Petco, Petclub, Petsmart

[jerkyslim]

Everytime i got into a chain store like Petco or Petsmart i always see dead fish floating on the tops of their tanks. Is it becuase of them not feeding the fish and starving them. Or because their water quality is ####, or is it because the fish are diseased or what? And if i ever see a dead fish in a tank that i want a fish out of, should that be a warning sign not to buy it?

 

[Captain Retardo]

Most chain stores are really bad with tank, usually knowing nothing about how to keep them, many times they are incredibly overstocked (once I saw about 20 Bala Sharks in a tall 3-5 gallon), and diseases spread easily. If you can find a better LFS in your area go to it, but if not, don't buy fish from tanks that are diseased, and always quarantine new fish.

 

[jerkyslim]

when quarantining do i want to just put it in a separate tank and wait to see if it lives or what?

 

[Captain Retardo]

Keep it in a separate tank for 2-4 weeks and signs of illness occur, then medicate the fish, if no signs of illness occur, then it is safe to put the fish in your tank.

You really don't need a huge tank for quarantining fish, 5-10 gallons would be perfect for most aquarium fish, they won't be in there very long anyway...

 

[Shelly0518]

Get a 10g tank and add a few decorations. Then get an extra filter and set it up in your 36g tank. Let the filter run for several weeks so the filter can get the good bacteria in it. Fill your 10g tank up the day before purchasing fish. Buy your fish, then transfer the extra filter over and maybe some gravel from your 36g tank and then acclimate your fish. You want to have the 10g tank cycled so that you don't add more stress to your newly purchased fish. If the lfs has dead or diseased fish, I HIGHLY recommend that you quarantine these fish for 4 full weeks. Let them have time to recover from the bad conditions and the travel stress while allowing their immune system to recover. Treating a 10g tank for any illness is so much cheaper than a larger tank and you are not exposing your existing fish to illness. During this time, make sure you know what they like to eat and give that to them. I personally pamper them (and the rest of my fish) so if they are a carnivore, give them frozen foods or live foods.

Hope this helps,
Shelly

 

[mr.dark-saint]

When I worked for Petco I can say it was the wholesale who sent me junk. The system they had (this was mid/late '90's) was a sump and a UV sterilizer. Then near the end (when I was quitting) they brought in a Fluidized Bed. Basically they were antiquated equiptment. Then add jacked up fish from a wholesaler you have basically a running hospital triage. As for the help they are lacking (remember little over minimum wage) you get what you pay for. I was a hobbiest first who had to go by the corporate logic (not a good mix ). The new Petco in my neck of the woods is running the M.A.R.S. system not too bad but I don't think they have a dedicated fish person. Since, everytime I go in first thing in the A.M. there are deads that has not been pulled (same goes for PetSmart). So, I think they changed protocols since I worked for Petco, it was the first thing to do when I went in for work .

 

[puddle_inc]

it can be because 2 reasons, most of the time they just don't know how to take care of a fish, also, mostof the fish in petstores have diseases cause most of the water has dividers wich spreads diseases and the fish in petstores are usually culls also, so they were not taken care of from the start and usually have something wrong, you just gotta look for a nice healthy looking fish.

when i quarintine i usually sit them in a seperate temporary container. then i add melafix, quick cure, just a drop of healthy things, calcium, chlor out, all those. tthe chlor out just makes the water there in good incase there one of those fish that will die in non conditioned water. all of this usually kills any bacterias and diseases, gets rid of ick wich is common in pet store aquariums, and will help torn fins, white scales, open sores, everything. good luck!

 

[fish_fetish65]

you have to understand what goes on with these fish before you make judgements, to be honest. i work in one of the stores mentioned. our fish are shipped from ohio (i am in NC). after a VERY long trip in small bags, they arrive at our store. because of limited space, we generally have at least 15-30 (depending on size of fish) fish to a ten gallon tank. half of the fish that we receive are DOA. the others that you see floating at the top of the tank have died from stress or disease. the water quality is not pristine, nor is it terrible... but given that we have one of the oldest fish systems in the country, keeping a decent water quality is a pretty high acheivement. and no, we certainly do not starve our fish. we feed them twice a day, either frozen or flake food. at any rate, when i do happen to see a diseased fish, i will move it to the hospital tank... but usually by the time the fish is noticed, it is far too late for it anyway. we do collect and remove dead fish twice a day as well... but under the conditions that they are in, it is not unusual for a few to die during the day, when we don't have the time to remove them.

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

you have to understand what goes on with these fish before you make judgements, to be honest. i work in one of the stores mentioned. our fish are shipped from ohio (i am in NC). after a VERY long trip in small bags, they arrive at our store. because of limited space, we generally have at least 15-30 (depending on size of fish) fish to a ten gallon tank. half of the fish that we receive are DOA. the others that you see floating at the top of the tank have died from stress or disease. the water quality is not pristine, nor is it terrible... but given that we have one of the oldest fish systems in the country, keeping a decent water quality is a pretty high acheivement. and no, we certainly do not starve our fish. we feed them twice a day, either frozen or flake food. at any rate, when i do happen to see a diseased fish, i will move it to the hospital tank... but usually by the time the fish is noticed, it is far too late for it anyway. we do collect and remove dead fish twice a day as well... but under the conditions that they are in, it is not unusual for a few to die during the day, when we don't have the time to remove them.

Still doesn't get away from the fact that 95% of your staff know nothing about keeping fish, and the fact you order too many fish to fit in too smaller tanks. All chain stores are sh1te, stay clear of them. Buy your dry goods from them as they are often cheaper, but the staff are simply awful at chains.

 

[confusion]

As bad as petsmart and petco are, at least around me, the mom-and-pop owned stores seem just as bad here in Atlanta. There are a few nice ones, but their main focus is on salt water, where the profit undoubtedly is.

 

[Tsi_User]

The thing that I'm always curious about is that these chains are businesses, they're in it to make money (just like any other pet store). But the fact that they loose so many of their fish before they sell them makes you think that if they invested in a better system they would make much more profit.

Am I the only one that sees this as a viable option for these chains?

 

[Tolak]

The thing that I'm always curious about is that these chains are businesses, they're in it to make money (just like any other pet store). But the fact that they loose so many of their fish before they sell them makes you think that if they invested in a better system they would make much more profit.

Am I the only one that sees this as a viable option for these chains?

From what I understand, they many times have contracts with hatcheries getting fish way cheaper than you could imagine. If they lose half of the fish they get in, they are still getting them cheaper than the independent shops. This is the reason they don't deal with local breeders, price & contracts. Smaller shops can't get in $500 worth of fish wholesale, they don't have the room. They deal with local breeders, getting in 25 or 50 fish at a time, though at a higher price. Being locally bred in the same water as their shop, and having a shipping time measured in minutes means they have far fewer losses in the shop, as well as to the customer.

Maintaining a fish's health until it gets sold is easy when you start with healthy fish. If you start with fish that are stressed from a long, crowded journey, then poorly acclimated to new water, you are going to have problems. Hatcheries are in the business to make money, if they could make more money providing a different product they would. Local breeders aren't in it for the money. Smaller shops realize this; their nitch in the market is providing a superior product.

 

[mr.dark-saint]

Still doesn't get away from the fact that 95% of your staff know nothing about keeping fish, and the fact you order too many fish to fit in too smaller tanks. All chain stores are sh1te, stay clear of them. Buy your dry goods from them as they are often cheaper, but the staff are simply awful at chains.

The 95% of staffers you can blame the wage or their mind set with "what's the point since, I'm just looking forward to quitting this job " I knew guys like that.

The too many fish in the tank you can blame the corporate meddling. When there is a sale on a particular fish say "Red Eye Tetras" at the begining of the month. They automatically double the normal stock (even though you didn't place that order) "auto-replenish system" will double your normal capacity. So when no one buys any you're stuck with 50 of them in that small tank (normally you'd be sitting on 25 of them). Next time you're in one of these joints ask if the fish in the "over filled tank" going on sale.

I'd love to find me a "Mom and Pop" place that will give you two weeks to kill your fish and then replace them without batting an eye or give you cash back. Not that I make it a habbit of killing fish. I'd even pay 20% on top extra at a "mom and Pop" joint if they did that for me. But most "Pet in a Box" doesn't carry in their assortment to make me wanna buy their stock. If I ever do, do a Cardinal Tetra tank I'd buy all 100/150 of them at the PetSomething and I'd make sure that reciept is on the fridge when half (or more) die off .

I'd even tell them to call me (when the fish arrive) so they don't go in to the "system" and catch cooties or have to deal with being dumped and caught (again) then placed in to yet another tank. I used to tell the customers to call me on delivery day and arrange a pick up (just so the fish didn't have to be truamatized). I'd even go far as tell them not to buy and wait 'til a day before the next shipment came in (just so they knew the weak ones would've died off and they still got two weeks to kill them). Maybe now I think of it, that might have been the reason why the District Manager didn't like me. Since I was looking out more for the customers (at least the ones who didn't annoy me ) cut in to his extra fundage .

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Like fish_fetish, I work at one of these chains. Granted, half the people working with the live animals start off not knowing anything about fish. However, that has very little, if anything to do with the health of the fish, seeing as how the basic care needed to keep the fish alive (even if it is stressed and malnourished) are on the tags and managers (if they care about their animals, which is the case where I work) try to get the associates on track in terms of feeding twice a day and the right amount.

As for water quality, we've got three systems: one for the goldfish and minnows, one for the tropical fish, and a pond. The goldfish tanks' water quality is never good, but that is understandable seeing as how demand for live food is high, so lots of fish have to be stored in small tanks. The main tank has no ammonia or nitrites to speak of, and the nitrates are never over 40. The pond's nitrates have never gone over 20 since water changes are done at about 50% twice a week.

As for the dead fish, Tolak took care of why it happens. Why you see the fish there is because we have other tasks as well, and simply cannot go around pulling the dead fish out all the time. We have to deal with customers, all the animals' needs, etc. Fish pulling is supposed to be done before the store opens and after it closes, and the conscientious employee with time on his hands will pull out any dead fish he sees.

So, in short, out of thousands of fish hooked up to one filtration system, it's natural that 20-30 die twice a day. (assuming there are 1,000 fish, a 60 fish loss is still prtty good) If you want "healthy" fish (seeing as how unless you frequent a mom and pop shop, you don't know how healthy the fish really are) go to a reliable chain store, but in exchange forsake any sort of return policy.

 

[fish_fetish65]

Still doesn't get away from the fact that 95% of your staff know nothing about keeping fish, and the fact you order too many fish to fit in too smaller tanks. All chain stores are sh1te, stay clear of them. Buy your dry goods from them as they are often cheaper, but the staff are simply awful at chains.

perhaps this is true for some, but our store is actually one of the best in the area, imo. 95% of our staff knows enormous ammounts about freshwater aquariums, and about 50% are also quite informed when it comes to saltwater and/or brackish setups. and yes, we do get large numbers of fish in at one time, but we are only permitted to order fish once a week, so we have to order enough to last us an entire week, assuming that there will be a few casualties in each batch. you must understand that it is considered a VERY temporary holding space, and almost all fish should have been sold within a week. by the end of the week, we usually only have about five of each species (depending on the popularity of the species, that is.) and the ones that last the week are usually quite healthy, as they didn't come in with diseases and were hardier than the ones that died of shock.

and as tempestuousfury said, the employees have greater responsibilites than sitting there, waiting for a fish to take its last breath so that we can pull them from the tank. yes, if we see a dead fish and have time, we pull it. otherwise, it will just have to wait until closing to be pulled. there are more important things to do such as feeding and informing customers how to properly care for their fish.

so, in the future, it would be in your best interest not to make such generalizing statements about chain pet stores. sure, there are some that are absolute crap (our sister store a few miles down the road from us, for example...) but there are just as many that have extremely knowledgeable staff. between all of the pet care employees, we know a great great deal.