Anyone have funny pet store/beginner stories?

[Trizon78]

Aight, so I'm a marine science major in college, but I worked at an LFS during high school. Mainly in the freshwater section, but I already kept reef tanks, definitely more fun.

So, dude walks in and looks at the red scooter dragonet we have. He says "that's a cool fish, I like the way it moves". I respond "Yeah, they're really nice". So we continue talking about how cool the dragonet is, and I'm doing my job, trying to sell the fish. He looked like he knew what he was talking about. He asked, "what does it eat?". I said, "mainly copepods". He nodded. Seemed experienced. Finally, after a good 5 minutes of discussion, he says "I'll take it". Good, I made a sale. So I bag up the dragonet, and AS WERE WALKING TO THE REGISTER, he says "Oh, by the way, can I put him in with a betta?". I gave him a blank stare for a couple seconds. "No, he's saltwater," I said. "Right, so I put some salt into the betta bowl, he'll be fine, right?". I mentally faceplanted as I explained the difference between freshwater fish and saltwater fish. He gave up when I reached salinity, and said he didn't want the fish anymore, and left. So I put the dragonet back into his tank, lucky to live another day.

 

[Gaines69]

I was in my local big chain pet store looking at their salt water fish etc. I have been having trouble with high PO4 so I thought if I added live “plants” to my tank not only would it help reduce some PO4 but it would look awesome too. I walked up to a tank with a purple gargonium (sea whip) and thought oh that’s a pretty plant. So I told the guy workingbthat I want that plant for my tank. He said ok and bagged it up for me. I took it home and google on how I should acclimate my new plant to my tank to find out I had purchased a coral. I was petrified. I wasn’t ready to go from FOWLR to reef. Well it’s been a few months now and with a lot of research my “plant” is still alive and doing well. Lol. Boy did I feel stupid that night.

 

[UltraReef]

LOL, masturbating monkey is the mascot for a store full of teenagers.

When I was 17 I worked in a pet store with fish, small animals, reptiles and a masturbating monkey that we had to keep a diaper on so he wouldn't freak out the customers. He was in a large bird cage.

We got these catfish in, two of them, and I was cleaning their tank. We had gotten all sorts of odd animals at this place. The label said "EL Catfish." I thought it was spanish for "THE Catfish."

This was at the time of non submersible heaters. I stuck my hand in the tank and got zapped, bad. I ripped the heater off the tank and threw it across the back room for zapping me.

I stuck my hand in a second time and was zapped so bad it knocked me off the step stool I was on. After falling off the stool and into a big pile of inventory boxes, another employee comes over. I was like "dude, don't touch that tank, there's something really wrong with it."

This guy starts laughing and said those are electric catfish dummy! I was sooo mad... I said "did the magic marker charge by the letter that you couldn't spell out the whole word?!! They couldn't pay me to touch that tank again. I never felt such pain.

The monkey was a whole other thing. Teenagers used to come in and try to peel his diaper off if he was by the side of the cage so he could start going to town again. He was like the store mascot in a way.

 

[OriginalUserName]

When I was 17 I worked in a pet store with fish, small animals, reptiles and a masturbating monkey that we had to keep a diaper on so he wouldn't freak out the customers. He was in a large bird cage.

We got these catfish in, two of them, and I was cleaning their tank. We had gotten all sorts of odd animals at this place. The label said "EL Catfish." I thought it was spanish for "THE Catfish."

This was at the time of non submersible heaters. I stuck my hand in the tank and got zapped, bad. I ripped the heater off the tank and threw it across the back room for zapping me.

I stuck my hand in a second time and was zapped so bad it knocked me off the step stool I was on. After falling off the stool and into a big pile of inventory boxes, another employee comes over. I was like "dude, don't touch that tank, there's something really wrong with it."

This guy starts laughing and said those are electric catfish dummy! I was sooo mad... I said "did the magic marker charge by the letter that you couldn't spell out the whole word?!! They couldn't pay me to touch that tank again. I never felt such pain.

The monkey was a whole other thing. Teenagers used to come in and try to peel his diaper off if he was by the side of the cage so he could start going to town again. He was like the store mascot in a way.

We had some of those electric catfish in at some point, they put out a pretty good shock despite their size.

 

[MSB123]

Are they painful?

 

[OriginalUserName]

Are they painful?

The ones we had were maybe 2-3 inches. Have you ever been buzzed by an electrical outlet? IIRC that is what if felt like.

 

[1stNoel]

I once overheard a older lady infront of me in line at the counter buying some corals and she was "babying" them like they were a puppy or kitten saying stuff like "oh aren't you cute and pretty" and tickeling the bags.

You could tell from a mile away that she was a beginner and that these were her first corals ever.

Her total came up to over $400 for a handful of frags and i felt so sad for her cause i knew for a fact they were going to die.

Wait...is talking to your corals considered weird?

P.S. I sell dead SPS to the blind kid down the street...

 

[Terry aka Cr@sh]

The ones we had were maybe 2-3 inches. Have you ever been buzzed by an electrical outlet? IIRC that is what if felt like.

I've been hit with 220 volts at 60 amps and it's not even close to the heart pounding and pain my foot long catfish jolted me with. To this day I'll never figure out why I used a wire net to grab him.

 

[Purplelobst92]

I would love to hear your stories of working at pet shops or stores about fish and “impulse buys”! Also any funny stories that you may have!
I’ll start:
I had dry ice get dumped in my tank and it almost killed off my fish because I was an idiot- you can see the whole story as it unraveled here- https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...yung-at-the-bottom-and-breathing-hard.426506/

I used to work in a Fish Store that is located in the Seattle metropolitan area, we sold saltwater animals and freshwater, corals, plants etc.. anyways I placed an order with a wholesaler from Indonesia for a regular "regular octopus" well when this "regular octopus" arrived my co worker and I took it out and looked upon it and upon close inspection we realized this was a Blue Ring octopus Lol, we called the wholesaler and this guy told us to just kill it... well we said screw that and my co worker (also a good friend of mine) took the little guy home and kept it for 3 years successfully in a small reef aquarium of 12 gallons, until one day he passed away (likely from old age), but man this thing was so cool when we would feed it, it would come out and flash colors and spin around all excited and look kinda like a ufo… was crazy to watch.

 

[Katrina71]

We have hermit crabs. My son and I were cleaning the tank when he was about 4. He gently picks up a crab and starts to put it on his hand. I said he's gonna pinch you. Well...he did. My son asked how I knew and I said he told me. Not thinking anything about it a few days later, we were watching them together and my son looks at me randomly and said "mom, what's he saying to me, I can't understand them yet"

 

[Ly78]

While shopping at my lfs, a panic looking lady rushed in. She was telling the owner her clownfishes are breathing heavy suddenly overnight. Owner say possible O2 deficeiency. She said cant be as her skimmer, powerheads and all working fine....she seem to know her stuff.
So owner asked what changed? Lady says she did 30% water change last night but was out of salt so she just top up fresh water. Lol shldve seen the look the owner gave me

 

[Forsaken77]

The ones we had were maybe 2-3 inches. Have you ever been buzzed by an electrical outlet? IIRC that is what if felt like.

These were two 6" fish in the same tank. I felt like I got hit with a defibrillator. The first jolt was a warning from them, but I thought it was the heater. The 2nd jolt they hit me full force.

 

[OriginalUserName]

I've been hit with 220 volts at 60 amps and it's not even close to the heart pounding and pain my foot long catfish jolted me with. To this day I'll never figure out why I used a wire net to grab him.

Yikes, I can imagine. Even those tiny buggers were startling.

 

[Terry aka Cr@sh]

These were two 6" fish in the same tank. I felt like I got hit with a defibrillator. The first jolt was a warning from them, but I thought it was the heater. The 2nd jolt they hit me full force.

"Man it hurts"!...... I can't get over how stupid I was. I think DC jolts you more than AC, they just build up a nasty charge and cut loose when threatened.

 

[Dr.Xipoles]

Wait...is talking to your corals considered weird?

P.S. I sell dead SPS to the blind kid down the street...

Lol, well, kinda, to me, cause I view corals as sort of like plants because they lack personality and all they do is grow and look pretty and thats about it. Unlike my fish which have tons of personality, they play, they fight, and get super excited to see me.

 

[kirstyflash]

Lol, well, kinda, to me, cause I view corals as sort of like plants because they lack personality and all they do is grow and look pretty and thats about it. Unlike my fish which have tons of personality, they play, they fight, and get super excited to see me.

Lol you mean they get super excited to see the thing they correlate with food

 

[Sashaka]

I saw a LFS selling “glass anemones” for $4.99.
They were big aptasia.

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

They were big aptasia.

Yup! I know a LFS that does the same thing. So sad!