The Petsmart here is decent. The Goldfish and Koi tanks are usually kinda dirty looking. However every other tank looks great. All the fish I have bought there are still alive.
LFS vs. Petsmart
- Thread starter MoparORnoCAR
- Start date
The PetSmart here is pretty good. We have one LFS (Jack's Aquarium/Pets...dunno if anyone is familiar with them) and Jack's within about a block from each other.
Jack's is more expensive than PetSmart in supplies and stuff...PetSmart has better prices on supplies and more choice with supplies. They both have about the same selection/pricing on plants...which isn't real great.
Fish is just kind of a matter of choice. I thought they had the same quality, except when I went to Jack's the other day they had anchor worms in about 4 fish in 3 different tanks...which made me rather nervous about buying anything. Jack's has a lot of different kinds of fish...PetSmart has a TON of Tetra and Platy varieties and some other kinds too. I think the people at Jack's tend to be more knowledgeable, but I've gotten bad advice from both so I just kind of do my research before I get anything
Jack's is more expensive than PetSmart in supplies and stuff...PetSmart has better prices on supplies and more choice with supplies. They both have about the same selection/pricing on plants...which isn't real great.
Fish is just kind of a matter of choice. I thought they had the same quality, except when I went to Jack's the other day they had anchor worms in about 4 fish in 3 different tanks...which made me rather nervous about buying anything. Jack's has a lot of different kinds of fish...PetSmart has a TON of Tetra and Platy varieties and some other kinds too. I think the people at Jack's tend to be more knowledgeable, but I've gotten bad advice from both so I just kind of do my research before I get anything
PetSmart is one of the best where I live. I work at a LFS and I buy a lot of my fish at PetSmart.
If your LFS will order you fish, they should hold them for at least 2 weeks to make sure they aren't sick or die from shipping stress. My LFS said they would order me anything, but they would have to quarantine them for about a 1-1/2 weeks before they could give them to me.
my petsmart is horrible in about 1 out of three tanks has somthing dead in it and they are selling fish that have ick and other diseases even though it is obvous that they have it
Wha..wha...WHAAAAAT?!nursie said:
They have a sign that says that on their PACU tank? Get ahold of the pet care manager there and point out that it needs to be removed tout suite. If you really want to get their attention tell them to look up the care guide in Fetch and read the max size listed there. If the PCM doesn't do it immediately, tell the store director that you'll call corporate if it isn't taken down for good. The max size listed on our pacu label says 22". I know they get bigger than that, but at least I can point to that and talk the person out of buying a pacu when they want something for a little dinky tank. Personally I don't think the big box stores should be selling pacus, channel cats, clown knifefish and pangasius cats at all. 90% of the people that buy them put them in too small of a tank. Sorry, that was a bit off topic, but that just shocked me.All fish stores are only as good as the people that run them. Tanks full of sick and dead fish just scream, 'We don't care!'
interesting. in my area, it seems to be the opposite. when i went to petsmart, it was overcrowded, water dirty, and a dead pleco was being eaten by other plecos. and the workers seemed idle and didn't even seem to be a bit interested in fish. probably the workers were the reason, but i still think managers should check their workers' progress or something.redtail11 said:
i bought from petsmart.com online. it was very impressive how they shipped the fish to me. two thumbs up, will definitly buy from them in the future.
Not sure about the lfs pet smarts though, as they all depend on the owner/manager. So asking if brand name store like petsmart or petco is good or bad is pointless.
Not sure about the lfs pet smarts though, as they all depend on the owner/manager. So asking if brand name store like petsmart or petco is good or bad is pointless.
nursie said:
Really? I have been thinking about applying there because working with fish would be much more fun than serving greasy burgers at McDonald's!
I have found my Petsmart to have higher prices than everywhere else, but when I am there I usually buy their fish because they have the best warranty around. I have visited all of the pet stores in my area and Petsmart is one of the top ones. The only one I have found to be better is my LFS that rarely has over stocked tanks, has good information on each fish species written on the tanks, and has each tank decorated with gravel and places for the fish to hide. I have given up asking for advise at either of the stores, because they really don't know what they are talking about. I have this web site so I really don't need to ask them and risk getting bad advise.
I live a short distance from 2 PetSmarts, 2 Petcos, and 2 PetSuppliesPluses. 1 of each are very good -- and the other of each are very bad. I attribute it mostly to the staff (though owner/manager could be the reason as they would have hired the staff and set the policies). I buy from the three good ones -- and only monitor the others to watch for staff turnover or progress in their practices. My favorite of the three is the good PetSmart -- there are about 6 or 7 people who work their fish dept -- and 4 are awesome -- and they all are on different schedules. I have yet to be in there when one of the four aren't. I do agree that they don't have anything unique -- but what they do have has been very good.
