I feel bad...

[PheonixKingZ]

It really depends. My daughter Abbey had a job at Petsmart for a time and was trained in pet care. I was surprised at how much she learned and how accurate it was. So I think it depends on the particular store, policies, and the working individuals. Not to mention the quality of fish they get from their suppliers.
Also, think of it like this...with all their education and training some doctors are top notch and then there are quacks!

Most of the time they may have policies, but no one follows them.

 

[vanalisa]

As an update on my Petsmart... I went by there today to grab a cheap heater for a quarantine tank. I decided to take a look at the tanks, and... shockingly... everything looked great. It actually looks like everything has been stripped out and removed in the past month or so since I complained. The gravel is a different color, a more natural color.... there wasn't a speck of algae in sight... and all the fish looked healthy. Their neons even had good color to them and weren't washed out like the usually are when they're in a small tank, borderline overstocked, and stressed.

I don't know if my email had anything to do with this, but man... it looked amazingly good.

I think it depends on the store, just like a Starbucks or something. I've seen some that surprised me, too at how good they looked. Glad yours shaped up.
I'll never get over the betta bowls they sell, though.
I guess my post was more about my own struggles.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I'm sorry. I know how that feels.
I try to avoid the fish area when i pick up cat food and keep my fish purchasing to my LFS.
If I do go by the fish aisle for something and allow myself to look at the tanks I always walk out crying inside, and often on the outside, too. Mostly because I know they are most likely selling things that will suffer, tiny betta bowls, incompatible tank mates, wrong sized tanks...etc Then there are so many fish sometimes in the tanks and they are in tanks at all I wish I could let them out. At that point. . .....
I start to wonder am I not then a monster, too?

Nope, you're not a monster! For one, you couldn't possibly buy and house all of the fish there. For two, that would only send the message that fish are making them a profit, and they place a bigger order the minute you walk out the store with all of that stock.

In a big box store, they're not fish, they're product. That's why I hate those youtube videos "rescuing a betta from petsmart" "Rescuing ALL the bettas at Walmart!" type thing. Yes, they might stop that fish from suffering. But the only message that sends to those stores is that those fish are selling well, and the next batch arrives.

You're doing a better thing in the long run by not buying from them if you disagree with their husbandry or policies. The people acting like they're rescuing them are only condemning more to the same fate.

 

[AbbeysDad]

Most of the time they may have policies, but no one follows them.

And it's those kinds of generalizations that result in unfair prejudices. You can find good and bad anywhere and everywhere.

 

[FishNturt808]

And it's those kinds of generalizations that result in unfair prejudices. You can find good and bad anywhere and everywhere.

This is definitely true. I was gonna buy some rasbora’s from Petco and as she was scooping them up, the employee noticed the spot of ich, and put them all back and let me know what she saw. Then, she informed me the whole bank of 4 tanks was all on the same water, so they would all have it.

 

[UnknownFishies]

This is definitely true. I was gonna buy some rasbora’s from Petco and as she was scooping them up, the employee noticed the spot of ich, and put them all back and let me know what she saw. Then, she informed me the whole bank of 4 tanks was all on the same water, so they would all have it.

that’s sad ?

 

[FishNturt808]

that’s sad ?

It’s better than her noticing and selling them, or not noticing at all. At least this way she was able to treat the tanks, which she did. So, yeah, not all box store employees are the same.