Where do petco fish come from?

If you ask them they will give you a list of what they can order from their wholesaler. I have gotten the lists a couple times and it even has the wholesaler name on it.
 
each Petco is different and they order them different from animal vendors. The same guy that brings in the parakeets and hamsters also brings in the fish shipment as well. the one I worked at ordered them from the crappy vendor hence we had crappy fish. you can always request to get better quality fish to be ordered for you there as long as it's in their system. you can also order their fish online now.
 
There is one in OKC that is, for the most part, pretty solid. The people working in the fish section are reefers and apparently management lets them do things more or less right. Their coral tank is way under-lit and normally looks pretty bad, but their fish are normally healthy (as much as any other LFS) and well cared for. I have a few fish I bought from them and they're still happy and healthy.
 
They get their fish from the same wholesalers as any lfs, I do know that they can get things from quality marine, a & m aquatics, ora, sustainable aquatics and some others. It depends on where the store is.
 
There used to be a great Petco near my old house, they had a kid working there who knew reefs & they let him do his thing. He'd hold the fish in their shipment bags on Tuesdays till I got there & let me pick what I wanted. Alas, he went to school and their tanks went downhill fast. The ones in the area I'm in now aren't good either. Never did ask where they got them from, but this was about 8 years ago.
 
Back when i worked at a petco, we got our fish from the same place all the lfs would get most of there stuff. Apet is a large wholesaler from chicago they got most of their stuff there. ORA would send some things, like clowns, bangaii cardinals, etc. they would a lot of the time do a "push" from ora, meaning they would have a surplus of fish and dump a crap ton of stuff on the stores. from what i hear the large wholesalers from chicago generally will have stuff set aside for the box stores and leave nicer stuff for the lfs. i dont see any truth in that though.
 
I agree that some Petco's are in bad condition and I'd never buy a fish from them. I have seen many dead fish in their tanks, which is fine, I know it happens (does at my LFS/reef shop as well). But, when you see a dead fish that has crap growing on it, that is another story. Most LFS will remove dead fish when they see them, but all too often I've seen some in the local Petco that have been in there for a while.

As far as ordering online, I've never done that from them. I was looking over their website yesterday to compare a price for some carbon, and decided to look through their fish list. This is the first time I've ever done that and I was surprised at their selection. They are having a huge sale on their mail order fish right now as well, so I was quite intrigued. A regal angel has been on my wish list for a long time, and they have a really good sale going on for them. So, I decided that I would give them a shot. I know it's a shot in the dark, but well worth the attempt in my eyes for the price. I'll be keeping it in my hospital tank until I am confident it will make it and has no parasites. If in fact they do get their fish from the same suppliers as Live Aquaria and other big fish retailers, then I think mine will have just as good of a chance as any. I'll update this once I get the fish. We shall see what happens...
 
tpenn187 said:
Back when i worked at a petco, we got our fish from the same place all the lfs would get most of there stuff. Apet is a large wholesaler from chicago they got most of their stuff there. ORA would send some things, like clowns, bangaii cardinals, etc. they would a lot of the time do a "push" from ora, meaning they would have a surplus of fish and dump a crap ton of stuff on the stores. from what i hear the large wholesalers from chicago generally will have stuff set aside for the box stores and leave nicer stuff for the lfs. i dont see any truth in that though.
Click to expand...


My store gets some stuff from APET as well. I'm in CT. I'm an Aquatic Specialist, so I'm in charge of maintaining the department and stuff. Most smaller Petcos get their stuff from local wholesalers and it's decided on a regional basis. We can however get special orders from other vendors such as Segrest Farms, APET, etc. A lot of the bigger Petcos on the east coast get their stuff from Segrest.

aleonn said:
So true haha
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Not necessarily. You just have to find one that has a knowledgeable Aquatic Specialist and is well staffed enough that it gets done. A lot of the time the lower volume stores will have these problems unfortunately, because there just isn't enough payroll to have someone back there all the time.

Sadly 99.9999% of Petco workers know nothing about fish, especially marine fish and inverts. This included managers which is probably the saddest thing of all. One would think that if you're going to be managing a store you should know something about the most expensive animals you have.
 
It is sad that ORA ships its stuff out knowing more then half of it will die at the hands of corporate policy.

I have a lot of ORA sps. It is top notch stuff. I guess they have to pay the bills but I think it is a bad PR move.
 
Lots of reefers drop $$$ on fish and corals on here and then post "how do I take care of it?" In that case it doesn't matter where it comes from...:spin2:

I'd love to have a gem tang, can afford it, but I also know better with two zebrasomas and a large sohal already established in my tank that would jeopardize a rare and high dollar tang. Not fair to it or smart for me!

FWIW I have a yellow, a sailfin, and two pj cardinals that are going on 5 years old from petco. I also have what appears to be a Tyree green leather and some nice palys I found there for $25 which are going on 5 years old too.

I still go look for that diamond in the rough or something that is really mispriced, but using common sense on buying what looks good, is acting right, and what your tanks can support is the best advice no matter where you get it!
 
Stanley-Reefer said:
I also have what appears to be a Tyree green leather and some nice palys I found there for $25 which are going on 5 years old too.
Click to expand...

I always get a kick out of the "Tyree" green leather. He took something fairly common place in the trade and created a lot of hype around it, and an inflated price. I've brought in and sold many a nice green polyp toadstool for all of $25 to $35 each, long before Tyree made it a collectors item. Same holds true for a lot of so called named collectors corals.
 
I got a kick out of paying only $25 for it:thumbsup:

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89Foxbody said:
Sadly 99.9999% of Petco workers know nothing about fish, especially marine fish and inverts. This included managers which is probably the saddest thing of all. One would think that if you're going to be managing a store you should know something about the most expensive animals you have.
Click to expand...

Those are not their most expensive animals. Go look at the birds, reptiles, etc.
 
arresife said:
Yes, even Live Aquaria acording to a petco manager
Click to expand...
maybe he meant the SAME wholesaler as Live Aquaria, since they do not bring in their own fish. NON Divers Den fish are just shipped direct to the customer, from a California wholesaler/importer.
 
I received my regal angel from them this afternoon. It is in my QT tank now and is doing great so far. It was about 3.5" and fat. I kept him in the dark for about 3 or 4 hours, then turned the lights on and he immediately started swimming around and exploring. I've got a large PVC T and 90 in there and he's staying put most of the time, but his colors are GREAT when he's out and about. I thought the fish was packaged good and didn't see any issues upon receipt. I've never ordered from Live Aquaria, but if someone has and will list the supplier, I'll confirm that it is the same one. Mine came from Cali as well. Anyways, I'm happy so far and am looking forward to seeing what happens with this fish.
 
One of the 2 petco's we have has just added a frag tank full of ORA corals. Tank was brightly lite with what appeared to be T5's. Also the salesman told me if I don't see what I want just ask, and he would order it for me.
 
Interesting, just did a Google search for Petco fish and it said 30 day alive guarantee. If the fish in fact do come straight from the distributor and it is priced right and packaged well on all orders this could be really good i think! I am really interested hearing the progress of this Regal. That's a pretty risky purchase from petco. Tagging along, thanks for the info guys

Edit: 15 days for marine, not bad, same as live aquaria

Sent from my drooooooid.
 
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