Petco, where I dont go...Anymore!(img INTENSE)

[yeame]

LOL this is a joke I have gotten alot of things at alot of pet stores and petco isnt that bad compared to alot of lfs and now every one needs to go to petco and save a fish give me a break it happened to me got my sohal tang out of a 15g tank on sale for 35.00 lets see a lfs do that not that I like petco but most of the lfs up in maine suck

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6780052#post6780052 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MAreefer1
lol...I think the staff that I was asking were "trying to act smart too"

Honestly, I live in MA, and I've had higher success rates with fish from PetCo (almost always the brighton store) than any other shop around.

As far as fish goes, I'm about 6/6 on fish bought from petco still being alive, whereas I'm 0/3 from Skiptons, 1/4 from Tropic Isle, 1/2 from Aquarium Gallery.

The fish at the LFSes look healthier, but maybe thats the problem. Maybe I give them more of the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes I think the only difference is that the LFS are savvy enough to pull out the dead fish.

Do you really think care matters that much when most of the fish are being sold in a day or two?


(Just for reference to the above statement:
Petco:
2xOccellaris Clowns(alive)
1 Bangai Cardinal (alive)
1 Coral Beauty (alive)
1 Cirrhilabrus Cyanopleura (alive)
1 Cirrhilabrus Solorensis (alive)
Skiptons
2x YWG (both dead, wasted away.. cyanide caught?)
1x Cirrilabrus Cyanopleura (wasted away...same?)
TI
1xYWG(dissapeared overnight)
1xCirrhilabrus Exquisitus (alive)
1xCirrhilabrus Rubrimarginatus(Never ate)
1xFlasher wrasse (wasted away)
AG
1x Halicoeres Iridis (alive)
1x Flame Angel (never ate))

 

[mjdlonghorn]

Petco doesnt care about the quality of their livestock. The only reason why they stock live saltwater fish is to get people interested in the hobby. When people see the pretty lionfish they have in stock they decide by buy the hardware. That is where petco makes money selling the actual aquariums and filters etc. I dont think petco is any worse than some LFS. I saw one LFS in town that had a 4" flagfin angel in a tank about 8" x 8."

Although, I should say that I have bought some very nice damsels and arrow crabs at petco.

 

[darkwaterdevil]

all of there saltwater tanks are run to a central sump same with fresh and its all waterchanged there same with one of my lfs. i dont think there great at all there stupid but the fish quality isnt bad because of them go in there every day and i bet you that the fish will sell fast all of the fish come in like that from the distributor. im not defending them. i work for a lfs so there the competition

 

[Ursus]

The fact of the matter is, Petco is not a specialty shop, so the employees and conditions aren't going to be perfect. Some will be better than others. The Petco closest to my house has knowledgeable staff and the fish look decent. However, the one on the other side of town is not as good. The only positive is they move the fish to customers pretty fast. Of course, then it's up to the un-educated first time owner.

 

[IPowderBlueTang]

We don't have Petco , but have Petcetra and sounds like the same attitude putting a med size 3-4 inch PowderBlue tang in a 5 gallon tank and its there for several months so far because they want $149.00 for it and the other LFS are selling for $59-$79 for the same size.
The person working in the fish Dept is wondering why it came down with Ich for the 3rd time in 3 months!
They also have a large Naso 5-6 inches in a 2 gal tank and there is all stress marks on the Tang like white camouflage marks front to back!
The employee ask me if an coral beauty can be put in with a Powderblue Tang and get along and I said they should in a marine tank and the employee put the coral beauty with the powderblue tang in the 5 gal.
They have a Brown grouper there for 3 years and can't sell him and they feeds the grouper all the dead goldfish everyday. They wonder why it won't eat flaked food or frozen. The grouper will spit pellets out of the tank if they try to feed it pellets!

 

[tkeracer619]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7227247#post7227247 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GTI2.0t
I am the aquatics manager at the Petco 2 miles from my home. Hearing some of your stories saddens me. It appears that a few bad apples can ruin the whole tree. I don't seem to have any of the problems mentioned here at my store. Yes occasionally we have sick fish, and yes occasionally fish do die. If you have ever kept fish as a hobbyist I am sure that has also happened to you.
If this does occur, say one damsel comes in with ich, I will put up a sign on the entire system that houses that fish(our systems consist of 12 about 15 gallon tanks and 2 about 30 gallon tanks, about 240 gallons total with a 20 gallon sump) and I will begin treatment and not sell a single fish from that system until everything looks better. I am not allowed to use any medications(which is fine with me). The way that coorporate would like us to deal with ich is 50 percent water changes daily until signs of ich are gone. This might help some but does little to help the fish that have it. Don't tell anybody but I do hypo. I just do it I don't need to contact some bigwig and ask him how he wants me to deal with a problem. I am the one there, these fish are in my care, I hold myself responsible for their well being and I will utilize the most effective means to do this.
Part of the problem lies in the fact that there is usually only one aquatic specialist in an average store. What happens when I am not there? Sometimes, employees give bad advice, or sell a fish to someone who had no business buying that fish. This has stopped happening since I have implemented a few policies(my own,not coorperate). I have posted compatibility charts for salt and freshwater fish, I make a list weekly of uncommon fish we don't normally receive and I list their needs and care requirements. I make sure all fish are properlly labeled and I do have a cellphone that I encourage anyone to call if they have questions when I am not there.
I also have been to some Petcos that looked pretty bad. I don't purchase items there and I will do my best to make something up to get some of there fish transferred to my store. The last thing I want is to allow them to sell sick fish or even support them by purchasing dry goods.
I have found that the key to success at my store is simple. Only order species I know I can properly house and care for. I could care less if customers come in and say " Comeon when are you gonna get something cool in". I simply say there are plenty of tank raised clowns, dottybacks,cardinals and the like to choose from and those are all very cool fish. The most expensive and exotic fish I have ordered in a year was a clown trigger. Came in about an inch longer and an inch taller than a pack of marlboros
((sorry its the only thing I had in my pocket at the time to hold up to the glass for reference....cough...cough...cough). After acclimating him(yes I drip my fish although p&p does not include that) I was happy to see that he was looking very healthy. I was a little nervous at first cause clown triggers have always been my fav agressive salt fish and I didn't want someone to sell him on my day off to a jack*** with a 55 gallon tank. But I left a note on the desk about him and hoped for the best. 2 days later he was still there and I was back to work. A customer showed interest in him, I put an under observation sign on his tank, observed and personally fed him for 7 days called him, told him he was eating fine and looked great. He came in that day and bought him. I gained a lifelong customer, and a clown trigger gained a LIFELONG home in a 220 with a dragon moray(thats it).

I suppose by now you can probably notice that I don't really have a point in this post. I am just simply embarassed by some of the stories I have heard and I just want to say that I can assure all of you that the fish at my store, in my fish department, under my care, are doin just fine. :smokin:

Can you make some suggestions to corportate about treatment. I bug the girls here at the local petco atleast once a week. There story is that they do not order fish that coast sends them what corporate wants. The recent fad at my local petco is to have 5-7 yellow tangs, a couple scopas, and other assorted tangs in there little 20g. they all have ich, even though they have 2 systems, they wont do hypo, instead they dump tons of chemicals into the tanks.

Another policy they have is not remove a fish untill it is 100% dead. Who cares other than the fish were it dies, in a cup or a petco tank is about equivelent.

Thank you for making your petco a better place. To bad the other 99% share nothing in common with your store and continue killing fish as I type.

BTW: I shop there on occasion for cat food and salt if it is on special. I have a petco devoted qt tank, 1.5 months ago i rescued a yellow tang from there "awsome" 20g tang tank. I picked the one who was nipping at the rocks and who looked like he had a chance. He has yet to recover, I believe he will make it though. Really sad for the begginer who has no idea and purchases there stuff from petco. They will never be succesfull, and probably quit.

One more thing, If you suggest to them any changes I wouldnt say you do hypo, b/c that means half of your system is down and corporate will probably fire you for helping the fish and reducing there capacity to sell fish.

 

[tkeracer619]

Maybe if you show your succes rate with fish survival, sales rate, and profit since you dont loose 75% of your fish to your heavily stocked and diseased tanks.

They might learn that fish CAN live in there stores for more than 3 days and that they don't have to push so hard to get them to the end owner.

 

[tkeracer619]

I could just keep posting and posting and posting.

How about you just give us top guys e-mail addresses.

 

[tkeracer619]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6368279#post6368279 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Worldwithin
There is a LFS near me that makes Petco look like the best fish store in the world.... No pictures available, but just imagine a7 - 8 inch emperor angel in a 10 x 10 cube. The tank was the length of the wall, but divided up into many smaller areas to keep the fish away from each other. This poor guy had just enough room to turn around, and that was it. Top that off with over medicated water (basically yellow water), and you have yourself a LFS that has no concern for its livestock. If it were not for the fact that I am unable to house that poor little guy, I would have taken it home to give it a real home, not just a friggen box to live in.

I wish there was somewhere that one could go to and complain about the conditions that some of these stores provide for these fish. I would comment to the owner, but I have a feeling that they really don't care. (I won't get into details as to avoid offending anyone). The only option that I can come up with is to inform local reefers to avoid the shop and spread the word.

I just about get sick when I go in there to see if there is anything I can save from them.

:fish1::hammer:

Who cares if you offend someone. If they do it.... expose them. They know what goes on and so should the public. Title it This LFS is worse than Petco, tell the owner about the thread, and say you agree with what is says. That you had to come see it for yourself, and wont be comming back. If they dont care they might at this point since there busness rep is on the line. Personally let him go out of busness, your quality lfs will benifit from it.

You do know how many people are members to RC right.

 

[grimmjohn]

Since January 1st 2006 my petco has sold about $2300 in SW fish...and our shrink is around 20%...which means that about $460 worth of SW fish have died in the store during the past 18 weeks or so. That comes to about $25 worth of dead SW fish a week. That is equal to about 6 damsels a week dying..or one small yellow tang...or a false perc and two damsels...or nothing dying for three weeks and then a powder blue tang coming in beat to hell and then dying one day later...and we keep around $1000 to $1500 worth of SW fish in the tanks at any given time. And we sell about $125 worth a week...some weeks just 2 damsels..some weeks $500 worth.

Right now in our store:
Betta - 60
6 clarkiis - 16
1 B&W perc - 40
6 cardinals - $20
6 firefish - 14
2 Pink Anthias (squamipinnis) - 18
10 false percs - 16
2 strawberry psuedos - 16
2 small snowflake eels - 18
1 medium snowflake - 30
3 saddleback clowns - 16
7 tomato clowns - 16
1 keyhole angel - 19
1 small regal tang - 40
1 small naso - 35
3 yellow tangs - 25
1 sailfin tang - 30
1 black trigger - 20
1 coral beauty - 25
1 small koran - 43
1 threadfin butterfly - 19
1 racoon butterfly- 30
about 25 damsels - 4
1 dog face puffer - 30
2 maroon clowns - 16
2 lawnmower blennys - 18
===about $1200 worth of fish...that's a pretty average stocking list...and out of that $1200 worth of fish in our tanks this week...$25 worth will die..on average. Most likely 6 damsels..can't do nothing with'em.

Tell me about another saltwater fish store that soundly beats that...anyone? I understand that some mega store is gonna have $10,000 worth of fish and so more will die..but at the percentage level? Anyway..I think we're pretty damn good.

Cheers,

grimmjohn

 

[tkeracer619]

Well put, now get the rest of the stores to follow suit and we will be all good. There are a few of you petco employees who care and to you my hat is off.

My local one was great when I moved here, now its pretty bad. The employees are nice and try their best but 90% of the fish in the display have ich b/c they cant do anything about it other than pour treatment into the tank. The yellow tang I brought home last from there came down with ich, black ich, and some white moth ball looking growths all over him while he was/is in qt. That is not healthy and he was the best looking tang out of 10 in the store. With a month of formalin dips, freshwater dips, and hypo I think he is coming around. At least you can't see through him anymore. It's honestly pathetic.

 

[Fishfirst]

at my lfs, we have a 5-10% loss of fish period. That includes saltwater/freshwater/ and brackish. 20% is a bit average for the coorparate folks and isn't good at all.

 

[tkeracer619]

20% = 1 in 5 die. I must have misread that yesterday. Still for petco 20% is pretty darn good. I dont think my local one pulls that off.

 

[grimmjohn]

The 20% is dollars, not fish..I think I explained that pretty clearly *shrugs.*

I checked and in 4.5 months I have killed
1 PBT -- $77-- came in looking like crap, died within 24 hours
1 dwarf lion -- $18-- came in looking like crap, died within 24 hours
1 half black angel --$25 -- never ate
1 black false perc -- $40-- no idea
2 false percs --2X $16 -- no idea, not bad out of 2 shipments of 24
1 yellow tang -- $25 -- no idea
That comes to about $225, which leaves $235 in dead damsels...about 58 to be exact...which comes to what? About 3 a week? Out of the 12-24 damsels that I order every week?
I went to a LFS this morning and they had just as many damsels in their tanks as we do..but they had 4 dead ones in there too..along with several waffer-thin PBTs and hippos.
So, minus damsels, I've killed less than 10% of the /dollar/ amount of fish we've had in the store.

Anyway...7 fish...fish that nobody could have saved...and 3 or 4 damsels a week...a LFS can have 3 or 4 damsels out of 24 die a week and it won't affect their percentages becuase they are not so dependant upon damsels...they can sell $2000 worth of tangs and angels etc...a week and so those 4 out of 24 damsels don't even register...but that doesn't mean that those 3 or four out of 24 don't die there too.

Cheers,

grimmjohn

 

[Orca33]

Holy Crap after reading all the post, I feel I need to put in my two cents. First off to the employee who works at Petco you are far and few between, and I am sorry for what I am about to say.
Petco is quite possibley the most horribly ran store I have ever been in. I live in Dallas Tx, and yes I am blessed to have a few reall really good LFS to choose from. I go to Petco when i feel like I am having to good a day and feel I need to be brought back down LOL. No really I sometimes go there to get supplies i.e. dry goods such as dog food. Everytime I go there everyone looks so depressed, you have some creepy fat slob running the register, oh and they always have at least five cash registers but only one of them running so there is not chance of getting out of that hell hole in a timely manner. The whole corprate chain pet store is probley ran by terroist, and yes I compleatly understand how things go. I got canned at Petsmart after setting up a 1000 dollar hospitol tank in back to care for sick fish. I did it mainly to **** them off cause I hated how the animals welfare was of no importance to them, and same goes fro petco. But with Petsmart aside Petco is a whole nother level of crap. If there was any part of the indrusty that hurts the Ecosystem it would probley be Petco,more animals lose there lives there than the whole world combined. (ok that might be slightly overblown.)
Down here in Dallas we have quite a few diffrent Petcos to choose from, they are all equally horrible. Ignorant employees, crappy livestock, ugly store, stupid managment, and above all else poorly ran. I pray for the day Petco goes out of bussiness.

 

[Pillz]

well after reading this I guess i should say some stuff. I dont think it has been metioned, but Petco has actually been fined multiple times, and Has actually been banned from some states from carrying any large exotic birds. They have multiple Animal crulty lawsuits against them from people walking into there back room and seeing how they keep there animals.

They are too cheap to buy cages for there extra animals so they plug up sinks and use them as cages, now even this could be passed over and seen as not that big of a deal, but not when there sinks all leak and pretty much the animals inside either drown or die of hypothermia from getting wet then not having anything to keep them warm.

As far as there fish section i dont believe that they should even try carrying saltwater. Due to low pay and how easy it is to get a job without any exspirence they really cant do it right. Im sure PETA has already started something with these guys and there fish section.. It probably wont be long before they start getting banned from carring all sorts of other animals.

 

[highquality]

wow! ive been raging over some stuff ive seen at petco for about 6 months now. i wondered if it was just me. the corals are always on a constant decline. some fish stores here in n.c. keep corals in terribly low light. ive even walked in a lfs that never tends to sick or wounded fish and seen a clown being nipped and harrassed to the point where it could barely swim. i moved it to an empty tank with my bare hands. it was connected , so smae water quality and temp, but how hard was that. could have been done days ago!

 

[highquality]

and the last thing i would want is one of the petco employees ( not the fewq good ones) bagging a fish for me..

 

[witfull]

many years ago, during a transfer, i needed some extra cash,,i applied at the local petco. i have been a LFS employee, LFS manager,livestock wholesaler, and done net capture collecting....

what do you think they told me?

i was over-qualified for the position.

i think that says it all~