Fishlover423

I went to petsmart today and i never paid attention to the cories and today, i ask the lady, where are the corys and she says i dunno what they are, and i am like :0. and then i ask her how many chichlids can i put in 1 tank, and shes like the rule is 1 centemete(that right, not one inch) per gallon.. WOW!

lew2000

I know that the stock of fish is usually much cheaper at a petsmart or a petco or other chains, but i know from people who have worked in them, the conditions in which the fish are transported and kept - amazing that any of them survive or aren't disease ridden. People who work them are given minimal training to identify basics of each area that they work - though i have known a few who know quit alot - they also have many aquariums. IMHO much better to do business at an LFS that you trust/like if thier is one near - after awhile you do enough business and the will cut you good deals - sometimes at their cost for rarer fish, though i know people who swear by these chains.

Amanda

Petsmart infected my tank with ICH.
I will NEVER shop there again besides for bettas or non-living equipment.

Fishlover423

kittenface14

I had an issue with Petco not knowing anything about the bunch plants or ich today. The Bettas look very sad when I go there or to any lfs...I have been thinking about maybe getting one.

Amanda

You should DEF. get a betta!
Or better yet, divide a 10 gal. & get 2!

10gallonnewbie

Adopt one and give it a good home...Its worth it...there so cool to watch...

TropicalExplorer

I know my local petco has like a million fish and half of them are always under "observation" and I just look at the fish and I'm like well u better put some more of these underobservation, I mean come on there's little white dots all over them. I only buy from them if its a fish I really want and looks ok.....and then it still goes in the hospital tank for two weeks...lost to many fish cus they don't watch the ick problem. But rarly will I have problems with the fish at me LFS.

NaCl

I NEVER get fish from Petsmart. We have an LFS that has really knowledgeable people & their tanks are always clean & healthy.

Fla_Larry

retail would be such a great job if it where not for the dumb customers

Fishlover423

Lol lol

agabr123

you definitely should!!!!! most of my bettas are rescues from wal-mart/pestmart

http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/fr...anks-fish.html

there are pics of the bettas that i've rescued on this thread, they're all SO much happier than they were in their awful little cups....they brighten up, get so much more active and colorful, and their fins get huge!

Fishlover423

You go girl! LOL

agabr123

lol thanks!

Fishlover423

fishpie

that sounded kind of wrong (well at least the non-living equipment) so whats living equipment

agabr123

lol i'm pretty sure she just meant she'd only buy filters/heaters/decorations/test kits etc from there

CoryMac

lol that is pretty dumb of her

Regal

I had a disagreement with a PetSmart employee recently because he insisted that ALL cichlids, including my angelfish, like a high pH of around 8. I ended up telling him about the Amazon flooding during the rainy season and all the tannic acid in the water from decaying leaves and trees.

It's not the employees fault that they aren't trained well It just bugged me that he was so insistent.

catfishlover123

Yeah. I think pet stores are trying to make some quick cash. Although I went to petsmart last week to get a flagtail catfish and this lady was helpful and told me about the 1 fish-inch per gallon rule, even though I knew.

dvc_r

Some of you guys are ruthless! I have had both good and bad experiences at Petsmart. But I don't blame the store. I spend most my time researching (mostly over the Internet) before I go to the store so I have some kind of knowledge before asking for help and take most advise with a grain of salt.

Ich is not usually caused from the store but from a problem introduced a fish without the proper quarantine period, usually because of temperature, PH, and GH differences, or environmental changes such as tank mates, decor, outside traffic or even netting the fish causing stress.

Transporting is not the responsibility of retails store but the wholesaler. I know that Petsmart has changed their distributors a few times because of this exact problem.

I'm not saying the large stores are perfect and I do agree the LFS are more educated (and usually have a better selection) but I try not to "bash" any of the bigger stores because of isolated issues. Remember "we know better" and should set an example and maybe even help the untrained salesperson who's trying to make a buck.

catfishlover123

Yeah, I e-mailed petco and gave them a suggestion on how to house bettas a lot better than how they usually are.