pet smart fish

It depends on the individual Petsmart, IMO. Look at the fish..do they look healthy? Wherever you buy fish from, quarentine them before you add them to your main tank so they don't bring in any diseases. They may have some kind of illness...like parasites or ich that's not obvious for a few days adn if you add them into your already established tank it could make all of your fish sick.

i would never buy my fish from petsmart. never. I went in there once and in nearly every tank there where ill or dying fish. But, as Nursie said, it does depend on individual ones

The big-box pet stores in my area seem to be pretty good with their fish. The staff aren't all that knowledgable at times, but at least the fish seem to be healthy and well taken care of for the most part. So sometimes I buy fish from them, but only if I can't find what I'm looking for in an aquaria specialty store. I never buy plants from Petsmart/Super Pet, though-- too many snails!

I have two Petsmart stores I frequent, one near my home and the other near my work, and their fish always look healthy. Never had problems buying from them. The one by my work has healthier plants though.

I have four different petsmart that I go to & all of them keep their tanks well maintenance. All the fish I've got from them I hav'nt had any illness or deaths. NOW PETCO is a different story.

I have purchased most of my fish from Petsmart. The ones I did get from there are either still alive or died from causes other than disease. By contrast, I did recently buy 4 fancy guppies at a specialty fish store near my house. All died within one week.

My suggestion for petstmart fish buying. Find out when the stock comes in. The fish come in to my local PetSmart on Thursday mornings so if you do stop in on Thursday night you will see the tanks packed to the gills and alot of dead fish. Just remember alot of fish do not survive the transport process to the store due to stress.

How would you like it if you were born in an overcrowded tank, raised in an overcrowded tank, then one day boxed, bagged, and shipped. Not too happy I will assume.

So what do I do when its time to get new fish, wait till friday night. If they are still alive 24 hours after being placed in the display tanks and they do not look sick, chances are the fish is pretty healthy.

Thumbs up for my local Petsmart. All the fish I have purchased there are still alive and healthy.

tha cichlid man said:

I have four different petsmart that I go to & all of them keep their tanks well maintenance. All the fish I've got from them I hav'nt had any illness or deaths. NOW PETCO is a different story.

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I agree. PetCo employees are clueless in my experience. This isn't really related to fish, but I once saw a small lobster dismembering a pair of crayfish in a PetCo tank. The Petsmart here is pretty top notch other than that they brainwash their employees into thinking that dip tests are awesome. Still, if they follow the directions in the handbook well enough, they should have mostly healthy fish.