Not cool

[rstrann]

I'm like the underground railroad for a Petco in my area. One of the managers gives me big fish (dog face puffers, butterfly's, tangs) that are near death. She's not supposed to, it's against policy, but she's got a soft heart for these fish but can't keep anyone in the dept long enough to keep it in great shape. I take em home, get them feeling better, then go trade them into a LFS for credit so I can buy more coral and supplements lol.

 

[Big G]

What's odd about the whole situation is that in many Petco's, they have the saltwater tanks located directly in line with the entrance to the store. It's one of the first things you see when walking through the doors. It kinda pulls you into walking all way to the far side of the store. Eye candy? Advertising expense/display for those not in-the-know? If so, they are sacrificing those fish each and everyday, just to draw people into their stores.

 

[C_Watkins]

<shrugs> I guess it depends on where y0u go. I've got no complaints on the couple I visit occasionally in my area.
I have a couple LFS I normally visit, instead, but I make the rounds. I've picked up a couple fish at Petco too. Firefish, Clowns, couple gobies. Not a single issue.
Now, every fish store has dead fish to deal with on occasion. Some of them are just quicker at catching/cleaning than others.

Yes, I know there are some truly bad chain stores out there. Just thankful the ones I've visited don't appear to be that way.

 

[Bmezz]

What's odd about the whole situation is that in many Petco's, they have the saltwater tanks located directly in line with the entrance to the store. It's one of the first things you see when walking through the doors. It kinda pulls you into walking all way to the far side of the store. Eye candy? Advertising expense/display for those not in-the-know? If so, they are sacrificing those fish each and everyday, just to draw people into their stores.

Bad management for sure..

 

[Bmezz]

I'm like the underground railroad for a Petco in my area. One of the managers gives me big fish (dog face puffers, butterfly's, tangs) that are near death. She's not supposed to, it's against policy, but she's got a soft heart for these fish but can't keep anyone in the dept long enough to keep it in great shape. I take em home, get them feeling better, then go trade them into a LFS for credit so I can buy more coral and supplements lol.

Florence Nightingale of Fish;-)

 

[S.O.MLemos]

Oh I’m not bashing all petco’s just my local one. As a matter of fact other than my spotted mandarin, rainford goby and bubble tips all my fish&inverts came from a petco just north of me and I won’t mention the insane deals I’ve got with a little sweet talking(like my 20$ pearl jawfish)but my local one has always been horrible and it’s only been around for like 6 years. Guess that’s the outcome of the high school drop out dog trainer also being in charge of the fish department lol

 

[Reefing-Around]

Local stores in central PA have similar horror stories as well. Hit and miss some times but I must admit that a have rescued a couple fish that I have nursed back to health.. Still going strong after over a year... Couldn't bear to leave them behind..... I really think it depends on who they have working at the time. Unfortunately they probably don't offer big bucks to work there and most employees probably don't have a vested interest.

 

[Rich1987]

Absolutely depends on who is running it. I have a Reefer 750 completely stocked with 15-18 fish and tons of corals all softies and LPS/ZOA’s... every thing is my tank if from my local Petco while I’ll agree most are not in good shape, I’m lucky enough to have a diamond in the rough. Healthy fish and inverts well stocked and a nice sized drag tank!!!! I’m in NJ, don’t know about the rest of everyone on here though

 

[Fr0stguard]

It's interesting how each petco's marine section varies in quality based off who works in it. My local one has a guy who's been keeping reef tanks for 15 years and all of their fish are healthy, drip acclimated and they stock quite expensive fish like purple tangs, lightning maroon, etc... even saw a flame fairy wrasse there once

 

[OrionN]

The Petco in Corpus Christi is pretty good. They sell good fish for fairly low price. I got both of these beauties there. I also recently got a really healthy Purple tang (for 99.99)

 

[rstrann]

Florence Nightingale of Fish;-)

Lol! It what it feels like sometimes ;Hilarious

 

[OrionN]

They get their fishes from QM. All most all the fishes they get to their stores are in as good as a shape as any other LFS. It's all depends on the Salt Water manager. That person is to be blame if the fish are sick or dying at the store. They have good equipment's. It's all standardized. All the tanks are isolated three larger tanks (long) to a sump. The long tanks can be split to two smaller size tanks. The also have display larger tank with good light for coral and high light requirement stuff with great circulation and very nice frag rack. The Petco in Corpus Christi have SPS corals that grow into the frag rack and essentially become permanent resident of the frag tank.
If I am going to set up a LFS, I would set it up just like Petco aquarium dept. Death and poor health fish is all because of the salt water manager.

 

[Octane13]

I have two petco's in my area about 20 minutes in opposite directions. They are completely different, one has a nice selection of fish and all seem to be healthy. All of the tangs or new fish go into systems with cleaner shrimp and are usually in good health. Since I don't believe Petco has a budget for QT or treatment its the best they can do. The other store is 50/50 sick/injured fish or no selection and does not separate based on size/type of fish. I spoke with the manager who worked at both locations (very knowledgeable) and she said that both stores even though they are in the same area get fish from two different distributors. I have been to a number of LFS and the two stores that had sick/injured fish shared distributors with the petco that struggles. I personally purchases 2 fish which were cheaper and in better health than LFS I QT either way so no biggie.

 

[7hogwarts]

A friend of mine use to work at Petco. She is a knowledgeable reefer. She would try to get them to let her raise the salinity to at least 1.018. She was told by management that it was corporate decision how the fish are to be kept. She was written up for trying to save the fish's lives. She quit.

 

[Jerry Ebner]

They get their fishes from QM. All most all the fishes they get to their stores are in as good as a shape as any other LFS. It's all depends on the Salt Water manager. That person is to be blame if the fish are sick or dying at the store. They have good equipment's. It's all standardized. All the tanks are isolated three larger tanks (long) to a sump. The long tanks can be split to two smaller size tanks. The also have display larger tank with good light for coral and high light requirement stuff with great circulation and very nice frag rack. The Petco in Corpus Christi have SPS corals that grow into the frag rack and essentially become permanent resident of the frag tank.
If I am going to set up a LFS, I would set it up just like Petco aquarium dept. Death and poor health fish is all because of the salt water manager.

I think that saying goes for any Fish store saltwater or freshwater, If you take care they will do fine. Just it seems Petco Lets the people running the system run it into the ground. That person is in charge yes but the store itself is responsible for all sections so with that being said if you trust your local Petco then you are the lucky ones. A few in the San Antonio Tx Area I wouldn't put them in anyone's tank. In fact, one Petco doesn't even sell live fish. Asking why they tell me they just die so we don't sell them plus that area doesn't support aquatic life.

 

[Kenzie Jeanine]

A few weeks back, I got a cute little misbar clown there because they were having a sale. I brought him home, acclimated him just like I did my other fish, and he was dead within three hours. The girl at the store told me he'd been eating no problem, but it was busy so I didn't want to make her feed him while I watched. They have a no return/refund policy on saltwater so I'm out $14 (definitely could've been a lot worse) and still very upset over the loss of that sweet boy.

 

[ChadLo]

A few weeks back, I got a cute little misbar clown there because they were having a sale. I brought him home, acclimated him just like I did my other fish, and he was dead within three hours. The girl at the store told me he'd been eating no problem, but it was busy so I didn't want to make her feed him while I watched. They have a no return/refund policy on saltwater so I'm out $14 (definitely could've been a lot worse) and still very upset over the loss of that sweet boy.

Sorry for your loss. That really sucks considering how hardy they typically are. It's sad they don't even have the salinity written on the tanks or warn about the extremely low salinity (almost hypo).

 

[landlubber]

I basically look at it this way: if, as a hobbiest, I need saltwater product, livestock or advice and all I have is a big box pet store to derive these from then i should either consider online suppliers, physically drive to the next retailer that responsibly deals with these things or move on to something else. otherwise I wouldn't subject my system to anything from those stores.
realistically the argument, "I only buy my dry goods there" is shallow too. it means the consumer is still supporting the garbage store and still giving them a reason to bring in marine livestock.
be it right or wrong this is just my opinion.

 

[Jerry Ebner]

A few weeks back, I got a cute little misbar clown there because they were having a sale. I brought him home, acclimated him just like I did my other fish, and he was dead within three hours. The girl at the store told me he'd been eating no problem, but it was busy so I didn't want to make her feed him while I watched. They have a no return/refund policy on saltwater so I'm out $14 (definitely could've been a lot worse) and still very upset over the loss of that sweet boy.

Quarantine your fish is a good practice if you're not already doing so . I follow a guy on youtube that had to totally restart his tank and go fishless for months becuase of not Quarantine setup. After seeing what he had to deal with everything goes in there besides inverts as they cant take copper treatment.​

 

[Forsaken77]

I feel like I'll bring ich home with me just walking into a Petco.

I have a few local to me and 2 of the 3 don't even carry saltwater fish anymore.

Remember Petland Discounts, before Petco? I worked in their national livestock distribution warehouse when I was 19, in the fish dept. because I knew about fish. They would stock 50-75 of the same species in a 20-high tank. Rows upon rows of these overloaded tanks. Every morning, the first thing I had to do was scoop out the dead fish. I literally worked there for 3 days and quit. I didn't even pick up my paycheck, I was so disgusted.

I imagine Petco has the same practices in their livestock warehouse as well. So the fish you see in the store tanks are in much better conditions from where they just came from.