Petco rescue....hate that place.

[Akey]

I hate that I just brought what I thought was an Orchid Dottyback, yet now I know is a Purple Pseudochromis. I wish I could get a refund on the difference.

 

[Big G]

Welcome to R2R! Don't you just love Petco

 

[Jesterrace]

In my small town, there were 2 freshwater and one salt aquarium shops that all closed within a couple of years of Petco opening. Petco just ate away at their profit margins, according to the LFS owners. So now if I want to visit a LFS, I have to drive 135 miles. Argh!

Thankfully in my area, my LFS' prices are generally more competitive than Petco and I see people at my Petco looking at fish, but I have never seen anyone buy Saltwater fish from there (mostly supplies and other pets). My LFS in the area all appear to be doing well and making plenty of sales on the other hand. Then again when you see higher prices, fish with faded colors, fin rot, covered in ich, etc. then it isn't much of a contest when even a novice can see how bad they are. It also probably doesn't help that Petco's live rock is literally more bristleworm than rock.

 

[Akey]

Welcome to R2R! Don't you just love Petco

as much as . Hemorrhoids

 

[mattzang]

i actually spoke to the girl that runs the fish tanks at my local petco, she seemed really nice and she wanted to try hard. i think she sort of knew what she was doing, but was probably more into freshwater. i wonder if anyone could really keep that system clean, it's all tied together and i'm sure there's no quarantine or medications going on. they have the tie in to ORA and it's too bad they don't just limit themselves to those fish and corals, one would think that'd keep their tanks cleaner.

that said, last time i was at the most popular lfs in my area it was a mess of beat up and dying fish every other tank too, so maybe petco isn't doing so bad.

 

[PirateDan]

If people stop buying they will stop selling.

 

[samnaz]

If people stop buying they will stop selling.

It's really that simple.

I understand it's in our nature (usually) to want to help save the suffering. Thing is, Petco doesn't care why you bought it - money is money.

Rescuing fish/coral/any animal from Petco validates their deplorable husbandry practices and contributes to the suffering of future Petco animals. It gives them a reason to replace the "rescued" fish you bought with another one, and it will suffer too, until someone saves it and it's replaced with another, and another... It's a never ending cycle. What about those fish?

 

[jrill]

Our Petco is not too bad. Most lfs I have been in are much worse than most Petcos I've seen.

 

[Akey]

Thankfully in my area, my LFS' prices are generally more competitive than Petco and I see people at my Petco looking at fish, but I have never seen anyone buy Saltwater fish from there (mostly supplies and other pets). My LFS in the area all appear to be doing well and making plenty of sales on the other hand. Then again when you see higher prices, fish with faded colors, fin rot, covered in ich, etc. then it isn't much of a contest when even a novice can see how bad they are. It also probably doesn't help that Petco's live rock is literally more bristleworm than rock.

I agree, and never bought live rock from there. I also have learned to not take children there as well. Thanks to the Orchid lesson.

 

[Big G]

It's really too bad that Petco doesn't stand up and be a model for the industry in caring for fish. In my small town, the Petco put all of the other LFS out of business. They had a very fine young man working there for several years that was a student working on a degree in biology that was a long time fish tank kinda guy. Once he graduated and left the place's fish care quality collapsed. Too bad they can't team up with local community colleges/universities to employ students working in the sciences to oversee their fish departments. It would be a win win on so many levels.

 

[Crested]

As someone who works at a Petco, I must say that it really depends on management. I see stores with terrible aquatics departments and it makes me feel ashamed to say I work at the same company. However, I am extremely proud of the Petco I work at. We have amazing managers that actually put animals first, and aquatic specialists that really know what they're doing and have dozens of years of experience combined. Corporate really restricts a lot of what we do and equipment we have (although it is getting better as many of you may have noticed that Petco has new lights that can actually grow coral in the frag tank). During training and store meetings, we are told that corporate wants us all to be the leading experts in the pet industry, which can be really difficult when most of the time the higher-ups are the ones that give the impression that they don't care. I just hope things continue to improve and the poorer stores employ people that have a passion for the hobby