Petco uses Quality Marine, same as Liveaquaria

bruno3047 · Jul 11, 2022

I placed an order last night with Petco for a pair of baby Ocellaris Clownfish and a Green Chromis. Just received shipping notification from UPS and they identify Quality Marine as the shipper. I suspect the Clownfish may be coming from right here in Florida from ORA. I know that there are two boxes on the way. Probably one from California and one from Florida. We’ll see when they update the information.

tbrown · Jul 11, 2022

Petco used to order directly from LiveAquaria. They probably switched to direct from Quality when LiveAquaria started raising their prices.

Gtinnel · Jul 11, 2022

tbrown3589 said:
Petco used to order directly from LiveAquaria. They probably switched to direct from Quality when LiveAquaria started raising their prices.

I believe PetCo used to own Live Aquaria, but then sold them off several years ago.

tbrown · Jul 11, 2022

Gtinnel said:
I believe PetCo used to own Live Aquaria, but then sold them off several years ago.

That makes sense.

bruno3047 · Jul 11, 2022

Gtinnel said:
I believe PetCo used to own Live Aquaria, but then sold them off several years ago.

They sold it back to the people DFS bought it from. The founders and original owners. That’s who owns it now.

angelsandtangs · Jul 11, 2022

bruno3047 said:
They sold it back to the people they bought it from. The founders and original owners. That’s who owns it now.

It’s back to Foster and Smith owners ?

bruno3047 · Jul 11, 2022

angelsandtangs said:
It’s back to Foster and Smith owners ?

I don’t believe Foster and Smith were the founders and original owners. I believe they bought the operation from the founders and then Petco bought it with Foster and Smith. Now it’s been sold back to the founders and original owners. That’s my understanding. I corrected my previous post. Foster and Smith doesn’t exist anymore. They were merged and absorbed 100% into Petco. Liveaquaria was always maintained as a separate and distinct operation.

Reefahholic · Jul 11, 2022

bruno3047 said:
I placed an order last night with Petco for a pair of baby Ocellaris Clownfish and a Green Chromis. Just received shipping notification from UPS and they identify Quality Marine as the shipper. I suspect the Clownfish may be coming from right here in Florida from ORA. I know that there are two boxes on the way. Probably one from California and one from Florida. We’ll see when they update the information.

Petco uses multiple big players in the game. I have a magnet store right by me. I see boxes from everybody.

bruno3047 · Jul 11, 2022

Reefahholic said:
Petco uses multiple big players in the game. I have a magnet store right by me. I see boxes from everybody.

That’s probably true for the stores. But I believe that all the online purchases are done through Quality Marine

TastesLikeChicken · Jul 11, 2022

Is Quality Marine a good wholesaler?

bruno3047 · Jul 11, 2022

TastesLikeChicken said:
Is Quality Marine a good wholesaler?

I’ve never had a problem with them. Never any diseases of any kind. The only wholesaler whose fish I don’t feel are necessary to quarantine.

bruno3047 · Jul 11, 2022

When you’re a big operation like Quality Marine, you can’t afford to be selling diseased fish. That’s how you lose customers, because your customers lose money on dead fish. I trust Quality Marine livestock before any LFS livestock. It’s just a fact of life that your LFS can’t afford the upkeep necessary to keep their tanks free of pathogens.

Gtinnel · Jul 11, 2022

bruno3047 said:
They sold it back to the people they bought it from. The founders and original owners. That’s who owns it now.

I didn’t know that it was back to the original owners.
I wouldn’t hesitate to order fish from PetCo online. I would quarantine them still, but I quarantine all fish that I get. From everything I’ve heard their fish are just as healthy, cheaper than most lfs or online retailers, and are guaranteed to survive for longer than any other vendor that I know of.

Gtinnel · Jul 11, 2022

IMO PetCo just gets a bad reputation because the fish department in some of their stores are poorly ran.

Reefing102 · Jul 11, 2022

A plus, is based on their online policy, they have a 7 day gurantee on aquatic livestock. I didn’t see a saltwater exception to the rule either

Brian W · Jul 11, 2022

Gtinnel said:
I didn’t know that it was back to the original owners.
I wouldn’t hesitate to order fish from PetCo online. I would quarantine them still, but I quarantine all fish that I get. From everything I’ve heard their fish are just as healthy, cheaper than most lfs or online retailers, and are guaranteed to survive for longer than any other vendor that I know of.

I bought a couple clownfish from Petco in the spring and they said they couldn't give me a guarantee since they were saltwater fish... Now I know for next time I go.

TCoach · Jul 11, 2022

My local Petco uses Sunpet and Quality Marine. Most fish seem to come from Sunpet with Quality to fill in the gaps. I’ve learned Tuesday nights are Sun and Thurs are Quality. Been good to learn since I’ve been able to buy a couple of animals still in the vendor bags!

Gtinnel · Jul 11, 2022

Jimmy Lee said:
I bought a couple clownfish from Petco in the spring and they said they couldn't give me a guarantee since they were saltwater fish... Now I know for next time I go.

I don’t believe there is any guarantee from in store but online they have a week. Not too long ago they used to guarantee them for 30 days.

Edit- sorry I missed the post where someone already stated they’re guaranteed for 7 days.

Reefing102 · Jul 11, 2022

Jimmy Lee said:
I bought a couple clownfish from Petco in the spring and they said they couldn't give me a guarantee since they were saltwater fish... Now I know for next time I go.

Yea, in store I’m always told no guarantee but online has the 7 day guarantee.