Chain pet stores

[Whitey]

Is it me or are these places full of 'dodgy' fish, reading sum other guys thread has made me think about it, and i remember i once brought a bala shark from pets at home and a few days later my entire tank had ICH (Back in my noob days) but since then i just dont buy fish from places like that anymore, unless u have a quarentine tank i just wouldnt advise it.

 

[chishnfips]

Yip I found exactly the same thing too.

 

[Ethos]

I've actully had an awesome expeirence with petco. I had a friend that worked their and hse helped me out more than any other source when I first started fishkeeping. I put my loyalty to petco. People say that its the small non-chain pets stores that are better, but I find that wrong. All the little petstores with 50 miles of my house all have either dirty water, no warrenty, and even if the tank is clean, the water usally has some discolor to it , barely any selection, ect. I find it much easier, cheaper, and more reliable to go to a chain store. Even WAL MART has a warrenty for fish. WAL MART takes better care of their fish than most stores do. And thats saying alot. So yeah, I swear and put my loyalt in petco. I hate petsmart though.(Random I know)

 

[rdd1952]

Most all of the chain stores are iffy. I think Walmart is probably the worst simply because they aren't a pet store and really don't have any staff in their fish department, just the dept. manager who is always busy stocking shelves. The WMs near me are terrible. I refuse to go in them for any reason. On the other hand, the Petsmart near where I work has probably the cleanest tanks of any LFS I visit (there are about 12 LFS within 30 minute drive of where I live and work). I don't have any concerns about buying fish from them.

Edit: The biggest problem with the warranties that Petsmart, Walmart, etc give is that they will replace the fish if it dies but that doesn't help with the other fish that you already had that also die because of the disease that was brought in.

 

[chkltcow]

You have some crappy pet stores in your area, Ethos. And when it comes to saltwater fish like you're talking about, don't even THINK about buying them from a chain store. The PetCo that's near here is NASTY! Their freshwater section isn't bad, but the saltwater tanks just make me cringe. rdd1952 and nc_nutcase can probably vouch for that. The Petsmarts in the area are decent though, but freshwater only. The only places I'll buy from anymore are these hole in the wall LFS stores.... because they're the only ones that actually know what they're doing, and the 3 that I frequent are VERY clean, salt and fresh.

 

[StarOrbs]

They differ in every area, in particular the Petsmarts in my area are pretty good and the PetCos in my area are dumps. There is one place called Pets Plus in my area which is the best, they actually care about their fish. This is in the USA.

 

[Whitey]

This is in the USA.

Only there do chain-store employees actualy 'care' lol

 

[StarOrbs]

I was just saying that due to the fact that most people on the forum seem to be in Europe.

 

[Whitey]

Its just i think ppl in places like pets at home in my country dnt know nothing.

 

[OohFeeshy]

I won't buy any fish from pets at home. I'll buy deco and hamsters and maybe a rabbit, but not fish. Here are some common things that crop up-

* Most of the fancy goldfish have swimbladder
* Almost all the platies and gouramis have internal parasites
* Bettas are in with danios and neons (so are frequently nipped)
* I saw a tank with BN plecs in, which TBH were too small to be selling.
* In the above tank I'm sure I saw one or two that had been squashed by moving the bit of rock around
* In the above tank some BN's with dropsy
*Scrubbing algae off in tanks with plecs in, so most starve to death (if disease doesn't get them first)

They recomend 1 gallon per goldfish as plenty, have mixed mbuna cichlids (like everywhere), have plecs in every tank so people think they are nessecary. And more besides.

 

[FalconStorm]

I agree that it depends on who works at the lfs. I've walked into my Wal-Mart three different times in a two week period. Twice, the tanks looked great, just the bettas were stacked badly (me and my boyfriend fixed that for them) and the other time, everything was a mess. It really depends on who is at the helm. My local petco has a girl that is great with plants and livebearers, but doesn't really know much about other fish, so she chalks common deaths up to "weak fish" rather than finding out if there is something the fish requires that they're not supplying. The other day, I walked in there to find the neon tank full of ripped up, dying, fading neons...I suspect they've got a huge case of NTD on their hands.

I have two hole in the wall LFS nearby. One I've bought cardinal tetras and a couple of bettas from. The cardinals died and the bettas are doing great. In the same tank that the cardinals died in, ten neons from my local Petsmart are thriving. The other LFS is actually pretty good, I just have a problem with the fact that they sell CAE as small tank fish and recommend betta keepers for the bettas. They also have a bad habit of ignoring me when I'm in there, but I'll put up with the poor customer service for higher quality fish.

In my area, it's all very hit or miss. I just keep an eye on what I'm buying and the conditions of the tank its in. I NEVER add the LFS tank water to my own and I'm setting up a nice little quarantine tank that I will probably use from now on for all my fish.

 

[wrs]

well, I will say that my petsmart does give meds if the fish you got at it makes all the others sick.

But there are some dumb dumb ppl. there as well. Like back in my planted tank days( two months ago) I was wanting to buy some hornwort from there. It was really tall and all, so I said that i wanted one of them. It was in the madagascar lace section as there were none of those are tons of these, so the kid said that it would be $10 because it was in that area. I did say that the whole tank thing had it in there, but no getting it for the price it is supposed to be so I didnt get it.

Another time I told a girl that I wanted a sev for my tank that had an angel fish in there. She kept saying angels were tropical, and sevs were cichlids, angels were not, and all cichlids are arressive and mean. I laughed and told her she was wrong and walked away.

PetCo has some ass employies as well. Plus the fish are usually sick. They changed staff, and now the store suxs, it used to be so good as well!

And walmart is great. They are really good with the fish, there are some older ladies who work in the fish section. the fish do have ich from time to time, but usually the goldies, and they are not for sale. I did get a few fish from there that I still have today.

 

[Dwarfs]

I try to not buy anything from chain stores, the only ok one that I noow of is Petland discounts

on a side note, I read a sign at petco that said:
"Firebellied toads, a great starter REPTILE..."

It continued, but I left as soon as they called an amphibian a reptile, how could they be so stupid?