Shout out to my local Petsmart

[Karen00]

I never thought I would be doing a shout out to PetSmart for fish sales but here I am. I setup a pond this and for most of the summer it's been running with plants and rocks (and a pump of course). Being a fish gal the pond felt sterile so of course the next logical step was to add some goldfish. One of the PetSmarts I frequent for dry goods had some Shebunkins and Ryunkins so I made my way over to get a few. When I pointed out the ones I wanted she asked where I was going to keep them. I said an 800 gallon pond and she replied "good, long gone are the days where they're kept in bowls." She went on to say she wouldn't have sold them to me if they weren't going to be kept properly. I don't know if this is a new PetSmart policy or whether it's the knowledge and conscious this girl has but kudos to her. The fish came first and the sale came second. I told her how impressed I was! I felt this deserved some recognition.

 

[Rmckoy]

I never thought I would be doing a shout out to PetSmart for fish sales but here I am. I setup a pond this and for most of the summer it's been running with plants and rocks (and a pump of course). Being a fish gal the pond felt sterile so of course the next logical step was to add some goldfish. One of the PetSmarts I frequent for dry goods had some Shebunkins and Ryunkins so I made my way over to get a few. When I pointed out the ones I wanted she asked where I was going to keep them. I said an 800 gallon pond and she replied "good, long gone are the days where they're kept in bowls." She went on to say she wouldn't have sold them to me if they weren't going to be kept properly. I don't know if this is a new PetSmart policy or whether it's the knowledge and conscious this girl has but kudos to her. The fish came first and the sale came second. I told her how impressed I was! I felt this deserved some recognition.

There isn’t many of those types of stores left .
Is it wrong to ask what pet smart location ?
I’ve visited a few but never looked at their fish dept .
Every visit has always been for the dog

 

[Onewolf]

How deep is your pond? Do fish spend the winter in the pond? Do you have Herons in the area? Herons love fish ponds.

 

[Karen00]

There isn’t many of those types of stores left .
Is it wrong to ask what pet smart location ?
I’ve visited a few but never looked at their fish dept .
Every visit has always been for the dog

My visits have always been for my dogs as well and hardware for my freshwater tanks. I've always stayed away from livestock. I was having a hard time finding pond fish although I guess any goldfish would probably be OK. I was surprised to see PetSmart carries the ones I was looking for. Very cool patterns (calico) with fantails and they were healthy! Actually all the fish looked healthy. The PetSmart is in Burlington on Brant Street. I was super impressed with the gal managing the fish area!!

 

[Karen00]

How deep is your pond? Do fish spend the winter in the pond? Do you have Herons in the area? Herons love fish ponds.

My pond is about 3' feet deep. I spoke with a couple people with ponds like mine and supposedly they will be fine over winter with a de-icer to keep a hole open and a simple air pump to keep the water moving. Given this will be my first winter with them I was thinking of leaving two in for the winter and bringing the others inside but the people assured me they would be fine and they live near me so they have the experience. Supposedly the fish hibernate. They go to the bottom and stay there the winter. You don't feed them or anything. I haven't had a heron yet but what's that saying... "Build it and they will come." Haha. One of the gals I spoke with who lives not too far from me actually got a heron to her pond in previous years but hers is massive. It's like a small lake (my dream pond). I have to watch for raccoons!! Haha.

 

[Tired]

I feel bad for fancy goldfish. The poor things are all scrunched up- it's like their whole body is a pug's face. That can't be good for them. They can't escape predators, they can barely swim, and I can't imagine they're comfortable. And then there's the ones with the bubble eyes, or with the lumpy thing on their head that can eventually impede their vision. Doesn't seem like an ethical thing to breed. And it's spreading- "balloon belly" fish are more and more common. I've even seen balloon belly rainbowfish. Rainbowfish, for those unaware, are a very active, fast-moving fish. Making them scrunched up and distorted seems especially cruel, and they don't even look better that way, struggling to move.

Birds don't like shiny things moving in the wind. Hanging CDs on strings so they spin in the wind will keep birds away from places. I don't know if it works with herons, but it might. Floating plants and solid cover will help the fish hide.

White cloud mountain minnows are often sold at pet stores, and are a coldwater fish. You'll want to look up if they can be kept in ponds, but I'd bet they can. Flagfish are unusual to see for sale, but are pretty, and definitely do well in ponds. Or you could catch a couple sunfish from a local pond, by whatever means is legal. Longear sunfish males have really pretty colors when they're in breeding season. They're territorial, but 800 gallons should be plenty of room.

 

[Rmckoy]

My previous job I worked for a pool manufacturer .
I built a custom shaped pool as he wanted to leave the fish out for the winter .
It was 5’ deep . And a odd L shape

the only equipment needed was some device to keep a hole open through the ice .
I actually bought the 75 gal as
My first tank years and years ago lol

 

[Frostblitz20]

Sadly my local petsmart has Cyano in every tank.. they dont clean their tanks and they put no compatable fish together in tanks as i saw a a tank getting attacked by another tang right in front of me in a small 30 gallon holding tank...

the coral tank they have the AI hydra so far up its not even lighting the tank so every coral they get is pretty much dead in the first day. makes me wonder how much money petco would save in the long run if they properly took care of their corals/fish instead of losing more then half the livestock..

i did however save my scooter goby,green clown fish and my cardinal from petco both are doing well and been living past 5 months so far.

 

[Tired]

The trouble with "saving" fish from Petco (Petsmart doesn't sell saltwater) is that it only encourages them to buy more of those animals they can't keep alive. Same for sad bettas in cups, and any other miserable animal at a pet store. They profit off of people buying the animals out of pity, and of people buying supplies for said animals there. I've stopped going to Petco- too many animals in their sale enclosures that are probably going to die of ill treatment at the store or shortly after. Petsmart is a little better.

 

[Karen00]

I feel bad for fancy goldfish. The poor things are all scrunched up- it's like their whole body is a pug's face. That can't be good for them. They can't escape predators, they can barely swim, and I can't imagine they're comfortable. And then there's the ones with the bubble eyes, or with the lumpy thing on their head that can eventually impede their vision. Doesn't seem like an ethical thing to breed. And it's spreading- "balloon belly" fish are more and more common. I've even seen balloon belly rainbowfish. Rainbowfish, for those unaware, are a very active, fast-moving fish. Making them scrunched up and distorted seems especially cruel, and they don't even look better that way, struggling to move.

Birds don't like shiny things moving in the wind. Hanging CDs on strings so they spin in the wind will keep birds away from places. I don't know if it works with herons, but it might. Floating plants and solid cover will help the fish hide.

White cloud mountain minnows are often sold at pet stores, and are a coldwater fish. You'll want to look up if they can be kept in ponds, but I'd bet they can. Flagfish are unusual to see for sale, but are pretty, and definitely do well in ponds. Or you could catch a couple sunfish from a local pond, by whatever means is legal. Longear sunfish males have really pretty colors when they're in breeding season. They're territorial, but 800 gallons should be plenty of room.

Thanks for the great stocking suggestions. Ironically I have white clouds in my coldwater aquarium bit didn't think of them for my pond. I love the white clouds so will pick some of those up! I haven't heard of the other fish so will definitely I will check them out! I totally agree with you on the nasty breeding that's going on with animals. They're breeding for extremes with no consideration for how it's impacting the animal's health and quality of life. It doesn't matter the type of animal... Dogs, cats, fish, birds, etc. It's atrocious! I wish it could be made illegal! :-(

 

[Tired]

It could actually be made illegal. Ban the sale of animals with severe deformities. Suddenly the bottom drops out of the market. Someone would have to sit down and figure out where to draw the line as to what can and can't be sold, but it should certainly be doable. More than X% of a dog's skull length must be its muzzle, Scottish folds (the cute folded ears are caused by a cartilage defect that's also in the rest of the body and causes severe early arthritis) are no longer allowed to be sold, birds must be able to see clearly without feathers in their way, that sort of thing.
Also, ban declawing (it removes the first bone in each toe- cruel, and tends to cause chronic pain and resulting behavioral problems) and tail docking/ear cropping (has no purpose past aesthetics, except in extremely rare cases where an animal repeatedly injures its tail- cases so rare it's not worth cutting off all the tails just in case). And ban the sale of any tank under 5 gallons sold as a "fish tank". Maybe start applying basic animal welfare laws to fish. And to hamsters, birds, and so on.

You should definitely look up what sunfish species are in the area. With proper quarantine, they can make nice aquarium/pond inhabitants. And it's neat to catch a baby one and see it grow into an adult.

 

[Karen00]

The trouble with "saving" fish from Petco (Petsmart doesn't sell saltwater) is that it only encourages them to buy more of those animals they can't keep alive. Same for sad bettas in cups, and any other miserable animal at a pet store. They profit off of people buying the animals out of pity, and of people buying supplies for said animals there. I've stopped going to Petco- too many animals in their sale enclosures that are probably going to die of ill treatment at the store or shortly after. Petsmart is a little better.

Absolutely agree!! We don't have Petco in Canada, at least not Ontario, just PetSmart. I wouldn't have considered buying from them but I couldn't find anyone else with pond fish other than Koi. Having said that I appreciate it when there is a person with knowledge and understanding of the animals under their care because that means they will be looked after and hopefully consider the animal's welfare before the sale). It's rare in stores like this to have people like that). Had the fish looked sick and unkept I would've said something about that and definitely would not have purchased them. The fish in this store are lucky to have her!! I guess I should rephrase my title to "Shoutout to the gal working at my local PetSmart".

 

[Tired]

Yeah, the good employees are definitely a good thing, but the mistreatment from these chains is all the way at the top. I've been to a Petco where they had tiny baby dart frogs, and small crickets hopping around the (bare) enclosure. Not only is that stressful for the frogs and possibly dangerous, they can't eat crickets that size. I pointed it out to the employees, and they said they hadn't gotten any information on how to care for the frogs, or any fruit flies to feed them with. Petco sells fruit flies! But they hadn't included any in this shipment. And they sell things like a half-gallon aquarium you can split into 3 compartments for 3 bettas. I'm not giving my money to that company.

You could check out online sellers for something more unusual. You can also buy feeder goldfish for a pond. Quarantine thoroughly, the poor things aren't treated well at all, but those are common goldfish.

Mildly interesting fact: the keeping of goldfish in bowls resulted from a misunderstanding. The people who first domesticated goldfish kept them in ponds, but would sometimes catch them and put them in bowls for parties. The goldfish would stay in the bowl for a few hours to be enjoyed up close, then go into the ponds. People from other places saw those bowls, thought that's how the goldfish lived, and it's stuck ever since. Partly because pop culture keeps encouraging it.

 

[Karen00]

Sadly my local petsmart has Cyano in every tank.. they dont clean their tanks and they put no compatable fish together in tanks as i saw a a tank getting attacked by another tang right in front of me in a small 30 gallon holding tank...

the coral tank they have the AI hydra so far up its not even lighting the tank so every coral they get is pretty much dead in the first day. makes me wonder how much money petco would save in the long run if they properly took care of their corals/fish instead of losing more then half the livestock..

i did however save my scooter goby,green clown fish and my cardinal from petco both are doing well and been living past 5 months so far.

Ya, hearing these stories makes me sad, sick and angry at the same time (who would've thought that was possible?!). Those stores need to have their livestock section shut down permanently! Dry goods and hardware only for those stores. It's hard not to rescue livestock from these horrendous conditions. I know it's best not to buy from them but at the same time I'm sure most of the members on this site want to rescue them from such appalling conditions so I totally understand your rescue effort and the goby, clownfish and cardinal are lucky you found them!!

 

[Karen00]

Yeah, the good employees are definitely a good thing, but the mistreatment from these chains is all the way at the top. I've been to a Petco where they had tiny baby dart frogs, and small crickets hopping around the (bare) enclosure. Not only is that stressful for the frogs and possibly dangerous, they can't eat crickets that size. I pointed it out to the employees, and they said they hadn't gotten any information on how to care for the frogs, or any fruit flies to feed them with. Petco sells fruit flies! But they hadn't included any in this shipment. And they sell things like a half-gallon aquarium you can split into 3 compartments for 3 bettas. I'm not giving my money to that company.

You could check out online sellers for something more unusual. You can also buy feeder goldfish for a pond. Quarantine thoroughly, the poor things aren't treated well at all, but those are common goldfish.

Mildly interesting fact: the keeping of goldfish in bowls resulted from a misunderstanding. The people who first domesticated goldfish kept them in ponds, but would sometimes catch them and put them in bowls for parties. The goldfish would stay in the bowl for a few hours to be enjoyed up close, then go into the ponds. People from other places saw those bowls, thought that's how the goldfish lived, and it's stuck ever since. Partly because pop culture keeps encouraging it.

I wish all of these places would be forced to shut down their livestock sections. Having said that I feel for the people that only have PetSmart or Petco for livestock (other than doing online). I'm lucky that Toronto has an abundance of specialty stores whether it's saltwater, freshwater or both. Not everyone is so lucky.

Ironically I checked out online sellers and most just had Koi at crazy prices. Added to that I was concerned about shipping them. The horror stories I've heard on here from members has really scared me from doing any shipping. :-( I didn't think about the common goldfish. Thanks for that suggestion (I'm sure they can use rescuing). I can see the fish I got are loving their new home. I swear I can see them smiling when I feed them then they dart off into the wilds of my pond!! Haha.

That is fascinating about the goldfish in a bowl story!! Totally makes sense. I admit as a child I had the black bubbly eyed guys in a bowl (I still feel horrendous guilt over that)!! We're making some progress in Ontario. Pet stores in Ontario can no longer sell cats/dogs in their stores. They're allowed to have rescue agencies bring them in. They stay for the day (or maybe a couple days) then go back to their foster families if no one buys them. It's up to the rescue agencies to take care of them while they are at the store. I don't think I have seen any dogs yet which is interesting just cats but I have only seen this at PetSmart.

 

[anthonygf]

I think when your goldfish get big they will eat the minnows, after all, minnows are bait fish.

 

[Tired]

Goldfish are largely herbivorous, mostly eating worms and algae. It's pretty unusual to find one that will try to eat live fish. Like how tangs won't try to eat saltwater-acclimated guppies. Their mouths aren't set up for it.

You can also check Craigslist for goldfish that someone doesn't want any more. They'll likely be stunted and may not live as long, but at least you can try for a good habitat for the rest of their lifespan.

 

[Karen00]

It could actually be made illegal. Ban the sale of animals with severe deformities. Suddenly the bottom drops out of the market. Someone would have to sit down and figure out where to draw the line as to what can and can't be sold, but it should certainly be doable. More than X% of a dog's skull length must be its muzzle, Scottish folds (the cute folded ears are caused by a cartilage defect that's also in the rest of the body and causes severe early arthritis) are no longer allowed to be sold, birds must be able to see clearly without feathers in their way, that sort of thing.
Also, ban declawing (it removes the first bone in each toe- cruel, and tends to cause chronic pain and resulting behavioral problems) and tail docking/ear cropping (has no purpose past aesthetics, except in extremely rare cases where an animal repeatedly injures its tail- cases so rare it's not worth cutting off all the tails just in case). And ban the sale of any tank under 5 gallons sold as a "fish tank". Maybe start applying basic animal welfare laws to fish. And to hamsters, birds, and so on.

You should definitely look up what sunfish species are in the area. With proper quarantine, they can make nice aquarium/pond inhabitants. And it's neat to catch a baby one and see it grow into an adult.

I agree about the laws you mentioned. I guess we're making progress in Canada. Most of the country bans declawing and docking of tails. It's amazing to see a Yorkie with a full tail. Beautiful!! I thought I read somewhere that docking was for the benefit of the dog. Of course most of them were working dogs and supposedly tail injuries were rampant (especially for the dogs going down holes after creatures). If that's true then obviously it served a purpose but let's face it, 90% of dogs aren't working dogs so no need for docking. I can't even imagine the pain a cat goes through recovering from declawing surgery. It would be like pulling out our nails. :-(

 

[Karen00]

I think when your goldfish get big they will eat the minnows, after all, minnows are bait fish.

Oh geez good point!! I didn't even think about that. Crikey! If I had thought about the minnows first I probably would've gone with them and not the goldfish. I'm concerned about my guys outgrowing my pond.

 

[Karen00]

My previous job I worked for a pool manufacturer .
I built a custom shaped pool as he wanted to leave the fish out for the winter .
It was 5’ deep . And a odd L shape

the only equipment needed was some device to keep a hole open through the ice .
I actually bought the 75 gal as
My first tank years and years ago lol

Ya, that's what everyone has been telling me, just a de-icer. I've seen them but I'm concerned about the lack of circulation. The only thing I can think is that because the fish are hibernating they don't need circulation, just gas exchange at the surface. I guess I have to trust in the people who have done this successfully. That's interesting about the L-shaped pond. Was that because of the space available? Gee, 75g as your first tank! You did a lot better than me. I had a horrible bowl for goldfish. Oh the guilt I still feel! :-S