petco find
- Thread starter Dieprophezeiung
- Start date
I don't know, but I doubt if the shipping stress die-off rate is any lower for a mom & pop. Maybe the bodies are just removed quicker.
Ive had mixed results with the big box stores. One near me had a guy who was very knowledgeable. Then the other day I went in and the portly rude chick actually refered a customer to me....She recognized me as being a "fish guy"...The customers question was simple. " I have a new tank and my ammonia is very high" what do I do. SOOO I took the time to answer the ladys question. You cant blame the flitration at the big boxes...They have really awesome setups and sterilizers. Its all the staff and the stress. Fish cant all live with the same water perms.
I've had the same experience. Sometimes the people are very knowledgable and can help me, then other times I go in and the guy tried to convince me to set up a salt water tank and told me I wouldn't need a skimmer.
you can run a salt tank without a skimmer, but usually it only works with a fowlr tank. my old favourite lfs used to have a seahorse tank with a few small corals in it and that tank only had a hob running on it. worked great.
I'm no SW expert. Never had one, but I've never herd of a tank without one until then. He was also trying to sell me a lion fish.
I should add, to be fair, that with big box stores it depends a LOT on the manager. My friend worked at one Petsmart for a while, and was told straight out "If a customer wants an animal, you sell that customer the animal". Doesn't matter if they're putting a koi in a fish bowl. Doesn't matter if they're putting an oscar in a 5 gallon desktop. Doesn't matter if a 4 year old kids wants a robo hamster. Doesn't matter if a leopard gecko is going in a Critter Keeper. You get the idea. And, if a fish dies due to poor care or inadequate housing, you replace it. Even if the new fish/animal is going back into the same environment. Yikes. They also leave sick animals untreated. My friend saw multiple snakes die of starvation (of course likely brought on by another disease or offering improper food) and nobody cared. She looked at one snake's log, and for THREE MONTHS people had marked down that it didn't eat that day, and nobody did anything.
However, the same chain in my hometown is GREAT. They have ***real hobbyists*** working their specific departments. I know this because I went to school with a lot of these people, and the people in the herp society worked in the reptile department, and a lot of my friends who were fish geeks worked in the fish section. When they started getting more saltwater in, they actively sought out someone good and experienced in salt, and didn't just add salt to a tank and plunk fish in.
Another smaller shop near me that's a chain, but not as widespread, is AW-FUL. You can never find anyone for service, and half the people in the departments know NOTHING about what they're selling. I had to step in and stop someone from selling a kid 2 Syrian hamsters.... that he was going to keep in the same cage. The employee just looked at me and went "But we keep our dwarfs together". Because yes, all hamsters and rodents are exactly the same. I once pointed out that fish in a tank had ich, and the person working the fish room (who I found out later is the person who organizes the BIRTHDAY PARTIES) looked at me and said "They have what?" I said "It's a external parasite". And the employee replied with, and I SWEAR I am not making this up, said "They can't get that. Fish don't have skin." :blink:
However, the same chain in my hometown is GREAT. They have ***real hobbyists*** working their specific departments. I know this because I went to school with a lot of these people, and the people in the herp society worked in the reptile department, and a lot of my friends who were fish geeks worked in the fish section. When they started getting more saltwater in, they actively sought out someone good and experienced in salt, and didn't just add salt to a tank and plunk fish in.
Another smaller shop near me that's a chain, but not as widespread, is AW-FUL. You can never find anyone for service, and half the people in the departments know NOTHING about what they're selling. I had to step in and stop someone from selling a kid 2 Syrian hamsters.... that he was going to keep in the same cage. The employee just looked at me and went "But we keep our dwarfs together". Because yes, all hamsters and rodents are exactly the same. I once pointed out that fish in a tank had ich, and the person working the fish room (who I found out later is the person who organizes the BIRTHDAY PARTIES) looked at me and said "They have what?" I said "It's a external parasite". And the employee replied with, and I SWEAR I am not making this up, said "They can't get that. Fish don't have skin." :blink:
