While I get that most people working with fish these days are in it for the pay check & know nothing about fish... But come on! Fish are living creatures. Are we really that self absorbed that we can't take a few minutes to actually read up on something rather than trying to pass on bad information, especially when the subject at hand is a living creature?

While walking through Walmart pets for an unrelated item, they pulled a woman from stocking toys to help a customer with fish..

Customer: What can you tell me about this odd looking thing?
Employee: Let me see if I can find the price tag.... I'm pretty sure that's a pleco..pleco..plecostomus?
Customer: I'll take one. Is a 10 gallon tank okay?
Employee: My Mom told me once that fish only grow to the size of their tank, so any size would really be okay.
Customer: So one of those nifty hex shapes (5 gallon) would be good too?
Employee: Yep!

Now myself, having never been one to keep quiet when stupidity is about to b!t(h slap someone (or something) innocent.. spoke up & let that customer know that a pleco 'can' get up to 18" long & produces more waste than it cleans, & will outgrow most anything smaller than a 55 gallon (or worse, be stunted & die much too early). He was mortified & opted not to buy the fish. The employee (I'd guess she's about 40) just shrugged her shoulders & went back to toys.

I looked at that d@mn "price tag", it actually stated that the pleco can get 18" long...

People... Some days I wish "I" could climb in my aquarium & wait for my husband to come round to visit!

Rant over, thanks for reading.

Yep...sad truth to the hobby and chain stores unfortunately.

Not sure you can call a Walmart a LFS.

I went back to the LFS I bought my tank from to get a few fish yesterday. I just was wandering around to begin with to see what they had. I stopped and looked at a Royal Pleco that was maybe 2" long. I had no intention of buying it, just liked the looks of the little guy.

The guy I bought from immediately walked up and told me he wouldn't sell me it because my tank was too small and drug me over to two other tanks, one with Clown Plecos and the other with Rubbernosed Plecos. I knew I already knew I liked the store but that really sold me on the place.

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26 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Aquaclear 50, UGF, Inert Substrate with Root Tabs
Anubias Nana, Cryptocoryne, Amazon Swords, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus, Java Ferns
7 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 2 Leopard Cories, 2 Peppered Cories, 2 Bronze Cories, 2 Skunk Cories, 1 Dwarf Gourami, 1 Male German Blue Ram, 1 Clown Pleco, 3 Otos, 2 Nerite Snails
2.5 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Peat and Inert Substrate
Anubias Nana, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus
George the Betta, 3 Nerite Snails

Yeah, I know the feeling. It is even more obnoxious when you hear/see petstore clerks doing the same thing. I think walmart should either have a trained pet person over there or stop carrying livestock. But in Petsmart/Petco? C'mon guys.. either tell the truth or admit you have no clue and find someone who does. We forunately have a pretty good petsmart staff, but I did have one guy who was very reluctant to tell me info he actually knew. (My 5yo wanted a redclaw crab, and I didn't know if they would nab my fish. It was like pulling teeth to get him to admit it would. We got a mystery snail.)
My advice is to avoid wally-world's fish stock and try and find the petstore/fish store with the least dead fish/nasty tanks and stick with them, at least for fish. Advice, I would come on here for.

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Matthew
30G AquaClear50: Lightly planted, platies, ottos, kuhli loaches.
10G Sponge filter: Heavily planted, ottos, red cherry shrimp

I am very fortunate to have an awesome Mom & Pop shop close to my home. They care for their fish, are very affordable, & actually know what they're talking about.

I refuse to buy from Big Box Stores anymore, especially when it comes to pets. We only stopped in to buy dog food for my Dad. (If it was up to me, we wouldn't have bought that there either.)

*& I agree, I should have titled this "Big Box Store Rant"* lol

"yeah, put 4 or 5 plecos in your 10 gallon; look at how small they are"

...



do you think they actually train WalMart employees to be knowledgeable about fish?

I don't buy fish from anywhere accept the one-man-owned and ran LFS about 3 miles from me. They man knows what he's talking about. I'll occasionally buy fish from Petco, but only if I know what I'm buying to start with (ie, my Dwarf Gourmis and Ghost Shrimp. and a single Betta)

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My 30 gallon planted freshwater - CONSTANTLY CHANGING

I've gathered that most people are not trained for the positions of which they get paid for. Be that at a big box store, tech support (lol), the local fabric store, etc.

I was mystified the day I went to buy the material to sew my wedding dress, the woman at the local fabric store asked me what I was making. After I told her she declared "Wow, I wish I could do that. I can't sew at all. I just cut the fabric." & much like with fish, that is not the person I want to have to speak to about anything related to the store.

I was starting to think I was the only irritated person, lol, till I joined this site.

Actually red claw crabs are hard to keep in an aquarium,they need air every once in a while...the only fish i think they are even capable of nabbing are small algae eaters and dead fish,shrimp,and snails.I have 4 in a 10g tank.If you feed them like dead fish they'll most likely do no harm to any.

The sad fact is that freshwater fish are fairly expendable, price-wise. What I would be truly mortified to see would be WalMart start carrying a salt water section, because not only are salt water fish truly beautiful and rare, but they are also very expensive and require some serious knowledge to keep!

With that being said, I'm pleased to see that LFS's do not hire aforementioned WalMart employees to run their store. Go Mom&Pop LFS's!

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FW 10G, 5 neons, 1 fancy male guppy, BNP, pond snails, ~80 RCS. Camboba, java moss, java fern, willow hygro, ludwigia repens, dwarf sag, anubias nana. AC50, 50W heater, Current USA Nova Extreme 2x18W T5HO.

"Give me your penchant and I shall grant you deliverance." - Falcor

Unfortunately I have both small algae eaters (otos) and shrimp. Plus the bigger tank is probably too high for them to be able to go get air as needed. I just wasn't prepared when my kid asked if we could have one. I didn't know a thing about them. My wife swears I cant have another tank, so I had to pass on setting up a new tank just for one of them :(

Thanks!

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Matthew
30G AquaClear50: Lightly planted, platies, ottos, kuhli loaches.
10G Sponge filter: Heavily planted, ottos, red cherry shrimp