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I have gotten all my fish from the PetSmart by me, it is 1 of 3 in the area, and I didn't know about the really good lfs 10 mins further (live and learn). I checked out each one first and talked to the head fish person before I bought any fish. I like them and the fish are in pretty good health for the most part, plus they have the 14 day guarantee on fish (if they die for any reason w/in 14 days, you can return for refund or restock).

Helpful hint that the fish manager gave me at Petsmart: they get their livestock in on Tuesdays, so wait at least until Friday/Saturday to see which ones made the shipping w/o negative effects. I lost 6 Tiger Barbs overnight one time, and when I went to return them, he told me to wait until Saturday to see which will be healthy.
 
I got 6 Bamboo shrimp from PetSmart a few months ago. They all survived and are doing well, despite the employee picking them out of the tank with his grubby mitts and man-handling them. The problem with PetSmart and with many other stores is the way their tanks are set up. They don't have separate filtration for each tank so all the tanks share the same polluted water and diseases. One of my lfs has each tank on a separate drip system so there is no cross contamination with tanks. All stores that sell fish should do it this way. It would avoid having 50 tanks die out all at once.

As far as waiting to see how the fish do at many of these stores, well IMO, the longer the fish are at these stores, the less of a chance they have of being healthy. I think that I would rather "get 'em while they're hot" so to speak, and quarantine them at home. I think they have a much higher survival rate that way.

That being said, I'm sure there are some employees that actually care and know what they're doing at the big chain stores but much of the time from what I've seen, they would have more success if a monkey ran the operation.
 
I have a Petco near me. I hate their fish, but I always look anyway. Dead fish floating in every tank. Ick. The staff seems lucky to figure out which end of the net to use.

One day I spotted a type of fish I had never seen before swimming in a divided tank, but squeezing between the dividers going back and forth. (Because of this fish, I joined this forum, posted a photo and was informed it was a disc tetra) On one half of the tank were marble hatchetfish; on the other half were glass catfish, clearly labeled with photos.

I asked the "fish person" what it was and he said it was a marble hatchetfish, because that was the side of the tank it was on. (Even though there were actual hatchetfish in the tank and there was a photo of a marble hatchetfish on the tank and it was obviously not that. Then the fish swam to the other half of the tank so the guy told me it was a glass catfish!

I called the manager over and had the same conversation. It took a while to get them to sell it to me because they didn't know what to charge for it. The manager said that since it obviously wasn't a glass catfish, he would have to sell it to me at the more expensive marble hatchetfish price! Even though, as I pointed out, it wasn't a marble hatchetfish either, so why not sell it to me for the glass catfish price?

I asked if they could get any more and was told that they couldn't and it was the only one they had. I said I would take it and then was asked, "OK, how many do you want?" So I looked at the two morons and said that I'll take two!!! They both looked at each other and then at me and said, "well there is only one here." So I stared at them and said that I guess I would take just the one then!

It seems that pride, quality, knowledge, service and just plain common sense and courtesy are vanishing traits in the customer service industry these days. I have learned not to ask questions at Petco. If I really want a knowledgeable answer, I come here.

That is just my personal experience and a pet peeve of mine. I have had similar experiences at Pet Smart, Home Depot and other "chain" retailers.

Surprisingly, I've had the neat little disc tetra for a year now!

Please excuse my rant!
 
Just got some fish from Petco a couple of days ago doing fine after a while I trust my Petco

There was another thing that happened when a female got into the male guppy tank but they could still tell the difference
 
I only buy my fish from Petsmart. Every fish I have bought from petco died, even when they were in a properly cycled tank. Best advice to you is to go a couple of days prior to new shipments, and take a good look at the fish in the tanks. Don't get fish from a tank that has dead fish floating in it. I wouldn't dare go to walmart. their fishtanks look nasty.....also, it varies from store to store. Our petco here sucks, but I have been to some good ones. I have also been to some lousy petsmarts....
 
I guess it depends on who works at your specific petsmart/petco/walmart.
 
Petsmart is touch and go in my area. They gave my tank anchor worm when I bought 4 kuhli loaches, and they tried to say it was my tank and that anchor worm is in every tank like ick. Idiots. Others are better, but this one gives horrible advice and has bad fish

Petco seems ok

I haven't gotten fish from walmart but I got an angel from Meijer xD he grew to a good size, beautiful colors, and ended up being the dominent one in the tank.


I think if you want to take a chance and save a fish from one of these places you need to really inspect the fish and be prepared to introduce something
 
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