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My only concern with Petco is that they put their fish into very low salinity tanks (1.012-16 if I remember correctly) to kill parasites and reduce stress, as they put it. You have to be extremely careful when you acclimate their fish to your tank. I add my tank water to the bag very, very slowly over a good 2 hours vs. the normal 1 hour. That's a huge difference in salinity to account for.
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Fish are the least susceptible organism we keep to salinity shock. Think about it...many people take their fish and drop it into freshwater without reprocussion. I wouldn't spend anymore time acclimating a fish from a SG of .016 to a SG of .025 than I would a fish coming from two tanks of similar values...many retailers keep the SG low as it is a less condicive habitat for parasites. It's not just some squirrly notion Petco concocted...
Equalizing PH and temperature are the primary reasons for acclimation...fish can tolerate considerable swings in SG; however, they are less tolerable to swings in ph and temp.
I guess my overall point is, I wouldn't be concerned with the SG values at any retailer unless they were extremely low or extremely high