What are your thoughts on Petco selling Saltwater fish??

[gwolfe]

What are your thoughts on Petco selling Saltwater fish??

 

[Mr. Limpet]

My local Petco got some new tank racks in and started selling SW fish and they seem to kill them on a regular basis, just like the FW fish lol.

Like Walmart or Petsmart, they should all stick to selling dog/cat food/toys.

 

[joshuawilliamson21]

Everyfish I have gotten from there has died

 

[nohika]

I've never got fish from mine, but all the SW fish and inverts look pretty happy and well-fed. The FW fish, however...

 

[Flossie]

I have a had terrible experience with fish
From PetSmart. I dont think Petco is much better...I have spent more
Time and money straightening out my
Tanks than time enjoying my fish

 

[thatfishguy]

It varies drastically and it all depends on who maintains the aquatics department.

For instance, I am an aquatic specialist for PetCo. People think the majority of use are relatively ignorant and generally have no place in the aquarium trade. Unfortunately, this tends to be true in some cases, but not all.

First off, our systems are very limited in what they can do, so before you blame the employee, consider this first. We run very low gallon sumps with a less than desirable turn-over rate. Couple this with plumbing hooked into a culligan that runs carbon (and pumps out tap water) this instantly creates problems for the saltwater tanks.

Not to mention the fact that the some of live stock we get tends to come in hungry, sick, ich ridden, and even dead. We turn away packages containing over 50 percent dead fish, or fish who have visible ich. We cannot speak for our distributors, so before you go off ranting that petco fish always have ich, or always die, I'll be sure to refer you to the distributors, who essentially rear the fish for us.

Overall though, PetCo gets a really bad rap. I know some down-right idiotic employees who're "aquatic specialists" but you can't help this. At the end of the day, this is a business.

My store however, speaks for itself. My saltwater section near sparkles. I rarely EVER lose saltwater fish and if I do it was either

A) I didn't do the shipment (because it came on my day off) and somebody put two fish in with each other who were incompatible/or with aggressors
B) Usually only experience damsel deaths.

You will see no algae on my tanks, my corals are all open as can be and my fish are VERY well fed and taken care of diligently. Not a single fish has visible ich, fin rot, or anything of the sort. My rocks don't contain aiptasia, anything. I was told if I can consistently keep up my SW sales, we will be trying out a completely new design for saltwater. It is apparently x100000 times better and healthier, and I've even talked to some very experienced reefers who were quite impressed with this new implementation.

It is however only limited to stores with amazing saltwater sales, and the others are being forced to phase out their displays.

All in all, don't give PETCO the bad wrap, give their AQUATIC SPECIALIST the bad wrap.

 

[Sarcothelia]

Yea, I agree. My Petco actually has healthy looking leathers, feather dusters, and fish for the most part. The guy there referred me to the LFS I use now. The fact is not all of the Petcos are the same, but for the most part I think that if they aren't willing to invest the money in strong pumps running carbon and chaeto at the very least they shouldn't be selling fish in the first place.

 

[HalfMoon B]

I have to agree with thatfishguy. NEVER had a problem with my local petco, and they are on a first name basis with me.
I even got a dwarf gourami FREE because he was being picked on by a platy in the same tank. The fish tanks in my petco are dang near immaculate with only an occasional problem. (although I wish they had more plants!!)
It really comes down to suppliers in most cases. Traveling TO the store is stressful enough for fishes I am sure.

 

[Johnstamos003]

I try not to buy fish from PetCo - have had bad experiences in the past - however this was also before I understood good quarantine and water acclimation procedures. My local PetCo seems to be informing more employees about new tank setup - and not selling fish for new tanks on the same day. Their knowledge of tank setup seems to be improving

 

[aquabeast]

petsmart is probably the worst around here.. i mean, i seenshipments where they had to throw bags and bags of dead fish away.. i stick to the local stores..

 

[Flossie]

It's true its not always the employees faults! Even the ones who don't know anything should be trained well before get a job there. I agree about the equip and all and the fact that if there is one good person that works there they are not the only one taking care of the fish unfortunately I finally got a qt tank and I just got two fish from a different PetSmart so hopefully ( fingers crossed ) I def wouldn't do it without a qt tank since it can take weeks for an illness to Show. I heard one of our good LFS QTs their
Fish two weeks b4 they sale them.

 

[Codyheitmiller]

It varies drastically and it all depends on who maintains the aquatics department.

For instance, I am an aquatic specialist for PetCo. People think the majority of use are relatively ignorant and generally have no place in the aquarium trade. Unfortunately, this tends to be true in some cases, but not all.

First off, our systems are very limited in what they can do, so before you blame the employee, consider this first. We run very low gallon sumps with a less than desirable turn-over rate. Couple this with plumbing hooked into a culligan that runs carbon (and pumps out tap water) this instantly creates problems for the saltwater tanks.

Not to mention the fact that the some of live stock we get tends to come in hungry, sick, ich ridden, and even dead. We turn away packages containing over 50 percent dead fish, or fish who have visible ich. We cannot speak for our distributors, so before you go off ranting that petco fish always have ich, or always die, I'll be sure to refer you to the distributors, who essentially rear the fish for us.

Overall though, PetCo gets a really bad rap. I know some down-right idiotic employees who're "aquatic specialists" but you can't help this. At the end of the day, this is a business.

My store however, speaks for itself. My saltwater section near sparkles. I rarely EVER lose saltwater fish and if I do it was either

A) I didn't do the shipment (because it came on my day off) and somebody put two fish in with each other who were incompatible/or with aggressors
B) Usually only experience damsel deaths.

You will see no algae on my tanks, my corals are all open as can be and my fish are VERY well fed and taken care of diligently. Not a single fish has visible ich, fin rot, or anything of the sort. My rocks don't contain aiptasia, anything. I was told if I can consistently keep up my SW sales, we will be trying out a completely new design for saltwater. It is apparently x100000 times better and healthier, and I've even talked to some very experienced reefers who were quite impressed with this new implementation.

It is however only limited to stores with amazing saltwater sales, and the others are being forced to phase out their displays.

All in all, don't give PETCO the bad wrap, give their AQUATIC SPECIALIST the bad wrap.

Same with us, but corporate is messing up my tanks by making us put all the same types of fish together, separating cuc from coral tanks, like sand sifters and algae eaters, all Tangs togeather and what not, so I'll have alot more work on my hands.

 

[Codyheitmiller]

It's true its not always the employees faults! Even the ones who don't know anything should be trained well before get a job there. I agree about the equip and all and the fact that if there is one good person that works there they are not the only one taking care of the fish unfortunately I finally got a qt tank and I just got two fish from a different PetSmart so hopefully ( fingers crossed ) I def wouldn't do it without a qt tank since it can take weeks for an illness to Show. I heard one of our good LFS QTs their
Fish two weeks b4 they sale them.

They are well trained, they just don't pay attention because the training is so long...

 

[thatfishguy]

Same with us, but corporate is messing up my tanks by making us put all the same types of fish together, separating cuc from coral tanks, like sand sifters and algae eaters, all Tangs togeather and what not, so I'll have alot more work on my hands.


Man, that sucks. Corporate just had me remove all the gravel in every FW tank to one color, reduce the substrate in saltwater by 50 percent (apparently to help control nitrates?) as well as limit FW decoration to 1 rock and 1 plant per tank.

 

[Codyheitmiller]

Replace it with natural gravel? Us too, we were like, ummm, that's not enough shelters so f u we are going to do what's best and don't care if we get fired because we actually put all pets first!

 

[jsmith]

I've bought from my local petco.. erie pa. I've had no deaths in any of the fish I've purchased and not only that I've been told when purchasing fish if it was beening treated or was beening watched.. and advised not to buy them... a+ in my book also have clean tank compared other lfs I've been too.