What about petco

[woodnaquanut]

Granted this only came about AFTER they came out with a product line.

They are NOT service people, they are tank manufacturers. Their tanks are serviced by others, and routinely set-up by others.

I agree. Not many customers would be willing to have them fly out for the consult, fly out again for the install and fly to LA to pick out the livestock. It's a TV show after all.

In the other show, FTKs, the 'reef geek' doesn't wear glasses in real life! I think it's racist to put glasses on the asian dude that doesn't need them! Shame on you, NatGeo!

 

[woodnaquanut]

snf Vietnam and a few other places. Bali & Indo are the worst offenders now. PI is not nearly as bad as 20 years ago. Places like Cebu tend not to see any CN at all.

Quite often what hobbyists think is CN damage is simple CoC damage (chain of custody starvation/ handling, etc)

Thanks for the info, Gresh. I read a while back a test was being developed for cyanide captured fish. Wonder what happened with that?

I'm always amazed that any creatures make it thru CoC!

 

[Gandolfe]

The Petco by my house is giving saltwater a try again. They filled their tanks last week and I haven't gone back in since to see if they let them cycle or not before putting in fish. I run into the same thing as a past poster said, they get mad when you know more then they do about advice they give out!

 

[ninja66999]

i absolutely hate our petco in topeka, cant even look at the tanks! there is nothing healthy about it! there needs to be some sort of law placed for aquatic animals in captivity.

 

[GreshamH]

Thanks for the info, Gresh. I read a while back a test was being developed for cyanide captured fish. Wonder what happened with that?

I'm always amazed that any creatures make it thru CoC!

Well, first test Peter developed 20 years ago required the entire fish to be put in a blender. The easy run around was to hold the fish for two weeks prior to testing. Legally it didn't have much weight as decaying leaves can release the same byproduct the test looked for. I've got a dozen or so of the test certificates someplace.

Second one Peter and crew worked on, the recent one, did not require the blending of the entire fish, but the same run around could be applied. The test had its faults as well, and again, not much legal weigh behind it.

Now granted I could be recalling this wrong, but I doubt it

 

[Ligershark]

they all seem to be hit or miss with proper care

 

[MAVX]

About a month after I left the store I worked at, apparently they lost 2k worth of livestock from an ich outbreak.

I still get calls asking for help :lmao:.

 

[Mpek]

Do any petsmarts at all have saltwater fish

Not that I know of. Petco is alright but their fish employee's are.... children who don't know what they're talking about.

 

[kv2wr1]

About a month after I left the store I worked at, apparently they lost 2k worth of livestock from an ich outbreak.

I still get calls asking for help :lmao:.

This is exactly what happened to a local Petco that I used to go to. Local reef club members worked there and the fish & corals were healthy. When the key people started to find other work and left one by one, the livestock suffered greatly. I won't go to the said store now.

 

[HumbleFish]

I went by my local Petco today to buy an algae pad; and of course, I had to wander over to their s/w fish section. Everything looked terrible as usual; in particular a Dot Dash Butterfly was breathing very heavily and didn't look like it had long left to live. It could have been ammonia (they just recently setup their s/w section), or maybe parasites in the gills (all the other fish were rubbing).

My wife was sorta pleading with me to buy it & "save it". It wasn't that expensive - $27 or so. But I didn't do it for a number of reasons - I don't need to setup another QT right now, and I don't want to support Petco anymore than I have to (they are the only ones around me who sell the acrylic algae pads I use). Also, even if I was successful in treating it - what am I gonna do with a Dot Dash Butterfly? I have a reef.

But I've been thinking about that damn fish all day long now. Wondering how it's doing/did it make it/could I have saved it's life? Damn you, Petco!!!

 

[peasofme]

griping on the internet accomplishes a lot actually. petco and tanked are both awful for the hobby. spreading ignorance and death.

 

[Maivortex]

That's actually not true. Petcos standards have changed. Yes p and p does suck BUT you are aloud to dip them. And you can dose cloat and use melefix. Now I'm not saying these work at all but they can. ALSO when fish come in through our sourses we have the right to send back any fish that we has specialist do not see fit. I have and will always use that to my advantage...my distributor does not question me and I can write to them on my invoice with problems.

It is foolish to send fish back. You are exposing an already sick fish them to days of shipping, ammonia etc. When you have tanks full of disease, why dont you treat the tanks before customers start walking in and grabbing copper of the shelf and treating them for you. The
"aquatic specialist" is a joke, the aquatic specialist at my local petco does not know that a 40G breeder is 40 gallons and thinks they are stock when piles of these tanks are lining the walls. These people could be trained even if the turnover rate was high, its not rocket science.

 

[Bratyboy2]

I'm not saying all specialist are created the same...but I can say that I know when my tanks are good and when they aren't. We treat outside of p&p to better cure the fish. I don't allow fish in my systems that are half dead from a 8 hour journey. If they are simply just stressed I get them in there as quick as possible and give them a place to hide and turn the lights off to help them better. Don't group all of us together because its not fair

 

[carlso63]

2 comments -

1) When I lived in NY I recall the Petco SW section as pretty bad... out her in UT, however, they are actually pretty decent - other than the display tanks being so small...

But, then again, we are also fortunate enough to have some truly outstanding Marine and Reef LFS' out here as well... but the 3 Petcos I have been to all have at least 2 people on staff who know enough about SW to be helpful and not ignorant...

2) How does "Tanked" spread death? First off, they install tanks for rich folks who are not going to ever install or maintain their own aquariums anyway. After the ATF guys leave, I'm sure a pro maintenance guy takes over... I'd bet that, despite the cheesy fake corals and stuff, their tanks are better maintained than most in the hobby. Besides, it's a 1 - hour show about BUILDING AND SETTING UP cool custom tanks - NOT a 'how to' instructional video series...

 

[RandoReefer]

i absolutely hate our petco in topeka, cant even look at the tanks! there is nothing healthy about it! there needs to be some sort of law placed for aquatic animals in captivity.

+1 ninja66999!

I can't bring myself to go in there anymore. The Manhattan, KS Petco, on the other hand, is GREAT! They have a GREAT frag tank, and four rows of four stacked livestock tanks that are well maintained.

They have two professional staff who both are avid hobbyists, and provide SOUND advice for people just starting. I've since outgrown the Petco scene in terms of supplies and livestock choices (except CUC), but they are always great resources for questions.

These two employees also offer tank sitting services on the side. Of course this doesn't help you in Topeka, but if you are looking for something in particular or you want something ordered... Call them up.... True professionals.

 

[scubakid3]

While I have read this thread and agree and disagree with some of the stuff on here, I'm just going to throw my two cents in here. I knew there was a Petco by me, but i never needed to go there because i have been working at my LFS for over a year. I heard they had saltwater fish so i decided to take a quick look. The first thing i noticed as i walked in was overcrowded tanks, freshwater and saltwater. At least 15-20 (medium sized) fish in 5-10 gallon tanks. Ich was present in about 50 percent of all of the freshwater tanks and all of the tangs in the saltwater section were either dead or dying from it. I noticed they were doing some corals, but they looked very sick. I asked the "aquatic specialist" what the lighting situation was like and what the water chemistry was. He had no idea what the water chemistry was like and he said they used compact florescents. I looked under the hod of the tanks and almost all of them were clearly old and dying. Probably the worst thing I saw there was a green haddoni almost completely melted. I asked the guy how long it was in there for and how long it has been in there in the state which it was in. Apparently it got there two weeks ago and started dying after the second day. They hadn't even done anything to save it. I left disgusted and I have not gone back since. This is just my experience. There might be some excellent Petcos, i am not denying that, but the one by me is atrocious. And that is my two cents. Feel free to agree or disagree.

 

[peasofme]

99% of them are atrocious

 

[Twistofer]

Please end this thread

Please end this thread

:deadhorse: Can we give this a rest...:debi: :deadhorse1: :headwally:

NO MORE -- PLEASE!!! :uzi: :furious: :thumbdown

IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEM, DON'T PATRONIZE THEM (THAT MEANS "DON'T GO INTO THE STORE, DON'T SHOP THERE, DON'T GO NEAR THERE, ETC, ETC, ETC.

GET IT???

 

[rainydave]

no more -- please!!! :uzi: :furious: :thumbdown

if you don't like them, don't patronize them (that means "don't go into the store, don't shop there, don't go near there, etc, etc, etc.

get it???

+10000!

 

[kupadupapupa]

I like Petco, not only do they have a good selection of saltwater fish but they can special order fish/corals. The guy at my Petco orders things for me from live aquaria, blue zoo, etc... at a discount and it comes out cheaper for me that way them it would be ordering from them myself.