Do You Advice People At Pet Stores About Fish Stuff?

I keep going to pet stores and lfs all the time and I see people buying fish and getting incomplete or bad advice from employees.
I've seen people buying common plecos for 20 gallon tanks, buying 1 cory or 2 neon tetras and so on. Many times I feel like stepping in and talk to them about fish needs and care, telling them to buy a bristlenose pleco instead or buying at least 5 corys or tetras and things like that.
Do you step in and help people?

 

Its a funny thing actually. The customers will take the advice of the fish expert (employee) 99.9% of the time. I save my breath.

 

Nope. It’s none of my business. I also think unwarranted advice can be annoying and even intrusive, at least I do. I’m not just talking fish-keeping either, but in general.

 

No, never have I bothered going up to someone and telling them that they didn't do something right.
It sure would make you feel strong and proud of yourself, but who knows if they'll take your advice or not?

 

no since I'm not brave enough to do that and they might get offended or upset. they could take it the wrong way because of how I word it, or might not take me seriously since I don't work there or something along those lines. although it could end up being a good thing if you do give advice to people at the store buying fish because some people will appreciate it and listen to you.

 

Similar to when I was at PetCo a few days ago, and there was a little girl with her mother.
She wanted to buy a hermit crab, and in my brain, I just thought "man, rest the crab's soul" because they probably wouldn't care for it properly.

Then she said no, I was relieved.

 

If you suggest a person spend more money than they think they need to and feel pressured by it, it might annoy them, I’m not telling anyone how to spend their money. That’s how I see it.

 

All the lfs I go to are reputable and the one I go to the most only hires professionals/hobbyists with fish keeping experience so the usually do the interrogating and aiding.

 

I saw someone buy a angelfish for a 1 gallon bowl

 

4 LFS here, 1 Mom&Pop who know their fish well, 1 Independant where the Fish Guy is usually asking me for advice, and 2 chains... I normally wait until the employee admits that they don't know before I'll say anything. People probably notice the disgusted look on my face when they buy anything they shouldn't, though.

 

I keep going to pet stores and lfs all the time and I see people buying fish and getting incomplete or bad advice from employees.
I've seen people buying common plecos for 20 gallon tanks, buying 1 cory or 2 neon tetras and so on. Many times I feel like stepping in and talk to them about fish needs and care, telling them to buy a bristlenose pleco instead or buying at least 5 corys or tetras and things like that.
Do you step in and help people?

No, why bother? I honestly couldn't care less about it.

If someone wants to put a common pleco in a 20 gallon tank then its not my business to interfere. If they asked on a forum I would give them the correct advice but unless than happened then no.

 

I actually was threatened with being arrested many years ago. The advice the big box store employee was giving was so egregious I had to step in. I left before the cops got there ( I am a biker and trucker) and did not go back for several years. One day I walked in to the fish dept and the manager came up to me and started to ask me if I was the guy involved with the issue several years ago. I said yes and headed for the door. He stopped me and said that he had fired the employee and was sorry that I had not been back.

But I am very careful these days with my advice.

 

No, I haven't unless a customer asked for it.

I have had customers tell me how to keep for my new wet pets - like eg. Buying a couple of kulhlies to increase current school, a single angel or school of tetras and goldfish ect.. - and telling me what I'm doing is wrong. I understand they trying to help, but honestly its not appreciated when they assumed that I don't know what I'm doing. Lets just say some of my remarks have been rather snappy when they are aggressive about it...

 

Man a part of me wants to but I try to keep to myself. If they ask me then I’ll tell them but I keep to myself.

 

No, I haven't unless a customer asked for it.

I have had customers tell me how to keep for my new wet pets - like eg. Buying a couple of kulhlies to increase current school, a single angel or school of tetras and goldfish ect.. - and telling me what I'm doing is wrong. I understand they trying to help, but honestly its not appreciated when they assumed that I don't know what I'm doing. Lets just say some of my remarks have been rather snappy when they are aggressive about it...

I agree, and it happened to me only once. It takes me about 45 minutes to get to this one LFS I like to frequent. Not that far, but still quite a roundtrip and time is limited. So I came to pick up some fish there that this one employee and I talked about and I planned for some time. The day finally came and the guy was happy to net out the fish for me. That was until another employee that I never even met intervened and suggested an entirely different option, after hearing about my plans. Yes, she literally stops the guy from netting my fish over differences in opinion. Fish-keeping isn’t mathematics where 2+2 always equals 4. I know what I was doing, so I wasn’t very happy, especially because NYC transit can be a pain in the butt. I feel bad as I haven’t seen her since, but some things you just don’t do, imo.

 

I spend a lot of time in the fish section of any store that has one. If I notice someone getting a fish and they don't appear to know what they're doing I will strike up small talk and give advice. I don't mind helping someone in need, so its no big deal to me.

 

Very interesting responses.
I have never said anything yet, but I really had to bite my tongue a few times. I feel like I want to help people understand things, but at the same time I feel like they won't like it, especially the store employees.
I'm also an introvert, so it's hard for me to start conversations and I know some people wouldn't like me getting into their business, so I keep quiet.

 

Tank sizes I say nothing, but when someone wants to put 2 female bettas or once I saw someone asking if they could put 3male bettas in a 10gallon.... Then I step in.