Unpopular Opinions (fish related)

[WhistlingBadger]

So Petsmart and Petco employees have horrible advice. I was told Gold Barbs would do  fine with guppies. They werent  fine, it was a catastrophe and I had to set up a tank just for the 10 Gold Barbs to be by themselves. They even go after Cory Cats and Algae Eaters. Just like Tiger Barbs, these fish are little devil fish, I'm telling you! Not a community fish Petco!

Nothing unpopular about that opinion on this forum! You're more likely to see posts about GOOD pet store employee advice, simply because it's so unusual.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

So Petsmart and Petco employees have horrible advice. I was told Gold Barbs would do  fine with guppies. They werent  fine, it was a catastrophe and I had to set up a tank just for the 10 Gold Barbs to be by themselves. They even go after Cory Cats and Algae Eaters. Just like Tiger Barbs, these fish are little devil fish, I'm telling you! Not a community fish Petco!

When I got my sunrise dottyback (a very active saltwater fish that requires a lot of swimming space) the PetSmart employee said it would do fine in a 5-gallon tank. Man didn't know anything.

 

[connorlindeman]

The one and only time I bought fish from petco I lost almost all my fish to ich. Didn't know a thing about fish keeping, so I bought meds for them. It didn't help.

 

[Silvermist80]

Nothing unpopular about that opinion on this forum! You're more likely to see posts about GOOD pet store employee advice, simply because it's so unusual.

That might be true lol, but who knows, maybe someone on here likes Petsmart/Petco

 

[Silvermist80]

When I got my sunrise dottyback (a very active saltwater fish that requires a lot of swimming space) the PetSmart employee said it would do fine in a 5-gallon tank. Man didn't know anything.

Who the hell has a 5 gallon saltwater tank??? It could be done I suppose, but I see no purpose in that at all! Not even sure what fish you'd put in it!

 

[Silvermist80]

The one and only time I bought fish from petco I lost almost all my fish to ich. Didn't know a thing about fish keeping, so I bought meds for them. It didn't help.

That sounds about right. If I ever buy fish from them again, which is highly doubtful, those fish would be in a quarantine tank for awhile!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Who the hell has a 5 gallon saltwater tank??? It could be done I suppose, but I see no purpose in that at all! Not even sure what fish you'd put in it!

Wouldn't put any sw fish in there personally. You could do a macro algae tank which is cool, but I personally would never set one up. Not even worth it to try corals in that small of a tank, because parameters fluctuate too much in that volume.

 

[jaylach]

So Petsmart and Petco employees have horrible advice. I was told Gold Barbs would do  fine with guppies. They werent  fine, it was a catastrophe and I had to set up a tank just for the 10 Gold Barbs to be by themselves. They even go after Cory Cats and Algae Eaters. Just like Tiger Barbs, these fish are little devil fish, I'm telling you! Not a community fish Petco!

I don't trust Petco and will by nothing live. A contaminated plant from Petco killed everything in my current tank's initial setup. I don't have an actual aquatics store in my area so have been buying on-line. Well actually I DO have a local store but just for fish. It is Dan's Fish which is actually mail order outfit but their warehouse is next to my apartments so I don't have the shipping expense. I got my Panda Garras through them. They are also helpful and will answer questions.

Only got one fish from this outfit but worldwidefishandpets.com looks good for fish. Shipping is high but I got my rope fish through them. The packaging was excellent with an over-sized bag in a styrofoam cooler for insulation.

Another good online store for plants, wood, etc. is wetplants.com. I've experienced some bladder snails that hitched a ride on some stuff but they are not really a problem snail and will supply free food if I can ever find the Cichlids I want. They also seem happy to answer questions.

 

[Silvermist80]

I don't trust Petco and will by nothing live. A contaminated plant from Petco killed everything in my current tank's initial setup. I don't have an actual aquatics store in my area so have been buying on-line. Well actually I DO have a local store but just for fish. It is Dan's Fish which is actually mail order outfit but their warehouse is next to my apartments so I don't have the shipping expense. I got my Panda Garras through them. They are also helpful and will answer questions.

Only got one fish from this outfit but worldwidefishandpets.com looks good for fish. Shipping is high but I got my rope fish through them. The packaging was excellent with an over-sized bag in a styrofoam cooler for insulation.

Another good online store for plants, wood, etc. is wetplants.com. I've experienced some bladder snails that hitched a ride on some stuff but they are not really a problem snail and will supply free food if I can ever find the Cichlids I want. They also seem happy to answer questions.

That's terrible a plant took out your whole tank. I learned the hard way to never buy their fish anymore either. I've had a very rough time with mail order fish. Probably because I live in Colorado and either our hot summers or freezing cold winters will kill them. The USPS isn't so great at handling live fish either. They put my live fish into a package locker box. I feel lucky I have a small, privately owned fish store relatively close. They give awesome advice and where I get all my fish from now.

 

[jaylach]

That's terrible a plant took out your whole tank. I learned the hard way to never buy their fish anymore either. I've had a very rough time with mail order fish. Probably because I live in Colorado and either our hot summers or freezing cold winters will kill them. The USPS isn't so great at handling live fish either. They put my live fish into a package locker box. I feel lucky I have a small, privately owned fish store relatively close. They give awesome advice and where I get all my fish from now.

I live in Sheridan Wyoming and have not had any issue with on-line orders but, so far, all mine have been mid-late summer-early fall so have not experienced winter shipping.

One thing to keep in mind if you ever do on-line is to never trust a place that will ship fish in any other manner than next day air. Even the plants I gotten have been 2-3 day shipping.

 

[GaryE]

One thing to bear in mind as you order online - if you are looking for rarities, your supplier probably has good sources. But if you are looking for standards, or common fish, odds are they will have the same suppliers as petsmart or petco. You would want to buy cheap and sell a bit cheaper than a store to make a go of it, in that area of the business.
Since the problems come, usually, with how cheap fish are raised to make them cheap, you can be in exactly the same place. At least at Petwhatever, you can look at the fish and decide if they look well to you. Buying fish from the same sources, but blind, is a risk.

 

[jaylach]

One thing to bear in mind as you order online - if you are looking for rarities, your supplier probably has good sources. But if you are looking for standards, or common fish, odds are they will have the same suppliers as petsmart or petco. You would want to buy cheap and sell a bit cheaper than a store to make a go of it, in that area of the business.
Since the problems come, usually, with how cheap fish are raised to make them cheap, you can be in exactly the same place. At least at Petwhatever, you can look at the fish and decide if they look well to you. Buying fish from the same sources, but blind, is a risk.

Except for my rope fish I have and will continue to use Dan's Fish. From what I understand he deals with only private breeders. Still, in general, I would agree.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

One thing I like about The Wet Spot in Portland is they generally quarantine their fish and make sure they've recovered from shipping before sending them on to the customer. I have actually added their fish to established tanks (generally a bad idea) and never had any problems with disease.

 

[Rocky998]

One thing I like about The Wet Spot in Portland is they generally quarantine their fish and make sure they've recovered from shipping before sending them on to the customer. I have actually added their fish to established tanks (generally a bad idea) and never had any problems with disease.

They are where I plan to get ANY new fish cause I have heard 0 experiences with diseases from them

 

[Chickenboi]

I think this is unpopular but I don’t know for sure. In my opinion colorful fish look ugly. To me they just look too artificial and are too flashy. I like the less flashy fish with colors like olive green, black, gray, green, etc.