Are there good Petcos?

[Aquat]

No there aren't any good Petco stores you can just walk in but Petco.com will sell you the same fish you can buy from LA, since they come from the same supplier but you will pay less, sometime much less thru Petco.com

Is this true? Can anyone speculate this? If I had known, I wouldn't of used my Pal Reward, it could of covered overnight shipping

 

[Calappidae]

Is this true? Can anyone speculate this? If I had known, I wouldn't of used my Pal Reward, it could of covered overnight shipping

IMO all their anemones look bleached to some degree in the provided photos but other than that not much I can say..

 

[Travish881]

My petco here in myrtle beach is an excellent store. The guy who runs it really cares and you rarely see a sick fish. Allays getting in new stock and have never seen ich or algae which is more then I can say for the other 2 local fish stores around here.

 

[alton]

Is this true? Can anyone speculate this? If I had known, I wouldn't of used my Pal Reward, it could of covered overnight shipping

Don't even compare Petco.com with LA! I ordered a Redsea Small Regal Angelfish that was available. With shipping less than $100, sounds too good to be true? It was I never received my fish instead after a few days it came back as back ordered. Of the few individuals that where lucky to get a Regal one came in as a blue belly (definitely not Redsea) and when they where called on it they where shipped a large yellow belly which may or may not have been a Redsea one. At least when I order from LA I get my fish that I ordered (unless UPS messes things up)

 

[pktech]

I'm 50/50 with Petco versus a few LFS around here. I've gotten great specimens & lousy ones. Petcos vary, like excellent LFS to flat out crappy stores - like any business, it depends on the people running them.

 

[HumbleFish]

Anytime I buy from Petco (which is rare), I consider it to be a "rescue" sort of thing. Fish goes right into QT and treatments begin. :lmao:

Now I have heard if you buy from them online that the livestock comes direct from Quality Marine. If true, it would be the same as buying from Liveaquaria. Except you probably won't get the impeccable shipping methods and customer service Liveaquaria is known for.

 

[Calappidae]

Don't even compare Petco.com with LA! I ordered a Redsea Small Regal Angelfish that was available. With shipping less than $100, sounds too good to be true? It was I never received my fish instead after a few days it came back as back ordered. Of the few individuals that where lucky to get a Regal one came in as a blue belly (definitely not Redsea) and when they where called on it they where shipped a large yellow belly which may or may not have been a Redsea one. At least when I order from LA I get my fish that I ordered (unless UPS messes things up)

I've had ALOT of species mixups from LA, but I can say the same about petco..

 

[Calappidae]

Anytime I buy from Petco (which is rare), I consider it to be a "rescue" sort of thing. Fish goes right into QT and treatments begin. :lmao:

AAANnnnnddd this is how I ended up rescueing two clarkii clownfish hosting two bleached condylactus anemones and then they nuked and crashed my entire 55 gallon system.. Why does kharma hate me.. :facepalm:

 

[KafudaFish]

I've had ALOT of species mixups from LA, but I can say the same about petco..

Please quantify what you mean by "alot".

 

[Calappidae]

Please quantify what you mean by "alot".

Quite a few species off diver's den, and special orders the LFS places.

I ordered a pair of camel shrimp and recieved two saron shrimp instead (actually have no clue what they are but they looked like sarons). My LFS actually questioned me a few weeks ago and asked if they really got camels.. which I'm assuming is just a repeat of the same mistake as before..

Every single mantis shrimp I ordered from them was a completely different species. They claim they sell "O. scyllarus" and even provide a picture of a true "O. scyllarus" and after several orders I only recieved G. ternatensis.. same story from the lfs as well, except they've got a G. chiragra from them once.

My LFS also claims they've been sending them the wrong tangs.. where they order in sailfins and get in the other variation (forget the name but it starts with a D)

Out of 5 orders I made to liveaquaria... 3 mess ups plus stories from the lfs is what I define as ALOT.

I've also seen a couple mis-id'd specimens in diver's den before.. once again a type of mantis shrimp being confused for a peacock just recently, and then two months ago they got in a Calico crab and gave it the wrong species name (They refered it as calappa calappa which is not even the same genus as the specimen in the photo)

 

[KafudaFish]

Did you point it out and get things corrected?

 

[albano]

Quite a few species off diver's den, and special orders the LFS places.

My LFS also claims they've been sending them the wrong tangs.. where they order in sailfins and get in the other variation (forget the name but it starts with a D)

Your LFS special orders from Live Aquaria/Divers Den ?

 

[Calappidae]

Did you point it out and get things corrected?

I called reguarding my G. ternatensis and they were kind enough to fully refund for it which I never asked for.. it ended up not eating for 2 weeks and starved to death on me so I don't feel as bad now that it got refunded.

I later emailed interested in trying again to see if they would actually send me the right thing months after that.. and what do you know another G. tern after in the email they said their manager would double check the species I'm requesting and make sure it's the right one before shipping it...


My lfs occasionally orders livestock from liveaquaria, not diver's den items that I'm aware of. If their main supplier, segrest, is out of something that a customer is requesting on special order than they'll just order from a different supplier based on whats in stock.

As far as DD I'm just saying from viewing the provided photos that they sometimes misidentify things.. I check DD daily and notice an error here and there.


So whats my point? We're comparing LA to petco.. if LA has plenty of flaws here and there themselves.. how is petco going to be that much better when they don't half the stuff as LA.

 

[biocube101]

My local petco seems to go thru aquatic staff like crazy. It goes thru cycles where they keep the tanks looking great and stocked to looking run down...

 

[albano]

We're comparing LA to petco.. if LA has plenty of flaws here and there themselves.. how is petco going to be that much better when they don't half the stuff as LA.

You realize that 'technically' NEITHER Petco (online) nor LA (not DD) has any 'inventory'... it's all sitting in Calif at Quality Marine, waiting to be sold and shipped. The mistakes are made by QM...the difference is when the wrong is made right by LA or (maybe) Petco

 

[Fishfirst]

Supporting the "good" petcos equals supporting the bad ones... I personally have never been impressed by a petco, and I have been to maybe a dozen of them.

 

[Joe0813]

I know the one in Quincy, Massachusetts is.awful. I was there today and every single fish they had looked so bad that me and my girlfriend felt awful. Bad cases of ich and other diseases.. foxface was so so k it lost all its color(forgot the disease name) but it was so sad. Ill never buy fish from them

 

[alton]

I thought Petco used CIS?

 

[reefrider]

My petco here in myrtle beach is an excellent store. The guy who runs it really cares and you rarely see a sick fish. Allays getting in new stock and have never seen ich or algae which is more then I can say for the other 2 local fish stores around here.

The Myrtle Beach Petco is full of Ich. Have you seen the Purple Tang they currently have? It is constantly scraping on the rocks. The Miniatus Grouper in the top tank has Pop Eye. Unfortunately I have witnessed them selling sick fish. Beginner and impatient aquarists is their customer base.

 

[Travish881]

The Myrtle Beach Petco is full of Ich. Have you seen the Purple Tang they currently have? It is constantly scraping on the rocks. The Miniatus Grouper in the top tank has Pop Eye. Unfortunately I have witnessed them selling sick fish. Beginner and impatient aquarists is their customer base.

I haven't been there in a few weeks but I am also new to the hobby they looked fine to me but I guess that's not the case lol. Where do you purchase your fish from ?