LFS vs. Petsmart

each store you go to has a few variables that make or break how thier fish are.

The fish farm breeder quality. The conditions that the fish are raised in are the first step. No amount of employee care will make sickly fish decent. Walmart is an example of this, they buy cheap fish from breeders that cut corners.

Distribution and shipping, some amount of stress is unavoidable here, but with care, and a little extra cost that can be cut down and better fish obtained.

Last is the fish store employees. I can say I'd rather deal with individuals that may not know all the specifics of each fish than top notch people that have to deal with poor fish.

I have great respect for the efforts the pet department employees at my local walmart make to get the fish they have healthy, but I won't buy any fish from walmart. the problem isn't the employees but rather the source of the fish.

My suggestion is to try to visit each store when fish come in. not to buy at that time but to observe how the fish are after transport. after you have seen a couple different weeks shippments come in you can make a better assesment of thier supplier, and thus the quality of fish and employees there.
 
I would have to say that i have an excellent lfs next to me , The Dallas North Aquarium, but I also have 3 petsmarts' that are also excellent, I would say that the freshwater fish are equal in all 4 places so I just go to the one that has the particular fish that I want, but petsmart is the place to go for supplies...not sure if this helped but petsmart is great
 
gagaliya said:
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.
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I disagree, It is very helpful to see what this groups experiences have been as a whole.

The petsmart near me has the best looking tanks hands down but the staff doesnt really know what they are talking about and they try to pass their opinions off as fact, I'm glad I have you all to point me in the right direction :)

The petco near me is awful!!!
 
from my personal expirience, and what i've heard from other people, on the EAST coast, petsmart is better and on the WEST coast, petco is better. my petcos (there are 3) are all wonderful. my petsmarts (there are two) i've had to complain to corporate on several occasions because of the hermit crab tanks, and complain to the managers in the indevidual stores, and the employees, and they STILL haven't gotten it right. their fish look alright, about the same as petco. i usually shop at petco just because its closer, since to me, the conditions and fish all look about the same. my LFS though is awful. not really the fish, but their other pets are in awful conditions. the rats and mice are kept in 20 gallon aquariums, the parent-fed cockatiels all have bald spots and mutilated feathers because one of the birds picks on the others, it always stinks of urine, etc.
 
All in all, Petsmart is a LFS and results will vary with each store since there is a different manager per store. Check out their filtration room (behind the tanks). My Petsmart is immaculate - I could not believe it. Plus the two girls and one guy I buy my fish from are friendly and open to new knowledge - and use it. For example, they would take puffers out of the water not knowing the small chance they could die if they puff air. Now everytime I see them, they put the puffer into the container with no exposure to air.

redtail11 said:
The health of their fish do seem to be a bit under that of LFS, but they have put so much financial pressure on LFS. I think because the hobby is decreasing. Lots of stores here going under. Even good ones are struggling.
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I dissagre - at least in my area. There are two NEW petsmarts being built - each within ~20 miles of the previous store. Plus Jacks Pets is builing another store somewhere around here.

MidnightPyro said:
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.
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I HATE Jacks, at least the ones I go to (around the Beavercreek Area) because NONE of them know what they are talking about and the solution to everything is add more Cycle. Their fish are not as healthy as my Petsmart IMO. Plus, I have seen their water tests and some of their tanks on community systems have AMMONIA - their filtration is weak at best IMO.

Just my $0.02 :rant2:

Aries
 
The fish keeping hobby is actually increasing. Local fish stores are disapearing because of Petsmart and Petco. Here is some info from business class... Petco and Petsmart are called "box stores" or "category killers". Just as Barnes&nooble killed the local bookstore and Home Depot killed the neighborhood hardware store, petco and petsmart are killing the little pet shops. Local pet stores here in MA vary. We have a few REALLY good ones, one is the best in the region. Other ones suck. Petco generally sucks all around. They should be sued for animal cruelty. Petsmart is actually very decent. The selection in limited and the staff is minorly retarded but the fish are mostly healthy. I much prefer the GOOD local pet stores to petsmart but petsmart is much better than the bad ones.
 
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.
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MoparORnoCAR said:
I disagree, It is very helpful to see what this groups experiences have been as a whole.

The petsmart near me has the best looking tanks hands down but the staff doesnt really know what they are talking about and they try to pass their opinions off as fact, I'm glad I have you all to point me in the right direction :)

The petco near me is awful!!!
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I think what he meant, is, you should go visit your local stores, whether chains or independent fish stores, since they could all be different. PetSmart in Texas won't be the same as PetSmart in Virginia. I wouldn't buy fish from my local PetSmart. Their tanks are pretty, but every 4th tank has a dead fish in it. When my LFS has problems with batches of fish, they absolutely won't sell them. Most of the people I've met at PetSmart just don't know enough to give me any confidence about the condition of their fish.

On the other hand, I recently bought a 37g from PetSmart, and noticed every one of their new tanks had a pamphlet or two taped to them....explaining new tank syndrome and the nitrogen cycle.
 
I don't buy fish from Petco because the ones in the local area always seem to have dead fish in them. It happens, but they should be removed right away, not left until they are half eaten by the other fish. I do buy gravel and food there, but nothing else. PetsMart here is hit or miss. The one close to home has very educated staff, and the tanks are always being cleaned and maintained. I recently spent some time walking around one right around the corner from their corporate office here in Phoenix, and I was amazed at how bad the tanks were. There were several dead fish in every single tank. They had some fairly large oscars that looked like they had been through a meat grinder. I mentioned it to one of the employees in the area, and all he had to say was that they had been fighting. I would think that a store literally around the corner from their headquarters would be in pristine condition. I'll stick to the one close to home.
 
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Search--this topic has been repeatedly covered, with about the same results.
 
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