LFS chain stores..ie petsmart, petco, etc

[jmoore]

Whats has been your experience with the larger corporate fish supply?
As a rookie aquarium keeper I am quite perturbed with the sever lack of quality fish, and customer service.
Every single time I go in there, I am given false information regarding fish or the upkeep of the aquarium.
Every fish I have gotten there has either died, or had a case of ich, which I of course didnt see symptoms of in the store.

Thank god I found this site, or else Id be up that one creek with no paddle in regards to upkeep.
I tried the locally owned pet supply store, and they specialize in saltwater so their freshwater selection, tanks and information arent exactly spectacular.

Is this a fairly common problem among chain stores, or is the one by my house just a bad apple?

 

[cheezysquirrelz]

Probably around your area because I made a post a while back about petsmart being bad. They said it was probably the area I live in.

 

[JeffProe]

Well, CA to GA is a pretty big area. And I think that pretty much covers the area that they are bad (anywhere in between) :? . I've gone into Petco and never seen a sales person and if I did, they couldn't answer anything about the saltwater fish they carried. unfortunately, none of the stock they carried looked particularly healthy either. Freshwater could be a different story, but I've not been in there for them either. In my limited experience of a couple years, I can't say I'd honestly recommend any of them for advice. You might use them to price shop equipment, but so far I've seen that you can get almost anything they carry for cheaper online. I guess it depends on if the price is worth the convenience. Find a your LFS and watch them for a while. Check out their stock and see if they are disease free and act "normal". Check the condition of their display tanks too. Talk to them too. I have not been in one yet that won't talk your arm off if you let them.

Just my thoughts, feel free to disagree, but that's been my experience so far.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Most stores like that..their sucess depends on management. The management's knowledge to hire knowledgable employees. People are going to give you a very good opinion here, and a very negative one also.

I can tell you from experience. I run a Wal-Mart pet department. Every person you ask, is gonna say Wal-Mart fish suck. Well, it all depends on the person who upkeeps the place and manages it.

It's hard to say something about a chain store, because each vary so much.

Every fish I have gotten there has either died, or had a case of ich, which I of course didnt see symptoms of in the store.

Ich is caused from stress as well. Not neccesarily from the pet store, but from it's transition from the aquatics dealer, to the store, to your tank. There are many things that can cause it...

And, just to add...the Petsmart in my area is awesome.

 

[Menagerie]

I have found the fish at the Petsmart in Spokane, WA to be free of disease; however, the sales staff gave me bad advice regarding which fish were compatable. Although, I have not bought fish at either Petsmarts up here, I must say that their fish look good. I cannot say the same of Petland.

As far as LFS, I have had problems with them also concerning advice and ill fish. Your best bet is to research the fish you want ahead of time and have a QT tank ready. Also knowing the store's "Stay Alive" guarantee helps.

 

[tbonem91]

my petco that I am a regular at has a lot of good employees who know ther stuff and their stock seems in pretty good condition - its hard to tell how the fish are really doing because it changes so often. I've personally had pretty good luck with the big chains.

 

[patryuji]

Of the 8 or so petcos and petsmarts around here 5 of them have atleast one knowledge employee who isn't afraid to lose a sale if it means the fish have appropriate conditions.

The fish at the big chains tend to be more stressed around here unless they are less popular fish (which tend to be in the store for a long time).

 

[blackpuddle]

The petco here has pretty healthy fish, while the petsmart doesn't. Walmart's here also arent' the greatest.

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

It really depends on the individual store. I have two petsmarts within 15 miles. One is good, the other awful. I don't know what to think of my local Petco. They have one guy who knows alot about fish, but he works the registers and they have someone who knows very little back by the tanks. If they have a tank of sick fish they don't sell them which is cool. I had another independent lfs that had been poor in the past but was getting better. Last week I went in there and some of their fish had these 1 cm parasites hanging on them 8O . They were easily noticable, but when I asked the guy about them a few days later he hadn't even seen them.

 

[tsaraber]

I haven't had much luck with the Pet Supplies Plus in my area - I've been to about 4 or 5 of them and watching the way some of them handle the fish really freaks me out. And the advice the one time (I didn't ask) I got it was bad - told me the angels I was buying were aggressive and would kill the danios I was buying at the same time. Didn't happen.

Not to mention the tanks with dead or obviously sick fish. Everyone says Wal-Mart sucks but 90% of the time their tanks look better than the PSP's tanks.

I don't have a local PetCo but I did run into this site today:
http://www.petcosucks.com/index.asp

 

[newaridiar]

It really all depends on who is in charge and if they know what they are doing. I've seen both ends of the extremes of good-bad at chain stores....more often bad than good.

The best fish store I have been to (better than either of the LFS in my college town and any other big chain store I've been to) is this one PetLand in lower-mid Manhattan (52nd St I think).

 

[SaltwaterDreams]

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Perosnally I suggest that if you DO enjoy or shop at the chains like this, then you should do your research BEFORE heading in, to eliminate the proble of running into someone with bum knowledge. Be armed and aware and it won't matter were you go.
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I agree it simply depands on the managment. I have been to petco and petsmart and found the best of the two was a petco on the other side of town form me. The one that is closest tended to have dead fish in the tanks and often several tanks on QT from ICH. The people at both places knew nothing of the hobby howver. Sadly. I don't know if it is my luck or what, but each time I have gone in, the person helping me was only a temp in the department, etc. But they all were HONEST to me about the fact they knew nothing. I mean I didn't get bum advice from some guy who was pretending he knew the fish I was looking into. Which is a good thing.

Of course to me it doesn't matter much. I don't go in there for the advice or knowledge of the worker in the department. I mean.. When I want a fish or plant I research it online first and find out all the details so I don't have to reply on whatever THEY tell me. I mean it is nice to have a guy who knows what he is doing, but I am interested in the fish or plants they sell and the condition they are in. Know what I mean?

Anyhow, I have not had any real problem with Wal-Mart, Petco, or Petsmart overall. Each store is different.

Personally however i just the other day found a store I throughly enjoy. PetWorld. They have great knowledgle people and everything you can think of for the hobby. A lot of things the listed 3 above simply don't carry. And this store is about 10x smaller.

 

[DragonChild]

I personally like the local PetLand. The head of the fish department doesn't mind if I stop in to just chat a bit about fish, or even bring in a sick fish to determine what is wrong with it. I have consistently good results, and the few fish in their tanks that die (usually right after transit) are removed promtly, so they aren't left floating about. The tanks are regularly changed, the scenery moved and rearranged and such, so I like the store.

Again, each store is different though.

 

[cheezysquirrelz]

The local walmarts are awful! Half the tanks lights are off (meaning not for sale) because of ich, parasites, tail rot, etc. There were even dead plecos! And I thought plecos were hard to kill! Petland doesnt know a thing about animals. Once I went in there and looked at reptiles and amphibians. There was a little tiny thing (like half gal size) with two poison dart frogs. I looked closer and realized that they were dead and dried out and shrively. they looked like they had been like that for days. The SW fishies all sit at the bottom with clamped fins. Im glad you guys have better experiences with walmart and petland.

 

[ploughking]

My petsmart (or now pets@home) is no good for finding info. I listen to place up at Bybrook barn, they have some spectacular fish and they keep them well. They are breeding some blue turks at the mo. The only thing I use petsmart for is for getting the fish. You guys supply the info