Thoughts on buying from Petco?

[sgtfuzz]

Recently I was in my local Petco. I noticed that they sold saltwater marine life I've always heard them get a bad rap for how their animals are treated. From what I saw is that their display tanks of marine life they had were over crowded and way too small.

Is it worth of going through the trouble of at least trying to provide a better habitat as long as proper quarantine and husbandry is followed for the animal? Or will this be way to much trouble for the money?

[JamesHolt]

I have bought several from my local Petco, tanks were dirty sometimes, but never had a problem with the fish.. With the anemones not so much luck..

[homer1475]

I've bought/rescued a couple fish and even a frag or 2 from my local petco.

Yes the fish was infested with ich and god knows what else, but as long as proper QT procedures, and TTM are followed, there is no reason not to buy from them. If anything your probably giving that animal a better life then it would have had living in a petco tank.

[bean2986]

If you QT everything properly you will be safer at least. For me personally I won't buy fish there just because giving them business promotes their current practices.

[cincyjim]

I've bought a couple of fish from them which seemed to be in good health... no noticeable aliments like ich or anything. I've also bought several frags from them and they have done really well. So for the PetCo by me I would buy from. Like others have mentioned, you need to follow proper QT procedures and you should be fine.

[sde1500]

Recently I was in my local Petco. I noticed that they sold saltwater marine life I've always heard them get a bad rap for how their animals are treated. From what I saw is that their display tanks of marine life they had were over crowded and way too small.

Is it worth of going through the trouble of at least trying to provide a better habitat as long as proper quarantine and husbandry is followed for the animal? Or will this be way to much trouble for the money?

They don't really have display tanks, they have holding tanks. All LFS holding tanks are over crowded or too small. Can't really house a blue tang in a 180 gallon tank waiting to sell it and make any money.

As for being worth it or not, I don't see why not. My local(ish) Petco always has a great selection, and rarely are there fish visibly sick. Different than most I'm sure, but I would certainly consider buying from them.

[eastlake]

Like most chains its on a store by store basis. Some have knowledgeable folks, some do not. The prices can sometimes be pretty darn good though, I picked up a bonded pair of sharknose cleaner gobies for $20.

[gjustinj]

Recently I was in my local Petco. I noticed that they sold saltwater marine life I've always heard them get a bad rap for how their animals are treated. From what I saw is that their display tanks of marine life they had were over crowded and way too small.

Is it worth of going through the trouble of at least trying to provide a better habitat as long as proper quarantine and husbandry is followed for the animal? Or will this be way to much trouble for the money?

QUARANTINE QUARANTINE QUARANTINE - I am dealing with a potential ich infestation in my DT so I am learning the hard way. Hard lessons.

[WatDatThing]

The Petco by me have very clean tanks. I have seen worse at lfs. I bought 2 fishes from them when they were on sale. Both are healthy. I didn't even QT them. In fact, none of my fishes have been QT. I know......Bad practice.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[MurphyLong]

My local(ish) Petco was in BAD shape for a while. There were food flakes on the floor constantly, roaches scurrying around, cyano in all tanks, and diatoms all over their frags. What turned that around was talking to some people in a fish group, and this young guy who was looking for work knew a *LOT* about Marine Life (as in, walking encyclopedia, Rain Man kinda thing) and I talked to him to see if he would be interested, then personally talked to the Regional Manager at Petco. Got him a job, and he turned it around. I went back for a visit, and the turnaround was stellar.

[TYC]

I wouldn't buy marine livestock from Petco

[anthonys51]

If you go to any store such a petco and see bad conditions and such fish Do not buy. You might be saving that fish but by you buying they will just buy more fish and the cycle never ends. Don't support business that don't provide excellent care and services.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tisbe]

We have two Petco's in the area. I have found that it all depends on who takes care of the tanks. One is done by a guy that also has a tank maintenance business on the side and his stuff is better than our LFS. The other, well lets just say he kills things for a living and nothing from there gets in my tank.

[Xxero]

From what I understand, Petco and LiveAquaria are one and the same:

https://t.petco.com/shop/PetcoNoLeftNavContentDisplayView?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&path=/content/petco/PetcoStore/en_US/pet-services/live-aquaria.html

As mentioned, the issue can sometimes be that the individual Petco store may have terrible husbandry practices. Out of the 3 Petco stores in my vicinity, I will only purchase livestock from 2. The third is atrocious.:(

[monkeysee1]

Recently I was in my local Petco. I noticed that they sold saltwater marine life I've always heard them get a bad rap for how their animals are treated. From what I saw is that their display tanks of marine life they had were over crowded and way too small.


Exactly, and which is why I would NOT so much as to buy a PENCIL from those frigging clowns.

Is it worth of going through the trouble of at least trying to provide a better habitat as long as proper quarantine and husbandry is followed for the animal? Or will this be way to much trouble for the money?

Depends on how far gone the fish is. Of course, you should quarantine EVERYTHING. If you are experienced and skilled in diagnosing fish diseases and infections (i.e. - ich, flukes, bacterial infections, lymphocytosis, etc) and have a medicine cabinet completely stocked with fresh weaponry BEFOREHAND and ready to go then it might be worth a shot to try to rescue a poor, struggling fish. Remember this takes oodles of time, patience and persistence. Another school of thought is if what you do doesn't work out then it only prolongs the suffering of the fish. Your call.

[ReeferNoob4ever]

I actually buy stuff from Petco. I can't say their tanks are the best. I'm just cheap. I know when the female employees are working and constantly convince them that the coral is a frag. I got a devils hand just today for 15 bux.

Make sure to inspect just like you would anything else. I took the Devils hand off the janky piece of live rock it was strapped to. I do admit, it's a little risky. But heck I got bristle worms from the primo LFS so...

[monkeysee1]

From what I understand, Petco and LiveAquaria are one and the same:


Buy from Live Aquaria DIRECTLY. Avoid and bypass PETCO like the plague.
Or better yet, buy from Blue Zoo.
I've NEVER had any problems with their livestock.

Problem solved.

[Chicagoreef2016]

buy from live aquaria directly. Avoid and bypass petco like the plague.
Or better yet, buy from blue zoo.
I've never had any problems with their livestock.

Problem solved.

+1

[homer1475]

Asking this question is like asking reefers which skimmer is the best. 1000 different answers all telling you theirs is the best.

Some will buy from petco, and all will be fine, others will tell you its the devils spawn(like quite a few posts already have in this thread), and should be burned to the ground and it's employees flogged in the city square.

only you can decide if the risk is worth the reward. Don't listen to others on where to purchase livestock. As long as you follow proper QT procedures, your purchase from petco will probably be fine. Besides I've been to quite a few petco's( I stop at them when I'm out and about just to see, I'm not afraid of buying from them). Some are pristine, and some suck. But the same can be said about LFS's also, but no ones calling to burn them to the ground.

I liken petco to lowes or HD.

Yes I can go to my local lumber yard, get a few 2x4's and nothing else(it is a lumber yard not a hardware store) and pay a little more but way better quality, or go to a big box store and get my lumber, the screws, and anything else I might need for the project, pay a little less for a lower quality lumber I have to pick through to get the good stuff.

[Sk8r]

You have to judge these stores individually: some are run by people who know what they're doing, others, not so much. Definitely observe quarantine, and Prazi and TTM are indicated unless you want to run a big, big risk.

[RunBikeSwim]

I prefer WYSIWYG at a local fish store (Petco or independent) over any mail order. If you take your time, observe, and choose wisely, you can find healthy fishes, corals, and inverts at Petco for a good price (especially during sales).

At my local Petco (and I'm assuming others are the same), I can put in a request to order a fish not in stock with the aquatic salesperson. No guarantee, but they check with their distributor and give me a call once they are able to order (about 1 week wait).

[scooter31707]

Yes, I brought a couple of fish from Petco, a Chevron tang and a Yellow Tang. Both had ich. I picked an argument on purpose with the manager, stating "how can you sell fish for the original price?" So needless to say, I got the Chevron for 79.99 and the Yellow tang for 19.99. I got them home and ran them through a series of quarantine procedures. Did TTM twice, treated with Prazi-Pro, did Formalin baths, 2 rounds of CP. After all of that 12 weeks of observation, as I usually do 8 weeks.

[sdbc]

As most people said, it depends on the store. The couple close by where I live are good, although my LFS is almost always cheaper. The one thing I won't buy there is coral. The frags always look a little rough and overpriced and they won't do trades.

[WatDatThing]

At the end of the day, if you QT all your fish then it doesn't matter if you buy it from Petco or lfs. Chances are the fish at petco, lfs and online retailers come from the same wholesaler. If I can save money on the fish and shipping, I can buy a nice frag or 2.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[ncaldwell]

I don't like buying from petco regularly because my wife managed a petco locally and she always came home sad for the treatment of the animals. Their basic husbandry was to sell the fish before they could die in a week or 2. She was always bringing home fish that were on deaths door because they aren't allowed to treat saltwater with any medication. I don't personally like supporting a place with that type of business plan. They had many rules and regulations for reptiles and mammals but fish weren't important. Pretty much everything will die if not sold within 2 weeks

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[hart24601]

You can't really make an accurate generalization about a place like petco with 1300 locations. Of course not many sell saltwater, but that is still a lot of stores.

Honestly despite the metro area here having around 650,000 we do not have any good LFS. I visit each one at least once ever two weeks and the quality of livestock at Petco often times exceeds the LFS (especially inverts for some reason).

Better off buying online? Sure. But shipping on small orders can be expensive and some like to see the stock. I wanted a single trocus snail and one tux urchin for a small system. Guess what, no LFS had either of those, but Petco did. Under 10 bucks and I was done and they are alive and well 3 weeks later.

[Jon0807]

I've been to 3 locations that sold saltwater life and all 3 didn't look good. Neither did the corals/anemones Even in a newer location. Personally, I bought 4 snails, and due to me not quarantining them, my 2 clowns came down with ich and one of them lost their tail fin. Luckily I was able to save them and they are both doing fine, even the tailless one. If you do buy from them, as others have said, QUARANTINE! Their fresh water fish seem to be fine, personally I'd only buy equipment from them and who doesn't love the $1/gallon tank sales!