OMG I can't belive PETCO

[fish_freak]

I know I know another one of these threads. I just have to vent. I went in to petco tonight and they had about 15 yellow mollies in there MARINE tanks :devil: ! I could not belive my eyes. They looked aweful had some sort of callous looking thing on there heads and just didnt look good. Then I look down and what do I see? I tank full of little 1 inch green spotted puffers?!?! Now while I know these need full marine when they grow to 8 inches they shouldn't be in it so young. Out of the 20 thats right 20 in a little tank that they had in there about 7 where stuck to the filter and at least 4 more where laying on the bottom of the tank almost dead. The few that where moveing didnt look well. I went and found the manager who I know as I tend to frequent there once a week and told him that they really need to do something about the new fish guy because his stuff looks aweful and he obviously has no idea what he is doing puting those fish in the marine tanks. He tells me oh well they have been in there for a long time weeks and that they are all doing well. I tell him, John come on I come in here every week those fish where not in there last week. He says well there not doing bad and I say how can you say that almost all the puffers are dead and mollies should not be kept in full marine at any time and that they where looking awefull to. He didnt seem to care. I suppose I am going to have to write a letter to petco now. My store has such aweful fish lately. I am irate that they could possibly torture fish like this.

[ewurm]

You can't believe it? I expect it at Petco.

[fishcatch22]

mollies can live in full marine fine, but they need to be carefully acclimated. obvioulsy they weren't.

this is the first time this has happened?

[Ulan]

I think there is a website somewhere about black mollies in reef tanks. There they claimed that mollies can be found naturally in full saltwater and are easily adapted to live in those conditions. Can't find the link at the moment.

[dougie]

I find Petco is horrible as well. They told me I could put 3 bala sharks and more in a 29g.

[fish_freak]

Well of you saw these mollies you might not agree. They looked god awefull and they really should only be kept in light brackish but the fancy ones that we have now have been bread in fresh water for so long that its almost best just to leave them in it. Did you know that they are real a dull greenish color in the wild?

[fishcatch22]

Well of you saw these mollies you might not agree. They looked god awefull and they really should only be kept in light brackish but the fancy ones that we have now have been bread in fresh water for so long that its almost best just to leave them in it. Did you know that they are real a dull greenish color in the wild?like I said, they can live fine in full marine if acclimated carefully and slowy over a period of about 2 weeks, and that petco most likely just threw mollies that had been living in FW straight into SW, sending them into severe shock.

[littleronin]

I have only ever shopped at 2 Petcos, one in Newark, DE and the other here in the Northwest part of Las Vegas. Both have excellent fish care and were run by well knowledge people.

Petsmart on the other hand I have had nothing but trouble when it comes to fish and even fish supplies.

[WeeNe858]

yeah.. petco's corporate and the people who work there are noob.. if you do get someone who knows their stuff working there .. they end up quiting a couple months later :/.. as for the mollies.. they hang out in rivers that empty out into the sea.. thats the so called brackish water.. but they can tolerate full on saltwater.. and they're good at eating hair algea :D

[fballguy]

I expect it at Petco.

Same here. I don't know why but I keep going back every now and then hoping that they might change. But, they never do. Some people just don't get it...

[doox00]

petco here is so so, the petsmart here on the other hand is surprisingly nice.

[WeeNe858]

yeah.. i like petsmart way better than petco.. as far as livestock goes.


and petsmart had cheaper dried goods too :P

[fishlover88]

I totally expect that kind of thing from petco. I dont even go to petco anymore unless i absolutely have to, I find the closest petsmart some of them kind of know what they are doing. I was talking to a guy at petsmart who was a former employee for petco, he said that he wanted to set up a quarentine tank for sick fish, and the up and ups at petco just about had a heartattack, and told him no way. I couldnt believe it.... thats an absolute necessity when all the tanks run off the same filtration. So needless to say petco is a dirty word at my house

[Shorgasm III]

i say the petsmart beats the petco around here. but the petsmart only has your basic fish with no saltwater species.
petco on the otherhand does, but there tanks are disgusting!
all are completely covered in algea, almost every tank had a disease in it, ich, fin rot, fungus etc. they had a lionfish that was so close to the end he was just floating upside down... horrible! i would patronize that place again

[Irish563]

I called the Store Manager out on his fish at the Petco here. He blamed it on his wholesaler. (over and over.) Of course, the Petsmart here sucks too.
Im convinced that in order to find a good fish store in this town, I will have to start my own....

Irish

[coupedefleur]

Picking employees that know about care for the different animals they sell is a low priority with both places. I'm not sure what the employment questions are supposed to reveal, but a lot of them sound culturally biased.

A crappy store should not stock mollies. I suspect the reason most people buy them is that they have a people name. If everyone called them Pocelia they'd be as popular as green chromides.

[guppygirl123]

I agree. My petsmart is better than my local petco.

I was at my petco a few weeks ago, looking to buy some guppies. I walked over to the guppy tank, and it had at LEAST 20 guppy carcasses, some mangled, some covered in fungus, in the tank. The water was so nasty you couldn't see to the back of the tank. And floating at the top of the tank was what, on first glance, appeared to be a white ball of fluff. It was a guppy carcass, covered in at least an inch of fungus. It was so discusting.... And the thing is, the employees walked right past this tank as though it wasn't there. That was the last time I even looked at their fish.

[Flaringshutter]

HAH! The petsmart out here is selling Pacus. They're claiming they grow to 12 inches and are semi-aggressive tropical fish. I asked one of the employees if he knew what he was selling, and he said "No, you know, I don't know anything about these fish. What are they like?" He works in the fish department.

They're nuts for selling Pacu. They're EXTREMELY aggressive fish that can grow to 24 inches, sometimes larger! Pacu. At Petsmart! Way to go guys.

[fishcatch22]

my petco is top notch. there is only one employee who doesn't know what she's doing, and she is quickly being re-trained. their tanks, sparkling, their fish, healthy. the only time I even see dead fish is in the marine section, and that is only rarely and with sensitive fish such as coral beauties that are already weak from capture and transport all the way up here...

I have three major LFSs/LPSs to buy fish, all good. it's the wal-marts that are bad.

[yonsu]

PetSmart > Petco any day.

The Petco and Wal-marts in my area sell pacus too.. They're insanely popular as pirahnas are illegal in this state, and sadly enough, most people don't care for potential future problems.. as long as the fish is nice and fits in the tank NOW.

[Shorgasm III]

oh yeah, the both of them here have pacus. columbian sharks and gars too....
funny thing is always the tag descrition. apparently Michigan pacus and columbians only get to 6" :rolleyes:
and ghost shrimp must have salt :idea: :rolleyes:

[Reddog80p]

The only "Chain LFS" around here that carries pacu's is petsmart. The POP sign says 20+ gallon tank.

[Malbri]

I cant believe them either

all the fish looked pretty healthy but they had one tank(about 20 gallon) that said fish under obervation
It was STUFFED with goldfish(like a couple hundred just in that one tank)

[mr_bentley78]

I had a customer come in the other day to give us 2 x 7" long tinfoil barbs. He said they were in an Eclipse 12 gallon tank. I laughed and asked why on earth would you get those for a 12 gallon. He replied that when he first bought the setup from Petsmart, the guy sold him the tank and told him he could keep 2 tinfoil barbs, 2 gouramis, an angelfish and a common pleco in there. He's learned a bit since the incident. The guy at Petsmart told him the age-old myth, "They'll only get as big as their tank.". I was like ya, they'll grow to be about the size of a 12 gallon aquarium, lol. It was funny, and sad all at the same time. The gouramis and Angel died, and the tinfoils are now doing fine in a 125 gallon tank. He left me with buying 4 Sarpae tetras and 3 cories.

[WeeNe858]

Pacus aren't agressive...... they're just pigs who like their nuts....and they get like.. 2 ft in diameter...... big mother F!

[WrittenLyric]

Whoa..this thread was edited to bits and pieces! What's up with that?

[kjr928]

Not only have I seen poor conditions for fish at Petco, but I've seen worse for the reptiles & amphibians. For some reason, it was too much work for them to ensure that all the reptiles & amphibians had water in their bowls and many of them were dead or almost dead. I mean, COME ON. Those animals are trapped in those heated cages and are not even provided water????

I threatened the manager once, and he cleaned up the act there for a couple of weeks. Sure enough, I went back a while later and they had gone back to their old ways. That time I kept my mouth shut and just called the ASPCA, who went over there that same day.

I've never seen a problem since and that was a couple of years ago. We should all be utilizing the ASPCA whenever they see something suspicious at these big chain corporate pet stores!

[FreddytheFish]

Whoa..this thread was edited to bits and pieces! What's up with that?Huh?

I'm only seeing one edit.

[jedoubblese]

i worked at petco for 2 years and they could care less about there livestock its really sad and one reason that i started my own buisness to help reduce there sales and i have dramatically all my fish are awesome and in beautiful shape with seperate filters for each tank to eliminate cross contamination there marine section is now down to two tanks and mine up to 40 now and just keeps growing all it takes is one look to tell there stuff sucks

[Squawkbert]

I stopped cold in fromt of a marine tank 'o black mollies at a different store (Tropical World, Watson - new marine room) yesterday. Before pitching a fit, I did remember that they are frequently classified as a brackish sp, so I just watched 'em for a while and they looked fine.

[bblboy54]

PetSmart > Petco any day.


I have to agree as well. I have been in a lot of different stores for both chains and I find that most of the PetSmarts that I went into actually have some knowledgeable people while I have never found a single person at Petco who knows what a fish is.

While the big chains are more focused on profit, it seems that Petsmart realizes the importance of having at least a few people who know how to take care of fish. This is something that PetCo has not learned and probably never will.... Green high school students are cheapest so that obviously means more profits, right (that is because they'll never read this thread and realize how much business they are losing).