Stuffed In Place

Today seemed to be a popular day for people wanting to stuff a ton of goldfish into small spaces.

The first was a high school student, who wanted to get 15 goldfish to put in a jar as an answer to MORP.

And I was like "That's kinda small for that many fish." Since the fish would hardly be able to move or breathe, I wouldn't be surprise if they died pretty quickly.

And the Dad was like "we know."

AKA, he knew they were purposely going to kill fish.

>.< Ugh.

UGH!!

People are dumb.

Why not just buy a bunch of goldfish and put them in a jar and not make a living creature suffer?

And then, towards the end of my shift.

A woman came into the store,

Wanting goldfish.

To put in a bowl overnight, and then to put in individual cups in the morning for whatever activity she had planned.

*shakes head*

She wanted 12 goldfish, in like a half gallon bowl.

But I managed to talk her into at least placing the goldfish into a larger space overnight,

unless she wanted dead fish in the morning.

But she was set on her goldfish, not listening to reason.

After all, feeder goldfish are cheap. You're spending a lot of money like you would be on bettas.

*exhales*

Hopefully I managed to give the fish a fighting chance.

Though if they're dead in the morning...I did warn her that it was possible.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Spitfire

Occasionally the cats our adoption groups bring into the store....have some issues.
Mostly in that they start out super sweet, but the longer they're stuck in their cages...or if they happen to see another cat.
They freak out.
Growling, hissing, trying to start fights. Scratching and biting. etc.

It's rare for them to be so difficult in that we can't work with them at all, but it does happen.

My coworker came up to me this morning while I was working on a different task.
Asking for help getting a cat back into it's cage.
As it was being growly/hissy making it difficult to catch.
Usually I can deal with these upset kitties pretty well.

But this particular cat....
I have no idea what happened, but this kitty cat had stressed itself out pretty thoroughly.
To the point where you couldn't put your hand near it without the kitty trying to scratch you, defending itself.

Methinks that it was because she was in with another cat, that she wasn't fond off. And to get out of the cage and see more cats in other cages...I think just was the last straw.

So I grabbed our bite glove. (we only have one, the match disappeared a while ago) and attempted to grab the nap of the neck to get control of the cat.
Only I couldn't. The cat kept rolling on it's side, meaning I could only get a handle on it between it's forelegs. Giving the cat access to use its claws and teeth to defend itself.
Luckily I had the bite glove on, so I remained uninjured.
However I couldn't pull the cat out from where she had placed herself under the cages.
So I had my coworker grab a broom, so we could shoo the cat out of it's small space, and get her out into the open for me to try and grab her then.
Still didn't work.
And when we tried to open the cage, the cat's buddy came out, and decided that since the one kitty was meowing and hissing up a storm, that it would be a good idea to join in the fray and try to attack the kitty as well. *shakes head*
We ended up moving the companion cat into a cage by itself, so that it wouldn't interfere with they yowling maniac I was dealing with.
As the cat had now stressed itself out so much that it was peeing and pooping all over the place too as I tried to wrestle it into a position where I could grab the nape.
But with only one bite glove...I couldn't use my other hand to help out because I would be at risk of being clawed and bitten.

Our adoption area has another doorway in it. That connects to the vet within the store. Its always locked, but that doesn't stop sound from coming through.
And they could hear the cat yowling up a storm, so one of the vet techs came over to investigate.
She thought she could help...
But I warned her away from getting too close to the cat without bite gloves. To which she quickly agreed.
She left to get her own set of bite gloves and a blanket to wrap around the cat.
So with her assistance, we were finally able to get the cat back into it's cage without any of us getting hurt.
Though I had to change my pants afterwards because the cat had peed on me. *shakes head* luckily I had an extra set at work, just in case.

In any case.
With the cat back in her cage by herself...
I later checked back in and she seemed less demonic. Pretty sweet and affectionate through the bars.
Dunno if it will be the same story if we let her out again.
This may be one of those cats that should stay in its cage until it's adopted....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Just Outside

There are days when I have really excellent timing.
Though not always in the best way. lol.

For example.
I was opening the department with my coworker this morning.
And we have this room behind the fish tanks that we keep all our supplies in for feeding and taking care of the animals.

It just so happened to go, that whenever my coworker would disappear into this back room.
I would end up, by chance, standing right outside of the door when they would come back out of the room.
-as I would be intending to go into that room as well when the door opens.-
And every time, I would startle my coworker, because who expects someone to be standing right there when you open a door?

lol.
It got rather amusing by the end.
Because it happened time and time again.
And every time it was just by chance. lol.
I hadn't meant to be there.
Nor did I always realize my coworker was back there when I went to head into this room as well.

lol. I think by the end of the day my coworker was getting rather tired of this.
So hopefully when we work together next....it won't happen.

Though I will be amused if it does.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bulgarian Cages

There are days when talking on the phone with customers is difficult.
Especially when they say words that just aren't creating an understandable meaning in your head.

Today I had a guy call and ask if we had any Bulgarian Cages in stock.
O.o
Bulgarian cages? I'd never heard of such a thing.
Was it a certain style of reptile cage? Like where the doors open in the front? Or the lid comes off? I'd never heard of it being referred to that way.

I mean, our animals will have names related to places like the Asian forest scorpion, the Russian Tortoise, the Greek Tortoise, the African Sideneck, the Short-Haired Syrian, the Russian Hamster....

but Bulgarian?
Never heard of it.

But thankfully after a bit more questions on my side and repetition on the guy's side. I finally figured out what he was actually saying.

BUGarium
An Aquarium for Bugs.

Oh.
*shakes head*
lol.

Admittedly we'd only started carrying those a few months ago, so I hadn't yet received a phone call asking if we had them in stock. Which is why I had difficulties processing what he was saying, because I hadn't been asked it before.

But now I know. and hopefully if I'm asked again, I'll be able to understand what the customer wants much more quickly lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Under $70

I was called over to reptiles today, to find a woman and her two daughters sitting in front of our anole cages waiting to be helped. You see they wanted a reptile.

A glance in their cart told me that they had no idea what they were doing.

A small 5.5 gallon tank, a bag of sand, a little hut.

Great....if you were looking for a hermit crab.

But anoles are tropical creatures that get pretty big. So they'd need at least a 10 gallon tank, and dirt and lots of branches.

Thankfully, the customers freely admitted that they had no idea what they were doing.

So I began to tell them what they would need like a larger tank, dirt, some heat lamps...

When the mother was like. "Okay, but we just want to get everything for under $70."

Ah. Well now it makes sense why they wanted the $5 anoles. They were looking for a cheap pet.

*shakes head*

It's always slightly irritating when people try to go the cheap route with animals.

I mean, I get it if you don't have a lot of money but want a pet, you'd want to get the bare basics first and upgrade or add in things as you get more money.

But if you're just looking to get a cheap pet....

You shouldn't get a pet.

Especially not a reptile.

As honestly, they aren't like dogs or cats or birds where you can just put a bowl of food in their cage and call it good.

They require live food, and basically weekly trips to the store.

*shakes head*

No, if they wanted a pet that wouldn't cost a lot...a reptile isn't the place to start as most of the time you're dropping $200-$300 depending on the setup and what sales we have going to get everything set up.

Not to mention your weekly trips to the store to buy crickets and mealworms.

So after I began bringing up all this information, showing them good kits and such, they quickly changed their mind.
"you want a bird? Can we get a bird for under $70?"

Ummm....barely? It would depend on the cage and the bird and the food....

To which the customers were like. "This local pet store has a deal where you can get a cage set up and the bird as well for $50 do you have anything like that?"

No....no I don't.

I have starter kits yes with stuff you need for animals, but I never bundle an animal into the sale. (though customers would be more than estatic if we did.)

I have to admit I was grateful that they left the store to go back to the local store for their bird.

Because I honestly don't like dealing with people who do the 'spur of the moment' pets with the 'lets get this cheap.' mindset.

That's not a good way to think of an animal.

*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Nemo for the Bowl

It never ceases to amaze me that customers aren't always willing to be forthcoming with information when they come into the store. It's like they expect me to be able to read their minds and such and automatically know what they mean when they say "I need some fish, or I need some crickets."

Today was such a case.
Where a woman came into the store first thing when we opened and found me and was like "I need help."

....Okay..... with what?
"With fish."
.....Okay what fish?
She thought about it for a moment. "Do you have the nemo fish?"
...No. We only carry freshwater fish here.

To which she then directed me to a goldfish she wanted to buy instead and put in a bowl.

But honestly...
how difficult would it have been to say. "I'm looking to get a nemo fish can you help me?"
Or something along those lines. "I need help getting fish, do you have nemo fish?"

*shakes head*
Maybe I'm the only one who thinks that way lol.

Though I do have to wonder with this particular customer....
Was she originally planning to buy a ClownFish to put in a bowl?

O.o
Because it would not have lived long in such a tiny place. Nor would you have been able to easily monitor saltwater levels and other biological levels and temperatures and other random things involved with Saltwater fish tanks.

*shakes head*
I'm glad I didn't have to go through that sort of conversation with her.
Because she seemed to be the type of person of single mindedness where she'd get the fish in a bowl no matter what.
Thankfully...I don't carry salt water fish lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tag You're It

There was a guy who came into the store today,

With questions about how he was caring for his fish and if he could add any other fish into the tank with his betta.

It was normal standard stuff really, questions I get consistently enough to not be surprised by them.

However, what was a bit more unique about this conversation was the guy's absolute adoration for his pet fish. lol.

He absolutely loves that fish and they have a close bond, where he can actually pet the fish and such.

But my favorite thing that he and his fish do together is play tag.

Where he'll tap the side of the tank where the betta is at, to 'tag him' and then move his finger to a different side of the tank where the betta will then dart over to and 'tag him back'

lol it was the cutest thing to hear about! ^^ I love hearing unique relationships and rituals people have with their pets. ^^

-Sarnic Dirchi

Out to the Car

I was helping a woman at the register today,
As I'd hopped on to help backup cashier.

She had a single bag of cat litter, which was easy to scan and such.
But as I asked her how her day was going.
She was like. "I'm surviving."
Why?
Because her feet were killing her...legs? her lower limbs were killing her. To the point where walking was painful, but she had too much to do to let a little leg pain get her down. She had more errands to run, visiting children and grandchildren to visit with, and basically...stay on the go.

So I offered to help her carry her litter out to her car if she needed me to.
To which she declined at first.
But then changed her mind quickly. "I might as well save energy where I can."
To which I agreed.
Plus I was all to happy to help out and get a chance to go outside into the sun for a bit lol.

Hopefully that little bit of service of me helping her get her litter into her car helped her in the long run.
Who knows for sure though. lol

-Sarnic Dirchi

Is It Moving?

So part of my morning tasks when I'm opening up the department.
Is to do a dead fish pull.
Where I check every fish tank and make sure that there's no dead fish within.
If there is, then I fish them out and move onto the next tank.

After all, customers don't want to buy fish when they see dead fish in a tank do they?
I wouldn't.

But as I was fishing out this morning's casualties....
One of my coworkers came up to me....to ask a question.

And that question was.
"How can you tell the fish is dead?"

O.o
Again, I've been thrown for a loop. lol.
I mean...if you've never had a pet fish or never seen a fish die, I suppose it's only natural to wonder how I could quickly tell which fish was dead or alive....

But still....
if you see a fish floating at the top of the tank not moving....
It's a pretty good indication that it's dead.

I basically said as much to my coworker. "If it's not moving....or it floats like this see?" And I showed them how the dead fish looked in the water.
(That and the smell, the glazed eyes, the body rotting.....it gives itself away...)

*shakes head*
Yah....at least my coworker now knows. lol.
They were surprised that I had to look at every tank. (we have like 80 tanks) and were asking how many dead fish we get in a day/week.
Which honestly it depends on the day/week. Some days/weeks it's more fish, others it's less.
It could be 10 a day or 100 a day (depending on how our feeder goldfish are doing that week.)
There's a lot of factors that are involved in how many dead I pull.

lol hopefully I was able to answer their questions well enough. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Is This Your Betta?

There was this customer at work today.
Who refused any help I tried to offer him.
Like he was looking at female bettas so I was like "Oh, we have more her--"
"I know! I know!" he would interrupt me.
"Oh...kay....well let me know if you have any questions."

It would continue on where I'd try to offer a bit of advice or point something out and the customer would say "I know!"

*shakes head*
Kinda weird, but if you trust that you know what you're doing...more power to you dude.

In any case.
This gentleman spent like an hour in our store.
80% of that time was spent crouched in front of our bettas, watching the ones he'd selected swim about.
Who know what he was looking for.
Was it color, aggressiveness, healthiness? I don't know.

The first time I passed by and found that he wasn't in front of the bettas anymore, I put all the bettas back into their original spots.
Only for him to walk around the corner like five minutes later from who knows where to put the bettas back where he had them to watch them.
He did that multiple times.
-Though I caught on after the first time to not attempt to make the betta display look nice until after he'd left.
Where he'd go wander away, come back to look at the fish. Pick one up, put one down, go wander, go watch, wander, watch, pick up a betta, put it back. *shakes head*
He was either super indecisive, or was taking his sweet time in making sure he got the 'right' one.

In any case. I had to wait until I saw him check out at the register before I finally was able to straighten the bettas back up. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Adoption Day

It's been years since we've had a huge adoption event.
I mean, I can remember when I first started that we'd have our adoption groups come in with dogs and cats and there'd be at least forty animals waiting to find their forever home.

Yet, for whatever reason.
That stopped happening.

There were fewer 'big' events.

And our adoption groups....while they still would bring cats for the space we had set aside for them,
Wouldn't bring in extra cages to hold adoption days.
Nor would they bring a lot of dogs. The groups would have maybe ten at most. More often like five dogs.

Today however,
We had a different group in from the normal.
a group I've heard of by name, but haven't actually seen in person as they tend to come when I'm not working.

And it was crazy.
They brought in 30 dogs.
THIRTY!

()_()
All ready to be adopted.
And it was crazy.
Having so many dogs in the store.
It brought in a ton of people.
And we had 12 adoptions today!! Woot!!

I kinda wish we had more big events like that. As I'm sure people are more likely to adopt if they feel like they have more of a selection to choose from. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

You Came...Right?

I had a moment of panic when I came into work this morning.
Mostly in that, when I walked in for my shift, an hour before the store opened.
It legitimately looked like my coworker who was supposed to have come in earlier....hadn't shown up.
As lights were still off in the main areas of the department.
And considering my coworker should have been there like an hour and a half before....
It was concerning to see 'nothing' done.

I did find my coworker eventually, doing the back room opening tasks first.
As I've noticed that they prefer to do that task first and then go clean cat cages....
When in reality it makes more sense to clean the cat cages first. (so that they're done before the store opens) and then go do the other tasks that take less time.

*shakes head*

In any case. They'd shown up on time.
They were just moving....a lot slower than I'd expected them to.
But considering that they aren't often required to be the first one in the dept...like ever...it makes sense that they'd be moving a bit more slowly because they're on their own.
Usually I'm the first one in the store. So when my coworkers show up I basically tell them what still needs to be done and then they go do it.
Sooo perhaps they moved a bit slower to make sure they didn't forget anything? *shakes head*
Not sure.

Honestly it didn't matter, we had the dept open lickety split in any case. lol :)
I'm just glad they showed up. Because I would have become super stressed if I had to try and open the entire dept by myself before the store opened. :S

-Sarnic Dirchi

Something Just Go Right

I had a customer come through the register today, while I was back up cashiering for my coworker, who had a dead fish return.

Only...she had forgotten the dead fish at home.

And I was like. "We kinda need to see the body to prove that it died."

And the woman gave me this look of 'can my day be getting any worse?'
As she emphatically told me she'd drove an hour and a half to come to my store. (which means driving home and coming back is out of the question.) and that the dead fish was at home, she just hadn't remembered to grab it before heading out.
(Which I can understand I've done the same thing.)

So I took pity on her. Because it seemed like she was having a bad day.

Turns out she's been having a bad week really.

Her fish dying and forgetting the body was just the tip of the iceberg really.

Apparently her credit card information got stolen so she and her husband don't have any cards right now to buy things with.
She tried to relax doing some sort of special treatment at a spa...only for the device to break in the middle of her appointment...and the second device was also broken.

Honestly...if the transaction had lasted longer, she probably would have continued on. Because I sensed that there was more that had happened that week that just was making things difficult for her and her family....

So hopefully the fact that I helped her out and got her her money back for her fish....without too much fuss on my part, is going to be a little highlight to her troubled week.

-Sarnic Dirchi

In a Bowl

It was the weirdest thing.
I had a customer come into the store today.
Bringing me a feeder goldfish in a bowl....
Which made me slightly irritated. as Fish in a bowl meant that wanted to return the fish.
But with our feeder goldfish...we have a no return policy because they're meant to be used as a food source.
If it was any other fish, then so long as it was within the time frame of our return policy, I would happily return it.

But this was a customer I recognized.
Having helped her fish out the goldfish in the first place.
-Time moves so weird at work, she said it was yesterday, but I halfway think it was the day before yesterday.
In any case, she was bringing back this goldfish (which she'd bought as a pet not to use as a food source for another animal.) Because she noticed that it had a 'hole in it's head' which is usually a sign of disease. At first glance, yes I could see that there seemed to be a hole in the gill area.
So she was wanting to exchange it out for a different one.

To which...honestly it should have been a 'you bought it, you deal with it' sort of thing.
But since the fish was alive, and otherwise appeared healthy.
I exchanged out the fish for her. Since she just wanted another one. It was easy enough to catch one Large goldfish and exchange it for another.

-Though looking closer at the fish later (as I was placing it in our tank where we treat sick fish) It almost looked like it was just discoloration and not an actual hole, though I can't be sure.

However, I had another problem to deal with with her, in that she was concerned that since one of the goldfish had this disease, all the other ones would get it and get her tank sick.

-It's a high possibility. Feeder goldfish aren't always the healthiest. There's always a slight risk even using them as a food source for other animals in that they could get the animal sick.
But overall there's no real concern for it.

So I told her that this was the first case I'd seen in the goldfish.

But honestly...I had no idea if it would end up happening to the other fish. I would assume not. But since we'd just gotten in a shipment of goldfish yesterday....it could be that this particular batch would end up getting it.
I doubt it would happen. But there's always that chance.
*shakes head*

Still. She left a happy camper with her new fish.
And I thought that was that.

Only for a couple of hours later,
For me to look up.
And see yet a different customer (one I hadn't helped yesterday)
Walking towards me with a feeder goldfish in a bowl.

lol I literally thought. "Not again!"
Because yes, that's what she wanted to do.
She wanted to exchange out this goldfish.
Not because it was sick or anything.
But because the fish was being a bully to all her other fish and she wanted to get one that was more 'mellow.'
Since my manager happened to be standing next to me this time around, I turned to them to get their opinion, because again, we're not supposed to be returning feeder goldfish as we have no guarantee on them.
The manager decided that it was alright to go ahead and exchange the fish.

lol. So the customer spent a good two or three minutes staring at our tanks of fish so she could get one that 'is mellow'
And as soon as I fished out that one, she too left a happy camper with her new fish.

*shakes head*
I'm actually surprised I didn't have the same thing happen again.
Because usually these sort of trends -where different customers have similar needs- usually happens in threes.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Neighborhood ChitChat

I had a customer call this morning.
Wanting to know if we carried love birds.
And when I told her we didn't.
She asked what sort of birds we carried.

So I told her.

....only to have her ask me to repeat myself....because I had listed them too fast for her to comprehend.

-Yes I was totally wondering if I would end up in another A-r-K/C scenario.

But thankfully it didn't happen that way.

Lol.
So it turns out the customer was calling because she'd recently had her parakeet die.
And she was looking to get a new bird, and had not yet decided if she wanted to get another parakeet, or if she wanted to try a different species of bird.

The funny thing...
Is that she was quite the rambler.
I was reminded of those neighborhood chats you have with your next door neighbor on the phone, where you basically just call to shoot the breeze.

Because the woman told me the life story of like three of her birds, and experiences she'd had watching people deal with birds, and how she thinks, and how her neighbor thinks, and eventually the conversation wound its way to left-handed people and how all three of her kids were lefties...

lol.
Normally I'm less than a fan of these sort of rambling conversations.
Mostly because, since I'm at work, I kinda want people to get to the point of what they need so I can answer their question and move onto the next customer in line.

But she'd called in the morning, when we were really slow.
Like no people in the store whatsoever.
And since I wasn't needing to help customers in the store.
I just let her chat to me on the phone while I worked on scrubbing fish tanks.
After all, I didn't need my ears in order to scrub. lol. And I could easily keep the phone to my ear while doing this task.
So I let her blabber on. (admittedly I was trying to find a way to end the conversation, but couldn't find any good openings.)

But in the end. After letting her talk to me on the phone for 30 minutes.
She told me how grateful she was for me being willing to listen to her talk.
As she confirmed what I'd been thinking, that she'd been feeling rather lonely living by herself.

So I was glad that I was able to give her a bit of conversation and interaction in her day. :) I like helping people, and the stories she told me were actually quite entertaining lol.

So while she may not come in to get a bird, at least I made a phone friend today. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

How Do You Spell That?

Besides catching evil parakeets and putting back fish ornaments into the tanks,
I have to say that my least favorite thing to do at work is answer the phone.

Because you never quite know what sort of situation you're going to find yourself in when you pick up the phone.
It could be as simple as "Do you guys carry guinea pigs? How much are they?" And you're good.
Or it could be a question that involves more than a two second answer.
Or it could be that the customer just needs to be transferred back to the grooming department because they ended up ringing out to the main part of the store.

It used to not be so bad, because my store has specific phones for specific calls. One for customer service, one for dog training, one for my department, two for grooming, etc.

But the past couple of weeks....
Something has gone wonky with our phone system where the division of calls to specific depts between the phones....doesn't always happen. (that or else the managers have gotten really bad at answering the other phones.)

So I've been answering a lot more phone calls recently where customers aren't always asking questions relating to my department.

*shakes head*
In any case.

This particular phone call was kinda in my dept.
As it's not uncommon for me to field questions in relation to the adoption groups that come into the store, as customers are always calling and asking when they're going to be in our store or what kind of dogs they bring in, how much fees are, etc.

So I picked up the ringing phone for probably the twelfth time in the last hour.
And on the other end of the line was an older woman.
She sounded like a grandmother.
Who was insistent that she wanted a teacup yorkie female dog.
And that she'd been told that our adoption groups came in this Saturday, and that she wanted to know if they had any teacup yorkies.

To which I started to explain to her that the adoption group wasn't coming in today and that they commonly have mixed breeds. It's rare for them to have full breeds in their adoption events.

But she interrupted me, asking me to speak slower. Because she's a 'slow thinker' (her words not mine) and she needed to comprehend what I was saying.
So again, I repeated it. I didn't have adoptions today. I would have them next Saturday. They'd be coming in about 1. Call back then. I don't know what dogs they carry. Usually they're mutts.

I basically had to repeat that information three times. With her repeating back to me what I was saying to her.

It was a very long conversation....which I wouldn't have minded...only I was by myself in the department (due to a scheduling error) and I had at least three other customers waiting for me to help them. (I shouldn't have answered the phone but I thought it would be a quick question and the managers had yet to really pick up the calls, I felt like, and this one was actually my dept specific)
So while I was explaining the adoptions to her, I was also catching fish and counting crickets and such.
-Which by the way it's not the easiest to count while listening to another person talking, but I managed.

In any case. Because we didn't have any dogs today, the woman on the phone wanted to know what other places could be carrying dogs. So I gave her the names of a few. But couldn't give her the phone numbers to the places because I don't have that at work.

Beyond wanting the phone numbers, she also wanted to know how to spell the names.
And one of the names of the local pet stores has "Ark" in it's name.

But for whatever reason. She couldn't comprehend that word.
Ark.
Like in Noah's Ark?

Yah no.
She had me spell it out and it basically went like so.

Me on phone with customer: Ark.
Customer: And how do you spell that?
Me: A-r-k
Customer: A-R-C??
Me: No, K...
Customer: C?
Me: No, K as in Kitten
Customer: C?
Me: K
Customer: So A-R-C
Me: *gives up* Yes.

Really....I must have tried to probably spell ark out to her at least a dozen times before I gave up on it and let her spell it out as ARC.

Because for what ever reason she couldn't hear the difference in what I was saying.

Which is weird.

You'd think that 'KAY" would be noticeably different from "SEA"

But to her, no it wasn't.

Whenever I said "K" she would hear "C"

*shakes head*

Hopefully she managed to find that store...because I did what I could to get her on the right track....

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Wet Fish Feeder

One of my coworkers came up to me after calling me over to the fish wall today.
He started out our conversation with a string of compliments. "Sarnic, you're a smart, capable, knowledgeable person."
This could only mean that he needed my help with a customer. lol.
"Depends on the situation I suppose." Was my response. "What do you need?"
"I have a customer" (ha called it.) "that has an issue I'm not quite sure how to answer."
"Okay, what is it?"
To which....he had me follow him to the customer so that the customer could explain their situation.

It was one of the more...obscure questions I've gotten.

In the fact that the guy has an automatic fish feeder, but he's noticed that the food within the feeder has been getting wet...despite the fact that there isn't a way for water to get inside.
So he was wondering if it was the humidity causing it.

To which I confirmed that, yes indeed it could be that.
Because no matter what you do, water will evaporate from your tank.
And evaporating liquid always moves up.
The fish feeders have to have a hole where the food comes out, so it makes sense that moisture would go up inside of the feeder and then get 'stuck' there, hence their food getting wet.

The customer then followed up with a more difficult question.
The question of: How do I get it to stop?
*blinks* Ummm.....

Honestly, I didn't know off the top of my head.
You can't really stop water from evaporating....
My first response was along the lines of: Well....you could just stop using the automatic feeder....
The next was a bit more helpful. "It may be that particular brand that has the issue, you could try a different automatic feeder and see if it's still an issue."

But then, in a burst of inspiration, as I was trying to think what else could cause the humidity to happen...
I asked the customer if his fish feeder was by his filter.
As maybe with fresh flowing water nearby, there's a bit more moisture being given off which would mean a higher likely hood of water making its way to places it shouldn't be.

The customer was like: "You know...it's actually right by the filter."
So I suggested that he move the feeder away from the filter and place it in a different spot in his tank to see if that would help.

Yay for finding the solutions!! lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Too Small

I can't help feeling a bit of triumph whenever I convince a customer to not purchase a pet.

Which probably sounds a bit weird since I work in a pet store where our goal is to sell pets (and everything they need to live) to people.

But because I have the ability to sell pets to everyone.

Doesn't mean I just let the person buy whatever pet they want.

I want to make sure that the animal gets a good life and has all the things they need to survive.

So when I find out that the customer doesn't have all these things, or doesn't want to spend the money on it, or just doesn't care, I try to lead them away from a purchase that would more than likely end up with the animal suffering.

In most cases this involves placing fish in bowls.

Other cases involve buying a reptile that will get too big for the small tank the customer wants.

But in regards to today.

It was fish.

I had a handful of teenage customers come into the store today.

To buy fish.

Originally I thought they were just looking around.

Until I heard them seriously debating about what fish to get.

Basically I tuned into them when they were saying "I want to get this black fish. (a black moor goldfish, and this yellow fish (an African cichlid), and a tiger barb as well!"

To which I had to interject.

"You don't want to put them in the same tank because the barb will nip the fishes fins and the cichlid would kill the other fish."

Of course, this was breaking news to them. (it is to most people that all fish don't get along with each other.)

It was funny actually, because the girl who wanted the fish was more concerned that the goldfish would eat the other fish as she'd asked me earlier "Would that fish eat other fish?"

No...not usually. I mean, it has happened before (I've been told by customers) but usually they're pretty mellow.

But after hearing they wanted to get multiple fish I then proceeded with the usual questions.

Which consisted first of "Is this for a bowl or a tank?"

To which, unsurprisingly they said a bowl.

And that's when I had to go to work.

Because the goldfish they wanted, would not live in a bowl. The fish they wanted needs at least a 30 gallon tank to do well. (as the goldfish was already of the size to need at bare minimum a twenty gallon tank if you wanted to have other fish in with it.)

*shakes head*

It's rather difficult though, currently, to talk people out of certain fish.

Because other fish I would offer, like the betta fish, I'm currently basically out of.

Why? Because we didn't get in our shipment of fish last week due to a system error at the company.

Which means that I have very limited selection of fish. (as we end up selling at least 75% of the fish we get in within a week. So by the end of two weeks? Yah...our tanks are basically empty.)

In any case.

I usually try to offer a betta fish as the option for a bowl. Because at least they are hardier and can tolerate small spaces. They also don't need to do water changes as often.

While a goldfish in a bowl....even a small one...you usually need to change the water multiple times a week to keep them alive and healthy.

The goldfish they wanted? Yah, I doubt he'd be able to move in the bowl they had in mind.

I mean, the girl was like "What if the bowl was this big?!" Giving the dimensions of like two feet wide and two feet deep.

To which I was like...no.

(mostly because I didn't believe the bowl was that large.)

But they were insistent.

Even though I kept telling them it wasn't a good idea.

I directed them towards the feeder goldfish that would be a slightly better option just because they were smaller.

And had half of the girls convinced, but not the one who wanted the big one. *shakes head*

In the end.

I finally managed to convince them to come back in a couple of days, when I told them that we'd be getting in smaller sizes of the black moors then.

To which one of the girls was like "Well that's what we wanted originally."

And so, the others ended up buying a couple of feeder goldfish to tide them over.

And then they'll come back later to get their black moor.

I kinda hope they won't do so.

But even if they do I won't know as they'll be coming back on my day off.

But at least, for now, I managed to save the larger goldfish from a cramped fate.

So yay! :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Creepy Decoration

We've gotten in some new fish decorations at work.
Which is always exciting. Because after a time...
It gets rather boring to have to face the same old products time and time again.
So whenever new things are brought in, I quite like being able to look at the new decorations and see what we're going to be selling now.

However,
There is one decoration that we got in that's...well creepy.
Everyone in the store agrees.

See.

Totally Creepy!

Who wants a skeleton portrayal of the Titanic Scene at the Front of the Boat in their fish tank?

I mean, if it were anywhere near Halloween, this would make more sense.

But as it stands....we're nowhere near the holiday.

So why?!

It's creepy. *shakes head*

Yet, for the past couple of days.

I've been playing around with the thought....

That it would be fun to take this decoration....

And place it in random spots around the store for customers/coworkers to come across.

lol.

I think it would be rather fun.

To have it moved to a different spot every day.

Especially if I could manage to do it without anyone realizing I was the one who was placing this ornament in random locations. lol.

Maybe closer to Halloween.... ;)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fish Questions

It's always fun to try and answer customer's questions...especially when you know that if they had thought about the question they were going to ask for a few seconds longer before speaking it out loud...they would have figured out the answer themselves.

Today I had a couple of boys come into my store. They were probably in their late teens or early twenties.
And like all new college students looking for something random to do.
They'd come into the store to buy a fish for a bowl.
(Because that's the 'in' thing to do in College Town.)

It was the typical conversation really.
Which involved me crushing the guy's dreams of buying 'fancy' fish for their bowl, and religating them back to Bettas and, if they were willing to make more work for themselves, goldfish instead since all the other fish need a filter and a heater to do well.

One guy decided to grab a betta.
The other a goldfish.
(both being put in separate bowls)
And so while I was catching the goldfish...

One of the guys asked me:
"Do fish drink the same water that they live in?"

O_o
Ummmm....
You know if you thought about that for two seconds longer....you would have know the answer to that.
Yes. Yes they do.
Where else would they get their water from? *shakes head*
Though I was thinking "Technically they drink air if they go to the surface" but fish constantly have water flowing through their gills to keep them alive. So basically their drinking water too.

But for whatever reason...this seemed to flabbergast the guy.
"You mean....they drink the same water that they pee in?! They're basically drinking their own pee?"
Again. O_o
I mean....it's one of those things that you subconsciously know, but don't consciously think about until it's brought up. But....yah.... hence why you do water changes or have a filter in your tank. To help keep the water clean.

*shakes head*
lol. I later brought up that question to my coworkers and friends.
And their responses were:

 "Oh, we have a separate system set up that drips water into the tank and the fish go over to it to drink from it."

"Nah, you need to place a bowl of water in their tank for them to drink from." "But only every few days, they don't need to drink from it everyday."

"No, they just pee in a corner and somehow it doesn't disperse to the rest of the tank."

haha.

I love the crazy responses my friends/coworkers come up with. ^^

In any case.

It didn't stop there with that question.

No a minute or so later, as that same customer was staring at all our Goldfish in our tanks. He said "I really want to just buy all of these fish and release them into the ocean, just to see what will happen."

To which I quickly responded. "They would die."

He seemed shocked by that. So I clarified.

"These fish are fresh water fish, the ocean is salt water, so they wouldn't live long."

His friend found it rather amusing that I corrected the guy more than once today.  "Well, she's just correcting you left and right today isn't she?" he said.

Yes. Yes I am.

lol.

*shakes head*

Honestly, he could have saved himself the trouble if he actually thought about his statements/questions before speaking them out loud.

Ah well.

It was a great source of amusement for me today. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Silent Communication

Whenever I have a child come up to me saying that they have a question, or that their parental figure needs help. I'm always halfway annoyed and halfway impressed. Impressed that the child took the initiative to come find me to help them. Annoyed because I have no idea what they need help with until they take me to the location where they need help.
Often times the child comes to me because the parents don't speak English. Other times, they just got tired of waiting around and went searching for help.
In this case.
It was a bit of both.

The child came looking for help.
Because he really wanted to get a turtle.
And he was prepared to act as an interpreter to his mother who didn't really speak English.

However.
His need to be the 'middle man' was negated.
Because they were using sign language to communicate.
And guess who knows sign language?
Yep! Me!!

^-^
Which made communication a lot easier lol.
As I spent like 30 minutes talking to them about turtles and their care.

lol.
It was a fun chat, giving them information and tips.
And I was happy to be able to ease their understanding. :)

Though trying to interact with other customers and coworkers after spending so much time signing is always difficult for me lol.
I end up half signing half speaking for an hour or so afterwards. lol.

It didn't help my struggle to not sign everything, when the customer came back a couple of hours later and we signed again for a good amount of time.

Still. They ended up buying the turtle. So yay. ^^

-Sarnic Dirchi