2 dead guppies in one week from Petco

[finfayce]

i wanted to buy widow guppy a female friend. online my local petco didn't show many females so i ordered from petco online. when the box got here, as soon as i opened the box , i smelled a foul odor. the plastic fish bag was wrapped in newspaper paper in Chinese language. i open the bag- ughhh
i put the fish in the bowl- thinking he might on perk up but it was dead. i cleaned the fish bowl and any carpet the stink water had spilled on. then i got another guppy the next day at the store in town- next morning-dead. i found out that Petco has warehouses in Thailand. and the the fish usually arrive in good shape. seriously- thailand to arkansas- that's a heck of a trip. i ordered 2 female guppies from an online seller/ breeder.
perhaps these dead guppies are the exception, but i would warn against ordering fish coming so far away.

 

[Sgooosh]

sometimes fish are just weak, ESPECIALLY guppies.
I just got 4 store guppies from petsmart and 2 died. normally our local petsmart is the most trustworthy for guppies, but maybe this batch was bad.
It mostly has to do with the mass-bred guppies having bad immune systems and being very delicate, so during shipping they die off easily.
It can also do with bad packaging, temperatures, and bad shipping. if there's an option for heat packs, USPS priority shipping(or the equivalent for other US shippers) or other upgrades, those are helpful.

 

[finfayce]

sometimes fish are just weak, ESPECIALLY guppies.
I just got 4 store guppies from petsmart and 2 died. normally our local petsmart is the most trustworthy for guppies, but maybe this batch was bad.
It mostly has to do with the mass-bred guppies having bad immune systems and being very delicate, so during shipping they die off easily.
It can also do with bad packaging, temperatures, and bad shipping. if there's an option for heat packs, USPS priority shipping(or the equivalent for other US shippers) or other upgrades, those are helpful.

thanks. i ordered 2 females online. they should be here tomorrow. wish me luck.
why does petco have a fish warehouse in Thailand? do they really think fish will live from that far away? they are processing my refund. i hope the refund includes $30 shipping.

 

[Sgooosh]

thanks. i ordered 2 females online. they should be here tomorrow. wish me luck.
why does petco have a fish warehouse in Thailand? do they really think fish will live from that far away? they are processing my refund. i hope the refund includes $30 shipping.

yes, most fish are shipped from mass breeding farms in asia
I really hope you get the 30 dollars back as that is more than the fish themselves!

 

[Colin_T]

If you are going to special order fish, get a group of them so the freight cost is spread out over more fish.

If you want to keep guppies, have a tank of males and a tank of females so the males don't harass the females. If you want to keep male and female guppies together, try to have 10 females per male and have lots of plants in the tank.

If companies are sending you fish from overseas, you need to find out what the pH, GH & KH of their water is and what the water in the bag is going to be. Then match your tank water to that.

If you do buy fish from a supplier overseas, there is always a risk the fish will be infected with something when they send them so all new fish should be quarantined for at least 2 (preferably 4) weeks before being added to an established tank.

The following link might interest you. It's what fish go through to get from the fish farm to the local pet shop.

Fish Importing, from the farm to the home

If any of you have wondered how aquarium fish get to the local pet shop, the following will give you some insight as to what they have to go through to get from the fish farm where they are bred and raised, to the pet shop where you can buy them. The stress they go through is quite...

www.fishforums.net

 

[jaylach]

I'm not going to go to a Petco rant but I will not buy live fish or plants from them period.