Petco Poll
- Thread starter O-man21
- Start date
I bet the one by my is even worse. Every fish tank has about 5 to 10 dead fish in it, and there are crickets jumping around everywhere. It's disgusting. 
irishspy
There is a stargate in my aquarium.
I think it really does depend on the staff at each individual store. The fish in the West Los Angeles PetCo are in clean tanks and seem generally healthy --I haven't talked to the staff to gauge their knowledge, however.
In fact, they seem much better taken care of than at almost any LFS I visited in the West LA/Santa Monica area, some of which were downright appalling.
--Anthony
Honestly , I haven't had to many bad experiences with them. Granted I have somewhat limited experience. When I got into this hobby I sized up every store within a 45-60 minute area and found some horrible conditions in some of the "local fish stores" I went to. Just plain dirty and I didnt even really know what I was looking for, just got a bad vibe in general for some. The Petco and PetSmart around the Buffalo area where I live seem to be quite clean, and they offer a large selection for beginners that is. Staff was OK, not too great, but quite friendly. All the prices in my area are generally comparable, I could drive an extra 1/2 hour to save 2 dollars, but what is it worth in gas to me, you know??? I guess its more the store and the area than anything else, IMO.
sm
sm
GOOD
I guess I'm somewhat biased, since I work at one, but most of those in my area are okay, ours is better than some, worse than others. There's tons of behind the scenes work though. Hours of algae scraping, pulling deads, and water changes are all that keep ours good.
Also, about deads. I refuse to pull fish out until they are dead, not breathing heavily upside down, but no breathing at all. We pull them once every few hours, or when we get a break between customers. If it's busy they don't get pulled. Be relieved you aren't there in the morning, especially after shipment day. For all you know we just pulled them before you got there, that's why there aren't any dead ones.
And as to crickets. Getting them into bags is normally a production, they get fed to the reptiles, and every once in a while a shipping box opens up, so most Petco's have a few crickets wandering around. Call them lucky.
The main problem you find in larger chain stores is you can't keep people who know and like fish there long, because the entire idea of retail isn't very friendly toward fish. I don't even know how long I'll stay just because the selling strategy isn't always great and we insist on stocking dyed and large growing fish. I always make sure people know how large their fish can get. Haven't sold any ID Sharks yet. People still want plecos though, and balas, even after reading the labels. There are so many people who buy fish who thouroughly expect it to die, so refuse to spend any money on better choices, or listen to advice on why they are dying. Too many people forget that fish are alive.
I spend more time having to get the cheap fish for people who expect it to die than actually getting to give advice. I actually spoke to someone with a 9 inch Oscar in a 10 gallon today. He wanted to know why his son's Oscar was developing HITH. My store recommends at least a 75, and we just got 2 big Oscars dumped at our store with a 12 inch pleco in tow. None of which we really had room for.
I've been to most of the fish stores in my area, I've seen some horrible ones, and I've seen some good ones and my favorite is over a half hour away, and is currently the only place I regularly buy livestock. I pick up some at Petco, but only if they've been in a few weeks, and are very impressive fish. I buy most supplies online, since I am quite aware that Petco, even with my employee discount is almost twice as much as online for supplies.
--Mia
I guess I'm somewhat biased, since I work at one, but most of those in my area are okay, ours is better than some, worse than others. There's tons of behind the scenes work though. Hours of algae scraping, pulling deads, and water changes are all that keep ours good.
Also, about deads. I refuse to pull fish out until they are dead, not breathing heavily upside down, but no breathing at all. We pull them once every few hours, or when we get a break between customers. If it's busy they don't get pulled. Be relieved you aren't there in the morning, especially after shipment day. For all you know we just pulled them before you got there, that's why there aren't any dead ones.
And as to crickets. Getting them into bags is normally a production, they get fed to the reptiles, and every once in a while a shipping box opens up, so most Petco's have a few crickets wandering around. Call them lucky.
The main problem you find in larger chain stores is you can't keep people who know and like fish there long, because the entire idea of retail isn't very friendly toward fish. I don't even know how long I'll stay just because the selling strategy isn't always great and we insist on stocking dyed and large growing fish. I always make sure people know how large their fish can get. Haven't sold any ID Sharks yet. People still want plecos though, and balas, even after reading the labels. There are so many people who buy fish who thouroughly expect it to die, so refuse to spend any money on better choices, or listen to advice on why they are dying. Too many people forget that fish are alive.
I spend more time having to get the cheap fish for people who expect it to die than actually getting to give advice. I actually spoke to someone with a 9 inch Oscar in a 10 gallon today. He wanted to know why his son's Oscar was developing HITH. My store recommends at least a 75, and we just got 2 big Oscars dumped at our store with a 12 inch pleco in tow. None of which we really had room for.
I've been to most of the fish stores in my area, I've seen some horrible ones, and I've seen some good ones and my favorite is over a half hour away, and is currently the only place I regularly buy livestock. I pick up some at Petco, but only if they've been in a few weeks, and are very impressive fish. I buy most supplies online, since I am quite aware that Petco, even with my employee discount is almost twice as much as online for supplies.
--Mia
I dunno where you guys live, but down where I live there are good petcos. There fish are actually alive and the employees know what their talking about. Well, most of them
. They also keep their fish healthy and well fed. However, overall I think abt. 75% of the other petcos are really crummy.
. They also keep their fish healthy and well fed. However, overall I think abt. 75% of the other petcos are really crummy.
I think ours here is REALLY bad, first of all... They almost never clean the tanks for all I know, and there are always at least 4-5 dead fish in each tank. One time I went to it to get fish food, and they were cleaning out the feeder tank, (where they keep 100-150 fish in a 55 gallon tank) and they were sucking up fish in the siphon, and they keep oscars with each other and they have pl*co's in there too, in a 30 gallon tank!!And they feed them feeder fish that they raise there that have ick and other diseases. Half the time the oscars are pale and are very skinny, almost as bad as the ones at Wal-Mart. They have crickets loose and they even have bird escapies, I saw one hit a window and just lay on the ground and noone did anything to help. That is about all I can think of right now, but there is a lot more then I can think of. That is what happens at my PetCo.
P.S: sorry about that mwood322
P.S: sorry about that mwood322
Last edited:
We have 4 PetCo's in this area. For the most part their fish look pretty good. The birds are always clean.
HOWEVER, one of their grooming shops here killed a dog 2 summers ago. It was about 90 degrees here and they left the dog in the cage with the dryer on for over 2 hours (no air conditioning at the grooming salon). I have vowed to never buy anything from that particular location.
DrD
HOWEVER, one of their grooming shops here killed a dog 2 summers ago. It was about 90 degrees here and they left the dog in the cage with the dryer on for over 2 hours (no air conditioning at the grooming salon). I have vowed to never buy anything from that particular location.
DrD
yea, I don't buy anything form it any more because of the "bird incadent" listed in my above post