Interesting trip to Petco today....

[ChuckP]

we just had a petco open up in our area - so far, the tanks look reasonably clean, and sparsely populated, but the place has only been open a month or so. The crypt I bought there is growing like mad...

I WAS, however, turned off on buying any fish there after watching one of the sales droids netting a clownfish out of one of the SW tanks for a customer...after nabbing the fish, she proceeded to talk to the customer for an extended period of time (I'd guess a good 20 seconds) with the fish in the net out of the water before bagging it....I about ready to run across the store and dunk the net myself!

argh.

 

[Coler]

fish keeping in America must be pretty bad, because in Australia we don't really have big chain pet stores, so the tanks are always clean, fish are well fed, the bettas are kept in 1g jars, i think ive only seen one case of ich at any of the pet stores where i live.

same over here

 

[oboefish]

I go to a Pet Supplies Plus down my street all of the time, and occasionally the fish will look okay but if I go back the next day almost all of the tanks are infected with something ... usually ich.

Oh, and get this, I was at Wal-mart a while ago - and they keep fish there... as if the workers there are even going to feed the fish - off in a hidden corner of the store - I swear there were more dead fish with fungus growing off of them them then living fish. It made me sooooooo mad.

 

[Doahh]

It's hit or miss with PetSMart/PetCo... My petco in my local area is awesome... all the fish are healthy and people knowledgeable. I refuse to go to my local fish store Aqua Life Aquarium because after buying a brittle star I was told to float it for 15 mins then let it go in the tank. It died. Then I brought a damsel back because I wanted some store credit and be able to have different fish... she just goes and plops the fish in the tank... not even temp acclimating.

 

[Star_Rider]

I have a couple of questions.

1. What will a UV sterilizer do? Will it kill the ich in the water column?

I'm sure it won't do anything for the already infected fish.

2. Do you think think that the employee would have treated the tank (and others that were on that central filter system)?

I would think that since he turned the price sign backwards, maybe he was going to do something about it. If so, I think that's great!

1) UV sterilizers are either run in line with a cannister filter or run as a hang on in tanks
they run light spectrum (UV) which kills many parasites and bacteria(if exposed to the UV long enough)
there are no treatmens for the ich on the infected fish. ich is treated in it's free swimming stage.
2) I have found that once the petstores realize there is a problem they treat the tanks.
Petco will place signs on the tanks that are on the shared filtrations system and mark the tanks as 'Not For Sale' sometime mention that the fish are being 'observed'

so it really depends. on who they are and what the policy is...
the small petshops won't sell the fish they get in for up to two weeks literally do a short quarantine

 

[abh19]

I'm sure it all depends on the abilities of the particular fish dept manager. Petco/smart probably doesn't have adequate corporate fish-training or policies. But then again... they're constantly getting returned fish & new fish shipments in who-knows-what condition, and keeping them way, way overstocked with little kids pounding on the glass by the hour... what fish would last long under that kind of treatment?

 

[musho3210]

lol i got a petsmart in my area, fish department isnt doing so good since everyone is going to the lfs, its funny and i like to put the staff on the spot like i'll go on about "can i put oscar in a 10 gallon, they say yeah it will work great" Then i start laughing really hard and put everything away and leave, its funny.

 

[sandyB]

I always buy fish at my local small fish store. I think one of the differences is that he goes once a week to hand pick his fish whereas the local Petco and Petsmart stores have bags and bags of fish shipped to them from their warehouse. They get no choice in what they get. Whatever is shipped and sometimes it's a bag of ich coated fish, they have to keep. I definitely don't condone this but it's what happens. Nope, I don't work for them! I do feel sorry for the people who do! I was there today for dog food and felt so sorry for the guy working in the fish department (I do have to look if I'm there! ). He had no training what-so-ever! The poor guy didn't even know what a pleco was when the woman asked for one! This wasn't his fault (although he needs to study up!!!) but Petco's because they should make sure they train their people.:rant2:

I do have one good thing to say. When I told them a small Koi was nipping unrelentingly at the fins and gills of a large one, they removed the small one. Humoring me, I know, but it worked.:dance2:

 

[musho3210]

i like petsmart workers who say i dont know, if they pretend they know to make money i make fun of them

 

[Ulan]

"can i put oscar in a 10 gallon, they say yeah it will work great"

What's wrong with that? You just have to pour some water over his back every 2 hours so he doesn't dry out :joke:.