Petco,petsmart or wal-mart fish?

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Mrduna01 said:
In my opinion petsmart is great. Been buying fish from the for three years and never got the first sick fish until recently when ick showed up two days after a new purchase.

Would like to add that, if not already mentioned, they have a two week guaruntee on fish.
 
I went to one of the area Petco's a couple of times recently. It was to get a 55g for $55. When I went to get the tank, their selection was good and everything looked healthy. They had the moss tank looking good with some of those alfae shrimp (I think they're called japanese algae shrimp, but could be way wrong). I went there again this past weekend and most of the moss was dead and all of the shrimp were dead. The tanks were dirty too. Maybe they just cleaned it up for the holiday season?

About 30 mins away is a Petland. They are pricey, and sometimes misguided, but they're stock always looks good (plants and fish). My only knock on them is that the fish department employees act a bit like used car salesmen. But that's retail!
 
Mrduna01 said:
Would like to add that, if not already mentioned, they have a two week guaruntee on fish.

Petco has a 30 day guarantee :) but they have to test the water. But you can just give them good water wal-mart doesnt care about the water quality. My wal-mart has okay fish. Petsmart has good fish but not big selection on some fish I like employees most. I don't have petland near me.
 
Fishie said:
Petco has a 30 day guarantee :) but they have to test the water. But you can just give them good water wal-mart doesnt care about the water quality. My wal-mart has okay fish. Petsmart has good fish but not big selection on some fish I like employees most. I don't have petland near me.

30 days?! That's awesome. I don't have one near me.
 
We go to different sores for different things. Pet Zone has the best live fish. Critter co is super old and I would not buy fish there but the live rock is in a different tank alltogether. Petsmart gave us ICK >.< Petco here is OK they have saltwater fish that look good.

Depends on what I want and what the prices are.
 
Just went to a wal-mart and see if they had fish. They did!! Great fish and supplies!! Great guy who maintains the tanks no dead fish ether! Best wal-mart ever!! Found frog food though forgot money though :/
 
I have two petcos nearby and I usually go to the closest one for supplies and such. The tanks are clean and for the most part no floaters. If I find a sick or dead fish I point it out to the guy who seems to really care and he scoops it out right away. I wandered into the other petco the other day and I was shocked. There was this brown hair algae everywhere in every tank. Many of the tanks were empty. And honestly the worst thing I saw was several matts of some kind of ground cover plant and they were completely black. Black, I tell you! These plants must have been dead for weeks and no one had bothered to even take them out to throw them away. I think it really depends on the store manager and department manager. I was nauseous.

There is an outrageously priced LFS nearby that I will buy harder to find fish from... I bought my son guppies there and almost choked when it turned out they were $8.99 a piece. But they qt all their fish and their tanks are spotless.
 
$8.99 for guppies? I hope they weren't just plain old fancy guppies. That's outrageous. I agree though, I will pay more at a store that clearly takes better care of their tanks and fish. I believe we've got to stand up for what you believe in with our dollars. I would never buy a fish from Walmart, because I want them to stop carrying fish all together, and that's not going to happen unless we stop buying them there.
 
I think the most I've seen guppies for up here in Canada was 5.99 for fancy males, and 3.99 for females. For 8.99 do they come with gold tassels?
 
Chronos313 said:
I think the most I've seen guppies for up here in Canada was 5.99 for fancy males, and 3.99 for females. For 8.99 do they come with gold tassels?

I am hoping they poop gold! They are pretty but not anything crazy beautiful...I guess sometimes I just have to bite the bullet after ranting about buying locally! But, still. Ouch!
 
I wish I could get away with selling my guppies for $9 a pop, haha. They are pretty...
 
They are all "puppy mills" of fish, but I would go with petsmart if you can't get to a mom and pop. Just quarantine your fish from those places. They tend to be stressed and sick. Never buy from a tank with dead or sick looking fish.
 
I've been lucky with my petsmart, they have fairly knowledgeable staff on the floor for the live animals, fish included. If you have one nearby just be sure to check out the tanks and talk to the staff before you write it off as a bad place for fish. Some are terrible, some are pretty good. I'd get fish there over the fish at any Walmart near me any day, and the petsmart I go to is about an hour away from me as opposed to the Walmart 15 minutes down the road! But, I have a couple local mom n' pop stores that I go to for fish 95% of the time. I get fish at petsmart mainly when I'm in there for something else and they either have a good deal on a fish I want or if they have something I want that I haven't been able to find at the other places. I have a LFS in my town and in my mom's town!
 
I prefer the small mom and pop stores, but if we're speaking soley of te big chain stores, I've had the best luck with fish from PetSmart and Pet Supplies "Plus".
 
If i had to choose between those three stores i would choose petco because they sell saltwater stuff ;) lol
 
I wouldn't buy Walmart fish for nothing, and at least petco wont sell their fish if they have an issue. Love looking at petsmart fish.
 
I would never buy fish from walmart. Petco & Petsmart depend on location. Last month my local Petsmart had a sign up "fish are not for sale - being treated for ick". They actually refused a sale to someone who wanted to buy anyway. I give them credit for that, and their tanks are better kept.
When looking to buy fish, I usually check craigslist, freecycle & the local fish forums before going retail. Sadly no LFS close by.
 
Wal-Mart fish are not always bad, you just have to know your local store. My dwarf gourami is from Wal-Mart and he is as healthy as can be!
 
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