Rams! At Petco??!? What do I do NOW?

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Madame_X

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jul 15, 2003
Messages
582
Location
Mesa, AZ
Okay, just the other day I said I couldn't find Rams ANYWHERE. I go to Petco to get a background and what do I see?

A tank of Bolivian Rams!

Now I don't know what to do. I swore I'd never buy fish at that place but I figure these little guys have as good a chance in my hands as they do at Petco.

What should I do? Take a chance? Or pass and move on? :(
 
I personally have never had any problems with a fish from petco. I have had way more success with petco fish than from the LFS.
 
We have petsmart here, sorta like petco, and their hatchetfish killed my cardinals from ich. But...the fish that introduced the ich are fine :roll: , and really it was my fault for not quarantining. However, when I am ready for my Yellow Labs I am going to buy them from there.
 
there going too sell them, either too you or some one else, i would buy them and put them in a quarintine tank.
 
I agree with EC.....


I have bought fish from the larger chain stores b4 also.
Just QT them and see what happens.

To me it would be worth the risk.
Specially for something that you really want that you don't see often.

Pimpin :wink:
 
If they don't look obviously diseased, go for it! As has been posted, though, a q-tank can't be emphasized enough, and it will pay for itself in the long run.
 
Although I've had the best luck at a fish only store, I've had decent luck at petco. As long as they look healthy, I'd give it a shot.
 
Okay, I'm convinced! Actually, I called a much cleaner Petco in the area and they have them too.

I'm going to give them a shot! Thanks, all... :mrgreen:
 
Same here, I havent had a single problem brought on by buying from petco, so if u really want the fish, go ahead and buy em'. :wink:
 
Don't forget that in those large chain store the tanks are generally all conected with a large sump. So if one tank gets a disease then all tanks will have it. That being said you should still get the fish and I would qt them and treat them for ich even if they don't show signs.
 
I came across the same thing at my petco, only they were beautiful GOLDEN rams. These are so cool looking, and I would have gotten them but I dont have any room for them, the only place I could put them already had a pair of kribensis. BTW they are 6.50. Is this good? Ive never seen them in my LFS's.
 
As it turns out, the Petco I went to had Bolivian Rams AND Gold Rams. I decided on a pair of each. They had blue ones the day before but someone had snatched them all up (or I probably would have ended up with six).

The Gold ones are very pretty but I've heard that they are somewhat fragile. The Bolivians are supposed to be more hardy.

They seem healthy, though. They're active and curious after the intial stress of the move wore off.
 
Oh, and as advised, they're in a 10 gallon quarantine tank right now. There are no other fish in my new 30 gallon planted, so that's where they'll go after I know they're okay. :)
 
congrats on the rams, great little cichlids, i bet they will love a 30gal too them selfs.
smart move on the quarantine tank.
 
I have a smal LFS and my three banks of tanks each have a common "sump". Most systems like this have safeguards. In my case I have the three circulating systems with sumps, undergravel filters (except in the cichlid bank) and three UV sterilizers. I certainly can't afford to have a disease rampage through my tanks. The large chains may be able to though. Also the way I have the systems rigged I can isolate any tank. Any tank that has even one fish with a disease or suspected disease is isolated and quarantined (and none of the fish in that tank are sold).
 
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