I bought a fish at Petco!

[albano]

I have at least 15 Petcos all within ~ 30 miles away… I’ve adopted a few nice corals from them. For those not familiar with Petco adoptions, if a customer drops off a fish or coral to them, it is offered for free to anyone with a Petco rewards card.

 

[TuxUrchin07]

No shrimps cause I have a hawkfish that took them out but still have the basic CUC. As long as he doesn’t mess with my hermits, we’ll be gucci

Probably will

 

[Finn1018]

I have at least 15 Petcos all within ~ 30 miles away… I’ve adopted a few nice corals from them. For those not familiar with Petco adoptions, if a customer drops off a fish or coral to them, it is offered for free to anyone with a Petco rewards card.

What state are you in? That’s definitely not advertised at my Petco lol. They charge half of what they normally would if a fish is up for adoption. Will definitely have to ask next time another fish is up for adoption though. I also haven’t seen coral for adoption ever though

 

[jrill]

Of course! I believe Petco actually owns Liveaquaria as well, so they get their hands on some good things as well as bad things. I got a sixline from petco as they were almost impossible to find at the time. It’s a bad mamma jamma now lol I’ve seen a lot of bad come out of there, but every once in awhile there’s the diamond in the rough. I also bought some chromis there to cycle the tank when it started… I assumed they wouldn’t make it, but they did.

Petco sold liveaquaria some time ago

 

[Finn1018]

Probably will

Nooooo!!!! I knew when I got my hawk fish though, that it would be the end of invertebrate life for me. Kind of really going to be doubley over with the dotty... It’s like this brittle star I inherited that I expected to clean my sand, but instead only comes out during the fishies feeding time and insists to be fed carnivorous things as well :/

 

[CarleyFreeman]

I normally take my senior dog to petco just to hang out, get some free back scratches and some butt sniffs in. It’s been about a month, but we’d been seeing this one neon dottyback who was super cute and would always come to the glass to say hi. We slowly fell for it, named it, but ultimately convinced ourselves it was a bad idea and no amount of cuteness could convince me to get it. So I went around my lfs to see if anyone had one, and of course all the ones I end up looking at are super shy or aggressively chasing others throughout the tank. It wasn’t the same. So I ended up going back to Petco with my dog, and we picked up the neon dottyback. Lol.
I have since finished doing safety stop dip on him and placed him in quarantine… Fish just have a way of tantalizing you don’t they? I really looked for any excuse to back out, but the staff told me he’d been there for a few weeks, he was eating well. He looks clean. Fins all in tact, no obvious white specs or parasites on him. Can’t say it was the same for the tangs in the neighboring tank. But I did also ask the staff to feed him in front of me, and the guy was eating well, so I bit the bullet. I hope I don’t later regret my decision.
Any other happy ending Petco stories out there?

Soo Petco employee here
It allllll depends on your local store. Some are terrible, some are great. The makn problem is that we aren’t allowed to set up quarantine. So anything that comes in sick we just have to put in the tanks and hope for the best. Every fish store gets fish from a handful of vendors, the difference is that you never see the six fish on the floor at a store that’s allowed to quarantine. At my store if we get anything and that sick, we block off the input and output of that tank and put up a sign that they aren’t available.
Petco and liveaquaria split awhile back, Petco is now a publicly traded company and has no affiliation with LA. We don’t even use them as a vendor.

 

[CarleyFreeman]

They mostly get fish from Quality Marine and ORA so it's not the source, but the particular store. Whether they are able to keep them healthy before you take over or not will vary by region. I have successfully purchased and QT'd fish from Petco. The stigma is real and I swear it's mob mentality. Yes some are bad, but it's not a universal rule that somehow all the fish at Petco are sick. They came out of the same ocean, caught by the same people, flew in the same planes.

There are several other vendors also. All depends on how much work that aquatics speciakist wants to put into ordering each week.

 

[albano]

There are several other vendors also. All depends on how much work that aquatics speciakist wants to put into ordering each week.

I have been given 5 or 6 different availability lists per week from one of the local Petcos… another one has the weekly order list posted for all customers to see.

 

[CarleyFreeman]

Petco no longer owns Live Aquaria

Could be different in your area, but all the Petcos I’ve been to, have modular tank systems which is usually 3 rows of 3 tanks. Multiple modules are not connected to each other… that being said, it’s still possible for cross contamination

Thats how they all are. Each tower has a sump system. Only difference between stores is whether they have Casco, Marineland or NAP systems.

 

[CarleyFreeman]

I have at least 15 Petcos all within ~ 30 miles away… I’ve adopted a few nice corals from them. For those not familiar with Petco adoptions, if a customer drops off a fish or coral to them, it is offered for free to anyone with a Petco rewards card.

Thats at store discretion. Most will charge 1/2 retail price, at least in my district. I’m sure some DMs have diff policies.

 

[CarleyFreeman]

I have been given 5 or 6 different availability lists per week from one of the local Petcos… another one has the weekly order list posted for all customers to see.

Yep, ORA, A&M, Apet, Fishmart, Segrest, Quailty Marine, Biota, Sunpet… just to name a few.

 

[EricR]

Newbie question -- is the concern with buying from PetCo that:
(a. The fish purchased there will be unhealthy and die ...or
(b. Some kind of parasite/infection/etc will get imported into your tank?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Newbie question -- is the concern with buying from PetCo that:
(a. The fish purchased there will be unhealthy and die ...or
(b. Some kind of parasite/infection/etc will get imported into your tank?

Exactly - the bought fish gets infected, dies, and passes that infection to the rest of the tank.
Petcos have a reputation for their fish being more disease ridden and unhealthy than those of most lfs. Nothing a good qt procedure can’t handle, but for most it isn’t worth the risk, especially if one doesn’t quarantine. With petco fish often being visibly sick in the store, it is easy to see why disease transfer is such a worry.

 

[EricR]

Good to know -- just about everything in my tank is from PetCo (starting from about 4 months ago). So far everything is still alive and kicking. Wish me luck...

 

[Sharkbait19]

Good to know -- just about everything in my tank is from PetCo (starting from about 4 months ago). So far everything is still alive and kicking. Wish me luck...

Nothing wrong with it if you have a good tank and a good petco. Just always keep your eye out (and that goes for any store, not just big box ones). I would expect any disease to show up by now so you should be good (and have a qt tank ready).

 

[EricR]

Yet another newbie question -- assuming you have a clean/safe aquarium running for a long time (not sure the number but lets say a year) and you never add any additional wildlife, do you still expect some illness/parasite/whatever to eventually occur so always keep a QT (or treatment) tank running and ready to go?

*I assume all animals (people/fish/etc) get sick occasionally so then the choices are either treat it or let it work itself out -- maybe in a closed system like an aquarium, there's more concern for the whole system.

Just wondering...

 

[Goaway]

Yet another newbie question -- assuming you have a clean/safe aquarium running for a long time (not sure the number but lets say a year) and you never add any additional wildlife, do you still expect some illness/parasite/whatever to eventually occur so always keep a QT (or treatment) tank running and ready to go?

*I assume all animals (people/fish/etc) get sick occasionally so then the choices are either treat it or let it work itself out -- maybe in a closed system like an aquarium, there's more concern for the whole system.

Just wondering...

As with any illness, it circulates. Keeping a quarantine system is to keep the diseases from entering your safe haven. Adding anything new adds risk of infection.
In the wild, fish can run away from such infections. Our aquariums, they have no where else to go. They are stuck with the parasites.

Think of ich, flukes and velvet as if they were mosquitos. Now imagine going outside and getting trapped into a 8'x8'x8' foot box full of mosquitos. You are now stuck in this box the rest of your life with this infestation. You have no way to really kill them all. And you are swarmed. No where to go. How long you will live, is difficult to say.
This goes for fish with ich, but velvet kills pretty quickly. I guess millions of mosquitos can kill pretty quick as well.

While some health issues cannot be controlled. We do our best to keep our fish healthy and not have to worry about external issues. We can't prevent genetic disorders. We do our best to help them live happy.

I am not the best with words, but I hope this helps.

 

[EricR]

Makes sense -- thank you.

I don't have a separate QT system up-and-running but I do have a smaller aquarium I could use.

I guess I'm going with -- not worth it to me to keep QT running all the time but if something goes wrong, I'll just try to emergency set one up and see if I can get through it. (I'm sure experienced people on this site are cringing at this but that's where I'm at).

 

[Goaway]

It's your system, it is up to you. While no one likes to think of having parasites in their aquarium. I try to remind myself what they are going through with having those parasites.

Sometimes it's as simple as a freshwater dip to 2 week qt treatment. Sometimes you need to go the full 30 days. I can't tell you who to dip or give 14 days of treatment too. There are species who just don't fair well in quarantine tanks.

I will never quarantine a wrasse ever again. Anthias? Yes. Uronema can show up on these guys easy.