Ethics of buying from petco?

vetteguy53081 · Sep 17, 2018

Stuff like crabs, I would not worry about from petco.
Also when you go there, do not get the guilt trip of buying another specimen to save their lives. Not worth risk to your tank. Let them take the loss(es) and realize they need to step up the game and make sales, than to lose their profits.

starypotter · Sep 17, 2018

Good to know! I'll be prepared just in case.

Walts O · Sep 18, 2018

I've had great success with petco fish and corals they get corals from ora and a&m corals and prices r fair

vetteguy53081 · Sep 18, 2018

Walts O said:
I've had great success with petco fish and corals they get corals from ora and a&m corals and prices r fair

Each store will have its own knowledge base, management and training which makes all the difference in the world. The BUM Petcos out there may have employees who care But if they are provided no sense of training, they are set up for failure

Geebs19 · Sep 18, 2018

Sadly the ones around here are pretty terrible. Makes me sad when I walk in and see the state these fish are in, sever color loss, little movement, at least 1 dead fish in the system. I wont buy from there, maybe if I could see an improvement but I just cant give them my money to keep doing the same thing.

Captain Quint · Sep 21, 2018

I agree that all Petcos are not on the same page, but in defense of many Petco employees some are highly trained and some are not. A friend of mine got a Masters in Marine Biology at about the same time I achieved my Ph.D. in Marine Biology and we had some great talks. It upset him that Petco corporate would not shell out the money for a few halides or LED's for critters requiring it and they had strict budgets on the upkeep of the Marine aquatics section.

Ultimately he left to go be the buyer for a well known LFS a friend of mine designed, (now franchised and all are identical), built and often went to California for 'cherry picks' or coral and exotic rarer fishes. This has been some time back and Petco has gotten much better since LiveAquaria has become part of the Petco family.

A couple of times a month I like do water changes with three 5g boxes of what used to be called Catalina NSW. The Petco I use is near and the staff is dedicated to the husbandry of our marine critters. In fact ~6 months ago they removed all the equipment and had a big sale on their livestock. They are starting over with all newly updated everything and hopefully, some good lighting (if not I'm donating a Radion for one tank which will contain anemones, some coral and hopefully a few clams) will be in place for coral, clams, and anemones.

When Petco sold the remaining livestock the manager called me and asked if I would like the LR from all the tanks which were about 300 pounds totaled. I took it, chemically killed due to some pests and cured it at which point I donated to several in need of some good pest free live rock.

I guess I wrote all the above just to say that perhaps I'm one of the lucky patrons with a Petco that does the best they are allowed to do, but IMHO most of the employees I've spoken with are eager to learn and do the best job possible with what corporate dictates.