Fish For You, not happy. San Mateo

[saturn tech]

well, i had a not so nice experience with this LFS. i am very understanding of mistakes made by employees and the such, but being lied to outright is one thing i do not take nicely.

First off my wife went to this LFS and was told that she could house TWO brackish puffers (figure 8 and a spotted) in the same tank with out any fighting. then when she asked if they are kept in brackish water, the store owner said that he keeps them in brackish water. a quick test before i start the Drip acclimation process revealed a SG of 1.00. thats two strikes

i went in later and asked a few obvious questions like these.

Q- Can i keep this Crocea clam in my tank? i have 4 65 watt PCs on a 20" deep 55 Gal.
Answer given- Yes!

Q- whats a good sand sifter for my tank? i do not want to lose my sand dwelling Pods and critters.
AG- Sand sifter goby. they do not eat live stuff in the sand.

Looks like i will stick to the LFS i have trusted for the last 5 years. always honest and they are not afraid to say "wait a second while i look this up"

[dannieboiz]

I figure, it's just the matter of time b4 I see a negative post about these guys. I used to work down the street from them and would occasionally drop by just to see if there's anything interesting. At the time I was looking to buy a pair of VHO.

First he quoted me some crazy price like $35 each or something.

Then later some way some how (I don't remember) but he tried to drive me away from using VHO saying craps like VHO is old tech and no one use it anymore, PC or T5 was the way to go.

Later I found out that he stop selling VHO that's why. Basically gave him the finger and never step back into the store. Not so long after I jump to a new company working right next to Mermaids Aquarium, but that's a different story. :D

[saturn tech]

He told me the exact same thing about VHO's when i asked about them.


i have been more then happy with Ultimate aquarium on el camino in san mateo.

[KuanTi]

oh man i wish i could say something. but ethical rules dictate that i can't, at least with certain things. let's just say i was the idealistic, pimply little teenager some saw there probably 8 years ago. I was let go, and i kid you not, because i wouldn't let ppl put angelfish (f/w) into eclipse 6s or fancy goldfish into fishbowls.

[Ti]

These things do happen.
Thanks for the heads up.

[tuberider]

boom bang!

[KuanTi]

hey boss!

[ryuseiboy]

I used to work there too! The owner at Fish For You is such a funny guy. He used to crack me up all the time.
As the comments made by saturn tech: i dont think he was lying to you. I believe they're just honest mistakes. For example, he does believe that you can keep crocea clams under pc's because we have done it for years, with little problems. A lot of what he says comes from his personal experience. He has owned the store for 15 years, and been taking care of fish his entire life. I know a lot of the things he says goes against the "rules" from books and such but he speaks from his own knowledge. Wether or not you believe his opinions to be correct is up to you, BUT PLEASE dont call this man a lair. And I know that we used to always put 1/4 cup salt per gallon for the brackish tanks, so one of the employees probably just forgot to put the salt in or something.
It is one thing to say that the store employees are unknowledgable. But i have a problem when you say that employess there straight-up lie to you. I worked there for almost 2 years and i never lied to a single customer in order to make a sale. Remember, his advice comes from his own 15 years of experience, not a book or some online article. Sure his advice may differ from what others say, but does that really make him a liar?

[KuanTi]

hey boss! if only you knew... ask him about yellow tangs...that was one of my favorite sales pitches.

[smellyfish]

I'd love to borrow a pair of your glasses that see's everything so rosy. Saturntech is not alone in his findings. To claim that "hey Boss" is ignorant is a pathethic defense.

[KuanTi]

atleast saturntech went in the right direction, down the street to ultimate aquarium. They may not have an annoying catch phrase but they do have their own flaws. What the heck is a blown toadstool or Big papa zoo's? anyone ever hear of admiral's zoo's? But atleast they have a cool staff. Big guy in a baseball cap and that chinese dude that's always there on sunday's. I always go in on sundays cuz you get the best help.

[saturn tech]

well not to fully slam Fish for you. They do have a clean, nice store and their tanks and livestock do look healthy. but as far as the mis-information, that will be my reason not to go.

[Al G Blenny]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9532864#post9532864 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KuanTi
hey boss!

BIG FISH!! LITTLE PRICE!!! WANNA BUY BOSS!?!?!

[Al G Blenny]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9538455#post9538455 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ryuseiboy
I used to work there too! The owner at Fish For You is such a funny guy. He used to crack me up all the time.
As the comments made by saturn tech: i dont think he was lying to you. I believe they're just honest mistakes. For example, he does believe that you can keep crocea clams under pc's because we have done it for years, with little problems. A lot of what he says comes from his personal experience. He has owned the store for 15 years, and been taking care of fish his entire life. I know a lot of the things he says goes against the "rules" from books and such but he speaks from his own knowledge. Wether or not you believe his opinions to be correct is up to you, BUT PLEASE dont call this man a lair. And I know that we used to always put 1/4 cup salt per gallon for the brackish tanks, so one of the employees probably just forgot to put the salt in or something.
It is one thing to say that the store employees are unknowledgable. But i have a problem when you say that employess there straight-up lie to you. I worked there for almost 2 years and i never lied to a single customer in order to make a sale. Remember, his advice comes from his own 15 years of experience, not a book or some online article. Sure his advice may differ from what others say, but does that really make him a liar?

I am pretty sure Alex has owned that place for more than 15 years by now.
I can tell you a few stories about things he sold to people that there is no way he thought they would get along. For example I take care of a tank in a sushi restaurant and he once sold them 5 yellow tangs. All to go into one tank. No less than three days later they were all ripped to shreds. It was awful. Now if you own a fish store you would know that you can't put yellow tangs together like that.

I used to also see lots of illegal fish there when I was younger. He would sell snakeheads as red pike all the time. Would you consider that lying?

[KuanTi]

haha oh don't forget about those arowanas. never heard of a green or golden jardini

[teachermark]

He'll sell the occasional pirahna, as well. I shopped there for two years since he's only a couple exits away from work and he offered them twice to me when I ran a freshwater tank. He called them "red-belly pacu's". He actually did the quote thing with his hands as he said it.

Funny thing you guys mentioned the VHO deal too, I asked about them when I first started the hobby and he told me "old technology, these pc's I have work just fine, boss. You buy?"

BTW- not to start anything, but if you want to p*ss him off, tell him U.S.C. sucks. :)

One more thing. As far as the crocea under pc's go, he's right about that one. I had a crocea under a basic pc setup in my old 60 gallon for about a year and a half and it did just fine. It didn't grow much, but it did fine.

[stubbsz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9560269#post9560269 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by teachermark
He actually did the quote thing with his hands as he said it.

I think they call those, Air-Quotes.

[teachermark]

Thanks for clarifying, smarty pants. lol ;)

[KuanTi]

his daughter went to USC.. she was a hottie btw. haha
i forgot about piranhas, used to sell those as baby silver tetras when they were small.

[Vincerama2]

I bought my stand from him, he actually said to me "Are you sure you want to buy one? You can make one for cheaper?" And I once went in to buy an air valve, and he just handed me one and said "Don't buy a pack, just take this".

The store is generally pretty clean too. Of course for salt, I prefer Ultimate Aquarium, but if I'm at Marina Market, I'll drop by to see what he has, and check out the freshwater fish too.

V