petco

[khowst]

Funny how everyone seems to love Petco when its time for the Dollar a Gallon sales they have. lol.

Although I did give attr's viewpoint some thought, maybe it is time for action & I think I have a better solution:

I figured out how to fix this. We create a "Federal Fish Offender Database". Anytime a store has a fish that dies, all store employees, to include management and family members must register as 'fish offenders'. We then fire them on the spot, and burn the store down (hope shopper make it out). Fish offenders will never be allowed to sell or own a fish for the rest of thier lives.

To be fair we should also extend it to individuals too. When you have a fish die at home same thing, except once registered we can send in Delta Force and stealth helicopters at night. They will return all your fish to the ocean, even tank raised ones, and smash all your equipment.

Offenders will also have to perform community service for PETA, Whale Wars, and be on an episode of Tanked!


Sorry for the over extended sarcasm but this whole ranting thread is rather laughable.

No I dont agree or support poor livestock keeping regardless if is swim, flies, walk, talks whatever. I do agree that businesses that keep poor livestock conditions should be taken care of, and there is legal and law enforcement agencies to do that. Try contacting them.

[scionreefing]

Originally Posted by khowst

Funny how everyone seems to love Petco when its time for the Dollar a Gallon sales they have. lol.

Although I did give attr's viewpoint some thought, maybe it is time for action & I think I have a better solution:

I figured out how to fix this. We create a "Federal Fish Offender Database". Anytime a store has a fish that dies, all store employees, to include management and family members must register as 'fish offenders'. We then fire them on the spot, and burn the store down (hope shopper make it out). Fish offenders will never be allowed to sell or own a fish for the rest of thier lives.

To be fair we should also extend it to individuals too. When you have a fish die at home same thing, except once registered we can send in Delta Force and stealth helicopters at night. They will return all your fish to the ocean, even tank raised ones, and smash all your equipment.

Offenders will also have to perform community service for PETA, Whale Wars, and be on an episode of Tanked!


Sorry for the over extended sarcasm but this whole ranting thread is rather laughable.

No I dont agree or support poor livestock keeping regardless if is swim, flies, walk, talks whatever. I do agree that businesses that keep poor livestock conditions should be taken care of, and there is legal and law enforcement agencies to do that. Try contacting them.

I love it. Best thing I have read since this thread has begun. Petco should have that for stupid people who keep killing their fish.

Raffle grabber

[disc1]

I have to put in a plug for Scionreefing. I know that cat personally. There is a huge difference between Petco at large and the Petco we have here. I doubt the livestock at many of your favorite LFS is as well taken care of as what happens here. I really can't stand to see the whole thing get bashed when I know one person is trying so hard to make a difference. So you can hate on your local Petco if you want, but don't hate on them all because I know of at least one that isn't so bad.

Matter of fact, I'll put my money where my mouth is. The next time I get to finish the day on the north side of the river, I'm going to go by Petco and see if Scionreefing can help me find some new critter for my tank. Just on general purposes.


Now if we can just get this guy to stop hogging all the winning raffle tickets we'll be in business.

[scionreefing]

Originally Posted by disc1

I have to put in a plug for Scionreefing. I know that cat personally. There is a huge difference between Petco at large and the Petco we have here. I doubt the livestock at many of your favorite LFS is as well taken care of as what happens here. I really can't stand to see the whole thing get bashed when I know one person is trying so hard to make a difference. So you can hate on your local Petco if you want, but don't hate on them all because I know of at least one that isn't so bad.

Matter of fact, I'll put my money where my mouth is. The next time I get to finish the day on the north side of the river, I'm going to go by Petco and see if Scionreefing can help me find some new critter for my tank. Just on general purposes.


Now if we can just get this guy to stop hogging all the winning raffle tickets we'll be in business.

Lol I'm no longer raffle grabber Mr. Greg Eller has taken that tittle for now.

Raffle grabber

[disc1]

Originally Posted by scionreefing

Lol I'm no longer raffle grabber Mr. Greg Eller has taken that tittle for now.

Raffle grabber

Lol. I've missed a bunch of meetings lately. I'll be there for the Christmas party. I still have a pretty blue chalice frag for you. I had one that was even nicer but I set it a little too close to the frogspawn and now it's a half chalice half skeleton zombie frag.

[scionreefing]

Originally Posted by disc1

Lol. I've missed a bunch of meetings lately. I'll be there for the Christmas party. I still have a pretty blue chalice frag for you. I had one that was even nicer but I set it a little too close to the frogspawn and now it's a half chalice half skeleton zombie frag.

Lol. Hey I'm smoking 2 turkeys for the Christmas party.

Raffle grabber

[jdhuyvetter]

Originally Posted by khowst

We create a "Federal Fish Offender Database".

Well, I guess I better turn myself in. I lost two fish this week. A FW discus that was about 4 years old and a PJ cardinal (no clue how old this one was).

So, what's my punishment?

[scionreefing]

Originally Posted by jdhuyvetter

Well, I guess I better turn myself in. I lost two fish this week. A FW discus that was about 4 years old and a PJ cardinal (no clue how old this one was).

So, what's my punishment?

Epic

Raffle grabber

[rrasco]

An important note should be that AFAIK, most of these stores pay retail wages. That is a limiting factor. I'd love to work at a fish store and 'play' with fish stuff all day, but it won't happen, because I can't support myself with the pay. If they paid more, they might get more knowledgeable staff, but I don't see that happening. This goes without saying that its not impossible for a knowledgeable aquarist to work at one of these stores, it's just not as likely.

Then again, I have no idea what they pay. I know I've asked a few LFS owners what they pay and unless your doing in home/office maintenance, it's retail wages.

[oflaherty21]

I like petsmart, the people I've always dealt with seemed knowledgeable... but agree with the petco needing to stop treating the fish terribly, both fresh and salt water.

[scionreefing]

Originally Posted by oflaherty21

I like petsmart, the people I've always dealt with seemed knowledgeable... but agree with the petco needing to stop treating the fish terribly, both fresh and salt water.

The petsmart here constantly has ich and fungus and tons of death. Are you speaking from personal experience with petco or hear say?

Raffle grabber

[ohioreef71]

My local petco is also very sad I see large yellow tangs beat up and in maybe 10g tanks.
I always want to save them but would hate to bring home a problem. I would never buy anything live from them.

[ohioreef71]

My local petco is also very sad I see large yellow tangs beat up and in maybe 10g tanks.
I always want to save them but would hate to bring home a problem. I would never buy anything live from them.

[scionreefing]

Originally Posted by ohioreef71

My local petco is also very sad I see large yellow tangs beat up and in maybe 10g tanks.
I always want to save them but would hate to bring home a problem. I would never buy anything live from them.

Our tangs are kept in 4ft. 30 long tanks. Could be worse could be a 4"x4" enclosure at the vender with no feeding.

Raffle grabber

[ironman187]

Originally Posted by scionreefing

@ Gillbucket and truly if you want to point finger at someone point it at collectors who collect **** poor specimens. And pawn them off on vendors who have to sell them.
Raffle grabber

Just to point out the hypocracy of this post in contrast to all your other ones. The retailer creates the demand for the collectors who supply it (Sound familiar? Customers create demand for fish and the retailer supplies the fish.) Nothing is actually "pawned off" nor is anybody forced to sell anything. I'm sure you didn't mean this in the way it came off, but there it sits...

Anyway, If you don't like a place, vote with your dollars, that's what really matters. And just because one is terrible, and the people there don't care, doesn't mean they all are like that.

[larrypoe]

None of the local LFS around here go through all the details of keeping SW as the average hobby keeper from what I can tell by this site. We have 3 around here who sell SW fish, corals, ect. 1 is a petco the other 2 are owned by the same family and are just in towns 30miles apart.

All three just dump the bags, fish/water and all in the tanks when they come in. same with LR they have a tank were they dump it in, the petco has a HUGE carpet nem in there "rock tank" and a few larger type fish but I realy didnt pay attention to the exact kind. the other stores have a cpl large starfish and a DSB. I have watched for almost 2 months now, seen prob 200# of rock dumped in/sold off/replaced several times each...the critters who live in the tanks perm have yet to show any adverse effects.

all 3 stores have corals and nems.....and even frags from perm parent corals....ect.....and there lighting isnt much more than the store lights.

for the most part there tanks are clean, though they are not exactly OCD about the whole thing...

My point here is, survival of the fittest isnt just for nature. In the case of captive bred animals of any kind..........those pampered to the max never go though a culling process that allows only the strongest to survive to produce the next generation. Nature provides that process in the form of weather, disease, ect...those who survive are usualy the ones who are better suited to our hobby anyway.

I worked for a major pork producer for several years...the bio security standerds we have to fallow would make your head spin.........the result, after several generations was an animal who was not fit to survive outside that system. In fact the few who manage to get out were almost always dead in a few days from the shock of thousands of bac and virus strains they had never built an imunity too because of there "steril enviroment"

I never keep a fish or animal who will not breed captive.....as i see it nature is only a place to get parent stock for future generations of "pets"...........not a place to keep supply on hand for us to collect :/....that parent stock then has to be bred to thrive in our pseudo environment we provide. Survival of the fittest is one of the best tools a breeder can use.

btw there is a very nice pair of $200^ clowns at our local petco i have been keepin an eye on for over a month now....I have about decided that is the pair I want to use for breeding that type.......they have already shown they can handle a few curve balls and are not as delicate as the ones who got flushed

[larrypoe]

btw.......idk about the petco (i forgot to ask)....but the 2 local owned stores do not have a RO/DI system ( i asked about buying water from them)...he told me he just declorinates the tap water(like I do for FW) and adds the salt mix.....theres tons of inverts, fish,corals, there and they seem to survive quite well.

[Dragon moray ki]

The one I went to they had a 7 in naso in a foot long tank I bought him and gave him to a friend with a big tank

[Fishfirst]

As a person who personally worked for petco at one time as well as several other stores and online vendors, there isn't anything positive that I can say about the chain. There is nothing that justifies their standards of loss (30%) except the complete lack of understanding by the company as a whole. Supporting this in any way, including the stores that are "above average" does not change corporate policy, but just feeds the bad stores more money to make mistake after mistake. It is stores like petco, walmart, and bad lfs's that are going to destroy this hobby.
In the end it is up to the buyer to weed out these places and support responsible husbandry practices or the scenario khowst described wouldn't be too far from the truth (as in a complete ban of the industry). Hopefully many petco buyers see this thread and stop shopping there as well as other lfs's that should not be in this business.

[larrypoe]

anyone who thinks most wall marts stopped selling live fish because of pressure from FW or SW keepers has totaly missed the real story. They stopped for 2 reasons 1)pressure from animal rights groups who are agianst the hobby as a whole and started letter campains that showed it was good PR to quit. Notice they only quit in the stores where it wasnt a big sale point btw........the ones who had good LF sales still have them, around here anyway. Wall Marts corp office isnt far south of me, and was a good solid business when Sam was alive. Now I wouldnt buy a toothbrush there let alone a fish or anything else.

All i am saying here is be carefull who you support and who you make your bed with. Animal rights nutts love to divide and pit different parts of a whole agianst each other. It makes there agenda easier to get.........and that is NO ANIMAL fish or other wise, held in captivity. Or used for any purpose for that matter. Not a fish a dog a cat or a cow.

[Fishfirst]

exactly, fueling the fire is not what we need and unfortunately keeping establishments like petco around is a gas can waiting for a spark.

[larrypoe]

and charging (therefor bringing attention too) large pet corps with neglect isnt the same can of gas? Not to mention taking heavy hitters out of the game (whos $$$$$ could help keep insane laws from being passed)

animal rights groups dont give a tinkers **** about the truth or the animal (fish in this case). all they want or need is a good story they can take to the press, and hope to draw the votes of people who prob have never owned a saltwater fish in there life (doesnt disqualify them from voting on bans though

I say this because for years and years I watched several different fractions of the hunting and fur trade fight each other right along with the animal rights groups. Hunters didnt like trappers, trappers didnt like hunters, neither liked fur farms..deer hunters didnt like dog hunters..ect ect..

and groups like PETA just layed back and fanned the flames, watching the pot call the kettle black.........they didnt care who was right or wrong..they just wanted to end any use of any animal at all.
One day sportsmen woke up and more and more groups put there differences aside and ban togather to fight ANY animal rights legislation. It broke PETA and HSUS back (not to mention there bank accounts) and they have for the most part looked elsewhere for an arena to fight.

In the case of reef/SW....all it takes is a few storys like this, and of course the standerd bunny hugger "save the (insert test subject)".........believe me this hobby doesnt have anywhere NEAR the $$$$$ behind it as the above ones did, to fight those type laws.

[Jamie9169]

Chain stores such as Petco and Petsmart should not be able to sell live fish. Leave that to the specialty stores that we as hobbyist support locally.

[Dragon moray ki]

I think that if petco stopped selling fish or at least got the proper people to take care of the tanks than it would look a lot better for the hobby

[Nina51]

Originally Posted by khowst

We create a "Federal Fish Offender Database". Anytime a store has a fish that dies, all store employees, to include management and family members must register as 'fish offenders'.

that's all well and good but you forgot about the part where they are forbidden to live within 1,000 feet of where fish live or fish daycare centers, fish schools, fish bus stops, etc.