No more fish from Petco/Smart for me. High % die.

[Stan510]

After getting back into the hobby...I've had a high percentage of their fish die,and die fast. Not a thing wrong on the outside..they look perfect except for being dead. I hear they put a lot of salt and chemicals into the waters...and the fish just never look well as the days go by once you bring them home. Fish from LFS guy are fine,not all live forever but die from things i understand..stuck between rocks,jumping out. PETCO/SMART.fish..well,I have two crescent Molleys from LFS..and bought others four weeks earlier at one of the Chain stores. 2 chain stores died in days. Of the two only one is normal. Both from LFS guy on the other hand are obviously more vigorous and behave like Mollies should...no hiding low.
PET's Rams..never ate well..died. Electric blue Ram from LFS cost 3x as much..he eats hardy.swims all around the 8' tank.
Like that down the line. I wonder if I would even be still in the hobby if it was only chain store kept fish for sale?

 

[FishGuest5123]

I have a pretty decent Petco by me. “Chuck” is over the fish and knows his stuff. I think it depends on who is handling the merchandise. Before Chuck came along, I bought nothing from there. I also buy direct from breeder’s and shippers too.

 

[utahfish]

I worked at PETSMART about 15 years ago. I worked at 4 different stores over that time and it really comes down to each individual store. Some pet care managers and employees are incompetent and dont follow procedures and also corporate isnt always on the ball with policy. Really just depends, the LFS by me is a disaster the tanks are always over run with algae and dead sick fish so i sadly either drive about an hour to a different one or settle for PETsmart which is about 30 seconds away.

 

[Stan510]

I have three of these around here. One is alright..the other two disasters. The help come running from another part of the store. They are into being working employees ,not fish lovers or experts. I get that.
Its even depressing to me and sad to see the fish in the tanks..like captures of narco traffickers just kept alive until the money comes. To think, I use 45 years of experience to pick out of what looks to be their healthiest tanks. IT IS sad.

 

[Retired Viking]

My local petco is alright. The guy who works primarily with the fish is knowledgeable. It is when he is not around that it goes down hill. The rest of the staff seem good when it comes to cats and dogs.

 

[Stan510]

Here's a Russian LFS and that's in a country with one jillionth the economy of ours...fish for sale are in clean,roomy and planted tanks. A huge corporation like petco or petsmart should have an aquatic section at least equal.
Btw, I have some favorite fish channels on youtube....where would I write about them and link here? Some aren't even in english- like Russian..or Spain, (Mundys)..but videos are worth a thousand words.

 

[Retired Viking]

That is impressive

 

[Byron]

I do not have the numbers, but I would certainly expect the cost to operate a fish store in Russia is considerably less (in relation to profit) than it is in North America. I know two individuals here who each own an aquarium store, and they have told me it is basically break even when it is good. They are both hobbyists which means they have more interest in their respective stores than does the owner of PetSmart so they are more likely to put more effort in to the store. I have seen several local stores go bankrupt within the past 30 years; one was a chain (Petcetera) which closed nationwide, the others were individually-owned stores.

Another point about the health of fish from chain stores...here in Canada and the US I will no longer acquire fish from these chain stores. It is probably different in the UK and EU, but most stores in NA, certainly the chain stores, get their "bread and butter" fish from the same suppliers, and frequently these are the source of the disease. Several years ago I purchased some fairly rare as well as more common South American fish from the local Petland, and over the course of one year I began to notice that these fish were not living as long as those I obtained from direct importers from SA or even SE Asia, and what was worse, they carried disease/issues that subsequently affected my existing fish. Often these issues turned up well after their quarantine period, I think 18 months was the longest I observed. I was discussing this with a marine biologist on another forum, and she mentioned that she was noticing more and more cases of disease-ridden fish from wholesalers in the US. Internal protozoan was her diagnosis of most of the issues.

By contrast, I have never had disease issues from fish acquired in the individually-owned stores or the direct importer, with one exception when some wild caught Corydoras introduced gill flukes, but once identified that was easily resolved. This is certainly not the good record for the fish from Petland, or my two purchases a few years ago from PetSmart.

 

[Stan510]

That's it. Byron put it all together. Plants,lowest cost Tetracolor flakes..the chain stores are fine. Never again fish.
Internal problems are rampant in chain stores. I think breeders use them to get rid of weak stocks or strains at the same time. But,they just are not healthy..not your fault.

 

[Stan510]

For the first time since I set that tank up? I see ich. That's the petco fish. It developed a spot...the spot went away,and then a Bleeding heart that 2 years fine in that tank has it.
All I can do is change water and keep it at 78-80f. The safest way to treat it and with a tanks of snails and Botias.
Never,EVER will I buy petco or petsmart fish. I can see they buy from wholesalers who do nothing to pre treat or quarantine fish. They just use a conveyor belt of death for fish.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I personally don't buy fish from Petco or PetSmart. I do however but tanks from Petco during the $ per gallon sale. As was mentioned above, it depends on the store/location. I've seen some pretty good PetSmarts and some pretty bad PetSmarts.

 

[JuiceBox52]

It really depends on who is working in the fish department. For 3 years my petsmart was really good, pretty healthy fish, clean tanks and the guy, another teen like me was super knowledgeable. He has since stopped working there and the tanks are filthy, fish are dying and the other day when I went there they had treated all of their tanks with copper to kill off the pest snails, thinking the nerites and mystery would be fine! So all of their snails died. Tanks were infected with ich, half of their guppies had dropsy as well as a dozen of the bettas. The cichlids had internal parasites and were super skinny and a plethora of other problems. The manager was talking to me and was saying how much she loves keeping fish and that she has so much experience but all of her info was whack.

 

[LarsB]

While I am not a fan of the BIG BOX Pet Stores and find the selection and quality lacking at best.
No matter how educated, experienced or knowledgeable / enthusiastic an employee is at that Big Box, they are still quite limited by both the company's policy, practice and product. LET THE BUYER BEWARE, which is also good advice for ANY pet shopping experience, maybe there is an extra caution for those BB.
I would not buy a fish in those places, myself, but admit that I sure have in the past!
One employee I met recently there, we were chatting and another customer got involved, was all good, when customer says see wanted to get a pleco to fix her cleaning problem.... WE BOTH responded NO! And proceeded to help this gal NOT to get a common pleco, or any pleco that will outgrow her tank. I will look for that employee in the future! A rare find, for sure

 

[Stan510]

I just made a water change...swept up some detritus..but it was all small change stuff. The sands and gravel are not dirty..no clouds of anything. Just to help along the cure. So far it's one of five bleeding hearts and some rubbing by a Clown Loach. I also made darn sure the water going in was in the low 80's. The Angels are cleaning a sword leaf they are so inspired.
I might give one petcosmart a last chance. The other two,never ever again. One has red did their whole fish section last I was there ,and was closed for the upgrading. They are where I I got the iron..turned around saw that,wondered..and everything plant got better.
So if they have a new and better filtration and people who know what's healthy for fish and what's not, it's worth another visit.

 

[Retired Viking]

I had to take my car into the dealership about 45 miles away today. I stopped in to check out the petsmart there. I have not been to one in years. They had a great selection of aquariums and decorations but I was shocked when I saw the fish. It reminded me of walmart when they had fish. I saw dead fish and fish that clearly were infected. I walked out without buying any. My local petco is better, their tanks are clean and they seem to take better care of the fish. When I pointed out a sick neon they took care of it.