Never go to petco!!! Pictures!

[sharkfinsean]

Hello,
I have been in the hobby for almost a year now. I have a 29 gallon reef tank with some Zoas, Palys and ricordias as well as 2 clownfish. I would like share with you what I have experienced at Petco in the past year. The closest pet store to where I live is a Petco and for my first fish, I go to Petco and purchase 2 Ocellaris Clowns and within a week of having them, one of them gets ich. I frantically go out and buy some medicine and a hospital tank and after 2 days of treatment I lose my clownfish and in the next couple months, the 2nd clownfish swims into the back of the tank and dies. I buy 2 more clownfish from Rick's Fish & Pet in Frederick, MD and I have both of them right now, they are happy and healthy. In November, I go back to Petco and I purchase a Flame Angelfish, which contracts ich within 2 days of having it and again I set up the hospital tank and put in the medicine and after 3 days of what seemed like progress, she was swimming upside down and laying down on the bottom of the tank. I go to Petco that morning to talk to the manager about the sick fish he had sold me, he tells me that the ich is my fault and pretty much called me a lair after I had informed him he had sold me a sick fish (ich is in the fish for a few days before you start to see symptoms). So I go back home and I check on my Flame angel and she is dead. Fed up, I call Petco's customer service hotline and I talked to the first guy for about 3 minutes before he transfers me to his supervisor and after like 5 minutes with this person, I am transferred to the next supervisor and after a couple more minutes of talking to this guy, he tells me he will contact his supervisor so he can help me and call me back, he confirms my phone number and says his boss will call me back in 15 minutes. Needless to say I never got a call back and I asked my father to help me to compose a letter to Ms. Razia Ritcher, the Senior Vice President & Chief Customer Champion. After a week of no reply, I get an email with a $60 dollar egift card attached, with no apology or anything to say what it was for and somehow, the store contacted my father and said that I get a free Flame Angel. Petco gets their shipments on Fridays and they don't ship a Flame Angel for 2 weeks and when they finally got the shipment, we had to call them to find out what was in their shipment and I had track practice so my dad had to go pick it up and the manager never apologized for offending me. On Sunday my mom went to the food store right next to Petco and because my little sister loves hamsters and I love fish I offer to take her into Petco. That was the worst visit to Petco I have had to date, first off, I was never greeted, next I saw possibly the most neglected tanks I had ever seen, I see their entire marine fish system smothered in algae and dead and sick fish, I counted 4 dead fish in one tank, these fish were being consumed by one of the Chocolate chip stars, these fish must have been there for a couple of days. So I take out my phone to take pictures of the tanks so I can try to resolve this issue with the customer service hotline but as I am doing this, the employee whom hasn't spoke to me up until this point (I have been here for a good 30 minutes and still have not been greeted or helped), she raised her voice and with an attitude said "You can't take pictures in here".
Here are the pics:



So I stopped and as my mom walks in, my little sister runs to my mom to get her phone to take pictures of the Glofish because she really liked them and again with a way worse attitude then she gave me she told my sister the same thing. We walked out without saying anything else, as soon as I got home, I called the Hotline and after being transferred AGAIN, I inform the man of what happened and I sent him the pictures by email and asked for him to inform me what happened when it does, he said he would have someone sent out to investigate and I haven't heard anything from him since. And if you have read this far, I would like fr you to do me a favor, tellt his story to everyone you know and never shop at Petco for any pet, please use any other store that sells reliable fish or other pet products, these employees don't care about little children, please never give these people another dime.
Thanks for reading
~Sean

 

[Salmo salar]

Thats terrible.
I have seen some ich and some pretty sick looking tanks in a couple petcos before as well. I have also seen some very clean stores with good fish and nice frag tanks. I think it more depends on the employees in the particular store and not so much the corporate part when it comes to clean tanks and disease free fish. I would buy fish from petco in Augusta Maine anyday. Plus, where else can you find a 40B or a 20L for a dollar a gallon? Most companies are out to make money, the staff is poorly paid, too bad every petco couldnt be as good as mine. I hope they clean yours up soon! Keep calling them and sending pics, they hate that!

 

[Mxman38]

Or petco gives away anemones cuz their light and filtration sucks... Its pretty sad

 

[mbingha]

As bad as the pictures are, it's your fault your fish died. Always assume they have ich and quarantine. Bottom line.

 

[spieszak]

As bad as the pictures are, it's your fault your fish died. Always assume they have ich and quarantine. Bottom line.

This is stated a bit harshly, but there is some truth there also.
Your TANK now likely has ich, and you need to remedy that, or it will continue to be a problem. Head over to the disease forum and check out the stickies on ICH so you don't continue to have problems. You'll be happy you did.

Petco seems to be pretty high on the list of vendors 'we hate', but some of their stores do a pretty good job. A lot of that depends on who manages/works their saltwater stock.

The bigger thing here is that very few vendors are in the business of 'keeping' fish, they are in the business of selling fish. You'll find over time that the onus lies on you to ensure their health, and that starts with proper QT procedures. Even the highest rated stores can't catch everything and the sooner you adopt the responsibility of ensuring your livestock is healthy, the happier your fish/tank and YOU will be.

 

[Mark9]

My Petco is not like that.
You also need to take some responsibility for your fish, and maybe stop blaming everyone else.
I've seen dead fish in every pet store I've been in.

 

[Recliner]

I have had ich in my tank since the very beginning. (I bought an existing set up when I first started) In the first couple months I lost fish and thought it was the store's fault or just from the move. After a while I realized my tank wasn't settled and healthy. Now, all the fish I've bought in the last year have either caught ich from my tank or had it already, but they recover and live happily in my tank after the ich flare up in the first couple weeks.

 

[Cstaricansrfer1]

I can understand your pain, but agree with the others in saying that it is your responsibility to make smart decisions when purchasing fish, and they probably should have been QTed before entering your display. If the tanks looked so terrible that should have been a red flag to probably not buy the fish.

Not trying to bash anyone, and I know that retail customer service can be a real pain in some places, but as stated by someone else there are some Petcos that really do a good job, even though many do have poor husbandry.
I have two Clownfish still doing great that I bought from Petco about 4 years ago.

Good luck in the future.

 

[skidoctor]

I'm guessing that you're a young kid that hasn't done much research in this hobby. Nowhere did you list your tank parameters, methods of acclimation, nature and methods of your hospital tank, etc. It seems as though you bought these fish on a whim, as you could not have observed them prior to purchase. Otherwise you knowingly purchased sickly fish. Whether a LFS tank has ich or not, it is you're responsibility to ensure the health of the fish- qt tanks, medicine, etc. You were issued a refund of sorts after complaining to anyone that would listen at the store, and then hotlines and so on. Did you really expect a parade of greeters after that? And furthermore, you consciously decided to buy more fish from the same place you complained about in the first place, as opposed to using your unwarranted gift certificate on hardgoods, food, or anything other than livestock.
People's ignorance and self-entitlement boggles my mind more so than any sales practices of a capitalistic business.

 

[Guss]

I recently purchased a Kole tang from our local petco. He has been in our Qt tank for about a month now. He had some signs of ich when I got him and I knew it. (I took the chance anyway). Brought him home put in quarantine tank and started medicating him. He is very healthy, happy and patiently waiting his 8 week stay in Qt before being transferred to the display tank. Always QT your fish before adding to your display tank. An ounce of prevention goes a long way, regardless where the fishes come from. To see the Kole Tangs pic search my post. He is awesome!!!!!!!!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2357375

 

[blakeorme]

Wow.... Yes, you should quarantine, it's easy to be impatient, but well worth the effort for the fish and yourself to quarantine. However, I'm amazed at the lack of support this group is showing. If people walked into a pet store and saw diseased cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, etc...dying people would be outraged.

 

[Meanstreet5150]

Wow way to much drama for a damn fish. And do yourself a favor, stay out of Petco.

 

[jimmy n]

Anyone miss the flame angel in a 29 gallon tank? I hate to pile on, but you need to check your house for glass before you throw stones

 

[FishAddict87]

Too many petco threads. I would recommend doing a search on here and reading those. No need to throw gasoline on the fire. Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[OrQidz]

I don't think there is a lack of support in the responses, just maybe not a lot of sympathy for them OP's laundry list of complaints about customer service, etc. We all know we should be QT'ing every new fish, but how many of us learned this the hard way? (I did). But, once you know better, don't fail to QT the fish you know come from a place that sells fish with ich. My Petco is very clear they do not issue any kind of guarantee on marine fish or inverts. They also most definitely knowingly sell fish with ich/velvet which I find appalling. Hence I go and look at the marine selection but I don't buy anything there.

Rather than get all huffy about not being properly greeted, etc, if you don't think you are being treated well as a customer, take your business elsewhere. Time honored method of supporting businesses you feel meet your needs. In my experience the big chain pet stores are understaffed and the employees are pulled in a lot of different directions.

 

[FishAddict87]

I don't think there is a lack of support in the responses, just maybe not a lot of sympathy for them OP's laundry list of complaints about customer service, etc. We all know we should be QT'ing every new fish, but how many of us learned this the hard way? (I did). But, once you know better, don't fail to QT the fish you know come from a place that sells fish with ich. My Petco is very clear they do not issue any kind of guarantee on marine fish or inverts. They also most definitely knowingly sell fish with ich/velvet which I find appalling. Hence I go and look at the marine selection but I don't buy anything there.

Rather than get all huffy about not being properly greeted, etc, if you don't think you are being treated well as a customer, take your business elsewhere. Time honored method of supporting businesses you feel meet your needs. In my experience the big chain pet stores are understaffed and the employees are pulled in a lot of different directions.

I agree with this. My local petco has recently implemented a 30 day guarantee on saltwater live stock. The manager actually told me and she stated that they are revamping their tanks. I see improvements in the sense of them looking clean but no improvement in livestock's health. I just hope they clean up their act because this has been an ongoing problem for many many years.

 

[sh0ck]

"30 day guarantee" is just stupid as shop cant stop u killing it by 1000 ways possible.

OP complain about ich and all his next fish went right into display... it is sad even comment it... while he so rude blame shop.

 

[treetopflyn]

I see the same thing at All Fish and All pets every time I go in to see if things have changed and the never do.

 

[Nanook]

Interesting first post. We typically don't allow "vendor experience" threads until a member has been here for 90 days and accumulated 50 posts, and then we only let them post in the proper forum. Being that you are new here, and that there is a lot you can learn here, I am going to let this thread continue as long as it doesn't get out of hand.

In the meantime, why don't you do some reading and tell us about your tank so we can see if there is something, besides not quarantining, that might help you. How old is your tank, what type of filtration do you have, tank chemistry parameters, etc?

Ultimately, we are responsible for our choices of where we shop. You can speak with your dollars better than you can with posts like these, as most of us here are pretty knowledgeable about the differences in chain store fish departments and quality local fish stores with veterans running the tanks, buying fish and assisting new folks.

 

[j tavares]

The petco by me is pretty good the fish are healthy and their prices are fairer than the local pet store which has outrageous prices on marine fish, Region to region I bet it really differs and I hope petco will hire people who are actually aquarists and know how to take care of fish. GOOD LUCK!