Decide Before You Get Help

 Gotta love those customers who ask for assistance at the fish wall before they're actually ready to get the fish.

*exhales*

It's really annoying really.

To get called over to the fish wall because a customer 'needs help with fish' only to find that the customer had basically just gone to the cashier and said "I need fish" before they had even had a chance to look at the fish on the wall so they actually have no idea what they want.

Like...I get people wanting to make sure they get help.

But I for one, would want to 'know' what I'm getting first before I drag someone over to help me.

Like it's just...irritating to stand there awkwardly hovering near the customer as they stare at the various tanks still deciding on what fish they want to get. 

I could be finishing other tasks. I could be helping other people. There's nothing useful in me just standing there while you try and figure out if you want to get a tetra or a molly or a goldfish and take an age and a half to make that decision. *exhales*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Talking To Who?

 It's funny...how entitled people can be. How customers can think you're a mind reader. Or think that because they speak you're listening.

Like...there I was. Bagging up fish. 

I wasn't looking up. I was focused on the task at hand.

When I hear a voice say "Can you get me some crickets when you're done?"

I look up in time to see two girls passing by. Not even looking at me. And they continue walking along the fishwall to the front of the store.

A glance around shows me that I'm the only worker in the area.

And that there are other customers nearby.

But I had no idea who this girl was talking to.

Like I knew she was talking to me.

But like she didn't even wait for me to acknowledge if I'd heard her or not before she kept walking. 

It was just weird. I mean...I can't read minds. Saying that you 'want crickets' doesn't mean I automatically know what size of crickets the customer wanted nor how many she wanted me to get.

*shakes head*

So I just pushed it to the side and continued on with my task and finished helping the customer I was helping and then helped the other people who were still at the fish wall because again...the customer who randomly walked by and told me to bag her some crickets...wasn't around. Therefore her 'need' became a lower priority on my list because again, I couldn't even be sure she was talking to me when she didn't even stick around long enough to ensure that I had actually heard her and would help her.

She did come back eventually and I did bag up the number and size of crickets that she wanted after I asked her what amount and size she wanted.

But yah....kinda a weird occurrence that. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Flipped Signs

 It's kinda funny how customers think that if they don't 'see' a sign then it doesn't exist. That it will magically make whatever policy the sign is informing you of go away.

Like we've had the 'mask required' signs torn down when they went from recommended to required in my state. 

We have also had our "Bathroom Out of Order" signs torn down because the customers probably thought that the bathrooms were closed because of the pandemic and not because they were literally out of order and we couldn't use them. *shakes head*

And this week I haven't had signs torn down per se.

But we do have signs up in the store saying that our fish sales are suspended this week -as we're doing a deep system clean as a preventative measure for potential zebra mussels (though my store hasn't seen any signs of them)- and we aren't able to sell fish because of said treatment and how we're not sure how it will affect the fish.

But the fish sign has been 'flipped over' a few times this week.

Like...just because you flip the sign so you can't see the words saying that we aren't selling fish this week doesn't mean that we'll magically be able to sell you fish because you flipped the sign over. *shakes head*

It doesn't work like that.

Especially because the SKUs we use at the register to sell the fish have been deactivated this week so even if we tried to sell the fish...we wouldn't be able to because the register wouldn't let them show up. 

*shakes head*

Silly people.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Rotating Fish

So work is trying out something different apparently.

We rest our fishwall recently. Added in a couple of tanks of new fish and such.

And I figured those fish would be part of our system for at least the next six months. As we tend to add and remove fish at least twice a year.

But apparently two of the tanks might be switching a little more often?

As I put up a couple of tank clings today. Saying that the fish in the two tanks were only available for a limited time. 

And the info graphic thing said that they were something like 'one time fish' where they'd only be available for a bit before being switched out for other fish. And these fish would be 'uncommon types' ones that are 'typically found in mom&pop' stores. 

So that's fun.

Though it does put slightly more pressure on me to buy them. XD lol. As we got in a couple of fish in that I want to try having in my tank. And I was going to wait to get them for a while...

But I don't know how long the fish are going to be there now. Is it just for the month? For three? For 6? Who knows. 

But yah...I'm curious as to what other fish we'll be getting in. And when we'll be getting more in. 

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Something Wrong

 So the other day I had a customer come into the store with a couple of dead fish.

And in typical customer fashion, they wanted to know 'why' the fish had died.

So I asked about their tank and such, trying to see if there were any notable things mentioned that could cause fish to die. 

And the customer told me that they originally had the glofish in like a large 36 gallon tank. 

But because they had goldfish in the tank....the associate who helped them said that the fish should be in a different tank.

Which was...technically true.

Goldfish are a cold water fish. 
Glofish are a warm water fish.

Goldfish get 10 inches at least.
Glofish stay around 3 inches.

But at the same time....the rules aren't as applicable to bigger tanks as they are to smaller tanks. 

Goldfish are fine being in tanks that are heated. And if there's only one or two in the tank in a 36 gallon...then other fish can be fine with them for a while...until they get larger.

But the associate helping this customer said that the glofish should go in a different tank so the customer bought a different tank. A glofish specific one with the blue lights and everything and they set up the tank for the glofish...moved them in....and then the fish all died. 

It could be the transfer to the new tank. 

But it was only 3 fish in a 10 gallon tank. That's not a bad amount of fish to have.

But it did turn out that the tank didn't have a heater in it. So the cold water may have been the cause of the glofish dying.

So the customer bought a heater and a couple of new glofish.

Though I did suggest that they could just put the glofish back in the bigger tank with the goldfish.

As there were other fish besides the goldfish in the tank. A shark. Some other tetras and such. So the glofish would have been fine. Especially because that tank had a heater already.

But the customer wanted to try again in this smaller tank. So I caught them a couple more glofish to try and see if they did well.

And like the glotetras tend to be hardier than the other glofish. So I wasn't too concerned. 

But the customer came back today with the two fish. Dead. 

Apparently they died within two hours of being put into the new tank. 

O_o 

It's just....how? 

If the fish died that quickly....it sounds like it could be a chemical issue. Like the customer put in too much water conditioner. 

As the heater was new....so that shouldn't be on the fritz....and unless the water changed temperature quickly....an overtreated tank was the only thing I could think of as a cause...but the customer denied that that was the case. *exhales*

*shakes head*

I'm not sure what's going on with it but I suggested that the customer just get their money back today and wait a bit and let the tank cycle and see how it went from there....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Significance?

 A customer approached me today and asked me "What is the significance of a betta fish?" 

Which...I was rather confused by.

What did the customer mean by 'significance?' 

Like...it sounded like they wanted to learn about bettas and such....but I wasn't certain.

It was said in such a philosophical type of tone like one would ask "What is the meaning of life?"

Still...I did my best to answer the customer's questions. Like where they're from and why they live alone and what sort of care they needed.

Dunno if I actually answered what they were wanting me to answer....but hey I tried. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

My Head Hurts

 So normally I don't mind it when customers speak to me with an accent. 

Like bravo to them for learning a second language and such.

And often times I just like listening to them speak and how they pronounce words and such.

But....

When I've had a migraine for like a week straight....

And I end up helping FOUR customers in a row -all of which had accents from different places....

It gets less fun because my brain ends up just...hurting.

Like normally it's not an issue, sure there's slight miscommunications here and there. But overall we're usually able to clarify and be understood between each other.

But today....all four customers were having trouble understanding what I was saying.

Which meant that I ended up having to repeat myself over and over and over.

And it's always antagonizing when I have to tell the same customer the same information multiple times because for whatever reason what I'm saying isn't computing to them...or you know...they weren't listening in the first place.

But to have FOUR people/groups in a row do this to me.

When my energy levels are really low and I'm suffering from a week long migraine.

Ha yah no.

I was sooo frustrated by the end of it.

Like I don't know what I can say to make my words clearer to you...but you need to actually pay attention to what I'm saying especially when you keep asking me questions that I already answered earlier in my explanation of things. 

*shakes head*

Yah I had to go hide in the back for a bit after helping all those customers because gah. Frustration does not help an aching head at all. 

Still...it was cool to hear those accents from all over the world despite the circumstances.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Change My Mind

 Had a customer in the store today who told me that they wanted two of our nerite snails.

The smallest ones.

And handpicked out said 'small' snails by themselves.

-Yah they were the littlest ones.

So I grabbed them, bagged them up, handed them to the customer and sent them on their way.

Except...the customer came back like...two minutes later and said that they had changed their mind.

They wanted to get one of our Kuhlii loaches instead.

Which I'm not sure why they couldn't have just had me...grab both?

Like the customer could have gotten both the snails and the loach...unless there was an issue with tank size or maybe budget?

Who knows.

Like loaches tend to just eat food off the bottom of the tank, while the snails would help with an algae problem...

So not sure why the customer wanted to switch them out as they don't quite do the same task...unless you know, they were just getting the snails for aesthetic and not for their algae eating abilities and they decided that the loach would be a better aesthetic? 

*shrugs*

The interesting thing is that while the customer wanted the 'smallest snails' when it came to the loach they ended up wanting one of the bigger ones.

....Not sure why....but yah.

Customers are interesting.

-Sarnic Dirchi

All of Them

 We had a customer call the store today like...ten minutes before we closed, asking if we had any mystery snails in stock.

Whcih...yah...we did.

And the dude was like "Great! I'm right here, I'll be right in to grab all of them."

And sure enough at like 9 right on the dot when we closed...I see a guy walk in and head over to the fishwall.

*exhales*

Like....is there really a good reason to walk in right at closing time for animals? No. No there isn't. Surely this could have waited until tomorrow morning. 

Or like the dude could have come in even an hour earlier.

But to come in right at close and demand ALL our snails?

Yah. Didn't like him on sight. 

Because we usually have a ton of mystery snails on hand. 

Unless we didn't get in any on our shipments there's usually a good 40 or more of them in the tank.

And to fish them all out would take time. Time that I really didn't want us to have to waste when we had already closed for the night.

*shakes head*

However.

The dude ended up only taking like 15 mystery snails. A combination of our ivory, blue, and gold ones. 

As he'd never seen 'light' mystery snails before. 

Soo I'm guessing he's only ever seen the black mystery snails? Who knows.

In any case.

He hadn't expected us to have a good 40 snails in the tank as apparently other pet stores he's visited only ever have like...ten in stock.

So he wasn't expecting to get more than like...ten of them.

It was so unexpected that we had so many snails for him that he didn't even bring in enough cash to buy the 15 snails he ended up getting and he had to run out to his car to get more money in order to pay for all of them.

*shakes head*

At least he didn't totally wipe us out of our mystery snails. So bonus there.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Don't Overcrowd It

 Had a couple of girls come into the store today looking to get some fish for their 'tank.'

In typical fashion the girls didn't know exactly how big it was and kinda gave an approximate size to what they had.

Which seemed to be around a 2 gallonish tank.

Which usually means getting a betta fish.

But the one girl wanted more fish than that. She wanted like 10 goldfish in that little tank because she wanted 'a ton of fish' in her tank.

It was a bit of a shock to her when I flat out told her if she put 10 goldfish in that small of a space at least 8 of them would probably die.

Apparently the concept of overcrowding hadn't really occurred to her.

Probably because the customers saw our tanks filled with a ton of fish in them...not realizing that all our tanks are considered to be one big tank as they're all connected to each other. 

So yah.

The customer ended up buying '5 goldfish' to split between two tanks and then an extra 2 goldfish for a friend.

*exhales*

I couldn't argue against it. But if she does try to put all 7 together in the tank I hope she quickly realizes that I was right in saying that doing that many together was a bad idea.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Replace My Light

It started this morning, when my manager asked what our return policy on our tanks was because a customer wanted to know if they were still within the timeframe of being able to return part of the set up as their light had stopped working.

My manager had thought it was 90 days, but I had to correct them and say that it was 60 days. Just like every single other product (with the exception of live animals) in the store. 

So if the customer was over the 60 days they wouldn't be able to make a return, but I did tell my other manager that depending on the tank sometimes the brand company (the ones who make the tank and put their name on it) have longer guarantees that they customer could check out online and see.

I didn't hear anything more on it...until a couple of hours later.

When one of my stockers came up to me with the phone in hand saying that a customer needed help with a fish tank question.

I pick up the phone and it's the same customer my manager had talked to earlier.

Where they had purchased a tank from us 'recently' and they wanted to know if they would be able to return/exchange out a light that had come with the tank kit that they'd bought as it wasn't working properly.

And I was like "That depends...when did you purchase the tank?" as we only have a 60 day return policy. So if the item is over 60 days we can't do a return. 

The customer said that they'd bought it "In March." 

And I had to stop them there because the way they'd said 'in March' made it sound like March of 2020 aka LAST YEAR which is a year too late to do anything. And with how they'd been talking earlier it didn't seem like they meant that the tank had been purchased within the last 30 days either. So I had to clarify as I honestly think they didn't realize that it was still March. It may be the last day...but yah still March. 

And they were like "Oh this March." 

So I was like "You bought it within the last three weeks?"

To which they responded "No, it's been like 6ish weeks?"

"So mid february?"

"Maybe the end of February?"

*exhales*

Which this would have gone so much quicker if the customer had kept their receipt, but they hadn't and half the reason why they were calling was to see if we could look up the receipt for them. 

So I tried. I pulled up their account on the computer to see what I could find....

And I didn't find any tank purchase. Found a ton of Skinny Pig purchases (they'd bought like SEVEN skinny pigs in the last month and a half) and a couple fish purchases but nothing indicating that the customer had bought a tank within the last 60 days. 

The customer was like "But isn't there anything you can do?! Can I try and look it up on the website or something?"

There wasn't anything I could do as our store only holds records for 60 days in our system.

And I highly doubted that the website was that sophisticated as to keep track of all the purchases, so I suggested that the customer go through their bank statements and such to see if they could pinpoint which purchase from our store was their tank purchase and depending on the date on said statement I might be able to do something.

It was a few hours later that my petcare person took yet another phone call and I just knew it was this same fish tank customer.

And the associate ended up handing the phone over to me, and yep, same customer.

They'd discovered that their SO had been the one to buy the tank and that their statements showed they'd purchased it at the end of JANUARY (that's hardly March you silly customer) and they wanted to know if they'd still be able to return the tank light if it was a couple of days over the 60 days.

Which again. I would need a receipt to prove that that was the timeframe the tank was bought in.

They ended up giving me their email address to see if that would pull up more receipts.

Which it did. And luckily for them the last one it pulled up (aka the earliest receipt on record) was the receipt for their tank. 

Honestly though, with how persistent the customer was being about trying to get this light replaced (which is funny because my coworker said that they had said it had been broken for a month but for the entire month they hadn't thought about trying to replace it??? people are weird) that I was about ready to say "Yah sure whatever, bring in the light and stop bugging me."

But thankfully we found the receipt. So it makes it easier to do the whole return and such to get the new light.

Thankfully I didn't have to deal with the return itself as the customer is supposed to have come in after I left for the day.

But hopefully we don't hear from them again.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Difference in 'Color'

There was a customer who came into the store today who wanted to get twenty ghost shrimp.

Which...that's a lot of shrimp to catch when the tricky litter buggers tend to be quick and like to swim/jump out of the net.

But twenty isn't too crazy of a number.

Unless the customer decides to be difficult.

And the customer decided to be difficult.

Like it's not a big deal if people want their shrimp to be bigger or smaller. That's an easy enough distinction to make.

But this customer?

They wanted the "Colored" Ghost Shrimp.

Like...

Ghost Shrimp are called Ghost shrimp because they're see-through. Aka. They don't have color. They're clear.

There isn't really anything to distinguish them from each other beyond their size and if the females have eggs visible within them.

But the customer insisted that 'some' of them had color.

*shakes head* 

The color? 

From what I could tell the customer was seeing 'color' in the organs and food and eggs and such. Basically they wanted any shrimp that 'didn't look like the other' 

Which again. They all practically look the same.

So it ended up being a bit of a game between us.

Where I would try and catch as many ghost shrimp as I could.

While the customer would look in the tank and pick out specific ones that they wanted that had the 'color' to them.

I think in the end they managed to hand pick like...6 of them? While I managed to fish out 14 others without interference.

Because there was no way I was going to stand there for twenty minutes fishing out one stupid ghost shrimp at a time because the customer thought that they had a different color when they're literally all the same freaking color.

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Goldest

 It's always frustrating when a customer ends up being indecisive when it comes to making a decision. Like the choice shouldn't be that hard of one. Just pick and go. And yet customers end up paralyzed with indecision.

 Which gets rather frustrating when a customer is struggling to make a choice, and yet they're unwilling to let you leave their presence so you can go help other customers while they make up their mind.

Today I had such a customer.

An older woman came into the store wanting to buy a couple of goldfish for her bowl.

-Yes I tried to talk her out of it. She was persistent and I barely managed to convince her to just choose one goldfish and see how that one survived before trying to do more than one in a bowl.

As in the bowl she'd need to do water changes like...every day to keep the goldfish alive.

It didn't dissuade her much.

As she was very focused on her vision.

Said vision? Was to have the 'goldest goldfish' in a fish bowl so that she could tell visitors that she had a 'pot of gold' at home. 

Which I give credit for the fun concept. A "pot of gold" is a fun idea. 

But honestly if I could reliably have 'gold' betta fish I would have directed her towards them instead because bettas do much better in a bowl than any other fish even if the environment still isn't the best for them.

In any case.

The customer was fixated on finding the 'goldest' goldfish from a particular tank.

Which the customer's definition of "gold" is that the goldfish had to be a nice deep shade of orange.

*shakes head* Hardly gold at all. But *shrugs* what can you do?

The problem was...we had like a dozen goldfish in the tank she was looking at. And at least nine of them were all the exact same shade of orange.

Which happened to be the shade of 'gold' that she was looking for. 

Only she couldn't decide which of these goldfish was the 'goldest'

I tried multiple times to step away so I could help the other customers I could see hanging out waiting for help while she tried to settle on a decision.

But the woman was persistent in that she was 'ready'

And just left me standing there awkwardly waiting for her to pick one.

And when she finally picked one and I fished it out...

She wasn't satisfied that it was the 'goldest' and so had me fish out two other goldfish -with long staring periods of watching the tank before indicating which fish she wanted me to fish out- before she decided to look between the three goldfish and pick the 'goldest' of those ones.

*exhales*

It was a long process. A frustrating one too considering I had no one to back me up and I could feel the other customers getting antsy waiting for me to finish up with this customer.

But at least I got the fish bagged up and handed to the customer without further difficulties so yay.

Hopefully the fish does alright....but honestly I won't be surprised if it doesn't do well....

-Sarnic Dirchi

No Care Right?

 I had a customer come into the store today with their three children, one of which was carrying a large glass bowl. 

Which yah, it's not hard to imagine why the customer would be in the store if they had a fishbowl.

They're looking for a fish to keep as a pet in the bowl.

So I automatically directed them towards the betta fish as those are the 'best' fish to keep in a bowl as they tend to be the hardiest and need less maintenance than the goldfish people try to keep instead.

Only...the customer was like: "So if I get this betta fish I never need to clean the bowl right?"

I was like: "Wrong, you need to change the water once a week."

The customer didn't like that. "But I had a fish once and we kept it in a bowl and never had to change the water. What fish is like that?"

None of them dude. None of them. 

I don't know when this customer last had fish...but obviously they weren't the one to take care of it because if the fish is in the bowl then you need to change the water on it. *shakes head*

I was like "Only the betta fish can be in the bowl."

"And I don't have to change the water, right?"

....and like I get....that there was a bit of a language barrier happening here as I could tell English wasn't their first language.

But I also didn't want to continuously play ring around the rosie with the topic when I'd already done the rounds like thrice. 

So I said: "You'll need to add in more water when the water in the bowl gets low."

Because at least there would be some fresh water added in...

In any case. I left the customer and their family to pick out their fish.

Only to have them come up to me a bit later and the customer be like "And I don't need any food right?"

Like...dude...did you have a pet rock as a kid? 

ALL animals NEED to EAT. *shakes head* Geez. 

I'm pretty certain that whatever fish in a bowl the customer had growing up...either they never were the ones to take care of it and therefore never saw all the work put into keeping the fish alive. Or else they might have had one of those 'plant in a bowl' sort of set ups where the plant 'feeds' the betta and 'keeps' the water cleaner and hence why 'it never needed anything done' with it. 

But no. I was like "No you need to feed the fish."

"Once a week?"

Dude no. "Every Day." 

It's an animal. Animals need to eat constantly (unless you're a snake) so feed the fish every day. *shakes head*

Honestly...who knows how that fish is gonna do with the family...hopefully okay, but time will tell.

-Sarnic Dirchi

New Thing

I had an older couple come into the store today.

Because they'd heard about fish that 'glowed' and tanks made for them. 

So I took them over to our GloFish and showed them the different types and what colors they came in and told them a little bit about the fish.

Which after showing them that I took them over to our tanks to show them the varieties that they came in.

As we have tanks with white lights, white/blue lights, as well as 7 different colors lights and depending on what type of fish the customer wanted to show off in which type of environment.

Lol the guy of the couple was tickled pink by the fact that we have tanks that have 7 different color lights that they can shine into the tank.

It was just...kinda fun helping them discover things.

-Sarnic Dirchi

No I Don't Have Any

 With the cold weather that hit like...73% of the United States last week....we've been experiencing shortages in many of our animal shipments.

As it's been too cold to ship things out and such.

To the point where we received a notice that most of our shipments have been cancelled until things 'warm up' basically. 

Which....isn't good...when people are wanting creatures and we don't have them.

The major issue has been with our reptile food. Aka the crickets and the worms and such.

As I only ever receive my worms on Thursday.

But because of the cold...that shipment didn't show up.

And my crickets...well we haven't gotten any since...I don't know? Wednesday? When we usually get shipments in at least twice a week--though with how much they've been shorting us in our shipments we've been getting in shipments practically daily....

Only for us to get nothing.

Like by Saturday I was out of crickets.

And I keep having people call asking if we have any...and we don't.

And they want to know when we're going to get more in.

And we basically have to shrug and go "maybe tomorrow" 

Which I've been saying "Maybe tomorrow" since Saturday. 

But because of the weather...we've got nothing and because there's no crickets people are turning to other bugs to buy in the meantime and since I only had a minimal supply of those they ended up selling rather quickly and yah....

It's not fun to run out of things.

Because I don't like telling people no.

And today has been quite the "no" day.

Not just with crickets but with like....everything.

Like fish? We haven't gotten in like Angelfish or Clown Loaches or a handful of other types in over a month.

Birds? They didn't send me any so I've been out of birds for a week.

Guinea Pigs? Sold them all.

Reptiles? Ha. We only have like two frogs and four anoles left. Everything else? Empty.

Hamsters? We've sold through enough that we're back to only using 6 of the 16 cages we have available.

We're low on everything.

And I have no idea when we'll be getting anything in. Like will the weather have warmed up enough in the U.S. to ship things around again? To be able to get all our creatures in? Who knows. It's the waiting game at this point.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Let It Settle

 You gotta 'love' it when customers don't listen to your advice. *exhales*

So I only know pieces of the story.

As I came on to help the customer after my fellow manager had already been attempting to help them figure out what was going on with their tank.

Which really...after listening to the customer blabber on and on and on about some of the 'timeline' of things that 'happened' before it went wrong....

It really just sounds like the customer tried to start their tank too quickly, panicked when things went wrong, tried to fix it, ended up causing other issues, tried to fix it again....and yah. All the fish in the tank died.

*exhales*

It sounds like the concern started when a 'foam' began forming on the top of the tank.

Which considering the customer had TWO over the back filters and then a wall of bubbles along the back of the tank....my guess was that the tank was too turbulent. 

Like water that gets stirred around too much causes foam. You see it in waterfalls, in oceans, even in boiling pots of water --though probably just when you're trying to stir pasta--in any case....the customer just needed to cut back some of the water flow.

Which the easiest way to do so would be to turn off the air bubble wall.

Which the customer had apparently done already, and they had noticed that the foam had drastically decreased.

But for whatever reason....the customer hadn't been content to leave it at that?

As they also seemed to assume that the temperature of the water was also affecting the foaming nature? As they said that when it was in the 60s and low 70s it was fine...but if it got above 74 degrees it would start foaming again?

O_o??? I honestly have no idea with that one. Still leaning with the too much water turbulence theory. 

But the customer also ended up doing a FULL water change on the tank.

And it was all hunky doory....until the foam started...and the water got cloudy. 

And so the customer panicked that something was wrong and did another FULL water change as well as deeply cleaned every nook and cranny of that tank to ensure that 'nothing' like 'soap' or anything had caused the issue.

*exhales*

Doing a full water change means that you're basically starting your tank over brand new.

There's no beneficial bacteria set up in the tank to help with the biological ecosystem. And adding a bunch of a fish to a 'brand new' tank that hasn't even gotten the ammonia cycle properly going again....

It's no surprise that the fish all ended up dying over the weekened.

The customer had stressed out the tank further by doing too much cleaning. The fish couldn't handle the 'newness' and so died.

And the customer was thinking it was the cloudy water that was the issue. 

Which no...it's quite common for tanks to experience cloudy water for up to a month after being set up because the tank is still 'settling' it's still 'cycling' there's a lot of things that get stirred up that need time to calm down. 

Hence why we don't recommend adding in fish for at least 24 hours after set up. 

And the longer you wait, the better really. To let your tank settle further. 

But this customer was running head tilt into the dreaded 'death cycle' where they keep adding in fish and the fish keep dying so they keep adding in more fish only to have them die.

And I strongly recommended that the customer just let their tank run empty for a couple of days. To let it settle. To help it cycle.

Otherwise their fish would keep dying if they tried to get more today.

Customer didn't quite believe me.

Well...they believed me. But they had little impulse control and decided that they just 'had' to have fish in the tank anyways. Even if they do die. Because the customer couldn't stand to have the tank have 'nothing' in it. *exhales*

Like dude. I told you that the fish would die....and you want to buy fish anyways...and you know that they might die....but you don't want to wait and actually have them live? Like dude. Learn a bit of patience. 

But it seems like this customer is the "must touch the stove to believe it's hot." sort of learner as they were like "well if they die then I'll know you were right and I won't get any fish after this point." 

*exhales*

JUST WAIT YOU DUMB PERSON.

But nooooo *shakes head*

I won't be surprised if they come back in tomorrow telling me the fish died. 

All because they couldn't wait freaking 48 hours like I suggested to let the tank settle. 

Customers are rather irritating at times.

-Sarnic Dirchi

White Fungus

My VP Manager has a tendency to drop random phone calls on me at work.

Mostly because I tend to have the most experience with animals and so when a customer asks a PetCare related question that the VP doesn't know, they tend to hand the phone off to me.

Which is always 'fun' because I never know what I'm going to get into by answering the phone as my VP doesn't always tell me the situation before placing the phone in my face.

In this case, the customer was calling to ask about a Fungus problem she had been having for the past couple months.

Where a white fungus has been growing in her tank. Thick enough to be like 'batting' aka the stuffing in the middle of quilts and such.

And that she's cleaned it off multiple times but it keeps growing back.

And like most situations "Nothing has changed." in the customer's life to cause this to happen.

...pretty sure something has changed, otherwise the fungus wouldn't be growing.

But after getting a bit more information about the care and such that they'd been taking of the tank....

I was no closer to figuring out why it was growing. 

And unfortunately...I don't carry any products to kill fungus growth in tanks. Sure I have fungus cure for fish...but the customer said that her fish were fine. No fungus there.

In the end, I suggested to the customer that they take out all their decorations and boil it and then let it dry for a few days.

As well as take the gravel out and replace it--though the customer did ask if she could boil the gravel too...which yah, probably...depending on how much work you want to do with that.

i also suggested deep cleaning the filter that they have.

And then to wait a few days before putting anything back to see if the fungus would still continue to grow.

Because if it didn't...obviously the source was in either the decor or the rocks. 

And if it did....then there was a problem in the water or possibly the filter. 

So yah....

Probably not the solution that the customer was looking for....but it's the only idea I had that might work to get rid of it all.

Guess we'll see.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Corner Tank

 Had a customer call the store today looking for a specific type of tank.

They needed a 'corner tank that comes with a stand.' because they were planning to start up a salt water tank...and for some reason the corner one was considered the best? Or at least would fit well where they wanted their tank.

And like....if the customer had just called like....six months earlier...I probably could have easily helped them as we did carry a 54 gallon corner tank. 

But it's been ages since I've seen one come into the store, and when I looked at the shelf...there was no spot for it.

Which it's possible that we just faced over it to make room for all the other tanks we do carry.

But odds are that we aren't getting that particular tank back in.....which just barely glancing at our website....I don't see that particular tank listed there either. 

So yah....the customer was rather out of luck.

Like I still have a couple of small corner tanks. A 6 gallon and a 10 gallon, but that's far too small to put salt water fish in.

-Though we did have a family come into the store a bit ago that had like only a 3 gallon tank and they'd placed a few clownfish in it?? Not sure how many clownfish but it was over the recommended amount and like...salt water fish need a ton of space....having a bunch in a 3 gallon....pretty sure they won't all live that long....

In any case.

The customer was like "Well do you know where I could find a corner tank? I need it!"

Like....it's cool that you need it....but I'm not about to call up all the local pet stores in the area and do all the work for you. You managed to find our store number, you can find the other store numbers as well.

I did tell them to look online (as I didn't know if we had a corner one online at that point) and gave them the names of our local pet stores for them to call and check.

But yah...not gonna do the leg work. I can tell you what I have and don't have in my store. But it's not like I actively stalk the other pet stores in the area. It's been years since I've been in some of them and others I've never entered. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Already Dead

So yesterday, I ended up catching like ten glofish for a customer. 2 greens, 2 reds, 2 purples, 2 blues, 2 oranges. 

It seemed like a bit much to add at once, but at the time I was trying to keep up with a rush of customers and so didn't question it too much hoping....hoping...that this customer actually knew what they were doing.

...

*exhales*

Well....I don't know what they did, but they did it wrong.

As apparently the guy's other fish are all perfectly fine. 

But somehow ALL of the glofish tetras I'd caught for him yesterday....died. 

Like....what did you do put them in salt dude?? 

It's just....weird.

As I caught those fish from 3 different tanks.

And to have only the glofish die?

It's rather suspicious. 

Though I don't know the entire story of how the dude managed to kill all the fish....as I was helping another customer when he came in and my coworker ended up reaching him and assisting before I got there. 

But yah.....it's weird. So weird. 

-Sarnic Dirchi