about a month later I went back to that same store just to have a look around. I noticed a tank full of juvinal Tropheus Moorii red rainbows with no price on it. So I asked an employee how much are these he said "I don't know I'll go check" well he comes back and says "I can't find the boss so I'll sell you them for $1 each". There were 20 of them in the tank I said "I'll take them all". I got a whole colony for $20.

They were realy nice fish too not wild but defently high quality. Talk about karma I was realy ticked about the Frontosa. Normaly I wouldn't do that to someone but that guy had it coming.


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## CichlidAndrew (Jun 29, 2005)

20 tropheus for $20. WOW


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## Afishionado (Jun 6, 2006)

Sweet! Can't help wondering if the person got fired for it (although that's not your problem - up to them to train their employees better and mark prices on tanks).


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## darkenedkaven (Apr 18, 2008)

I wish I could get a deal like that!


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## jd_7655 (Jul 23, 2004)

Yeah the kid was only about 16 or so he may have gotten fired but I'm sure he found another job. I was more ticked at the management and I Know they took a loss on that one.

Looking back on it man was I nervous when the kid was cashing me out. I thought someone was gonna show up and stop the transaction. When I got out of there I was doing cartwheels on the way home I was so happy.


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## darkenedkaven (Apr 18, 2008)

I feel bad if the kid did get fired. For assuming a price. But I'm glad you got revenge. How much do each cost around there exactly?


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## jd_7655 (Jul 23, 2004)

I don't know depending on the type of Tropheus I've seen them go for anywhere between $10 and $25 each. I saw some red rainbows a few months ago selling for $20 each. Wether or not thats a fair price I don't know I havne't been in the hobby for a while.

Yeah I felt bad for the kid but I'm sure it wasnt his last job. The store ended up closeing shortly after so he would have been out of a job anyways.

Normaly I wouldn't do that to anyone but when I took the front back to the store still in the bag and the manager tells me I'm SOL I took it a bit personal.

When I went back and found the Troupheus I was actualy there planning something a bit more sinister. I'm not going to say what because I don't want to give anyone ideas.


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## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

One of my LFS has very few employees who know anything about Africans and their tanks are always incorrectly marked. I saw a cutie Sunshine peacock one day and told the young employee that I wanted "that sunshine peacock there." He caught it and was writing up the amount to charge and he said something like "I think this is a demonsoni." I assured him it was a peacock. He shook his head and insisted it was a demonsoni and charged me like $19. OK, I tried. I was very happy with my $19 peacock . . . (Should have been more like $39-$49)

I've been pretty lucky with LFS advice, But here there was the time a LFS told me:.

clown loaches would work in my 30 gallon
green euchlides (sp) would work in my 30 gallon (they can get to be something like 10" long. I had no plans to upgrade)
I only had to do a 25 percent water change once a month
Otos will eat BBA


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## TheeMon (May 11, 2004)

does this count as a "tale" ?

my lfs doesnt care about fish at all, and there 16yr old employees just repeat everything theyve been told, for instance this one kid there has a bunch of johnaniis and yellow labs in a 20long and trys to tell EVERYONE its ok. SO when i walk in and buy stuff, i usually browse first because you never know what your going to find. i always help people, almost as if i work there, i even know where the items are(and better then the employees) its kinda sad. btw there "cure all" is jungle's lifeguard. no mater whats wrong they push this med on you. the owner knows me, knows what i do, and has offered me a job a few times(min. wage though), he knows i breed fish and there quality(i post them on the lfs bulliten board) BUT he wont buy any off me because and i quote " im afraid of getting diseases in my tanks" even though they allready do.

i would love to open up a pet store...


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## Nathan43 (Jul 9, 2007)

There are just way too many to list, but my favorite was when I was searching for the "Perfect Firemouth" and while I was browsing, a kid about 18 or so was buying 4 red bellied pacus and the clerk helping him said these words: "Remember, after about a month, you will need to upgrade the tank from a 20 gallon to a 30 gallon and you should be good for a couple years."
I was floored. I felt like telling that guy that he was a complete moron but I decided to mind my own business and look forward to the pacu's return in 1 month...


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

secrest said:


> Thats awesome, gotta love it.
> 
> I recently moved to Appleton, Wisconsin from Salt Lake City a


Sorry to cut in, found it interesting...grew up in Bountiful Utah myself and now I'm in Minnesota...I guess since we were already west we got the 'GO EAST' thought in our heads? :lol:


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## rwolff (Mar 13, 2007)

an employee/owner was bagging a pleco for a costumer and she just filled the bag with water from a hose, the guy told her, its better to take water from the tank cuz its not the same water that as from the hose....the employee laughs at him and told him 'what a **** r you talking about? water is water, its just the same water everywhere..and looks at me as i had to agree....

seriously, how hard is it to read a book to get a general idea of fish care


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## darkenedkaven (Apr 18, 2008)

that lady was stupid!


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## DMWave45 (Jan 22, 2008)

Often times a place like a LFS that uses tons of water, will just have basically the same water out of the tap as they put into the tanks, to cut down on money for additives. But the water still probably wasn't dechlorinated.....


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## rwolff (Mar 13, 2007)

water here is very clean, only thing that is added is calcium.
but its very hot here weatherwise, and the water can be very hot, very unbearable sometimes...the most concern i have here when buying fish is when they do that is it causing temperature shock, esp with the poor tetras that cant handle anyhting.


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## darkenedkaven (Apr 18, 2008)

Luckily I found a LFS with a guy who knows a good deal of his stuff. Only problem is he might not be in business too long. Just because its a NEW shop and people are used to the LFS 2 miles down.


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## TailorO (Apr 7, 2008)

My LFS had a tank full of Convicts labeled as Rosey Barbs and the guy working there was trying to convince me that they would get along just fine with guoramis....


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## Izzydawg (Jan 4, 2008)

Hmmm, I once went in asking about convicts....and she tried to sell me a blue ahli saying that she was sure it was a cinvict


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## rogersb (May 21, 2007)

I bought convicts once. Years ago. The fish were smaller than my pinky fingernail, and I'm only 5'7", so pretty small nails. Anyway, the place was going out of business and had these tiny fish labelled as parrot fry. 6 months later I couldn't lie to myself any more that I had been ripped off. THere is a place in town that sells convict fry for 25 cents, these two fry cost me $3 each. Live and learn.


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## chrispyweld (Dec 20, 2005)

A LFS in phoenix had "wild caught" Flowerhorns for $150 a piece.


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## Afishionado (Jun 6, 2006)

:lol: Had a wild time netting 'em did they? :lol:


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## chrispyweld (Dec 20, 2005)

:lol: :lol:


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

chrispyweld said:


> A LFS in phoenix had "wild caught" Flowerhorns for $150 a piece.


 :lol: I would have had to go in and ask if they were the Congo or the Amazon river variety.


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## jordanroda (May 4, 2006)

wish I got 10 tropheus for 20 bucks!
my best steal, was like 15 years ago...I saw a very cute 2 inch synodontis angelcus...and told the worker can I get that silver shark...and paid 5.99...touch down... :fish:


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## bma57 (Sep 16, 2007)

I recently visited a store that keeps pretty clean, healthy tanks of general tropicals and a small marine section, but is sorely lacking with regard to African Cichlids. They had a huge tank of "Electric Yellows" on sale 2 for 1. That might have been an attractive deal except or two things:

1. Even to my untrained eye, they were the most OBVIOUS hybrids I have ever seen. They were an orangish yellow, zebra shaped fish with no black at all. I'd bet a paycheck they were lab x estherae crosses.

2. They were priced at $18! Wow... what a bargain... With the 2 for 1 deal, they were a mere $9 each for yellow mutts!

I had another guy in another store shocked to hear I fed my mbuna NLS pellets and some occasional spirulina exclusively. He tried to convince me that they would be much healthier if I added bloodworms and/or beefheart to their diet. I'm not sure if he was getting commission on his frozen food sales or he's just ignorant.


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## darkenedkaven (Apr 18, 2008)

Today, I went into a certain chain store I won't call out.... My friend breeds guppies. He went in with me asking for "These three girl guppies here". The lady caught them and started to write on the bag, then went three tanks down and wrote something, I asked her "What did you price these females as?" She showed me a picture of a turqoise male with a sales tag, "This is a turquoise guppy" I paused and said "But thats male guppies. We wanted females." She changed the price to fancy tail females.


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## jordanroda (May 4, 2006)

oh I got another one...my LFS feeds tropheus blood worms everyday...I told him u shouldnt be feeding them that...He got pissed at me and said where do u get this information...I told him the fish forums and my tropheus books...he tells me oh, show me the book.I been feeding them blood worms for years...I just went in last week, from 6 tanks of tropheus to 1 tank... :roll:

ps
the worker told me u are right, they all got bloat and died... :-?


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## AU Chief (Jun 20, 2007)

I work right next to a big chain store so I go in on 15min break all the time. Needless to say I hear some good ones from time to time, especially from new employees/anyone that is not the aquatics supervisor. Anyhow, one that I had to laugh at the other day goes like this:

Young college/sorority girl type comes in trying to find another algae eater just like the one she had (it died after having if for a few months). She describes it as grey with a black stripe down the side and says it was really small, even says its "something like sucker catfish, or something like that". As she's describing it, I already know what she's talking about, Ottos of course. The associate looks dumbfounded, so at this point I try to interject, pointing to the Ottos and saying, its the Ottocinclus(they are labeled as dwarf suckers, so even this guy should have caught on by this point). Instead he says, "well if its an algae eater it was probably a plecostomus. They are great for eating algae and are pretty small, at least small enough for your 10 gallon tank." I want to throw something at him. So again I try and point her in the right direction, and still the associate brushes me off until she looks at the plecs, and tells him that's not it. THEN, finally they listen to me and look at the ottos, to which she says, "OH Yeah, that's it".

I really would work there if I didn't think I'd snap on an ignorant customer of fellow associate. Then I'd convince people like that they really should get 3+ ottos to keep the aquarium algae controlled. And i'd do my best to NEVER sell a pleco. What a store.


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## Laurel (Jun 17, 2007)

jordanroda said:


> oh I got another one...my LFS feeds tropheus blood worms everyday...I told him u shouldnt be feeding them that...He got pissed at me and said where do u get this information...I told him the fish forums and my tropheus books...he tells me oh, show me the book.I been feeding them blood worms for years...I just went in last week, from 6 tanks of tropheus to 1 tank... :roll:
> 
> ps
> the worker told me u are right, they all got bloat and died... :-?


  Your guys' stories worry me. I've been to my share of "bad" pet stores, with overpriced hybrids, poorly colored possible purebreds, tanks full of bloat, etc, but I've recently found the most amazing store. The owner adores Africans, and there are several tanks written on in huge letters in grease pen "Algae Wafers Only" that the more sensitive mbuna and tropheus go into. 8) I <3 that store.


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## Nathan43 (Jul 9, 2007)

THere is a lfs here that only feeds all their fish algae wafers. Seems to do the trick, they go ape for them...


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

This past weekend I stopped at two stores. The first was selling 4" geophagus jurupari for 14.99!
Pretty good price, except they weren't jurupari, they were braziliensis :lol: I tried to explain it to them and they asked "So you're telling us jurupari is a whole nother fish?" :lol:

The next place had a holding low quality yellow lab. And I said, "I'll take that one" They said "Oh, _he's_ pretty, but something's wrong with _his_ mouth" :lol: Then I explained that it was a female and she was holding fry. Then as if by magic all the employees came over to look :lol:

I think no matter what store you go in you'll find something mis labelled or someone who doesn't know their arse from a hole in the ground. That's just the way it is. It's our responsibility as aquarists to set them straight


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## bmills (Apr 17, 2008)

A week ago in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney I was browsing in an LFS that I'd never been into before. It was small so I could overhear a sale made to a client; an old lady who was obviously new to fish.

She specifically asked for a setup that had "just one or two big fish with character" but said she had enough money and space to consider a range of options. I'd have thought this gave the LFS employee room to give good advice. I was wrong.

The advice she was given was to buy an 18" tank - one of those 'all-in-one' jobs with the integrated trickle filter in the hood. She was told this was a great size for an Oscar (there was one in the store, about 5", and she liked it) as it was 'at least 3 times its body length and therefore it could turn around without any hassles'. The final straw was that she was told to set it up and 'leave it for at least a day, maybe 2 or 3, you know for the bacteria and stuff'. Hmmm.

Fortunately the old lady had some sense. She said she would think about it and do some reading. She then had a bit of a casual chat to me while we were browsing together. Rather than be cocky and tell her what I thought I simply suggested that she might like to read one of the good fish-keeping books that were on sale - and indeed that is what she left with.


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## yellow (Mar 3, 2004)

The next place had a holding low quality yellow lab. And I said, "I'll take that one" They said "Oh, he's pretty, but something's wrong with his mouth"

At least his intentions were good, it would be worse if he deliberately tried to pass off a sick fish as healthy.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

The whole place has young girls for employees... Why do you think I even go in there? :lol:

Yeah... I'm here to look at your fish... :lol:


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## Big Vine (Feb 26, 2007)

TheFishGuy said:


> The whole place has young girls for employees... Why do you think I even go in there? :lol:


TFG always has them net out the sea snails that are all the way at the bottom of the tank...

BV


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## Joels fish (Nov 17, 2007)

I think someone needs to moderate the moderators :lol:


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

I usually ask for the snails from the cold tank though. no matter how much of a hurry I'm in :wink:


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## CichlidAndrew (Jun 29, 2005)

Goodness Mr. Mod. :lol: Haha


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

Yea, but they'll use that cold tank against you. I went in for some Red zebras and the cute gal catching the ones I wanted also pulled out a stunted runt. With pouty lips she asked if I would take it cuz nobody else would and she feared it wouldn't last much longer in there........It didn't last that much longer in my tank either.


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## ginner (May 23, 2008)

I got a long lecture about convict breeding from an employee at one LFS. I listened attentively because I thought I was getting good advice. Then at the end, the lecturer said that convicts were mouthbrooders. That was a waste of 10 minutes, but kind of amusing I guess.


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## cichlidiot75 (Feb 22, 2005)

I live in a tiny village with about 10 shops, and there's a pet shop. When it comes to fish, they have nothing popular, only the weirdest exotic cichlids that have a blank species profile here, and Channa (snake head fish), and every L number except your average joe Pleco. And Rays. To make things a bit harder, the owner had a stroke, he couldn't remember all these Latin names anymore.

Best thing is, he sells them for about a third of the normal value. No clue how he does it.

So I called him, to ask if he had any Synodontis and Astatotilapia Burtoni. He says, "I have the Synos and maybe I can order the Burtoni." So I get there, and he tells me there's no need to order the Burtoni, they're right here! The chance a LFS has these is soooo small...


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

And the thread lives ! One year later!! :lol:


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## Lophura (Jul 18, 2009)

Yay, now I can tell some funny stories! 
When I was first getting into cichlids I went to a big chain store that had a good selection of cichlids so I felt confident that the employees would know some stuff about them. I told them I had a 29 gallon and wanted cichlids and asked what I could put in it. Right off the bat the lady said "Oh 4 or 5 osars would work great in a 29". The oscars she was refering to were huge already and common sence told me no. I ended up with a couple feeder goldfish for some action in the tank until I found more info on what I wanted. 
Thats when I went to a LPS (big pet store with 2 locations in our town) and found tons of hybrids, I'd say 40% of the species for sale were hybrids. I didnt see anything good so we went to another LFS a few miles away. They had mostly cichlids, tons of cool species but some were way overpriced like they had female convicts for $12, the other LPS sells the convict fry as feeders. So I saw some cool ones but nothing I liked. I was disappointed about not getting anything but just happened to catch a glimpse of another LFS tucked away in a maze of shops. I went there and found lots of good info, she reccomended this site.

Now for the funny stories. I went to the big LPS looking for feeder guppies and saw that they had 'lemon drop labs'. There were 2 different colored fish in the tank, half were pale yellow and the other half more orange than yellow, none looked like labs to me. I asked the lady about them and she said "Oh those, those are wild caught from Brazil" I chuckled and thought of more stuff to ask her. She told me that my firemouths would get along great with fancy guppies (I got feeder guppies for the FM's) and all sorts of bull. I saw a cool loach(kuhli) and figured I'd get it anyway. The lady said she didnt know what species they were and there wasnt a tag on them so she gave me 1 for free. I called later once I fugured it out and the manager answered so I asked if they had the loaches and he said yes, they sell for $5. So I got it free. They also had white calvus selling for $35 each, I got some the exact same size at another LFS for $12.
Then I went to the big chain store for decorations and looked at their cichlids again. I wanted something different and asked their opinion. I was told that the Acei get to be huge but the bumble bee's will stay nice and small, what a lie.

I have other fish stories but I have tons and tons of feed store stories about wrong info on poultry but thats a whole other topic, lol.


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## cichlidiot75 (Feb 22, 2005)

TheFishGuy said:


> And the thread lives ! One year later!! :lol:


I don't know if I should say sorry, I usually don't reply to old threads, but I think this thread is really cool. Great reading material :thumb:


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Hey man, let it live, there's nothing wrong with that


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## cichlidiot75 (Feb 22, 2005)

Cool, thanks. Anyway, for me it's back to that LFS from my previous post. The guy that sold me the fish gave me Pundamilia Nyererei and said they were Astatotilapia Burtoni. I had them identified here. I want a Tang tank, and these are Victorian :roll:


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