warning re: petco resin decorations

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
fearlessfisch

fearlessfisch

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jan 13, 2004
Messages
858
Location
Northern Virginia
They will get soft and start to fall apart after about a year. I had the Greek Temple. The columns will come off, leaving holes in which fish could get trapped. Today the entire front fell off.
 
That's annoying - I guess they can't take the heated water.

I've stopped using resin ornaments myself because they're ridiculously expensive, and they look like crap after a few months when the paint flakes off. They also have sharp edges and a tendency to trap small fish.
Blechh! I'm sticking to real stones and driftwood.
 
I had the mayan temple thing which came out months ago. I definitely prefer the natural decorations.
 
I too started with some nice resin decor. While they looked great for a few weeks, the silk plants fell apart, and the paint came off pretty easily the first time you clean the thing.
Also, I am pretty sure that I lost one of my cory's in there. I removed an item (a resin log, which i replaced with a real one) the stuff that came out of it when washing, I think was that Cory.
I have been slowly changing those aritfacts out, as I am able to replace em with nice Rootwood.
 
Sorry about your cory, Zezmo. :( I agree with all of you that the natural tanks are nicest. I plan to shift over to natural decorations too when I have the time and funds, but will be staying with what I have for a while. I still have the Petsmart Roman Ruins, which are holding up very well. The Petco stuff was feeling like rubber just before it disintegrated.

I do want an all-natural tank next. I saw my dream substrate at World of Fish in Minneapolis a few weeks ago...natural off-white, sort of cream-colored chips, smaller than gravel but bigger than sand. They had black, gnarled driftwood in there, and the light-dark contrast was beautiful. I would add plants because, well, I need plants. But that is where I plan to go when time and the budget will allow.
 
Ewwww.... as much as they sell those ornaments for, that's shady! :evil: We don't have a Petco around here, but when I first set my tanks up I got some resin ornaments from Petsmart, like a fake piece of wood and some fake rocks. The paint eventually flaked off and they didn't look very cool, plus the "wood" was all hollow inside and I came to realize what a bad idea that was! Slowly I started going for a more natural look in my tanks and I love the way they look now (never totally satisfied though... :roll: ) Plus, I get rocks now for $.20 a pound from the garden center; I can't believe how much I was paying for the fake ones!
 
Great question. I just did a google search, and it turns out that the ornament was made by Aquatic Gardens and stocked by Petco. While searching, I ran across a thread on Petfish.net saying that Petco has had lots of problems with this company's merchandise and may stop stocking it altogether. I don't know how accurate this is, but here is the link and an excerpt:

http://www.petfish.net/reviews/Aquatic_Gardens.htm

lifewebdesign wrote:
Well, if you won't say it, I will! DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT! .... The sales rep I spoke to said that they have had nothing but problems with this tank and this company and that Petco was probably going to stop carrying Aquatic Gardens merchandise altogether. I don't know if he was just trying to placate me or not. These tanks are nice.....when you can manage to get one that doesn't look like it's been through a war!
*
*
*
*
*
Here are some of the Aquatic Gardens resin ornaments, in case anyone's wondering:

http://www.bizrate.com/buy/products__att320777--317913-,cat_id--31000400,mid--29914.html
 
ok when you are saying resin ornaments you mean plastic ones? i have only one plastic one with two silk plants on each side. hopefully thats not what you mean.
 
Is there a way to prevent or have not too much of the paint come off of them? They start looking quite horrible with all the 'holes' after awhile.
 
Debomb4u, they sort of look like plastic. They are lighter in weight than the resin ornaments I have from Petsmart that are of better quality. Check the list I posted earlier in this thread--just the ones labeled as Aquatic Gardens. You might also want to do an online search to see if you can find out who manufactured yours, just in case. Do you remember where you bought it? The good news is that they weren't harmful to the fish in any way that I can tell....it is just annoying when they fall apart.

RoK, I don't know of any way of keeping them from flaking. I know a lot of people here quit using them because of that. It's a shame.

Toirtis, I actually have that humongous one! You can see it in my gallery. It is from Petsmart, not Aquatic Gardens, and it is holding up just fine!
 
Top Fin makes good aquatic decorations, I have a big driftwood and a small jug that look very authentic and seem to be made very well. Got them both at PetSmart. I like a natural look to my tank, thats why I don't get ruins or stuff like that anymore.
 
Natural is really the best way to go. Maybe if more people read how crappy resin ornaments are they would get planted aquariums too!!
 
In my 20 gal I have a big rock on top of 2 pieces of driftwood (the wood is shaped like a line and not curved that's why it works), it makes a cave in the middle and my rubbermouth pleco loves it. It looks really cool too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
Perpetually high nitrates no matter what I do! Dozens of water changes later.
Replies
11
Views
1K
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
E
Why is my mopani wood disintegrating right after buying from Petco?
Replies
1
Views
1K
Caliban07
Caliban07
I
Green Aquarium Water
Replies
5
Views
718
Colin_T
C
C
Back To Basics When Breeding Fish
Replies
1
Views
2K
Colin_T
C
H
Plant Issues - Algae?
Replies
3
Views
832
Caliban07
Caliban07

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom