I recently 'rescued' a BTA from them. Looked miserable under whatever shitty lighting they had. Brought it home and its doing great. Hid from the bright lights for a few days, but now found itself a nice spot.
Petco- Butterfly fish
- Thread starter nursedude
- Start date
I recently 'rescued' a BTA from them. Looked miserable under whatever shitty lighting they had. Brought it home and its doing great. Hid from the bright lights for a few days, but now found itself a nice spot.
Str8linespeed
New member
I've bought 4 fish from my Petco and all are still doing very well! Now I will agree that they do not have the best practices and the tanks are usually full of Cyano as stated. Most of the time Im in there the tanks all appear to have bubblers going, Im not sure if their system is that low on saltwater and the pumps are just sucking air or what..
What I have found is you can wheel and deal on prices. I was in the market for a pair of clowns. Well they had 1 Mocha that had been there for at least 3 months and was priced at $40. They also had a small lone clown which was on sale for $14.99. Well I asked the gal that worked in the fish dept. if she would sell me the mocha for the same price since its been there for so long. Not a problem she said, it worked in my favor and those 2 are paired up and doing great! I also watched another customer get a $80 piece of coral for $20, I dont recall what it was, but I was surprised he got it down that low.
What I have found is you can wheel and deal on prices. I was in the market for a pair of clowns. Well they had 1 Mocha that had been there for at least 3 months and was priced at $40. They also had a small lone clown which was on sale for $14.99. Well I asked the gal that worked in the fish dept. if she would sell me the mocha for the same price since its been there for so long. Not a problem she said, it worked in my favor and those 2 are paired up and doing great! I also watched another customer get a $80 piece of coral for $20, I dont recall what it was, but I was surprised he got it down that low.
coralmoral
New member
I usually steer clear of chain stores like petco. Local vendors are more reliable.
The problem is places like Petco don't pay enough to get the proper employee to run their tanks. Do any of you think you could support a family on what Petco pays employees? I'm gonna guess most everyone will say no.
Petco will not close up shop even if they sold no fish as that is not their bread and butter where they make, money. I think they should do the responsible thing and not sell saltwater if they aren't going to use the proper care and methods to ensure people get quality fish.
I don't go into Petco often myself but I noticed a month ago the tanks looks amazing recently. They have hired a decent guy who has cleaned up the tanks and seems to have some reasonable knowledge. However, I find most the time these type of people don't stay long.
I have never bought a fish from Petco but I know local reefers who have and they have had positive experiences.
While some of you think Petco is bad there is an LFS here that has been in business for 40+ years and I can assure you their tanks are worse than Petco's have ever been here.
I will say this though and I can say with a lot of confidence. I have not been to a single store who QT's it's fish before sale and that's covering several hundred mile radius from me.
Sadly the name of the game with fish is the quick turn around and getting them out the door before they become ill or die this is a pretty standard practice in the industry.
This practice starts from when the fish is being caught and shipped to distributors and to the pet store and to your tank. Dead fish don't make money. The average cycle for a fish being caught and to the pet store is 7-9 days and it's basically a big game of hot potato. The consumer is usually the loser.
Petco will not close up shop even if they sold no fish as that is not their bread and butter where they make, money. I think they should do the responsible thing and not sell saltwater if they aren't going to use the proper care and methods to ensure people get quality fish.
I don't go into Petco often myself but I noticed a month ago the tanks looks amazing recently. They have hired a decent guy who has cleaned up the tanks and seems to have some reasonable knowledge. However, I find most the time these type of people don't stay long.
I have never bought a fish from Petco but I know local reefers who have and they have had positive experiences.
While some of you think Petco is bad there is an LFS here that has been in business for 40+ years and I can assure you their tanks are worse than Petco's have ever been here.
I will say this though and I can say with a lot of confidence. I have not been to a single store who QT's it's fish before sale and that's covering several hundred mile radius from me.
Sadly the name of the game with fish is the quick turn around and getting them out the door before they become ill or die this is a pretty standard practice in the industry.
This practice starts from when the fish is being caught and shipped to distributors and to the pet store and to your tank. Dead fish don't make money. The average cycle for a fish being caught and to the pet store is 7-9 days and it's basically a big game of hot potato. The consumer is usually the loser.
monkeysee1
Member
Yep. Which is why I would not so much as to buy a pencil from those bozos.
Saw a yellow tang in one if their tanks once - it was so pale it was white, flailing around on the bottom so much because the poor thing had a power head blasted in its face putting out current with so much force a Great White would have keeled over in there. The kid (he couldn't have been older than sixteen or seventeen) said " we don't know what's wrong with him but hopefully all this oxygen flow will help him". I shook my head and walked out, empty handed.
NO knowledge of the animals they are keeping, NO consideration for their welfare and NO system in place to ensure their livestock product goes to the customer in good quality and disease free. It's not just Petco either. It's ALL those anonymous big box chain pet stores. Pure marine disease factories.
But like many, I was stupid enough to go to Petco about four or so years back too. Bought a feather duster from them, thought it was perfectly okay - and safe thinking inverts don't get ich. Or carry it.
WRONG!! *buzzer*
Within one week after putting it in my tank, one of my seven fish had white spots on his fins. Within a week after that, I had NO fish left; my tank had been wiped out and I had to start over.
The WORST nightmare I had in this hobby - the hairs on my skin STILL bristle at writing this!
Now I only buy livestock from my LFS in town (the owners I have known for years) or I order pre-quarantined WYSIWYG fish and corals from BLUE ZOO or LIVE AQUARIA! And I put them in my QT tank for a month in addition to that as well.
I haven't had ANY issues with these stores and now my fish in my tank are doing great!
So do yourselves a favor, folks - NEVER buy ANY fish, invert or coral from ANY big box pet chain. You'll save yourselves a LOT of grief and heartache, not to mention in HEADACHES!
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