Conflicted with LPS I thought I loved...

I went in to look for a nerite snail to see of my betta will tolerate one. Usually I deal with the woman but she was busy. Chit chatted a bit about what I wanted with the man that is sometimes there. The man looked blankly at me after I said I wanted a nerite since they won't take over a Freshwater tank.. He says "Well I don't think we have those because we just had a huge boom of baby snails".

He told me it would be okay to put a Chinese algae eater in with a betta and just return it when it got too big?! Can't they be aggressive sometimes? And to put it with an already aggressive fish? In a 3 gallon tank?

Oh, I almost forgot. He told me his bala shark were full grown at 4 inches. And that they don't care if they have a school or not.

I asked if I could put the long-fin variety of Danios with a Dwarf Gourami and he went on to tell me DG's can't be put with anything. I've read all over the forum that they can be put with other fish that are peaceful and aren't typically top-dwellers.

I feel like I was given a lot of incorrect information and wonder if I should find a new pet store! Opinions?

 

I would say not to deal with that particular man again. Sounds like he is just there to net fish & help out. Next time maybe wait until the lady is free?

 

I think he's actually a co-owner, he just has another full time job. The lady was washing windows outside and didn't even seem like she was going to bother coming in because he was handling it.

 

My suggestion would be to find another LFS to spend your money in if you are not happy with this present one

 

IME long fin danios and DG will be just fine. the danios are oblivious to pretty much everything and our gourami just hides out by the cobamba....

 

Last winter I bought a Chinese algae eater because the guy at my LFS told me it would be a good fit for my 10 gallon tank.. of course I didn't know any better and trusted him because he was the "expert." I gave not had any aggression issues with mine, he gets a little territorial if someone comes into his "castle" but he just chases them away. My skirt tetras are more aggressive. I would absolutely not put one in a 3 gallon tank though. I have mine in a 36 gallon and I feel like even that is pushing it because of the size he will eventually reach.

You're in the right place to ask questions though, and I'm glad you did before making any purchases.

 

I've been obsessing over this site since I found it! I love getting opinions from other fishkeepers. This just kinda took the wind out of my sails today. I'll have to try the only other pet store in town.

 

In my opinion if a lfs has healthy stock I'll buy from them but would just research whatever I was looking for before hand.

 

I have learnt that if you like a particular LFS, it's best to not talk to the owners and employees, do you own research, go in the and just tell them what you want to buy. If they ask questions just tell them what they want to hear and go.

One of my favourite shops has just taught me that this is the best thing to do, my mum was asking a man that worked in a huge LFS about what can live with a betta (even though I refuse to put anything in with him), he was listing a load of tetra things then pointed to a tank that had mollys in which also housed a betta. I pointed out the betta was flaring and chasing the mollys around, he just brushed my comment aside and continued about how this was a great set up.

 

I've found independant Lfs usually have knowledgable owners & staff but they can't know everything about every kind of fish so it's up to us to do research before we go.
I don't think they deliberately mislead us (at least I hope not) to make a sale but if they said no, you can't have that fish in your size tank to everyone they'd go out of business pretty quick as those customers would just go elsewhere & buy them regardless, so sadly they sometimes tell half truths