My letter to Petco

[vaindioux]

Hi

I hope Petco's upper management is not reading this, they might run a special with a betta and an African clawed frog in the same little tiny bowl.

Patrick

 

[Emi929]

Oh yes, they have kits that say "grow your own frog" and they are ACF's and it is a 1gal and on the back it says feed twice a week, change water only 4 times a year!! Great deal, right -____-'

 

[Morgie]

I love ACFs, and this makes me so sad.
But I can give full testimony that they get ENORMOUS. And they live for a really long time if you keep them properly fed. (If not they'll just eat all the fish in your tank)
My largest, longest living, and last ACF grew to probably six or seven inches long and lived for about 5-6 years. She was a fish eater, big time. IMO they should be kept in single species tanks or with fish wayy too big for them to eat.. which requires a really large tank.
Love the "little" guys, but pet stores do them no justice. :< I actually haven't seen any for sale lately, but I always check to make sure the ADFs are REALLY ADFs and not ACF. My first ACF was bought as an ADF, because I was three and didn't know any better.

 

[bdawg13]

It always saddens me to see Pet Stores leaving there fish and tanks in such bad conditions. My local Petsmart is good exept there betta section saddens me also, And most of there employees have no idea what there talking about. Also, Walmarts fish section makes me sick.

 

[George9]

I hate PETCO, Pet Smart treats their fish a little better though.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

I hate PETCO, Pet Smart treats their fish a little better though.

Sigh. No they don't. They're very similar overall, it's a total crapshoot. I can go two different directions and find both a pitiful and wonderful example of each.

 

[Marconis]

Solution is simple: Stop supporting huge chain stores for anything but dry goods, and use an LFS for livestock. I don't even look at the fish anymore when I go into Petsmart. I walk straight to the equipment aisle, get what I need to get, and walk out.

Nice letter.

 

[subliminalanarchy]

I've worked at both. Petsmart gave over 100 hours a week to their aquatics section. Petco gives closer to 30.

edit: I'm not saying this is uniform throughout both corporations; alot of it depends on the individual store.

 

[Marconis]

I've worked at both. Petsmart gave over 100 hours a week to their aquatics section. Petco gives closer to 30.

It will vary from store to store. You can walk into a Petsmart in one town and find horrible selection, and walk into it in another town and find a great selection with well-maintained tanks. It all depends on managerial staff and the employees.

 

[Marconis]

Sigh. No they don't. They're very similar overall, it's a total crapshoot. I can go two different directions and find both a pitiful and wonderful example of each.

Quoted for truth.

 

[Homedog98]

Solution is simple: Stop supporting huge chain stores for anything but dry goods, and use an LFS for livestock. I don't even look at the fish anymore when I go into Petsmart. I walk straight to the equipment aisle, get what I need to get, and walk out.

Nice letter.

I want to, but I don't have a LFS for livestock, so I depend on the chains, I just qt my fish.

 

[heyz0os]

Petco workers were pretty funny and unprofessional the last time i went when I was getting equipment for my tank. I was looking in the saltwater fish aisle and the Guy who works in the fish department asked

"Need any assistance? Ill answer any question"

I asked

"Do you have any RO filters?"

To which he responded

"...what's that?"

I explained and he just followed my explanation by telling me if its not in the aisle I was already looking in, then they don't have it and left.

 

[Marconis]

Poor guy.

 

[andreahp]

Once I was at petland because petco was out of ghost shrimp and I knew petland always has them. Anyways, there was a young couple next to me and I heard them tell the employee about their 5 gal. Tank with a betta. I was happy to hear it wasnt a .5 gal, but what I heard next shocked me enough to speak up. The woman asked for a companion for the betta, and started looking at the ACF's. The employee said it would work great in the tank!!!!! I was literally shocked! The employee left to get a net and I quickly went up to the couple. I told them that ACF's get as big as your hand/fist, and are SEVERALLY aggressive. I told them to get with an ADF and talk to the employee. I them walked over to him and saw him sell a person a 2 gal. With a baby calico goldfish! He said it would get 1 inch big, I intervened and said, "no they don't, they can get 6 inches or longer, they need a 30 gal. The employee was pissed because I stopped 2 horrible sales in one day.

Good you had the nerve to say something. The employees don't work on commission do they? I would think the only reason an employee will get annoyed is that you're "showing them up" with your own knowledge, not because you nixed a sale. I know at my local Petsmart, I also spend a lot of time looking into the tanks to make sure they all look OK - the employees just think you're trying to decide what to pick.

 

[Homedog98]

Hey I do that too!

 

[heyz0os]

It always saddens me to see Pet Stores leaving there fish and tanks in such bad conditions. My local Petsmart is good exept there betta section saddens me also, And most of there employees have no idea what there talking about. Also, Walmarts fish section makes me sick.

It bummed me out that in their fish tanks they have dragons freaking out and swimming on top of each other and that they don't have any sand or pebbles. They just have a PICTURE of rocks and it saddened me because some of the livestock was trying to pick up the "rocks"

 

[Marconis]

It bummed me out that in their fish tanks they have dragons freaking out and swimming on top of each other and that they don't have any sand or pebbles. They just have a PICTURE of rocks and it saddened me because some of the livestock was trying to pick up the "rocks"

I don't know about most people's LFS, but for some reason I've noticed that marine livestock tend to be housed in tanks with zero decorations, and just a black background. To me, it makes them more tempting to buy since their coloration pops like crazy against the background. I've also noticed that a lot of marine fish are housed in groups no more than 2 in a tank...perhaps because they don't sell as often? Like I said, though, I'm not sure what it's like at different LFS. My two current ones have marine fish the same way...only the inverts are in an established reef tank.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

I don't keep marine fish yet, but don't marine fish tend to hide more? That might make selling them difficult if you did decor the tank.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

I don't keep marine fish yet, but don't marine fish tend to hide more? That might make selling them difficult if you did decor the tank.

Although saying that, I guess it depends on wild caught versus farmed.

 

[siva]

I bought a tank and marine salt at petco and the guy said "oh you're doing a salt tank huh" I said "no, brackish actually"....He said "um, ok, whatever." It's that desire to learn more that I love so much LOL