Anyone have funny pet store/beginner stories?

[Jose Berry]

This just in. When you count your fish and come up with one short. Hide and seek causes a lot of stress on pet owners. I’m sure my pictures will enlighten a few. And the fish who’s Introuble is my royal gamma.

Since I wanted to swap out filters and change media I’m not too upset.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I owned a pet store for 12 years. I remember a family who always admired my saltwater display and asked about these easy to care for fish.

One saturday they came in for aquarium salt and i thought nothing as they had freshwater. They then came midweek for 3 damsels. By saturday they had a baggie with all 3 dead. I replaced it for them after confirming they set up for saltwater. Within 2 days 2 of the three were dead and requested a water sample. The hydrometer had a reading of 1.010. I knew something had to be wrong.
I asked them to describe how Their tank was set up. They went on to explain that the gravel (yes colored gravel) was flushed and they bought a package of aquarium salt last week and poured it all in to make it salty and in fact the goldfish were still alive, just swimming wierd
Holy cow- seriously???? Will never forget this. SALTWATER GOLDFISH TOO??

 

[kirstyflash]

You should not use pure RO in a fresh water tank. It needs some salts/ ions in it because of osmotic problems for the fish. You can ad a spoon of saltwater salt / 100 liter ( around 26 gallon) to make it usable for freshwater or some of the freshwater mineral salts that exist in the trade.

Sincerely Lasse

Thanks Lasse, hubby looked after that for our 8 year old. Google recently got some plants added and a new friend, a Blackmore named Gunther. Google was so happy to get a friend, they snuggled immediately!

 

[Maniac Wilson]

So the other night after target feeding everything, I noticed this rhodactis I've had for a couple weeks go into his usual weird contortions and out from underneath slowly appeared what looked like a pair of green male dangly parts swaying back and forth.




I literally spent an hour googling stuff like "mushroom coral testicles" and asking friends if they'd ever heard of these guys having weird sacks under them until it hit me - I had added a green hammer coral frag earlier in the day, and one of the polyps must have popped off (admittedly sad) and somehow ended up underneath him.

 

[MSB123]

So the other night after target feeding everything, I noticed this rhodactis I've had for a couple weeks go into his usual weird contortions and out from underneath slowly appeared what looked like a pair of green male dangly parts swaying back and forth.




I literally spent an hour googling stuff like "mushroom coral testicles" and asking friends if they'd ever heard of these guys having weird sacks under them until it hit me - I had added a green hammer coral frag earlier in the day, and one of the polyps must have popped off (admittedly sad) and somehow ended up underneath him.

So funny! Sounds like something that I would do!

 

[OriginalUserName]

Worked at a Pet Store. The new girl was very ditzy. In retail you have the idea of "facing" the products so that the labels are face forward. I asked her to "face" the beta bowls so that the fish would point forward.

She actually tried doing that. A manager figured out our joke and kindly had to go do something else....she went back later and tried again. Had numerous people ask if the frozen mice came back to life if you thawed them. Once I filled my buddy's coat pockets with crickets. He put it on to go home and pulled a cricket off his neck, then another, then another, I was rolling on the ground at this point. He said he was itchy the entire night.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Worked at a Pet Store. The new girl was very ditzy. In retail you have the idea of "facing" the products so that the labels are face forward. I asked her to "face" the beta bowls so that the fish would point forward.

She actually tried doing that. A manager figured out our joke and kindly had to go do something else....she went back later and tried again. Had numerous people ask if the frozen mice came back to life if you thawed them. Once I filled my buddy's coat pockets with crickets. He put it on to go home and pulled a cricket off his neck, then another, then another, I was rolling on the ground at this point. He said he was itchy the entire night.

Gotta love the Pet Industry

 

[MSB123]

Anyone else?”

 

[OriginalUserName]

At the same store. Customer comes in with 3 very large goldfish that he can't keep anymore, we promise to give them a good home. Yadda yadda yadda, 15 minutes later the 5ft Redtail catfish had a very large stomach bulge. (ok, I feel a little bad about that one)

One time we also sent a feeder mouse on an submarine adventure (he was not hurt, though presumable became food for something not too long after) . Using an upside down betta bowl and an airline hose we placed the bowl at the bottom of a large tank. The mouse was pretty chill with it, checking things out and grooming himself. The snake heads in the tank were very interested though and spent a while trying to move the gravel around trying to get to him. Our brave submariner was rescued and returned to his brethren, possibly with some cool stories to tell.

 

[Breadman03]

I grew up patronizing Q-Pet in the Q-Mart in Quakertown, PA. I loved that place since they had cats, dogs, lizards, snakes, tarantulas, rays, fresh and saltwater, rodents, and a big old parrot named Bo. Bo started out caged in the open, then moved behind a screen door, then finally a glass door. I guess there were too many ignorant folks bothering him and he started plucking.

I don't have any crazy stories from there, but I spent countless hours there, stocked a freshwater 20 tall there, and even bought a tarantula from them because I was scared of spiders as a kid. I guess it worked since they don't bother me at all. One of my most vivid memories of that furry little 8-legger was the day it died. I woke up and saw its body curled up on the bottom of the cage. My Mom sure wasn't going to take care of business and I didn't want it to stink by the time I got home from school so I took off the lid and grabbed the body to throw it away. At about this point, another tarantula ran up my arm and onto my neck. Did I mention that it is difficult to remember that tarantulas molt at 7am? lol Needless to say, I kept that tarantula for a good while afterward.

So a couple years ago I went into a pet store I drove 2 hours just to go.

Sounds like That Pet Place/That Fish Place. They've got a decent selection, but aren't worth the drive for me. I hope the individual that treated you that way has learned the error of his ways.

It's not just pets. My other hobby is firearms. Young woman goes in saying she doesn't feel safe at home alone. Guy at the counter nearly always grabs a compact .22 pistol off the shelf. Worthless, for self defense.

I've seen that many times. I usually interject that it may be a good choice, but that they should consider a larger caliber such as .38 or 9mm, that is reliable, and fits their hand well.

SALTWATER GOLDFISH TOO??

Honestly, I think I read something about this. I'll have to try to find the article, but I think some carp have begun to cross saltwater obstacles. It may have been something else, so don't quote me on it.

 

[OriginalUserName]

This one isn't funny, more freaky. I used to go to reptile shows with my Dad's business and wound up heading to a trade show in North Carolina to help out another vendor. Now, this guy was a bit shady, actual criminal past and had seen some crap. At the show he talked to this guy that bred rabbits for feed purposes so we made a stop on the way back from the show to buy a bunch of live rabbits. His home was out in the country, pulling up it seemed ok. When we got to the back though, wow.

Picture those hoarding houses you see but for his backyard. It was a maze of junk, some areas had sketchy roofs over them, some didn't. Rabbit cages on the ground, crap everywhere (literal crap), cages hanging from the roofs of these little buildings. After we left we were both freaked out. You could have totally filmed a horror movie there. This was in the days before camera phones so I couldn't take a video or pictures. I wish had some to share.

 

[MSB123]

Wow!

 

[oceaninabox12345]

My dad started me in this hobby when he got a tank for my family. I was 10. Well, eventually he couldnt be home as much(work) so i ended up learning how to take care of a reef tank. 7 years later my dad and i decide we see this really nice 120 tank on craigslist with tons of coral and fish for 500 dollars. Great lighting, sump, designer clownfish, etc. We get all the livestock in totes, and get that to our house. Drive back, and put the tank in the back of the truck. Now the tank has two pipes for the sump, drilled into the bottom. So there are these two pipes sticking out the bottom of the tank, so we have to make a stand to get it in the truck to avoid breaking them and causing a leak. We get it home, and my dad had a buddy come over to get it down the stairs. Well, we should have taken out all the sand(all the water was out) because it was tol heavy, and one of them dropped it and broke off both of the pipes. It could hold NO water. So what do we have? About 6 totes of rock, fish, corals, and inverts in our house, with nowhere to go. At this point it was midnight so we put heaters in all the totes with anything alive, and i put about 8 fish (large fish) in my other 120 tank, the one he got when i was little. So most the fish were ok that night, but we had acros, mushrooms, montipora, duncans, basically a variety of coral stuck in totes with bubblers and heaters. The next 30 hours were spent with at least one person around the clock on the tank, trying to put silicone around the broken pipe to get it to stop leaking. Finally, 30 hours later it stopped leaking and we put the rock back in, and about 3 fish in. All of the coral, fish, and inverts went into the other tank. It was a DISASTER

 

[Snuggs]

In my very young years I managed a family pet store....they had wholesome values and we were trained to discern the difference between what they came in for and what they really wanted/ needed, even if we lost the sale.one evening a young gentleman came in insisting on a refund for a relatively expensive freshwater fish. He openly admitted that his piranha ate it. I was unsure as to how to handle this. This person began to rant and insult me, my owner etc. He insisted that piranhas only ate goldfish. I politely told him to bring in the dead fish and I would not only replace it, but also refund his money...he left in a hurry, being sure to call me a c###

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Going to bring a bit of positivity; my lfs for 10+ years (wow right?) not only got me into the hobby, but led me through it. When I was 8 years old with a 2.5 gallon (khuli loach, pleco, and a juivenile blue ram) I got into the hobby fast, I can read fast so I consumed around 10+ freshwater fish books in under a month so knew which fish was which. Didn’t really understand cycling and wouldn’t till later, soon got a 10 gallon (again, from LFS), then a 30 (actually that tank came from Walmart), then a 55 (from a friend), and then back to the 30 (55 gallon tanks suck, worst proportions ), then finally I went to saltwater. Over the years I’ve gotten so much advice for the hobby, plus a huge amount of free coral. I’d go in somedays and just get a coral, some ro, and walk out for nothing. I actually just moved 3 weeks ago and do miss my lfs a lot, going back home this weekend, definitely going to visit and say hi to everyone (they all knew me because 10+ years and I brought cookies from subway, that’s the real way to show you care).

 

[OriginalUserName]

In my very young years I managed a family pet store....they had wholesome values and we were trained to discern the difference between what they came in for and what they really wanted/ needed, even if we lost the sale.one evening a young gentleman came in insisting on a refund for a relatively expensive freshwater fish. He openly admitted that his piranha ate it. I was unsure as to how to handle this. This person began to rant and insult me, my owner etc. He insisted that piranhas only ate goldfish. I politely told him to bring in the dead fish and I would not only replace it, but also refund his money...he left in a hurry, being sure to call me a c###

You gotta love people ****** enough to harass a kid just trying to do their job. I was there a few times myself.

 

[crahan]

I saw a LFS selling “glass anemones” for $4.99.

They were big aptasia.

 

[WVNed]

I saw a LFS selling “glass anemones” for $4.99.

They were big aptasia.

I saw that a month ago only it was $24.99.

Long time ago a local pet shop got in an order of tiny piranha. After a few days the largest one had eaten all the eyes of the smaller ones. I was a good customer and the owner gave them to me for free so I kept 7 blind piranha for a while.

 

[jcl123]

Well, I guess I just have to chime in on this one. Been keeping fish off and on for 40 years, but worked in a pet store for 9 years when I was a teenager in HS. Mind you, even by that time I had been keeping fish for years, even volunteering at an aquaculture facility and marine science center, would have only done that if they paid me. I was an expert at diagnosing problems and the nitrogen cycle and so forth, I had 100's of regular customers and sold dozens of tank setups per month, the owners were happy. Oddly we sold saltwater fish, but I can't ever remember selling a setup. All the saltwater customers already had something and knew what they wanted. Usually educating me along the way.

I actually have very little saltwater experience, back in the 80's and 90's it was quite expensive and knowledge of it was scarce (before Internet), and even with my discount I could not afford much, but I did OK taking care of the fish we had. 9 salt water tanks and 70 freshwater tanks. I am only now venturing back into it and doing a reef tank.

I actually never had a problem with people mixing up fresh and salt water. They would ask, I would explain, and it never went further than that. Maybe I was just really convincing? Buuuut, aside from that I do have some stories.

And actually, I want to chime in on the earlier post with the blond woman who was insulted by the store worker. Yes, he may have been a jerk (I was not there), but in his defense when you are constantly bombarded every day with ignorant people, it could be hard to adjust to someone who knows something. Just sayin'.... I think for me I think I found most pet people (myself included) are some of either the dumbest or craziest people in the world, and I did not find any positive correlation with hair color. And I can also imagine some blonds being sensitive, my mother is blond... anyway.

I once caught a young boy who dropped his pants and started peeing in one of the tanks that was low in the rack. He got a little upset when I started scolding him, and I don't remember what his parents did (probably not enough). I took the care of all those tanks very personally, and this was such an affront to that and I was so disgusted I wasn't even sure what to do, all I can remember is staring at the tank wondering what to do. Fortunately it was the feeder goldfish tank and not on the central filter system. But I still felt that my sacred land had been so quickly and casually desecrated. The owner finally came over wondering what happened and why I was so freaked out, I told him and I think he laughed a solid 30 minutes. I don't think we ever actually did anything special, and sold feeder goldfish out of that tank later the same day.

For 7 of the 9 years I worked at a store in the NE (so I was a total Yankee), but the last two years I worked in SW Virginia, near the W. Virginia border. The store was opened by a football coach and crazy profane guy from NJ. It was like working in hell's kitchen or something, but it had it's moments. Especially because we were deep enough in the south that both them and I often had trouble containing our disbelief.

Here are some of those:
- Had a couple come in and tell us this -long- story about how they decided not to have children, so they were going to "have" this little white puppy they had with them instead (and they talked like this was completely normal thing that everyone does, of course). They wanted to have a puppy shower, and run the registry out of our store. We kept straight faces the whole time, especially when they handed over more than, seriously, $1,000 (this was about 1993, that was allot of money) and a list of the things they wanted...OK. Apparently they were pre-paying for all the gifts instead of the guests.... whatever. But sure enough over the next few days all the guests came in picking up things off the list. We were both speechless, we just couldn't process it.

- A beat up old station wagon with wood paneling pulled up outside the store. It was nearly bottoming out until the 5 (or what is 6?) family members came out like clowns at the circus, not one of them under 300 pounds. They each waddled into the store one by one. Me and the owner from NJ were standing their looking like we had just witnessed aliens landing in front of us. We started arguing about which one was the mother and which one was the father, because they looked the same, especially the amount of facial hair. But, they were really nice people and we did not say anything. But after they left I think the owner had to go out back and started yelling and laughing and chain smoking or hallucinating or something, or whatever profane people from NJ do when they witness such a thing. I stayed at the register and pretended not to hear it.

- Later on we hired one of the locals, a woman from a farm with lots of animal experience. She was great and I learned allot, she knew about every other animal except fish, and I knew the fish. But do not get her going about all the breeding of horses, cows, sheep, pigs, and whatever else she was breeding. She would describe, in explicit detail, the breeding and birthing processes.... I suppose it was educational but sometimes a little much especially if customers were around. But she was so matter-of-fact about it, you could tell she was not doing it to make other people around her uncomfortable (even when it got into Vaseline or borrowing some of the KY she and her boyfriend used for the animals). Between her house and her barn she had just about every animal or pet I could think of, reptiles, birds, everything and most of them free-roamed around her house, no cages, and probably 30 cats and dogs as well by the amount of food she would bring home. She invited us to her house a couple times for a BBQ, but we all found ways to decline because we were sure there would be something there we would not be ready for and would scar our brains for life.

There are so many stories I could go on and on. I just don't have that many actual horror stories involving the fish like you guys do, I guess I was lucky in that regard.

I guess these are the things that shape you as a person. I had to endure all of this because I was a starving college student and with my experience I was making 3x minimum wage.

-JCL

 

[Terry aka Cr@sh]

Back in the day I worked in a store called fishtown USA on the corner of 34th st and 1st Ave in the famous NYC. We had a two foot snakehead fish someone returned as it grew way too big for his apartment tank. We placed it in a 125 gallon and wrote with marker on glass explaining not to startle or look it strait in the eyes because it would get VERY MAD and thrash about tank..... So while you were reading the story we would go behind tank and blow this big rubber hose like an elephant, I've never seen so many people run so fast trying to fit through a little door trying to get out.. It was endless laughter until channel 4 news wanted an interview about the fish.....Soooo....Guess who made the camera man drop his camera, LOL! Anchor woman Jennifer McLogan was a good sport but needed a new wire for her microphone cause she beat the cameraman out the door.


Same block but another story:
A indoor pond client at Rivergate towers on 34th st. called the store complaining they had an alligator in the buildings pond in lobby. I serviced the pond and said NO WAY!. so tooled my bike over and put on my long boots and went hunting in water. I was told tenants would buy fish or pets and sometime let them loose in building or pond when to big for their apartments. We had some big Koi and numerous tropical fish so with the people hyping me up I was nervous. I walked slowly until I accidentally touched a huge creature (like almost 3 feet) that threw me on my butt in front of everyone, so in fear and not seeing what it really was, I ran like God across the top of the water and rolled onto the carpet believing there was a gator. I looked until the murky water settled and found out it was a just a huge channel catfish. I caught and got it a great home in Brooklyn. Moral of the story, Alligators sometimes don't just live in city sewers? Always send your work partner in first to investigate. ;Smuggrin