petco with good fish?

[Tomchong22]

I don't go to petco anymore.. After going to one and seeing every single fish having ich, and the worker dosing every tank( even the ones with inverts) with a copper based med. I say no way. I once said you have a dead fish in this tank... Their response eh the other fish and crabs will eat it.

[LoneFish]

My petco has 2 good fish workers if I go in to buy a fish and there not the ones there i leave. The manager is so so when it comes to fish but is more a reptile expert. But one lady I just hate one time i saw her pull a fish out of its tank drop it on the floor stare at it for about 3 minutes then put it back in the wrong tank.

[bruinsbro1997]

So I walked into Petco today to get some Prime Conditioner (can you believe, my LFS doesn't carry Prime but PETCO does!) and this lady with her two kids was talking to a Petco sales associate, a woman. I was evasdropping on their conversation while I was checking to see how many tanks with dead fish I could find.
This is how the conversation went down.
"My fish are all dying and the tank is like brand new what is wrong?"
"Your tank is cycling and your fish are dying because it isn't cycled."
Wasn't that a shocker. I couldn't believe that someone at Petco knew that.
"Your tank has to grow through the nitrogen cycle. Adding more fish means they will die."
"So what should I do?"
"Well don't add any more fish. Take some of our water and then change the filter when your cycle is done."
UH-OH.
**Lady dips a test strip into a tank**
"This is what you want your water to look like. No nitrites, some nitrates and no ammonia. You also need to adjust your pH."
I felt bad for not stepping in but I knew they wouldn't listen to me. I decided to get some cherry barbs since the lady told me that they got their shipment in yesterday, and anyways there were no dead fish in the tank.
Lady: "So what fish do you have?"
Me: "School of cardinals, cories, three rams and a DG. In a thrity."
Lady:"Cool. I have lots of tanks. I also have a five gallon with two cherry barbs. They're massive!"

Lady continues:"I also have five Chinese algae eaters in my ten gallon."
Me:"Won't those get massive?"
Lady:"Nah, they only get massive if you put them in big tanks."
At that point I wanted to yell at her so badly that she was going to stunt her fish, but then she caught my cherries and bagged them. One more quick convo. before I went to the register.
Lady:"I also had to move my albino barbs, they were getting huge!"
I looked up into a coldwater tank where koi are supposed to be and there they were. They were tinfoils.
Me:"Why are they in a koi tank? Aren't they tropicals?"
Lady:"Yeah, but we don't get koi anymore anyways they keep dying. Besides all the tanks here are mostly tropical anyways."

At that point it took all my self-restraint from exploding out on her and went to the cash register to pay for the darn fish. I am NEVER going to Petco again, I am mad mad mad.

[Herotilapia_Multispinosa]

I am forced to buy my fish from pet quarters (great place not much selection) and petco ( lots of selection iffy on the community tanks but the SA cichlids seem fine.)

[xxlbreed]

I went to my petco on dobson road in mesa arizina and they are fantastic!! The gm is a saltwater tank owner herself and they specially work with one of the best pet stores in Phoenix, the even hired a guy from there to help out with their fish department! Plus they had half off on clearance items!! Great store hands down!

[mfdrookie516]

Off topic posts have been deleted. Posts 'bashing' chain stores have also been deleted. Below is a portion of our community rules. Please read them before posting any further opinionated comments about stores.

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[tornadonick]

I just got a couple of rams from that petco about a week ago now. They must have somebody new in there because those tanks where the best kept i have seen at any chain store. They even had a tank there with the words "sick fish, not for sale" written on it. That petco may just be my new fish store of choice.

[bruinsbro1997]

Wow, you've got a pretty good Petco! On the other hand...

I visited my Petco two weeks ago for some supplies (it's a lot cheaper there than at the LFS). Just out of curiousity, I visited the fish section. And though they did look healthy, I did see dead fish in quite a few of the tanks. But they were very clean! They also do have some reliable info, for example the tank full of shrimp and snails said: "Snails and shrimp are for small tanks, not bettas". I was impressed.

But to the salties...they were keeping a tang in a 29 gallon biocube. Just thought I would point that out. I asked why, and I got two different answers from the two different times I went there. One employee said, "Because it looks so pretty." (This was the manager). The other said, "Because unfortunately we have no one who wants to take it and that's the biggest tank we can provide for it."

[huma-huma]

then they should prob put it up for sale to try and get it to an appropriate sized tank. Petco is my last choice for fish selection, only because the Petco near me NEVER has fish employees working, and everytime i go there, they have the baby clowns in their 20g and a Niger Trigger in a 10g... just not the best of practices. but then again its not the only pet chain like that..just really depends on the Ethics of the particular store

[Ralphie126]

my petsmart is ok.... my petco is ok... but there is a big petco about 10mins away...AWESOME

[huma-huma]

It depends alot on your knowledge too, ive noticed that a majority of the time, if you can convince the store that it was in fact a bad fish and out of your hands, they will replace it

[xxlbreed]

My petco works in coop with my lfs (best in town) and they try to get the same suppliers and share staff. I like the idea of lower prices in the same high quality! However I only buy a day or two after new ls comes in

[mfdrookie516]

As promised... there were numerous violations after the warning, so the thread has been closed.