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The Loach Forum Archives (1)
Fish store experiences.
Posted By: Dave Guest <d.s.guest@cableinet.co.uk> In Response To: Yup Dave, I've had conversations like that! (Martin Thoene)
Date: Tuesday, 14 September 1999, at 9:38 a.m.
Martin, wow! What a post! Everything you mention has happened to me over the years. I usually recommend that people do their fish shopping on a weekday to avoid the problems you mention with the weekend kids. Alas, work duties force me to shop at weekends these days :(
Its a shame though that even the part-time staff don't receive the correct training for their job. I worked at my LFS for nearly 5 years, my first day was a Saturday and I arrived at 9am to find the store didn't open until 10am at weekends. The hour until opening was spent with a net (or two) and a bag and close supervision from my new boss as we went around a few of the tanks and he showed me how to catch the fish properly. He showed me how to gently intercept the darting shoal of tetras and net the required number in one go, how to use two nets on the difficult stuff like the S.A cichlids, and how to use the various tank decor to my advantage. The funny thing is that its not that hard when you know what you're doing! If he ever saw me swiping at the fish like I've seen so many kids do recently I would have had one hell of a talking to.
Among the things I've witnessed just this year: the experienced looking guy (in his 60s at least I'd say) who bagged me some rasbora and promptly filled it to the brim with water! It was pouring out all over the place while he was tying it up. I asked him if there was any remote possibility that the fish might appreciate a bit of air in the bag? His answer, "hohoho, no they live in the water see? Plenty of water in there, yes there is!". So I controlled myself as far as the entrance lobby and finally lost it, I undid the bag and poured about 80% of the water over the fancy looking carpet with the embroidered store logo and the words, "The Aquatic Experts" all over it. Made a nice damp patch that did, you see? hohooo
Then there was the guy who asked me to hold one of the bags while he tied up the other. He spent about 5 minutes trying to grab the top to trap the air inside without success. In the end he gave up and tied it up anyway, sans air. He asked me to pass him the other bag so he could tie that up as well. He hadn't even noticed me tying it up in front of him. So I passed him the rigid bag neatly knotted at the top and he exlaimed, "Wow! how did *you* do that?"... a smile was my answer, but my eyes weren't smiling...
There are exceptions as well. Like the young girl who caught my hymenophysa. She was about 16 years old, dolled up, and gossiping when I approached her. Boy was I surprised! I asked for them to be bagged in two lots of two and she replied that "of course she could, sir" :) She then deftly caught the 4 loaches in under a minute, double-bagged them and filled the bags with oxygen before tying them up. A pleasant change to say the least.
There's more where that came from but I'll leave it there for now.
Dave
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