Death.

[xIHaKIx]

Everytime I go to Petco its so sad to see all the dead fish in the tanks. The people there never do their jobs, and dont clean them out after they die. Yesturday I seen two huge oscars in a tops 15 gallon tank, it seriously think it was smaller then that. But the thing is I bought a male platie and some other fish but the male platie and the female guppy look really sick, the femlae has blk tail and the end of it is white, like fungi and the male plattie same thing but he has it also on his head. Tell me the truth do you think they gonna live?...I added some Quick Cure last night and this morning, it says that it cures ick in 2 days. Tthe male does look like he is doing better but you could see him strugle to swim, he is in one place going side to side alot, tring to swim I guess. And the femal si with the other guppies swimming and stuff plus she looks pregnet so I really want her to live.........

Anyone else noticed that about Petco they dont take care of their fish, or is it only the petco in my area?.......

 

[Xzap]

Petco, like all businesses are there for one reason, the bottom line.

Dave

 

[Zagz]

Don't buy your fish from them if you see they don't take care of their tanks. IMO each individual business is run differently. You can go to several different Walmarts, Petco, Petsmart and each store will be different in the knowledge of their staff and how their tanks are kept. You as the consumer have to choose who you wish to purchase your fish from. They are there to make money,

 

[gheitman]

We don't have a Petco in our area (as far as I know) but I have been to both Petsmart and Wal-Mart as well as my LFS. In my experience the LFS not only has healthier stock and a better selection they also have better prices on fish. Granted that their equipment is usually more expensive though.

 

[severum mama]

The white patches on your fish are not ich. You should stop using the Quick Cure, as it is used to treat ich. Try some Pimafix for the fungus, and if that doesn't work, then try something stronger.

If you notice sick fish in the tanks and you don't like the way they treat the fish, why buy from there? :?

 

[talloulou]

At almost any fish shop I have ever been to you can find a dead fish in one of the tanks if you look hard enough. Occasionally the store will be having a really bad day and you'll see lots of dead fish.

At our local petsmart they tend to have many dead fish right after they have received a big shipment. I believe this is mostly due to the weaker fish not surviving the stress of shipping. I try not to buy fish that just came in. I also don't buy fish if it is a "bad" day and there are many dead fish. However I have never been to a store that didn't have at least one dead or one in the process of dying in at least one tank.

You should talk to the employees. If you go in alot and they know you they will probably be pretty open and honest. Just ask, "Hey what's going on...you got alot of dead fish today....." At my petsmart they will usually let me know what's going on. They also let me know which fish they have been having really bad luck with and so on.....

That being said....Why would YOU buy an ill fish??? I would never buy a fish from a tank that had ill looking or dead fish in it. I also try to avoid new arrivals. And I would never buy a fish from any tank when the store is having a bad day with lots of different tanks having dead fish.

If you want to encourage your local store to keep their tanks as healthy and clean as possible don't buy sick fish. If you do you are only adding to the problem and sending the message that you will buy fish no matter how the store keeps them. Plus why introduce fish into your system that have problems if you can avoid doing so???

I guess you could look at like you're "saving a life." But I wouldn't do this. The fact of the matter is every fish store is going to have sick or dead fish at some point. Do yourself and the store a favor don't buy them!

 

[greenmaji]

IME.. all places that sell fish will have sick or dieing fish as stated before..
you have to learn what a heathy fish looks like so as to not purchase sick fish, if there are sick or dead fish in the tank dont buy from that tank right then but most of these places have central filtration and the fact that the fish are sick really doenst say too much about most of them, they were likely stressed by there suppliers practices in shipping them.

 

[xIHaKIx]

Wow I found god today, well not really but I found a new LFS ... its like 20 minutes from my house, maybe less but its not like any other pet store I ever been in. Everytime you walk into any pet store, the smell of "pets" hits you like the dirty smell cats, hamsters, dogs leave. I hate that smell. But when I entered this new place it was something completly diffrent, there was no smell. They have dogs cats, hamsters, everything but no smell. The people that work there are HARDCORE friendly, I walked in they were like we never seen you around welcome. Like getting to know me which I found really cool, Even the owener is a "hands" on guy. He was telling me about his business what pets he owns asking me questions saying he could make deals if im interested in big deals. I seriously fell in love with this place, fish wise they got tons of tanks, kinda like its own room. Everything is nice and clean huge fish arent packed in tiny tanks, they got diskcuse fish and everything from tetras to guppies to clowns, I was so amazed by the high quality and low prices this store had I promissed myself to never go back into petco or any other fish store. I seriously love this place and I wish you guys could experience how I felt when I walked out of this place today.

 

[Zagz]

Glad to hear it! When you find a lfs you trust, it makes a huge difference. Good luck fish shopping there. Sometimes it takes something not so good to turn things around and make something good come out of it.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

The Petco here is great. The guy who runs the fish department went to school in the field of marine life and loves working at Petco. The tanks are healthy, and it's rare to see a dead fish. and if you have a question, he's a wealth of knowlege. Just an overall good guy. In fact, the tanks there looks better than the LFS here, but the LFS gets a wider variety of fish that you probably won't see at Petco.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Another thing you can do is slowly raise the temp to 86 degrees. But do it very slowly. Then leave it for 2 weeks to get rid of the ick in the tank. Also, if you do this you might want to get an air stone or bubble want, as the water get's warmer, there's less oxygen. Just another idea.

 

[xIHaKIx]

Im probably gonna do hat now, like raise the temp ... and yes I am realy happy with the new fish store I found, petco in my area has people that dont know how to do anything, I asked him what is a good bottom plant to carpet a tank with and he took me to the fish food.

They have no knowleg on fish and idk what else to say.
They really stupid.

 

[jrp1588]

Wow, I don't have a Petco in my area...but all my LFS are run pretty well...excluding the walmart of course...They have plenty of dead fishies

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Petco and the LFS here is great, but Walmart, could they be thinking of feeding their fish dead fish? hmmmmm...... Fish eating dead fish = more dead fish.