Disgusted with Pet Store

[SailfinGirl]

was only on about the stores near me. I'm sure your sister does a great job Maybe should have made that a bit clearer

I have two friends that work in Pets At Home and ones the area manager. You should hear some of the stories he's told me about staff, then you'd see what I mean.

Its cool, its just that people come on here saying "everyone who works in pets at home is a moronic spotty teenager who has no clue how to spell their own name let alone what a fish looks like.

Sorry I went off on one. *sheepish grin*

My sister has some tales about staff in her store as well. lol! they're all personal grudges though.

 

[Spyderdf]

Actually my petsmart is verey good recently. Very knowlagable staff, healthy fish. Low prices and nice plants. Everything is clean ect. ect.
Cant say the same about my petco.
I usually stcik with privately owned fish shops. not chains.

 

[Link]

Sailfingirl, Nah no worries, sorry if I caused offence It's sometimes difficult to make things come across ok

I suppose it's because a lot of people have had bad experiences with Pets At Home. And often the staff are quite young and not always that knowledgeable. Again no disrespect to anyone's friends or family that work in a good Pets at home store. (or any other)
The one's near me are useless. No one there is deliberatly giving wrong advice or keeping animals in far from perfect conditions. I think it's down to ignorance, which seems to be the common problem with a lot of animal related problems. Because it's a big chain it may be out of a particular persons hands when something is wrong. The one near me sells birds. Ringnecks for example. They are not hand reared or tame, are selling for £100 upwards and are often over 2-3 years old. Cock Ringnecks get a ring around their necks when they are around 2-3 years of age. Now, do the staff know this? Admittedly anyone buying one should but will they be told if they dont, that's the issue I have. Not everyone is going to know everything about every animal which is cool, in which case they should have staff in the stores that specialise in a certain type of animal, like they do in zoos.
It seems that a lot of shops don't care about this providing the cash is coming in. That really winds me up. Surely there's a way that you can look after the animals 100% without reducing the cashflow.
I get angry with a lot of shops where they sell any kind of animal and don't give them everything. It's their responsibility to make sure that the animals in their care are looked after properly, both physically and mentally. And it's also their responsibility to make sure that any potential owners do the same.

Sorry for the rant

 

[David]

Also, I'm not too worried about fish cruelty because I don't consider fish to be as high a life form as mammals. Jmho.,

Uhh excuse me, but just because fish are not "a higher life form" and they aren't mammals, does not make them expendable or any less sensitive to pain. That is like saying "I'm not too worried about the homeless suffering on the streets because in my opinion they don't matter as much as rich people". That's a pretty disgusting thing to say, either way you look at it. I'm sorry to go off on you like this, but that quote really pissed me off.

 

[jvis0606]

Folks no need to take things so personally, everyone seems to have had a negative experience with these big fish retailers. It's just a shame, I was so surprised at how diseased the tanks were. Just sad I can't ever find a healthy fish to buy to add to my tank!

 

[guppymonkey]

Also, I'm not too worried about fish cruelty because I don't consider fish to be as high a life form as mammals. Jmho.,

I have to disagree with that! Thats the kind of reasoning that people use to destroy the environment. "Oh, that rain forest isn't as important as building new factories. People need jobs!" I know that its just your personal opinion but I think that the many people that think of their fish as pets would probably disagree.

On the subject of this topic, I have had a lot more bad experiences at small local pet stores than at chain stores. One local store is notorious for being a disgustingly dirty place. Once while I was there a home-made shelf in the fish section fell breaking the tanks that were on it. The employees didn't even try to save the fish, they just scooped them up in a dust pan and threw them out! They were too busy I guess.

 

[Spyderdf]

wow ^ thats pretty bad!

 

[Fish Buddy]

I just have to let you know that at Petsmart they actually have two filters for their fish. The million dollar one I mentioned earlier is for the tropical fish and they also have a smaller one for the goldfish (cooler water). Also, for some more delicate fish like their discus and needle fish they have separate filters on them. Yea, on the tropical tanks they are all connected but that just means that it is easier to clean the 'monster filter' than 100 smaller ones and is more efficient.

 

[PETsMARTchick]

As a proud and defensive PETsMART employee, I can answer your questions. I think it would be better not to get the brand new fish. They're all stressed out. I'd wait either a couple of days or at the end of the week. The ones left at the end of the week before the new shipment are the strong survivors of the week.
We do do water changes. We also gravel vaccuum once a week. We also treat the fish. When we get a shipment, we treat the whole system with Ich medicine. And if there are any individual sick tanks(which are obviously not for sale), we treat them twice a day. When you have almost 200 tanks full of fish, there are gonna be some dead and sick. And you can't expect the employees to pull out every floater that pops up. We pull out the dead fish twice a day. If one dies in the middle of the day, it stays there til about 4:00. We test the water twice a day also. The PETsMART corporation, managers, and most employees care about the fish. I know I do. I hope I helped and improved your opinion of PETsMART.

 

[Pearlie]

Having worked for Petco (3 months, 6 years ago) and Petsmart (6 months, within the past year), I'd have to say that the differences in the stores are based on the quality of the managers. I know the Petsmart around here has incredibly clean tanks, they just don't stock the fish I want. (The Petco is a different story lol, and not just in their fish department.) The funny thing is, the lfs that I really enjoy going into has incredibly overstocked fish, but relatively clean water. The fish have the signs of overstocked-ness (chewed fins, possibly sick), and yet the guys that work there are incredibly knowledgeable and great to talk with. They're right now bending over backwards to get me my two female Moonlight Gourami's...I think 3 weeks and counting and I've been checking in every Tuesday and Thursday (their shipment days) to see if they've come in. Thankfully they're not sick of me yet!

I'd encourage you to follow up on your disgust with the petstore. Check out the other animal cages, as likely the problems will extend to there as well. Depending on how bad things are, report them either to the police or an animal protection agency. I know Petsmart has a central customer service line, so I would report the store, with it's exact location and environment that you saw. If anything, you can start a 'paper trail' on that store and eventually lead to some pressure to that manager.

 

[csmason1]

Sorry, I enjoy my fish a lot...but if/when one of them dies, I'm not nearly as upset as I would be if one of my dogs died. And as upset as I'd be if one of my dogs died, that would COMPLETELY pale to my sadness if something happened to one of my wife or daughter.

There's got to be a hierarchy of some type, folks. And it's not your decision as to how I place that hierarchy in my life. THe guy wrote "jmho"--that means JUST MY HUMBLE OPINION...he was simply stating that in his hierarchy of life, like mine, fish (as beloved pets as they are) don't rank high on the totem pole.

Don't get all worked up about someone else's view of fish--it doesn't diminish how you feel about them...unless you let it.

 

[David]

Sorry, I enjoy my fish a lot...but if/when one of them dies, I'm not nearly as upset as I would be if one of my dogs died. And as upset as I'd be if one of my dogs died, that would COMPLETELY pale to my sadness if something happened to one of my wife or daughter.

There's got to be a hierarchy of some type, folks. And it's not your decision as to how I place that hierarchy in my life. THe guy wrote "jmho"--that means JUST MY HUMBLE OPINION...he was simply stating that in his hierarchy of life, like mine, fish (as beloved pets as they are) don't rank high on the totem pole.

Don't get all worked up about someone else's view of fish--it doesn't diminish how you feel about them...unless you let it.

Maybe losing fish doesn't cause you as much pain as other people, but that doesn't make it okay to put a friendly face on fish cruelty. And BTW... ONE of your wives?? You have more than one? I don't know, maybe it's a typo but it struck me as weird.

 

[Melfice]

My local Petco is very nice indeed. They have a well trained person handling the fish. I just bought 3 Emerald Green Cory Cats from them and they are doing great. I don't buy fish from Petco for the most part, but my LFS was closed for the day. So, I wanted to add some new Cories to my tank. I checked the tank out first (all the cories and cont of the fish over all). The store keeps the water and tanks VERY clean. I'm surprised because most large chains don't care for fish (Warmart a few doors down is beyond bad).

 

[canarsie11]

All i can say after reading all of these posts is WOW!

 

[jvis0606]

actually for those that replied that have had previous experience at petsmart and petco, that was really helpful and interesting to learn what goes on behind the scenes. i understand maintaining all of those tanks are difficult and believe that the manager of that particular store is probably the culprit. also good point about not getting the fish the first day they come in as they are likely too stressed. i just found that by the end of that week they are in tanks full of illness - lesser of two evils i suppose.