Headed to Petco...

[stepho725]

Keep your fingers crossed for something NEW and cool in the freshwater area! Although I am gonna probably just buy some tetras or coreys.

 

[Laser]

Take a good long look at the fish. The Petco by me consistently has sick fish.

 

[samthefishman]

I expect some pics!

 

[Chris7495]

I refuse to buy from petco or petsmart, no way I would ever buy from wal-mart either. Just go in one of these and start asking questions about the fish, their responses are almost always wrong in some way. If you can, find a local store that only sells fish, you may pay a little more but it's much better quality and they usually know much more than the chain stores.

 

[Tetra1990]

My advice, do your homework beforehand and have an idea,if your going to buy, what you want. Ask some questions but don't be pressured into buying anything. Remember, the staff is there to 'make a sale'.

 

[stepho725]

Well I decided against getting anything as I was just so heart broken to see the large puffer in the salt water tank dying. We always say hi to him and he looked terrible! Understandably - I mean he is a huge guy in a little maybe 7 gallon tank
Gonna head to a local small pet shop and take a look. Its the only one I know of in this area and looks to be my only other choice from the big chains.

 

[FeldmansFish]

poor puffer... those big chain stores need to hire people who know about and how to keep fish.

 

[Pipedreamer86]

i am extremely fortunate in that the Petsmart near me has 2 aquatic specialists who are very passionate about fish, have their own elaborate setups, and take great care of the fish. all the fish i have purchased from there have been extremely healthy and acclimated well. on the other hand the petco down the street from them is AWFUL. every tank is infested with ich, and the fish look terrible.

 

[Rivercats]

I think with any large chain store it's a hit or miss thing. Lately there are 4 PetSmarts that are not only getting good quality fish in, but they are taking good care of their tanks and many of the staffers are not totally unqualified.

 

[ktomminello]

I refuse to buy from petco or petsmart, no way I would ever buy from wal-mart either. Just go in one of these and start asking questions about the fish, their responses are almost always wrong in some way. If you can, find a local store that only sells fish, you may pay a little more but it's much better quality and they usually know much more than the chain stores.

I got my puffer from Walmart, I get live rock from petco (along with the snails I feed my puffer) and am always looking in all petshops for deals on whatever I can find. I understand that there is a generalization of all of these non lfs to being ignorant and bacteria and algae laden places- truth be told, in my area there are only 2 lfs that I trust (one for salt, one for fresh) and there's a couple of big name pet stores here that actually have big time hobbyists working there... It's all about the fish, not the store.

 

[ktomminello]

My puffer was definitely a rescue though, Walmart, though not always, but usually, are a fishes torture chamber.

 

[ktulu909]

One of the walmarts by my house has 4 sickly looking clown loaches I saw last night. Didnt have the means to get them last night due to time constraints,but I may go pick them up tonight on the way home from work.Probably going to have to spend a couple hours acclimating them considering the cess pool they are being kept in.

 

[ktomminello]

One of the walmarts by my house has 4 sickly looking clown loaches I saw last night. Didnt have the means to get them last night due to time constraints,but I may go pick them up tonight on the way home from work.Probably going to have to spend a couple hours acclimating them considering the cess pool they are being kept in.

IMO, from personal experience you are definitely going to spend sometime acclimating them to any sort of normal parameter water. I used a 10g for a hospital tank and filled with water from a change out on my 40g with the water from Walmart (parameters tested about equal, surprise, surprise, only their 'trates were outta control) and did a 50% change in the morning and another that night. With help from substrate and filter media from my established tanks this proved quite successful, just have to keep a good close eye on them. I've noticed I can weed out sick ones by using 1 single drop of quick cure per 10g, but I don't recommend it as there are a ton of negative effects especially on weaker or injured fish. Half doses of mela and pima fix along with seachem stability have been a successful combo for me as well... Do a fish a favor- rescue him from Walmart!! I hope green spotted puffer fanatics especially help in this "mini crusade".

 

[stepho725]

Well I looked up some reviews on the small pet store I was going to go to but I read about how disgusting the place is and they've got puppy mill puppies and euthanize kittens in the freezers (says an ex employee). So - I decided not to support them and chose to head back to Petco (again - my only choice besides walmart).

The puffer seemed a little more alert today and is in a quarantine tank with a lion fish and yellow tang - all covered in ick.

Sooo I got some tetras...I got three black neons and two neons (to go with my other two neons). They are all schooling (for now).

Also got a snail since my other one had an unfortunate filter accident...twice.
But I did buy the sponge to go over the intake valve so the tank is snail safe again!

I guess we will see what happens! I do have a Petsmart about 30 mins away which I will probably check out for my coreys in a few weeks.

I too have noticed that Petsmart has cleaner tanks. They also don't mess with saltwater which is nice considering how little most of the kids working there know. I worked at Petco several years ago with some personal experience became the small animal person & then the reptile and bird but knew very little about the fish and almost zero on saltwater fish. There was a crazy guy who worked in the fish dept who knew what he was doing but again - Petco is in the market of instant gratification.

 

[stepho725]

I'm considering rescuing a puffer from Walmart soon. Currently shopping craigslist for tanks. Found a 35G hex with stand and hood for $40 (along with some sea salt and a heater). Although this price is great - still gonna try to get him down to $30. Lol

 

[ktomminello]

I'm considering rescuing a puffer from Walmart soon. Currently shopping craigslist for tanks. Found a 35G hex with stand and hood for $40 (along with some sea salt and a heater). Although this price is great - still gonna try to get him down to $30. Lol

Puffer rescues from Walmart have a very small success rate considering they must be changed to at least brackish asap, and it's very stressful. I can tell you how I did it. Mine is now happily residing in a 40g live rock turned almost reef (I have a couple button polyps that opened a few days ago).

 

[stepho725]

Is brackish okay for them? I don't know crap about salt water and most likely wont have the money to put into it for at least a WHILE! Unless you can magically tell me that he only requires a simple saltwater tank that won't cost me very much it seems I won't be able to do it :/ Wah!

 

[bud29]

Buying a fish isn't really "rescuing" it......you are making a purchase. It is just financial encouragement for them, meaning they'll get more fish in the future......Honestly, if we all just stopped buying from there they would stop selling sick fish.

 

[Pipedreamer86]

Buying a fish isn't really "rescuing" it......you are making a purchase. It is just financial encouragement for them, meaning they'll get more fish in the future......Honestly, if we all just stopped buying from there they would stop selling sick fish.

+1
But the same could be said for any animal rescue

 

[bud29]

+1
But the same could be said for any animal rescue

that's why it really isn't a true rescue