"Sean" wrote in message
...

"Edward Cowling London UK" wrote in
message ...
In message , Christopher
Lewis writes
My girlfriend bought me a 100 litre tank for my birthday a few weeks
ago. I
filled it with gravel a few fake plants and water and left the filter
and
heater running for a few days.

I then went to my local fish shop and bought some small fish
recommended by
them to cycle the tank.


Sorry at that point you lost my patience. I think we should take a
leaf out of the current trend for "instant offence" and protest
outside your house :-)

Never use live fish to cycle a tank, they are as you say LIVE
creatures.

Feed an empty tank. I know it sounds daft, but a small pinch of food
every morning for about 5-6 weeks will very effectively get the bugs
going in the tank.

Personally I'd like to see a license to keep fish introduced, with
basic training considered mandatory.



I don't know about training and a license, that seems a tad expensive
and would lead to government overhead and all that jazz. What I think
the fish shops should have to implement is a basic testing system for
each major class/type of fish. Just basic questions to determine if
the person would be suitable to keep fish. Questions like: What temp
should tropical fish be kept at generally? What is a cycle? How many
times do you feed these fish and with what type of food? I think that
would be a great solution and it would embarrass a lot of ignorant
buyers into not making the purchase until they knew more.



Sean


I'm 100% with Sean on this one. We did this at the store. The trick was
to ask all the questions conversationally. With a new customer, you can
make lots of extra time ("have you seen bla bla - just came in", then
catching the fish, showing compatible plants etc etc). All the while,
expressing enthusiasm in the fish they are buying "So what type of fish
do you have now?, size of tank etc etc".

I've done many *non-sales*, where the customer decided against buying any
fish (I discovered they had Ich, or were overstocked etc). Sometimes I'd
have to go around putting bagged fish back into the tanks, but more often
than not, it left us with a new loyal customer who was interested in
doing the right thing, and they found a place they could get information.
They still spent money (probably a little guilty for 'wasting' our time),
but it was on new food, plants, meds etc, so the store didn't lose
anything.

We don't need to give the government more things to legislate (imo).
Common sense, good fish husbandry and good business practice are all
still compatible.
--
www.NetMax.tk