PetCo is terrible - Photos

[Reeferz412]

The Petco I rarely go to for their freshwater selection has a nice SW section. When it comes to the care of these fish in their stores. It all comes down to ONE thing. The store associate who cares for these fish. I can talk to the store associate in that store and he will talk for hours about his passion and care for the livestock and maintaining the tanks from water changes to keeping the glass clean. He keeps his own fish and loves what he does at the store. It reflects on the merchandise and livestock he is charge of because I never ever see a dead fish in the tank. He also asked to keep an isolated section for fish "under observation" which he cares for and will not sell. Again, it all comes down to who cares for that section of the store and how much they care for the livestock.

 

[toothybugs]

I even tried to approach it from a business aspect, I totaled the cost of the dead animals for a month over $1,000.00 and compared it to the next to $0 it would take to care for them properly and they refused. Instead they pulled me from animal care and replaced me with a Honduran who didn't speak English and made matters even worse.

I was in Columbus for a long while, which one did you work at? The one by the AMC theater by OSU?

 

[Neebles]

Our local petco had an employee that actually tried to justify keeping betas in small tanks by saying "you can keep a beta alive by covering it with a paper towel and misting it with water every once in a while" no joke

 

[Its.Evannn]

Our local petco had an employee that actually tried to justify keeping betas in small tanks by saying "you can keep a beta alive by covering it with a paper towel and misting it with water every once in a while" no joke

and thats why i won't support petco with anything besides buying food for my dogs. they can't keep animals of any sort responsibly.

 

[ReachTheSky]

For the longest time, I was very pleased with my local Petco. The manager of their aquatic department was very knowledgable, courteous and caring. He even drew a visual representation of the nitrogen cycle, along with timetables, right on the SW display tanks to educate customers. I really liked that! He actually cared about his stock! Fish, inverts and corals appeared reasonably happy and healthy. My friends and I made many purchases from there and we were satisfied.

Well, all of that's changed. I haven't seen him in a long time which leads me to believe he left or was let go. That place now is a huge mess. Everything is crammed, tanks are absolutely filthy, dead fish are dime-a-dozen and the equipment looks like it's been downgraded to hell. There were at least a dozen frags and entire SPS colonies sitting under 2x CF lights that were floating 3 feet above the water line. All of them dead or dying, as you'd suspect but the new workers had no idea and were still trying to sell them! I asked why they got rid of the 8x T5HO fixture and replaced it with something so inadequate and they just stared at me looking dumbfounded. I suspect the old manager fought tooth and nail against this and was either fired or quit over it.

 

[reefwiser]

At least are local PetsMart only carries freshwater fish.

 

[dustinkimpel]

Re reading this.. sounds like it was pretty harsh. However, Their conditions can really be improved and the staff trained. I'm sure the guy running the fish department is running it to the best of his ability and training. He probably knows his stuff for fresh water systems as there wasn't appearing to be anything to be wrong with those. I came to the conclusion that he hasn't had the proper SW training or knowladge by asking some basic SW questions. The conditions in the tanks were just really terrible and it took me by surprise. This isn't a bash on the employee as much as PetCos practices.

 

[syrinx]

Our local petco had an employee that actually tried to justify keeping betas in small tanks by saying "you can keep a beta alive by covering it with a paper towel and misting it with water every once in a while" no joke

This is true. I doubt the employee was suggesting it though! Truth be told when bettas were shipped from thailand years and years ago- some shippers did wrap them in wet paper and put several together in a air filled bag with little water. Again not advocating it- but it did work well. It is a interesting bit of history, and I hope the employee knew and told the entire story.

 

[melvinakshay]

This is true. I doubt the employee was suggesting it though! Truth be told when bettas were shipped from thailand years and years ago- some shippers did wrap them in wet paper and put several together in a air filled bag with little water. Again not advocating it- but it did work well. It is a interesting bit of history, and I hope the employee knew and told the entire story.

I think the beta gets its oxygen from the outside air. Its somewhat like a lungfish in that aspect.

 

[Clownen]

Everytime I go into Petco and check out the fish, it sickens me when I see a Mandarin Dragonet in a 10G cube with a piece of fake plant floating in it. Then I watched the employee try to feed him flake food. I continuously see this knowing that they would not survive. Stuff like that just kills me.

 

[thenewguy997]

I feel bad for bettas, they sit in a tupperware CUP until theyre sold

I mean sure they hardly swim but cmon dude...

And its not just petco

I mean honestly if you think petco is bad you should see the BEEP that happens overseas

 

[JoeSchmo615]

I used to work there, but not for long. I soon quit because of how they cared (or lack there of) for their animals. I was a supervisor w/ my store manager backing me and I tried to do things the right way with all the animals including the fish, but soon was reprimanded by upper management and corporate for not doing things the Petco way.

Pretty ridiculous. I am not trying to exaggerate, but if these large pet store chains choose to not adequately take care of their animals and only care about making profit then they are no different than some poacher killing an elephant for their tusk. I never go into those large pet store chains to buy fish so I couldn't tell you how the fish are doing at petco near my house looks, but maybe I will go scout it out tomorrow when I grab some dog food.

I don't understand how these large pet store chains can't have an employee who is trained in both freshwater and SW. Petsmart and Petco definitely have the money to send people to train their employees or even have an employee that is knowledgeable in SW to strictly be in charge of taking care of the fish at multiple locations in an couple mile radius. I can think of at least 3 petsmarts in a 15 mile radius from my house. There is no excuse for your fish population to be dying out a pet store because they werent being adequately taken care of. If they were taking dogs out front and shooting them people would have something to say then.

They could even have regional conferences where a store would send one or two employees to be educated in how to adequately take care of all the tanks. If they weren't strictly about making their money they would have done this already.

 

[syrinx]

buying food and supplies at these stores subsidizes their marine section. It can be a loss leader if something else pays the bills. Of course people would rather shop there to save money on pet food and supplies, and then complain about the animal care. Spend more elsewhere, and ignore a problem you cannot solve any other way.

 

[VonUberReefer]

Petco in my area is ok sometimes, but rarely

 

[Kyle954]

Not trying to start a riot in here but I went to a petco in boca raton (south florida) over the weekend and was quite surprised at their livestock, very healthy looking.

Have seen some LFS around me with dead fish all over the place.

six of one and half a dozen of the other
:beer:

 

[SnoopyDaPimp]

The PetCo in Peoria, AZ by the Cardinals stadium isn't too bad. Staff has always been helping especially when I was starting my first tank. For my FOWLR tank I bought probably half of my fish from them. However, I would go in Wednesday morning when the shipment came in and picked the fish out of the box before the bags they were shipped in got opened.

 

[lutz123]

Too bad. Our local petco is pretty decent. I bought a fish there once and never had issues.

 

[phillrodrigo]

It really all depends on who works there. The one near me had a girl who knew enough. Tanks looked fine kept a decent mix of fish and then started a frag tank and a qt tank for sick fish. Then she left and the new person orders the weirdest stuff that no one buys for a reef alot of fish only fish multiple kinds of triggers non reef safe wrasses parrot fish groupers. The one guy said he put a small clown in one of the tanks and the panther grouper just ate it. He actually thought it was funny. The part I really don't understand is why all there freshwater tanks look so good but there salt not so much

 

[that Fish Guy]

It really all depends on who works there. The one near me had a girl who knew enough. Tanks looked fine kept a decent mix of fish and then started a frag tank and a qt tank for sick fish. Then she left and the new person orders the weirdest stuff that no one buys for a reef alot of fish only fish multiple kinds of triggers non reef safe wrasses parrot fish groupers. The one guy said he put a small clown in one of the tanks and the panther grouper just ate it. He actually thought it was funny. The part I really don't understand is why all there freshwater tanks look so good but there salt not so much

There is a lot more to learn about Saltwater than Freshwater.

I have been doing this for 5 Years and spend hours and hours on forums like this and still have a ton to learn.

I did Freshwater for 20 Years and never did anything on the internet.

I never even tested my water once in 20 years and had no problems.

Reefing is a lot more demanding.

I think that most of these workers would not put in the time to learn.

Plus you would have to do it at home and not get paid for it.

You truly need to be passionate about saltwater to be successful in my opinion.

Not so in Freshwater.

 

[MDreefer301]

I went to petco befire and the guy tried to sell me a condy anemone only he told me it was a candy anemone because it looked like candy lol... what a dumb***