i was in pets***t and the fish person had a customer asking about oscars. she told this guy that "oscars are like piranhas, they will eat anything you put with them" and that the only fish she recommended as a tank mate would be a jd. does anybody else find this disturbing?

jcrunk69 wrote:


I wouldn't say it disturbs me, but it doesn't surprise me. You should have given her our web address

i told her and the guy that was buying... but she got mad b/c i stepped in and gave a little advice, then the guy said he had a 29 gal... i told him he should get at least a 55 for an oscar cuz they get big and all, then the girl talked him into a bunch of africans.

We promote happy fishkeeping, those people are only trying to make money...

they whould sell their grandma if they could..lol

good job

a friend of mine works at a mom and pops shop that specializes in reptiles. hes serious about his job too. but... i asked him one day, how does it feel selling these animals to people who have no idea what theyre getting into, and in some cases reps can be pretty difficult to keep themselves . he sez he hates it but... how can you sit there and tell a mom wanting to buy a 250- 300 dollar tegu set up that in a year that lil lizard is gonna need a huge cage and probally be able to bite your finger off??? its all about the benjamins. its the nature of the business

i believe that is normal in the industry... in my place...lfs and breeders are
in cohorts. breeders produce and consign, sellers just sell and dump dead fish
that remains unsold. they even sell an aro with a bowl like Noddy's bowl...
hey win...where is that bowl????????did you take it from Noddy???

jcrunk69 wrote:


I can see where she gets this idea from, just misinformed thats all. Put an oscar in a community tank and it will eat everything, and JD's are a reasonable tankmate (sometimes)

i think one of the main problems as daft as it sounds is the price of oscars compared to a few years ago, they have now become affordable for everyone not to do to much research on keeping them, if people had to pay £50-60 etc they would certainly get more educated before buying.

I bought another two small ocars today and paid £26 for the pair, i know very soon i am going to need an another upgrade, but like most on here an prepared to do,
at least the wrong info' that woman was giving will hopefully see those O's on their own or with very few tank mates, but i wonder how many LFS sell O's to people and they end up in those bio style bowls

hobby is different from business. we, as hobbyist want the best with our pets.
lfs, for their part, want big revenue out of selling anything, fish included.
a new enthusiast who bought a tank and fish will definitely buy another fish
once the previous one dies. hobbyist suffer, lfs prosper...

now, OFL, the community tries to educate hobbyist the right attitude and
proper caring for those poor little fish.... and once the fish is happy,
the hobbyist is doubly happy too. and of course, lfs will partially be
happy too since happy hobbyist will continue buying aquarium needs to the
nearest store available.

if only we can educate them, the world will be a happy world.

I am that lucky guy with a trustworthy LFS.
The owner over there allways has some fullgrown Oscars around, to show how big the fish become.
That seems to help and he just won't sell o's if the tank is too small or uncycled.