What is safe to buy from petco

[LOTUS50GOD]

I know most of you are going to say nothing...

but what about inverts, snails or crabs.

[scapes]

i started in 10/05. i went to petco, a week after setting my brand new first tank, I bought six 4-striped damsels, one yellow tang, and two black ocellaris clowns. My LFS said it was ok to do this btw & i knew nothing about RC. SIX years later, I have four of the damsels, & the yellow tang. The clowns went carpet surfing last year and two damsels died from bullying. So, i bought 9 fish and put them in during the cycle, they ALL survived it and only 4 have died (but not dieing due to coming from Petco).

I think, just as everyone has said, it depends on the petco. Some are good, some are bad.

[Lorenz725]

+1 the best thing you can do is look over the fish ask for them to feed them in front of you, and quarantine the fish.

[Reef1589]

i bought a Foxface from them 7 months ago... and had a huge ich..and brookynella break out in my tank probably 2-3 months ago when adding a new Powder Tang from Petland..

lost 4 clowns...and the Tang...

the fox face got sick, but made a strong recovery...and is still going strong today, so as long as you look over the fish before you purchase it.. and use common sence i got no issue with petco..
use your brain, if its full of ich..pinched stomach..looks really unhealthy...dont get it..

Make sure its fat..plumpy..like other said, ask the associate to feed it so you can see it eat.. ... and if you got a QT system your definantly golden.

[aday2remmbr]

i believe if the fish looks healthy in the store it would be fine to get it, but definitely quarantine any perchase from them because they lower their salinity to make any parasites less pronounce and the second the fish is put in a normal system it has a ton of ich or something. if you quarantine it and it has a parasite trade it in for something else there. usually they will take it back if it has a parasite although i have heard a few stories where they refuse if they dont have good customer service.

[OregonReefer]

Safe things to buy from Petco are as follows:

Books
Empty Tanks
Food
Salt

I think that's about it

[aday2remmbr]

Safe things to buy from Petco are as follows:

Books
Empty Tanks
Food
Salt

I think that's about it

im going to have to disagree, i have seen many petco's that have great quality livestock, but indeed the ones that dont far outweigh the ones that do. but all you need to do is the normal things you do when you buy a fish.

make sure all the fish in the tank area healthy
ask for it to be fed
make sure it looks healthy and has good color
and whatever you may do when purchasing a fish. thats all i do.

[deezmarine]

petco gets there fish from the same places as the LFS do. It all has to do with the people taking care of them

[aday2remmbr]

petco gets their pets from http://segrestfarms.com/

if you try to find a petstore near you that carries their products theyll list all the pet stores around you with a few exceptions, i found all petco's petsmarts and every single lfs in my area gets stock from them

[Curious George]

if you get in good with the sales associate, sometimes you can find out when the fish come in and look over the stock before it goes in their tanks

[Belmont31R]

I bought my 20G QT tank there. Came with a hood, light, and the tank for a good price.



I keep FW, too, and got 6 Tiger Barbs from a LFS. That same night I sent my wife to get a 10G tank for my sons room, and she comes back with 2 more Tiger Barbs which are crap fish that were mixed bred with green barbs due to their markings. The ones my LFS have are good stock with bright white bodies and clear markings. I also got ich in that tank from those fish. They are all still doing good but I would never purchase a live animal from them. I do go there from time to time because its a 5 minute trip each way vs. 25 miles dealing with big city traffic to go to a decent LFS. I only buy replacement carbon, filters, ect for my FW stuff. The last time I was there I got some good bulbs for my FW tanks as half the bulbs they had were 50% off.


Never send your wife to a fish store for you...:mad:

[kevin28]

the best thing form petco is either ICH or dog food

[Dyzio545]

The best you will get is an algae scraper

[jamesbaur13]

Their flukes seem very hardy.







actually I'm not speaking from experience, just my poor attempt at humor :/

[Roblox84]

There's not too much I would buy from Petco. But I did buy a spiny red starfish for 10 bucks from them like a year and a half or two ago and I still have it so they must have done something right. The only reason I took the chance is because I didn't want to risk the whole shipping process and if I were to buy a starfish online it would have come out to 60-70bucks with shipping. They really rape you with the live shipping rate.

[Kingsnake]

I know most of you are going to say nothing...

.

I clicked on this post to say NOTHING but you beat me to it! Why would you even support them?

[Bluemon]

i actually got all my inverts from petco. ONLINE. its safer online because they have a 15 day gurantee and its shipped from a different aquaculture center. they always give u xtras when ordering. (i got an extra zoanthid frag when i ordered eagle eyes) (and extra snails w/ an order of one)

they are all doing superbly. snails reproduced A LOT

[LOTUS50GOD]

anyone else?

[rad1687]

Ive had 3 green chromis from Petco for about a year now. It varies store to store, just go in and talk to the people working there. Look over the stock, ask for a feeding, and use you're best judgment.

[nightOwl]

Like some have said it depends on the Petco and the manager of the saltwater section. I do not buy any fish from them, but pick up snails and various crabs every so often. For some reason the one near me runs specials on crabs and snails for .99 pretty often. A while back they had a fellow reefer in the fish department so things really looked great. They do not have a good quarantine procedure so if you see ich in a tank all the salt water tanks share that system for the most part. If buying fish from them you can do a special order and the fish will never touch the Petco water. I forget what the minimum order is though.