A Ton of Questions

The customer had already made my manager annoyed.

And so he was quite happy to pass him off to me to deal with.

Because I tend to be the expert with fish, and this customer recognized me as I'd apparently helped him before, so he trusted me.

In any case.

The situation was that the man had bought some neon tetras a day or two ago, but two of them ended up dying but he couldn't find the bodies.

But he wasn't sure if they were neon tetras, and refused to believe that my manager knew what he was talking about when he confirmed the fish the customer was describing were neons.

And so insisted that my manager take him over to the fish wall and show him the fish that the manager was talking about so the customer could confirm that they were the fish that had disappeared from his tank.

And the man pointed to the neons in our top tank, saying the fish he lost looked more like those fish, instead of the neons in our middle tank.

(We split our neon tetras between two tanks because we get in too many each week to have in just one tank.)

But the neons were the exact same fish.

It's just that the lighting in the top tank is such that it makes the neons up there look more faded, while the ones in the bottom tank are more vibrant with their blue stripe visible.

But the customer had difficulties believing they were the same exact fish. Seemed skeptical that the lights in the tanks could change how fish look.

-I bet he'll think differently when he takes the new neons home and sees that they no longer have the blue stripe. Because he complained that they didn't before.

But the conversation didn't stop with him getting his neon tetras.

No....I ended up talking to this customer for like thirty minutes about a variety of fish related issues.

Like how his fish are always hiding and he never sees them.

-His tank sounds like it's over crowded, so he needs to rearrange the decorations so the fish will come out more.

Or his fish tank is messy and smelly and noisy.

-Which if he stops over feeding the fish, does his water changes, and turns his lights off, it would be less of an issue.

--He was surprised that I didn't have difficulties maintaining my 125 gallon tank.

Though the lights opened up another conversation as the man thought that the fish lights needed to be on all the time, whether white or blue. And again seemed skeptical that fish could live in pitch black.

I don't know why he's so skeptical....fish in the wild live with nighttime all the time....it makes sense that the fish store fish can do the same thing. *shakes head*

And he also brought up filtration. In that he wants to get a bigger filter for his 10 gallon tank so that he can keep it cleaner....but also put more fish into the tank. As 5 seems like too few for a tank that size, especially if they're always hiding.

He also had an issue with the bottom feeder food he was feeding his catfish as the pellets don't sink, and he was upset that we couldn't just exchange out the food for him, for pellets that would sink. (he had no receipt and we had no way to look up said receipt because he didn't have a number with us, nor could he remember when he bought it.) That problem I couldn't fix exactly. I suggested that he buy a different brand...but he didn't like the idea of spending more money. I also suggested other fish may try and eat the pellets...though that doesn't solve the problem of feeding his catfish/plecos.

-Though if he wants his messy tank to stay cleaner....he shouldn't feed specific food to the bottom feeders and let them clean up the extra mess.

*sighs*

In the end he ended up buying four platys as well to see if they would help liven up his tank.

And I was finally able to send him on his way to the register.

*shakes head*

It was a bit...well not draining, but intense to have him basically be my first customer of my shift to deal with. Such a long drawn out conversation....

But I think he trusts my knowledge enough that he's probably going to try and come only when I'm working. *shrugs* Guess we'll see if that actually happens. lol.

At least I made him mostly happy. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi