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