# The WORST advice you've ever gotten?



## John27 (Jun 6, 2010)

Hey all,

So what is the WORST fish/aquarium advice you have ever gotten? I was at Petsmart a couple months ago and I was looking to see if they had driftwood, the lady said "no, why?" I told her I had an Amazon tank and my pH was higher and my water was harder than I would like, so I wanted driftwood to naturally correct that, she recommended some chemicals but I told her I wasn't interested.

Her advice: "The best natural way to get the pH down and the water soft is the way they do it in the wild, only change your water once a month at the MOST, let the ammonia build up because that will lower the pH"

I decided to play along... "But my tank is cycled, the ammonia WONT build up, just nitrates"

"Oh that whole cycling thing is just a myth, it's your filter that takes out ammonia, not bacteria" (This is the short version, I had to explain to her what it was, and finally call it "the good bacteria" before she got what I was talking about)

So I decided to end the conversation telling her I wasn't interested in poisoning my fish with ammonia, and here's the winner:

"You really think ammonia is bad for fish? Who does the water changes in the rivers! Can you imagine how much ammonia has built up over the years? Fish become acclimated to it, it's fine!" DOH!

I thought about notifying her manager that she was handing out such ludacris advice but then I thought, who taught her to say that? haha. I decided to just leave and drive a little farther to an LFS that I knew carried it.

That was probably the worst I've ever had, although I did return some neon tetras to Petco once, and they require a water sample for a return, the ammonia was 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates like 2 or something, they didn't want to return it because they said I just used tap water, it was impossible to have 0 ammonia in a tank, they also had never heard of cycling, and had to google it and read about it before they would return my fish (the 2 new fish or whatever was no longer worth it, it was about principle now! haha)


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## jhayes6405 (May 1, 2009)

Wow man, funny stuff :lol: :lol:

Must be something else in the water up there!

*really lame excuse for a joke


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

The worst advice I ever got was " when you first setup a tank make sure you don't change the water for at least a month. You have to give it a chance to harden." 
Then there is the " you can put one inch of fish per gallon of water."


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## John27 (Jun 6, 2010)

Lol, the LFS's here are great, that was basically just a single Petco store where I get BAD advice, for example, I was up there grabbing some food with my girlfriend, and she is wanting to get guppies for her 10 gallon, she asked how many she could fit and I said, "Oh about three maybe, I'll have to read up on them though". Anyway, a Petco guy overheard us, and said I could fit like 5, because of the "inch per gallon" rule, I told him that rule is way too generalized and rarely actually works, he said "Like how" and I said, well, think about a 10" Oscar in a 10 gallon tank? He said "What's wrong with that?"

That is the end of Petco/smart for me LOL, I try and support independent retailers more anyway, especially since I started working for one AFTER working retail in a franchise/corporate setting.


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## mia_ann (Dec 20, 2008)

I went to check out tanks at a "chain store" because they had a sale and I actually heard a lady trying to sell someone a fish COVERED in ich. She said "Oh, those are just stress spots, they'll go away in a day or two".....

I had to intervene on that one. I'm pretty sure the store clerk wanted to deck me when I was done with her :lol:


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

"Oscars are close relatives to the pirannyas, but they aren't as big you can keep them in a 10gal"

"Oh, thats a harmless fish called Auratus"

"Nope there's no way this Oscar will harm your Fishes, they are slow and quiet" (she was pointing at a Red Devil).

Hehehe +Kota (something like petsmart here) is amazing


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## John27 (Jun 6, 2010)

lol, never ceases to amaze me...

Yesterday I was in Springfield, MO (about 3 hours from me) and I stopped by this little fish store, just for the heck of it (I had time to kill). I overheard this conversation-

Oh, I've never seen kick-lids before!

Yeah they're great peaceful community fish.

Really? They won't hurt my guppies?

Oh no, you can even keep a betta with them!

Fail.


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## ejohnson (Nov 19, 2007)

haha this is funny stuff keep it coming opcorn: . Havent had any experiences of my own as there is not very many lfs where i live or at least i dont think i have :-?


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## Bearbear (May 8, 2010)

Oscars are best kept in pairs.
Possibly, but not advice worth giving.


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## mia_ann (Dec 20, 2008)

Bearbear said:


> Oscars are best kept in pairs.
> Possibly, but not advice worth giving.


Let me guess?? They're best kept in pairs in a 20g because you can put one inch of fish per gallon??? :lol: :roll:


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## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

"You don't need to do water changes, just top it off when the water gets low and add some aquarium salt."

As if not doing water changes wasn't bad enough! I'm pretty sure he would have had a marine tank by now if hadn't taken down his tank!


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## ZeroSystem (Sep 4, 2005)

"Oscars can change gender so you can buy any two and they will start breeding"  :roll:


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## CoolCichlid (Feb 12, 2010)

I heard that when you put a fish in a smaller tank size, the fish wouldn't grow... :x


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## mthom211 (Dec 22, 2009)

When I Got my first 2 foot tnk I was told I can't have angels becuse they get to big so they sold me electric yellows and bala sharks.


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## cage623 (Feb 2, 2008)

CoolCichlid said:


> I heard that when you put a fish in a smaller tank size, the fish wouldn't grow... :x


I heard that same thing from a "pet specialist" at Wal-mart when I was looking at buying my first tank many years back. Luckily I knew better because I had done my research, but it makes you wonder how many poor fish fall victim to this belief. As bad as Petsmart and Petco are, Wal-mart is extremely worse!


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## limpert (Aug 28, 2007)

It seems that every now and then you will get the know-it-all as well that will ask 'what size tank do you have?' before they scoop the fish... Anymore i just exagerate and say something like "Oh I have a 300 gallon"


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## Gervahlt (Jun 25, 2009)

I had a brilliant conversation with an LFS owner today.

After disgustingly walking through a ****-hole that I couldn't believe was a fish store, I started an argument with one of the store owners. It started out with my telling him that he needed to move some fish into bigger tanks - there was a 6" Texas in a 9"L X 7"W X 4"D enclosure and an Oscar they had crammed into a section of tank so small it couldn't even fully straighten out his tail. :x

After that bright start in our non-customer/cranial-challenged-lfs-owner relationship, I asked him if I could look over some of his glass tanks he had for sale since I'm planning on building one. Without knowing how much, or little, experience doing this I have, or how big it is being planned for, I suddenly heard about how I really shouldn't do that. He even asked if I liked the floors in my house because, unless I contracted with them to build me a custom tank, I would soon be ripping them up to fix the water damage. Again, this is before even asking about the size tank I was planning.

Next came the part were I asked about the ich that was covering a number of fish I could see and what they were doing to treat it since they had only one inadequately sized filter to cover about forty 90g freshwater tanks.

He then attempted to convince me that ich is "always in the water", that "you can never get rid of it", and that it "only troubles fish that have a compromised immune system". Furthermore, when you see the white spots, that means the "ich has just left the fish to become free swimming" and therefore the fish is now fine. Right after this, he mentioned that he was fighting a battle with ich in his personal reef tank right now at home. I looked him square in the eye, said, "No [email protected]%," and walked out.


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## Bearbear (May 8, 2010)

Gervahlt said:


> I had a brilliant conversation with an LFS owner today.
> 
> After disgustingly walking through a #%$&-hole that I couldn't believe was a fish store, I started an argument with one of the store owners. It started out with my telling him that he needed to move some fish into bigger tanks - there was a 6" Texas in a 9"L X 7"W X 4"D enclosure and an Oscar they had crammed into a section of tank so small it couldn't even fully straighten out his tail. :x


I would have left here, but you staying made the story much more enjoyable.


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## mok3t (Nov 28, 2008)

I always tell this one.... but here goes again...

Back when i didnt know what i was doing and i was mis-sold some discus and gouramis (after asking for some pretty fish that werent too hard to keep) i was looking for some other fish to add to my 20gal...

I was sold some 'Spotted Silver Tetras'

These fish grew quite fast and as the spots started to fade from them, red bellies started to appear instead..

Needless to say i ended up with no discus, no cories, no gouramis and 1 large Piranha.


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## John27 (Jun 6, 2010)

mok3t, that's hilarious!

I actually felt kind of bad the other day, I was at Petsmart getting stuff for my dog actually, and of course had to stop by the fish where the lay was explaining to a customer about how Pleco's "grow to their environment", the clerk left and the customer was looking at them, so was I, she said "That's amazing how they only grow as big as their environment", I said "They don't, they just die before they get any bigger.". She got kind of red and said "oh", from her tone I got that she must have been an animal lover (in other words cared about her fish), and had a pleco already in a small tank, she looked worried after I told her that, lol.

Betta's are an entire species of bad advice, that one is fun, the whole mud puddle thing. Has anyone seen a rice paddie? Google it, shallow and stagnant yes, small? HECK no.

I also took a water sample to Petsmart the other day to have it checked, the pH was 8.0, he told me my fish were going to die and he was surprised they were still alive (It was tap water I hadn't stocked the tank yet, but what the heck) I said, why? He said "Your pH is sky high! It's 8.0!) I said, I have African Cichlids, he said "you mean kick-lids, yeah they need neutral water, like 7.0, most fish do.". I said "no SICK-lids needs hard, alkaline water."

And here, ladies and gentleman, is why I nominate this guy from Petsmart for the dunce award of the month. *"Yes it has to be alkaline, but the pH has to be 7.0 or lower." *. I'm not a confrontational person so I just said "ok" and walked away and tried HARD not to bust up laughing, I sent the manager an anonymous e-mail containing a diagram explanation of alkalinity versus acidity along with some information on Cichlids (including proper pronunciation), and asked that it be forwarded to that gentleman.

-John


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## Manoah Marton (Feb 17, 2009)

That, is hilarious!!! The sad thing is i can totally see that happening.


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## kingdave (Mar 9, 2007)

I ask the manager at the local pet store if he is expecting to get any new african cichlids in stock. He replies, "Not until Spring when it warms up and our divers can go out and get the good ones from out of the Pacific Ocean."

I nodded politely, trying not to laugh, and said "oh...... ok..... thanks"


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## John27 (Jun 6, 2010)

Kingdave,

That is incredible, seriously incredible.


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## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

kingdave said:


> I ask the manager at the local pet store if he is expecting to get any new african cichlids in stock. He replies, "Not until Spring when it warms up and our divers can go out and get the good ones from out of the Pacific Ocean."
> 
> I nodded politely, trying not to laugh, and said "oh...... ok..... thanks"


A local pet store in Virginia has there own divers for catching fish in the pacific?

I wonder if they were surprised the first time they opened up a shipment from their pacific divers and didn't see any mbuna.  :lol:


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## FbodyFan (Jun 20, 2010)

I don't have any funny stories to add. I just wanted to throw out there, that my local petsmart is actually really good. There is one woman there in particular who seems to really know her stuff and I always enjoy asking her opinion on things (to gain some knowledge and to find out the extent of hers).

From what I read on the forum, it seems that I'm in the minority when it comes to informed employees at petsmart. Lucky me! :thumb:

Now at my local Petco.....thats another story. Not only can I never find someone to help me, but it seems like atleast half their fish are dead (well except for the 10 gallon tank of about 8 oscars covered in ich). :roll:

I have 1 lfs within driving distance but they are hit or miss when it comes to what i need from day to day.


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## John27 (Jun 6, 2010)

Fbody,

My Petco used to have a pretty decent lady, she was "okay" except for her monthly water changes are okay advice and sailfin plecos are fine in a 29 gallon. But yeah, the reason Petco/Petsmart have a poor reputation among knowledgeable fish keepers is for the simple reason that it's not their market, therefore they don't try to sell to us. As you know from browsing this forum most people buy from LFS's or mail order, it's basically ill advised to buy Cichlids from any box store. That said, why would Petco / Petsmart teach their employees things that would loose them money? To allow the customers to believe that an oscar will be fine in a 10 gallon gives them the sale of an Oscar, a 10 gallon, and whatever else, telling them it needs a 75 or bigger will either scare them away, or possibly make them buy something else with a lower profit margin. like a goldfish and a bowl :roll:.

Aside from that is the survival/thrival debate, Box stores err on the side of survival because no, putting a full grown Oscar in a 10 gallon tank won't kill him, instantly anyway. LFS's, and fishkeepers err on the thrival side, but thrival costs more.

So the good ones we find are good on their own, unfortunately the box stores train their associates to sell, not to care, to appear like they care yes, but they aren't concerned with the fishes well being so much as concerned with the fish making it out the door, and living long enough to outlive it's 15 day warranty. (And then in my experience, trying to BS their way out of honoring said warranty. Read above on my argument with a Petco employee on how I could have tank water with absolutely 0 ammonia with fish in it).

-John


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## aquariam (Feb 11, 2010)

You have a 40 gal? Want some oscars?

I don't know what kind of pleco that is (bushy nose, and they were in every one of 40 tanks)

You can put anything south american with anything else south american.


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## John27 (Jun 6, 2010)

limpert said:


> It seems that every now and then you will get the know-it-all as well that will ask 'what size tank do you have?' before they scoop the fish... Anymore i just exagerate and say something like "Oh I have a 300 gallon"


Ha, if you had my box stores they'd hate you for that! When my girlfriend and I were getting our Betta for her house, someone walked over and asked if we had a 'bowl' already, I said, "Well I have a planted 10 gallon tank he's going in". Of course he chimed in "Oh that'll stress him out too much he'll die in no time they need really small bowls to feel comfortable", I also explained that it was heated and he assured me Bettas need room temperature as they are coldwater fish.

I explained to him that Betta come from Thai rice paddies, enourmous mile-in-ever-direction 'lakes' that are warm most of the year, I tried to explain that their survival in the cups is because for a very short while in the summer their rice paddies get very shallow so they have adapted to being able to breathe oxygen from the air and be all but emerged, but, they still have room to swim in all directions but up.

He just kind of looked at me and said, "I'll have to look that up... cuz I don't think so" and walked away.

I wonder where people think Bettas come from? I've heard the mud puddle thing but, I mean do you think Bettas just spontaneously generate every time it rains? Honestly how would a race of fish that eats its young immediately and the parents often fight to the death ever survive without room? What happened to Logic?

-John


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## Cyp_Man (Jul 26, 2010)

My worst advice was when I had just started to keep aquariums. I was told to clean 100% of the gravel on an undergravel system every week. We all know what happens when you do that.


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## Cognition (Oct 14, 2009)

I had ordered in my current stock about 2-3 months ago. When I went to pick them up I noticed one of my peacocks eye was bulging out, after I brought it to the workers attention they said it was nothing. I knew better, but knew it wasn't going to get any positive attention from the fish store so I brought it home anyway. Ended up being pop-eye, but it was separately quarantine, so it was easy to correct. Not really advice, more of just showing their lack of knowledge.

Although I was picking up some java-fern for the same tank, the worker was like "I really wouldn't try plants with cichlids, they are herbavours... I can't get even get plants to work in my silver dollar tank"

I've also noticed that if you say you have any kind of problem(i.e. illness, ammonia spike, algae) they're only solution is to throw the most expensive chemical they can find at it. I also recently overheard one of them saying that they can't have a reef tank with out a skimmer, dosing pump. wet/dry and a med. cabinet full of chemicals.

Which is why I love cichlid-forum.com so much, lets me get my research in one place rather then taking their advice.


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## John27 (Jun 6, 2010)

Cognition,

Yeah that's kind of my pet pieve, everyone wants to fix everything with tons of chemicals, not only is it EXPENSIVE but it's really unsafe, there are SO many 'natural' ways to go about things. Like when the guy tested my water, which is basically Cichlid-Heaven, pH of 8.2, very hard water, the guy told me how it was way too high for cichlids (like I said in an above post). Point is all he wanted to do was sell me all kinds of chemicals to lower my pH, of course like I said before the guy thought ALL Cichlids need soft, acidic water, but there is more to the world of Cichlids than Oscars! (Sorry Kmuda). I tried to explain it to him but I work retail too I know what it's like, half of your customers think they know more than you do, and maybe they do but how the heck are you supposed to trust the information of random dick and jane off the street then that of your resources at work?

-John


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## mthom211 (Dec 22, 2009)

I have had some had some good advice, I took a fish up that had fin rot and they gave me either rock salt or malchanite green free off chrge. I have also ben to a shop that told me that "chinese" fighting fish live in the mountains of china where they live in horst foot prints and jump from horse foot print to horse foot print. I was to young to relize that this wrong. The same store also tried to sell me a oscar for my 15 gallon tank but instead I got some sort of african cichlid. I feel really bad about all the fish mI have unintenialyy killed.


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## JennKS (Jul 12, 2009)

John27 said:


> Hey all,
> 
> So what is the WORST fish/aquarium advice you have ever gotten?


"Wow, you change your water every week? That's a lot of work.. you should do what I do and just add to what evaporates, then you don't have to clean it all the time." -said a person whose fish were almost completely wiped out by some type of bacteria/fungus.


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## juliocromus (Aug 1, 2010)

Iv had that advice where my lfs said fish grow to the size of their environment .what a load of $%#&. this guy had a 'freshwater' moray eel that was 15 inches long in a 2.5g tank and i also told him that his eel was suposed to live in brackish water, he said then why does it say freshwater? :x


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## John27 (Jun 6, 2010)

juliocromus said:


> Iv had that advice where my lfs said fish grow to the size of their environment .what a load of $%#&. this guy had a 'freshwater' moray eel that was 15 inches long in a 2.5g tank and i also told him that his eel was suposed to live in brackish water, he said then why does it say freshwater? :x


I know I hate that, it's PARTIALLY true about some species like plecostomus, it is true that they grow slower on the outside in small tanks. However, dissect a sailfin that's been in a 10 gallon tank and his insides will be abnormally HUGE because their insides grow at the same rate. But when it comes to aquaria people feel if it isn't dead by tonight we did a good job.


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## Andras (Jul 17, 2010)

While some people just lack knowledge or don't care, I do believe some of these issues come from old texts on fish keeping. I started keeping fish at around 8 or 9(this was around 1991)and got some begginers guides and books to try to learn from. While I can't remember what year these guides were written, I do distinctively remember reading about the inch of fish per gallon, and fish will grow to the size of their environment rules in these published books, etc. So some of it's just old crappy logic that hasn't been updated, and some of it is just.....well.....stoopidity :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## John27 (Jun 6, 2010)

Well here is an interesting story. I was talking to a co-worker who was interested in getting into Cichlids, I started explaining the nitrogen cycle and a few other things, while he's trying to grasp the necessity of water changes. He had a 75 with Piranha in it that he insists he never ever did a water change in, just top off every couple of weeks. Somehow they survived, who knows (he did go through alot during the first two months, but after that they were fine :roll.

Anyway, he said about 5 months in his mom wanted to clean the tank, so she stuck the piranha in a bucket, drained the tank, bleached everything and put the piranha back in. They died at the end of the week. Wonder why? :lol:

Unfortunately, he has taken that with his logic to mean that over-cleaning kills fish, and since they live in "dirty" rivers and lakes and streams they are better off stuck in a tank and not messed with. Oh well, what can you do?

-John


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

The worst advice I ever received was the old "wisdom" that you cannot inbred cichlids more than about 4 to 5 generations without causing deformities and health problems.

It ranks forever as the worst advice because it sounded oh so true and I followed it for years (likely even passed it along back in the day) and ruined several bloodlines of cichlids through what I now believe to have been hybridizations within the species!

the pervasive myths are always the worst!!!!

Now, the most baseless advice ever was the local fish store employee who once tried to explain to me that these new "chic-lids" (African Rift Lake cichlid discoveries) were different than your ordinary fish like Angelfish or festivums and needed special water.


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## kriskm (Dec 1, 2009)

Here's one I haven't seen on here: The guy who sold me his 125 gal tank highly recommended feeding African cichlids dog food.

And this isn't exactly advice I've heard, but I continue to be amazed by local chain stores selling pacu. Not surprisingly, craigslist here is often full of pacu for sale ("But I thought they would only grow to fit the tank!")


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## marinerm10 (Feb 2, 2010)

The worst advice I ever got was that Cichlids require a low PH. lol


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## Cento (Mar 30, 2005)

Last year there was a thread like this that someone started on a certain employee at a certain chain in the U.S...

At the risk of repeating myself, this is the link of my experience of LFS's in Europe (specifically, U.K).

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=198949&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Worst advice: 
came from a large pet store that specialized in cichlids. 
I was stocking my first cichlid tank and knew only that cichlids were 'aggressive' I asked the owner which fish I should choose.

He said: 
Oh it doesn't matter. Just as long as you choose all African cichlids.

I had such a wonderful time shopping that day: _one of these, two of those...and maybe a blue one to go with the yellow one, and Oh!, that one looks cute!_ :roll: :roll: :roll:

It was a rough start to my love of these fish. Thank God I found this site a few weeks later. 
Robin


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## the_evil_dickfeldi (Feb 17, 2006)

How about in books?

[Aquarium Fishes of the World] by Dr. Herbert Axelrod & Others

"Tropheus Duboisii) Feeding: Live foods, preferably tubifex and white worms

Tropheus Moorii) Feeding: Live foods, but will eat grated bef heart. Should have some vegetable as well

Uaru) Feeding: Larger live foods, such as full-grown brine shrimp, cut up earthworms"

[The Cichlid Aquarium] by Dr. Paul Loiselle

About dwarf cichlids: ".....and a pair can be kept in a 15-gallon tank" On the list, all three species of Tanganikan goby cichlid.

I don't know about Uaru, as I've seen lots of (Misguided) people keep them on a carnivore diet, but the tropheus and gobys......


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## dollysnw (Sep 12, 2010)

When cleaning my friends fish tank because shes too scared if she touches the fish (pur-lease) I was being super careful with her crazily-expensive angel fish


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## doxiegirl (Aug 24, 2009)

As a former chain employee I can tell you that corporate does NOT teach you anything worth a flip... I hardly knew anything when I got that job and depended on my fellow employees (who had kept fish for decades) and teaching myself. My former coworkers often depended on me to answer questions... I often told customers to do their research if they didn't trust what I was telling them. Plus management wasn't much better- poor advice was overheard more than once. Not that this excuses all the craptastic advice that chain employees give out but it might help to explain it... never mind that fast food pays more, lol... why learn anything if you don't care and you're not getting paid much? It's sad that living creatures are involved plus it creates distrust in the hobby. I'm glad that I'm not in that position anymore- even if I did give good advice. I was yelled at way too many times by angry customers who thought it was fine to keep that oscar in a 10g or a goldfish in a 2g. Ugh.


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## FbodyFan (Jun 20, 2010)

dollysnw said:


> When cleaning my friends fish tank because shes too scared if she touches the fish (pur-lease) I was being super careful with her crazily-expensive angel fish


Um, I dont get it. :-?


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## walterharris (Sep 19, 2010)

Cutting the skull in a post mortem.

I dont think its the most disgusting smell ever but its the most wrong and therefore for me the worst.


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## Chubbs the Jellybean (Jun 16, 2009)

walterharris said:


> Cutting the skull in a post mortem.
> 
> I dont think its the most disgusting smell ever but its the most wrong and therefore for me the worst.


Not general advice, the worst AQUARIUM related advice you've ever gotten haha, though that sounds like bad advice too.. :roll: :roll:


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## Pali (Dec 22, 2009)

Was told this in a LFS some years ago, asking what Tropheus I could add with my Ilangi group "You can keep all kinda Tropheus' together, no Tropheus will cross breed because they live so far apart in the lake"

Im not so gentle, I laughed my ass off right up the face of the guy, left his shop and tryed another place.


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## Broady247 (Aug 11, 2010)

Here is one I over heard on the weekend. A young 19-21 female lfs employee speaking with a mother 40 odd and daughter 20 odd about filtration.

Daughter, I have a 55g goldfish tank that is having problems with brown water. It has a fluval 404 has been set up for a week. I just want the water to be clear.

Lfs girl, a 404 on a 55 that's way to much filtration for a 55 that's your problem. You should aim for around 1 times tank volume per day!!!!! You should get this AC filter (it was the smallest one they had slightly larger than a smoke packet) and you should put this chemical in as well to keep the water clear. That will fix your tank as it should be cycled already.

She walked off.

So I asked the girl if her tank was 4 foot if she had any drift wood in the tank etc. Yes and yes. Informed her about the nitrigen cycle water changes etc. I explained what bs she got told. Informed her about tanins. And her turn over should be min 6xh. I told her to get some purigen a test kit and keep an eye on the A and no2.

I thought that was the last time I would ever see her.

Turns out she lives two doors down from me just got a knock on the door with a six pack of beer to say thanks


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## kriskm (Dec 1, 2009)

You totally deserved that beer :thumb: . Good for you for stepping forward and steering her in the right direction. Someone should also call the store and complain about that employee.


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## Teggy (Nov 5, 2010)

I had to chime in, this was a great thread to read through :lol: . On the subject of "Kicklids" I've been making a whole mess of calls recently looking for a good LFS to frequent that's within 2 hours of here. Went like this..
Me: Hi there, I'm calling to see if you stock African Cichlids
Him: What? Oh you mean "Kicklids"? Ya we have those
Me: Have a nice day 

As far as bad advice goes, I kid you not I was told this by a LFS that used to be around. I was 12 years old and had a community tank with rosy barbs and bala sharks etc (surprised I remember that actually) and my father had done me the "favor" of changing my water for me,,, all of it. Despite everything my feeble 12 year old person tried, the tank developed cases of fin-rot. I was most worried about my oldest rosie, which had been in someone elses tank before it was mine, and was probably about 7 years old, very large (and cool to a 12 year old). So it begins, my very first example of "standing up to the man" as my father proudly put it after the fact.

I rode my bicycle to said LFS, which I frequented often for the fun of it. It was ran by the same guy that owned it, just him. I told him my plight and asked him what I should do. He advised me that the best thing I should do was make the fish new fins,,,, using aluminum foil  . I rode my bicycle home, with even my childish brain comprehending the ridiculousness of what I had just heard. I went back the next day to tell him that I had done it (don't worry, I hadn't), and he went right with it. Saying that it's a great way to give them mobility again when that happens, because fins do not grow back. I had gone into the store to confront him about patronizing me and to demand better information, but this guy was actually just,,, ignorant. I proceeded to rip into him (it felt like I was, but I'm sure I sounded more like Mickey Mouse on a tangent). The only thing I can remember for sure telling this guy was something like "You own a store that carrys ONLY fish, and you don't know how to take care of them?".

When I got home I was pretty tee'd off about not knowing what to do with my fish. My dad took me out to pizza and surprised me by going to Chuck E Cheeses (yay  ). Turns out he had caught wind of my going down to the store to demand better service and had beat me there and heard the whole thing.

Moral of the story, don't tolerate bad service and you'll get to go to Chuck-E-Cheeses! (Oh ya, and life was much harder before the internet :lol: )


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