swords3711

I went to this new petco and ive gotta say, I'm impressed! The tanks were neat and organized and the fish were beautiful. They had about 7 different types of swords there!-painted, red wag, red, pineapple, tuxedo, neon and assorted
The assorteds were only blue, but I'm goin to keep poppin in once in a while in search of my black!
There was even a tank of 24 Karat gold mollies that had about 10 nice sized fry in it.
They had probably over a hundred different bettas there, too!
I myself got a pair of the orange tuxedos. I was thinkin about the neon swords, but these weren't labeled correctly so I figured I might as well get them!

susitna-flower

It is always nice to hear when a store is trying to do things right.

Chief_waterchanger

Were the bettas housed in small bags/cups?
&
Were the platies all in a single tank marked 'assorted' or was there a tank for each strain?

swords3711

no the assorted were swords
they had the color strains of platy seperated
they did keep the hi fin platys together because they aren't as common
the betta were in cups unfortunately but thats really all u can do with such a large amount of betta
Unfortunately, I did lose my female sword that I just got...
Now just to clarify, the water quality was fine, there were no dead or sick fish in the tank, she acted just fine, my water checked out, and the other fish weren't aggressive toward her.
Any thoughts what could have happened?

0morrokh

Sometimes the stress of being moved can push already weak fish over the edge. Petco generally does not carry the best stock.

swords3711

this stock looked great tho

0morrokh

So did the trio of gorgeous sunset variatus I got at Petsmart several weeks ago. They are now dying of what appears to be a combination of tuberculosis and gill flukes. Sometimes they appear fine at the store but the stress of moving is too much if they are not perfectly healthy to begin with.

swords3711

dang well that makes me mad cuz i really liked her she had a really nice coloration to her

0morrokh

I know, it's so frustrating when Petco or Petsmart does get some nice looking fish. I now refuse to buy fish at either store because I have always found them to be sick or weak, but it's awfully tempting sometimes. Sorry about losing your female.

swords3711

tell me about it
usually if i lose any, it is in three weeks of getting them or in like 6 months when they are getting old
they had some beautiful rainbowfish, but they were quite expensive

Allie

The stress of a move and a new tank can kill fish. I had got an angelfish breeding pair(not from lfs tho) and the male Koi was stressed as soon as he got in the tank. He died over night. I was SO mad. It's hard to find a nice looking Koi angel around here.

jsalemi

I think that's especially true of 'high turnover' fish at those stores -- they don't get great stock. They do seem to do better with more 'exotic' fish like loaches and cichlids that don't sell quite as often.

swords3711

Luckily, my male looks fine.

COBettaCouple

that's a shame about the female & it does seem pretty hit or miss buying fish at the chain stores.

swords3711

i'll probably get her replaced and look at their neon swords. I was thinkin about it last time but i didn't have enough cash on me. Also, they were quite large.

JohnB

I have always found Petco to have a good suplly of fish and each store by me always have different species on sale each week when you are a member of their VIP club. Discounts are always good way to keep customers coming back for more.

sirdarksol

That's why a responsible store doesn't stock that many bettas.

But I'm thinking from a love of all life. Petco (and Petsmart, and many LFS) think from the want for more income. Bettas are cheap to produce, and I'm guessing Petco gets them for around a dime a dozen. So stock a bunch of different colors, and you're more likely to sell one. Even if 90% die, if there's a huge markup in cost (not to mention tanks, food, etc...), they make money.

Out of curiosity, do their shelves have the "Did you know that bettas live in mud puddles?" propaganda? There's a Petco near me that has a beautiful fish section. Probably the most carefully tended fish in the Twin Cities. But they encourage people to buy those crappy little tanks, no heat, no filtration, for their bettas, so I won't shop there.

Dark_Rider2k3

Our petco didn't look that bad..

in fact, the fish looked healthy, and they even had a few quarantine tanks (some were in use at the time so I could tell they were monitoring the fish)

I didn't buy any fish from them yet, but once my 20G tank arrives here and the cycles are all done, i'll be getting some Ottos from them (they were about $1.5 each)