I’ll go first. Have only had fish for a few months. Taking over a tank from my boyfriend’s little boy. The LFS told them “any small fish” when they asked what fish would fit in a 10 gallon. They let them walk out with 2 Congo Tetras, 2 Pictus cats and a couple other fish I never met because they didn’t make it. My boyfriend literally said “I know nothing about fish so you have to advise me which ones to get” and they sold them those ones 🤦♀️. I found out after researching online how terribly unsuitable a 10 gallon is for those poor fish. Now I’m in the process of refurbishing a 45 gallon tank for them. The guy on FB marketplace told me it was a 55 but then I found out it’s not :/ It will be enough for now though. Please don’t judge the awful pebbles and fake plant 😂 will be replacing those with real plants and substrate in the bigger tank.
Posted by free-4-good
6 Comments
That I could keep 4 African dwarf frogs in a 5 gallon tank as an absolute beginner… rip to the 8 in total I kept. I was like 13 and very impressionable.
The few times I bothered to ask them about what I was buying, it was about plants.
They sold me 2 plants that were semiaquatic when I was looking for aquatic. Had to take them out and put them in a vase, but they didn’t even survive that. So from then on I decide on what plant I want first, then go buy it and don’t ask anything anymore.
I know they are not to be trusted with fish advice, because they convinced a young couple to buy a betta fish with a tiny bowl with crystal gravel, no filter, and some product they told them to add. They said “You can try with this one first, see how you do, then add 2 catfish (cory or hoplos, not sure what they pointed to) to clean the substrate. If he dies, we got plenty more.” The many things they could have sold if only they knew or cared about taking care of fish … They could have sold:
* bigger tank (which was available!)
* more substrate
* good filter
* test kits
* water change pump
* plants
* shrimp and/or cory cats
* cycle bacteria
Congo Terra pretty 🤩
If it were me, I would demand a refund and the store take those fish back then never shop there again. Shame on them.
One of the worst advices was no advice at all. When I just started getting into fish keeping like most of us did, I’m sure, it was because I wanted a community Betta tank. So I went to my LFS, told the dude I want to set up my first community tank and he just showed me where the community fish are. I got my tank, supplies, and fish, on the same day.
When he was helping me check out, he did not even ask me anything at all, just business like usual. Yes, I know I’m responsible to do my research but honestly at that moment I didn’t even know what to research except for what other fish goes with Betta and what supplies I need to house these fish. I have never ever read or heard someone even mentioned ANYTHING about the nitrogen cycle. Of course until a lot later my tank crashed and I looked more online into it. Mindblown 🤯.
I’ve been fairly lucky. The worst I’ve gotten was that a Dojo loach would be fine in a 40 Breeder community. Granted we were just talking about Kuhli’s which they didn’t have but they did have one Dojo. It was the end of the day and I think they just got them a bit mixed up.
My tank wasn’t cycled yet so I didn’t take it home.