petco

[larrypoe]

None of the local LFS around here go through all the details of keeping SW as the average hobby keeper from what I can tell by this site. We have 3 around here who sell SW fish, corals, ect. 1 is a petco the other 2 are owned by the same family and are just in towns 30miles apart.

All three just dump the bags, fish/water and all in the tanks when they come in. same with LR they have a tank were they dump it in, the petco has a HUGE carpet nem in there "rock tank" and a few larger type fish but I realy didnt pay attention to the exact kind. the other stores have a cpl large starfish and a DSB. I have watched for almost 2 months now, seen prob 200# of rock dumped in/sold off/replaced several times each...the critters who live in the tanks perm have yet to show any adverse effects.

all 3 stores have corals and nems.....and even frags from perm parent corals....ect.....and there lighting isnt much more than the store lights.

for the most part there tanks are clean, though they are not exactly OCD about the whole thing...

My point here is, survival of the fittest isnt just for nature. In the case of captive bred animals of any kind..........those pampered to the max never go though a culling process that allows only the strongest to survive to produce the next generation. Nature provides that process in the form of weather, disease, ect...those who survive are usualy the ones who are better suited to our hobby anyway.

I worked for a major pork producer for several years...the bio security standerds we have to fallow would make your head spin.........the result, after several generations was an animal who was not fit to survive outside that system. In fact the few who manage to get out were almost always dead in a few days from the shock of thousands of bac and virus strains they had never built an imunity too because of there "steril enviroment"

I never keep a fish or animal who will not breed captive.....as i see it nature is only a place to get parent stock for future generations of "pets"...........not a place to keep supply on hand for us to collect :/....that parent stock then has to be bred to thrive in our pseudo environment we provide. Survival of the fittest is one of the best tools a breeder can use.

btw there is a very nice pair of $200^ clowns at our local petco i have been keepin an eye on for over a month now....I have about decided that is the pair I want to use for breeding that type.......they have already shown they can handle a few curve balls and are not as delicate as the ones who got flushed

 

[larrypoe]

btw.......idk about the petco (i forgot to ask)....but the 2 local owned stores do not have a RO/DI system ( i asked about buying water from them)...he told me he just declorinates the tap water(like I do for FW) and adds the salt mix.....theres tons of inverts, fish,corals, there and they seem to survive quite well.

 

[Dragon moray ki]

The one I went to they had a 7 in naso in a foot long tank I bought him and gave him to a friend with a big tank

 

[Fishfirst]

As a person who personally worked for petco at one time as well as several other stores and online vendors, there isn't anything positive that I can say about the chain. There is nothing that justifies their standards of loss (30%) except the complete lack of understanding by the company as a whole. Supporting this in any way, including the stores that are "above average" does not change corporate policy, but just feeds the bad stores more money to make mistake after mistake. It is stores like petco, walmart, and bad lfs's that are going to destroy this hobby.
In the end it is up to the buyer to weed out these places and support responsible husbandry practices or the scenario khowst described wouldn't be too far from the truth (as in a complete ban of the industry). Hopefully many petco buyers see this thread and stop shopping there as well as other lfs's that should not be in this business.

 

[larrypoe]

anyone who thinks most wall marts stopped selling live fish because of pressure from FW or SW keepers has totaly missed the real story. They stopped for 2 reasons 1)pressure from animal rights groups who are agianst the hobby as a whole and started letter campains that showed it was good PR to quit. Notice they only quit in the stores where it wasnt a big sale point btw........the ones who had good LF sales still have them, around here anyway. Wall Marts corp office isnt far south of me, and was a good solid business when Sam was alive. Now I wouldnt buy a toothbrush there let alone a fish or anything else.

All i am saying here is be carefull who you support and who you make your bed with. Animal rights nutts love to divide and pit different parts of a whole agianst each other. It makes there agenda easier to get.........and that is NO ANIMAL fish or other wise, held in captivity. Or used for any purpose for that matter. Not a fish a dog a cat or a cow.

 

[Fishfirst]

exactly, fueling the fire is not what we need and unfortunately keeping establishments like petco around is a gas can waiting for a spark.

 

[larrypoe]

and charging (therefor bringing attention too) large pet corps with neglect isnt the same can of gas? Not to mention taking heavy hitters out of the game (whos $$$$$ could help keep insane laws from being passed)

animal rights groups dont give a tinkers **** about the truth or the animal (fish in this case). all they want or need is a good story they can take to the press, and hope to draw the votes of people who prob have never owned a saltwater fish in there life (doesnt disqualify them from voting on bans though

I say this because for years and years I watched several different fractions of the hunting and fur trade fight each other right along with the animal rights groups. Hunters didnt like trappers, trappers didnt like hunters, neither liked fur farms..deer hunters didnt like dog hunters..ect ect..

and groups like PETA just layed back and fanned the flames, watching the pot call the kettle black.........they didnt care who was right or wrong..they just wanted to end any use of any animal at all.
One day sportsmen woke up and more and more groups put there differences aside and ban togather to fight ANY animal rights legislation. It broke PETA and HSUS back (not to mention there bank accounts) and they have for the most part looked elsewhere for an arena to fight.

In the case of reef/SW....all it takes is a few storys like this, and of course the standerd bunny hugger "save the (insert test subject)".........believe me this hobby doesnt have anywhere NEAR the $$$$$ behind it as the above ones did, to fight those type laws.

 

[Jamie9169]

Chain stores such as Petco and Petsmart should not be able to sell live fish. Leave that to the specialty stores that we as hobbyist support locally.

 

[Dragon moray ki]

I think that if petco stopped selling fish or at least got the proper people to take care of the tanks than it would look a lot better for the hobby

 

[Nina51]

We create a "Federal Fish Offender Database". Anytime a store has a fish that dies, all store employees, to include management and family members must register as 'fish offenders'.

that's all well and good but you forgot about the part where they are forbidden to live within 1,000 feet of where fish live or fish daycare centers, fish schools, fish bus stops, etc.

 

[Dr. Reef]

my personal experience:
Petco is Crashco.

 

[Jspires688]

The only lfs I have within 2 hours that I will even walk into is petco ya I agree they have some bad care but it's a lot better than the local lfs so if everyone boycotts petco What are us people who have nothing else supposed to do

 

[stifler51]

The only thing petco is good for is $1 gallon tank sales and good smelling dog shampoo (according to the wife on the shampoo part).

The only lfs I have within 2 hours that I will even walk into is petco ya I agree they have some bad care but it's a lot better than the local lfs so if everyone boycotts petco What are us people who have nothing else supposed to do

Id buy online anyday over petco. Im a firm believer in LFS as they put on a bunch of frag swaps and are active members in the local group, but id give my money to an online store that makes a business of selling coral/fish rather than a 'jack of all trades master of none' type of store.

 

[ironman187]

Chain stores such as Petco and Petsmart should not be able to sell live fish. Leave that to the specialty stores that we as hobbyist support locally.

I disagree, there are some very respectable petcos selling saltwater fish, two that I can think off of the bat, both sell corals, and both have fantastic looking tanks. One is a supporter of our local aquarium society, and has a dedicated stand alone frag tank as well as some huge display tanks, and tons of products your average petco does not have. One has a very small saltwater section (6 tanks) they recently shrank it down to that from 9 tanks. but the livestock has never looked healthier, somebody knows what they are doing there, conversely, there is a small LFS that my brother-in-law loves, they have two salt water tanks that look horrible, the livestock looks ok, but the tanks themselves are overcrowded with corals, hair algae, and aptaisia. Fact of the matter is, there are some VERY good Petcos out there

 

[clown_fish]

Petco

Petco

The local Petco near me isn't that bad, not everything is running off of the same system, however all of the fish are medicated before placement and inverts are running off of a separate sump. (so I'm told)

 

[larrypoe]

We only have a Petland.......and a 2 store/local owned LFS "chain" within 2hrs of me in the first place...that sells SW

all sell corals and inverts (which i have no interest in anyway) and both SW and FW fish.....all ran in nothing more than declorinated tapwater/ declorinated w salt added.......

standerd store lights.....nothing else. Rock dumped in on a weekly basis in there "rock tank" right along with the starfish/nems or whatever the perm citizen of that tank is....usualy 200lb worth at a time...ish and swings down to almost nada before its added agian.

I prefer to buy from these places, albet waiting a few days after "delivery day".....i figure if they will live there, i wont have much trouble keeping it alive at home

 

[SkullV]

My local PetCo has really cleaned up their SW Fish/mobile invert system over the last 6 months. Unfortunately they do have one tank with a single PC bulb where they "think" they can successfully keep clams/corals until they are purchased. I was sneaky today and got a photo. They also keep anemone's in the regular invert tanks under standard store lighting.

Poor inverts:

 

[ironman187]

My local PetCo has really cleaned up their SW Fish/mobile invert system over the last 6 months. Unfortunately they do have one tank with a single PC bulb where they "think" they can successfully keep clams/corals until they are purchased. I was sneaky today and got a photo. They also keep anemone's in the regular invert tanks under standard store lighting.

Poor inverts:

You realize, of course, that the turn around on that stuff is pretty quick, it doesn't spend much time under that light, and on that small of a tank, that lighting is sufficient for keeping the corals alive for a short period of time, it's better than standard PC lighting

 

[larrypoe]

You realize, of course, that the turn around on that stuff is pretty quick, it doesn't spend much time under that light, and on that small of a tank, that lighting is sufficient for keeping the corals alive for a short period of time, it's better than standard PC lighting

theres a pair of .....white clown fish :/....at the local petland thats been there 6months......and a carpet nem thats been there over a year :/.....standerd store lights btw and nothing else. not that the lighting is an issue with the clowns but they get prob 100lbs of rock added and sold off weekly out of there tank. they also sell frags off of there parent corals (about the only corals they get sold as the others are pricey) that carpet nem is prob 10" if its an inch :/ btw

the other "2 store chain" has 2 starfish in there rock tank that sees several hundred pounds of rock added and sold weekly to there tank....and there perm citizens in that tank and not for sale...........these 2 stores accualy sell a bit of coral, although not much and most frags from there parent corals....it also has nems in w CUC and rock added weekly/sold out of there tank (i figure the inverts are rock freebys but idk for sure) this store accualy has extra lights on there corals.....but its standerd t8 4' shoplights (couldnt tell ya the kelvin rating though)

 

[Tahoe69]

personally i have never seen a petco that had good healthy live stock. Every know and then ill walk into on and then walk out with nothing not even dry good i would rather support someone who actually cares about the health of the fish and corals. Not only do i get fish and corals cheaper at my lfs they are ten times more healthy. I once saw a tang literally almost all white cover in ich with other fish still in the same tank and a sticker that said under observation. Now i know ich is a hard thing to combat but that is not the way to do it!!