What about petco

[faithenfire]

i don't usually buy from petco. the one near me, i am not impressed with the quality of the tanks. i did buy an extra large cleaner shrimp from them though, he was very pale. but he was what the lfs charged for a little baby cleaner shrimp.

He is doing great in my tank. got his color back and likes to pet my gobies with his attennae

 

[bluekoi]

You know, what it really all boils down to is the people that Petco hires at the various locations. In our area, we have access to several LFS that range from 1) tell you anything to get you to buy something, to 2) really work with you and help you build something that will be a healthy habitat for your aquatics. Petco.... I honestly called the Petco customer service line about one of our local Petco's and described how poorly the marine fish were being taken care of......amazingly enough, they now have a new saltwater manager and the tanks are run by a really nice kid (I call a lot of people "kid" - I'm old) who is clearly knowledgeable and cares about his charges. We've ended up buying really underpriced scooter blennys and just a week ago, a dwarf zebra who is just beautiful and acclimating to his/her new home well.
There's good and bad everywhere. As the person buying - it's our responsibility to research and make good decisions and if needed, point out something going south and/or bad advice from a Petco or even a LFS store employee.

 

[Reef This]

Nah...people would still b*tch about the show.

My wife and I were in Las Vegas and my son loves the show, we went in there and met Nick, and talked for a while. I mentioned that I was interested in inserts as I am gone often for work, and he graciously invited us back later that night, took us in back, we met the crew and had a long conversation with him. At the time I was setting up a 220, and with work, I simply don't have the time to dedicate that I'd like, so I chose inserts. They built them, shipped to Alaska, and we've kept in contact. Good people, and awesome experience.

That 20 foot tank in the casino was a 4 1/2 month deal, not a 2 week build like the show made it to be. He told us how dramatized things are for the show, but very few things are rushed, and just thrown together. They don't do things that way.

 

[DSPs]

Buying stuff from petco is fine as long as you buy it the same day they receive the shipment, Iv got great deals at pecto because they price everything wrong majority of there employees don't know any better lol, petco in my town has a pretty nice store but petco is petco and I would never buy something that has been there more than a few days

 

[melvinakshay]

Petco sells the fish at a pretty low price compared to other LFS. In some instances at half price and also they do have sales often and that makes it even cheaper. I've got mixed reactions about the staff knowledge though. Some of them are really knowledgeable and some use live aquaria for information. The thing I like about their staff is that they always tell me upfront if they know about the fish or not.

After spending some moolah on the fish - I realized that the fish I bought from petland had a very high survival rate compared to petco. Petco has no guarantee on saltwater fish

I can't support local fish stores when they charge exorbitant prices. So it will be petland/petco for live fish.

 

[Paden]

Petco near me sux so bad that they are not allowed to sell any SW at all! Buying any thing from petco is BAD.The boy I met from their magnet store is even worse!

 

[Da Maui life]

IMO, the consciences is Petco has both knowable and inadequate employees, clean and dirty stores. Our Petco has a knowable employee for the SW dept who really cares and tries his best. With that said I think we can find many LFS who are just as bad, or worst then any Petco and I don't see many people complaining about them.


This place is like dungeon very dark half the lights over the tanks are off or don't work and really no filtration to speak of on the system.

 

[firebirdude]

You know, what it really all boils down to is the people that Petco hires at the various locations. In our area, we have access to several LFS that range from 1) tell you anything to get you to buy something, to 2) really work with you and help you build something that will be a healthy habitat for your aquatics. Petco.... I honestly called the Petco customer service line about one of our local Petco's and described how poorly the marine fish were being taken care of......amazingly enough, they now have a new saltwater manager and the tanks are run by a really nice kid (I call a lot of people "kid" - I'm old) who is clearly knowledgeable and cares about his charges. We've ended up buying really underpriced scooter blennys and just a week ago, a dwarf zebra who is just beautiful and acclimating to his/her new home well.
There's good and bad everywhere. As the person buying - it's our responsibility to research and make good decisions and if needed, point out something going south and/or bad advice from a Petco or even a LFS store employee.

Bullseye. Petco hires young people and has frequent turnover. So nationwide, you get a huge mix of everything. Some employees don't know jack and don't give a rat's arse. Some have three saltwater tanks at home and have been in the hobby longer than you have. My local Petco is the latter. The manager is a great guy. Tanks always look spotless, never once seen a trace of disease on any fish, always has a good selection of fish AND corals (mostly softies, but I've seen chalices and the like), and he will order anything you want and keep it in the bag waiting to be picked up if you like (if you're worried about it being introduced into the Petco tanks). The prices are always reasonable and once in awhile you stumble across a great deal. ~6" carpet nem for 21 bucks anyone?

And then sometimes you get tanks like Da Maui Life has posted. Craziness.

 

[Da Maui life]

I pointed out the dirty tanks, sluggish fish (photo above) and the employees comment was it's normal and we clean the tanks every week. This place is family owned and in business since 1979 what a joke.

 

[Betta132]

Our Petco tends to be pretty decent in the fish department. They usually have reasonably clean tanks, albiet with a bunch of algae in some, and the fish are well-kept. Plus, all the algae eaters actually get fed algae!

 

[baws187]

The fish at Petco here always have ich and one side shares all the water and if ones got it then they probably all have it.

 

[macaw1us]

What he said..

Both are irresponsible in my opinion

so lets see what tanked has done wrong. they don't state that their hour show happens over days, they don't talk about acclimation, they don't talk about cycling. they portray that it all can happen over an hour.
petco on the other hand. I worked there for a year as a manager and aquatics, you can not do anything to help the fish that petco veternarians say isn't ok. the p&p there really sucks and lacks a lot. you cant treat them, you cant dip them, you can only watch and tell people you cant do squat even though you could save the animal petco says its easier for them to just die.

so my verdict both suck!

 

[fishlee]

Occasionally they have good things

 

[Norcalhkr]

I think Petco is just like any other LFS, it all depends on the people working there. There are good places and bad just like with the LFS, some have great employees/owners while others are not very good and the shop shows. The same can be said for the local petcos, all depends on the people