DREWspective

Anxiety on two levels.

Last week I’d bought two goldfish, yet to be named. I’d decided to buy another two—much smaller ones—just yesterday; their names are Snipes and Tiger.

The first hit of anxiety occured on Friday, when I was looking for information on goldfish. A couple of places insisted that goldfish have at least 10 gallons of water each in a tank! So if you wanted 3 goldfish, a 30 gallon tank is apparently the bare minimum,

I panicked, because the tank I have right now is 21 litres, or 4.6 gallons. I searched around for affordable, larger tanks, almost forgetting that I have very limited room. In theory I could fit a 3×1x1.5 foot tank in my room

But having talked to a staff member of a small pet store, there should be no problem at the moment. Besides, even a high profile store like Pets at Home sold tanks this "small" (and even smaller!) apparently for goldfish.
It clearly says somewhere in the ; packaging for my tank that four fish cold be kept in it, as long as they were the right size.  According to the new knowledge, it wouldn’t even be big enough for one!

But you know, Pets at Home are supposed to be knowledgable about fish. If the tank was barlely big enough for one fish, why would they sell it? Coincidentally, neither they nor the other place (Maidenhead Aquatics, a great place) asked how big the tank was they were only concerned about water quality (some more than others!).

The second bit of anxiety came when actually buying the fish. As we’ve hinted at before, customer service is one area where Pets at Home falls flat on its face.

It took a while before I’d decided which (and what size) fancy goldfish to get. But a small bunch of people had gathered around the tanks, making life as difficult for anyone else as your typical UK citizen does.
I kid you not when I say it took ten to fifteen minutes to be served, during which I was ignored by staff or frustrated because the people who did get served made their minds up on the spot. Just when it looked like I was getting somewhere, one smarmy bastard (who’d already been served) wanted a gold loach; one of the hardest fish to catch, as it was among regular goldfish.

It was almost like around the 1920s, when white (or lighter-coloured) people got served before black pople, no matter how late they arrived.

The waiting, and worry that someone would take "my fish", made me very anxious. It generally is not a good idea to keep me waiting, and an even worse idea to serve someone who arrived later than me. Had it not been for the voucher I’d gotten for buying the tank, I’d have almost no reason to go back.

But now there’s another problem: they didn’t pack a potted plant that I’d paid for, so now I have to go back! We shall see how good or the customer service at Pets at Home really is.