PetSmart

Hello!

Just thought I'd drop an introduction here.

I picked PetSmart as a username...mainly because I work there. I'm 18 years old, and have been keeping fish for 16 years. My collection spans 26 tanks, ranging from half of a gallon to almost five thousand gallons. Not your typical petsmart employees setups. I also work with P marts birds, reptiles, and small animals...but I don't really enjoy it quite as much as I do the fish.
I deal with atleast 200 different fish inquires a day. Sometimes it's some unheard of problem, or someone letting me know of a home made remedy or shortcut, that I may or may not have already known.

Outside of the fishes, I play saxophone and guitar. Into all sorts of musics, but that's not quite as interesting as the Clown Knives or the Gar tanks.
Looking forward to helping with some questions, asking some more, and meeting the steady members.

Thanks

Darlene

Welcome to fishlore. You seem like a well informed petsmart employee, unlike the ones that work in our petsmart here.

Lucy

Welcome to Fish Lore

PetSmart

I badger our other fish "experts" all the time on the subtle details they misinform people on....I hear some terror stories about other stores though. Sad day, when a good meaning corporation can't train it's employees at the basic level

capekate

Welcome to fishlore Petsmart! I shop at my local petsmart for my supplies and most of my fish as there just are no other fish stores in my locale. For the most part this particular store is pretty good. There is one well informed young lady that works there and has been a great help to me and vise versa. They are used to me stopping in all the time to check on the fish and I love to chat with this particular girl that works there as she has quite a few tanks herself. But she tells me that she does NOT buy her fish from there. hmmm... lol...
It sounds like you have a good understanding of the corporate type stores and glad to see an employee that takes pride in her job and more importantly has the exerpience with fish that you can share with others that come in to your store.

PetSmart

I have atleast ten different people who only shop at our store for my help. Some drive for 30+ minutes!
I'm happy to hear you know another good associate somewhere! In our area, I am the only one who can solve more than an overstocked tank or a typical cycle problem. I get a lot of phone calls when I'm not working asking about what a fish is, or what nitrite is...and if nitrate is worse or better.
Typically the petsmart systems are clean. Some of my coworkers don't bring our fish home...but I recently brought a midas home, and he's perfectly fine. I also took a risk, and brought him some minnows from our feeder system (normally, I would never...) but there were no problems!
A few weeks ago, a guy called us up. He added a fantail to a 90 gallon tank, with mostly amazonian fish. First I was shoked he did that, but all his fish were dying off. He claimed they were all getting a white slime on them, and breathing hard, and refusing food. I figured it was probably some internal parasite...it's incredibly hard to hear descriptions over a staticy phone. He came in, and told me (and my boss) which fish he had. We gave him $100+ in credit. He also returned the fantail. I took the little guy home...confident in saying he's perfectly healthy.
I felt abused :P to say the least.

capekate

Yep, it takes me about that long to get there myself... your not on the cape are you? lol...
My only problem with fish in store tanks is that they all share the same water system.I have the attitude, when one gets sick.. they all get sick. It just spreads. But as I mentioned, most of the time its been good. When its not.. its horrid. For whatever reason.. short on staff.. inexperienced employees etc etc. Ive seen ICH that the manager told me were just 'water spots' on the fish... yaaa right! But Im not going to put down the store.. where you may feel that you have to defend them, I imagine that can get old quick for you.Im just glad that you are there at the store and helpful to the many folks that come in looking to start fishkeeping and have no knowledge or able to help folks diagnose illnesses in their fish.
btw... What a deal on the fantail!

PetSmart

I brought my slew of equipment to our store. When I see disease, I isolate and medicate. If there are multiple treatments, I bring more 10s! or sometimes a 20 long.
If I'm working...good luck finding ich in our tanks! :P

I do dislike the central filter system...but if each tank was catered to individually, they'd be horrid. Especially with the inexperienced employees. Doing a waterchange in the 1,800 gallon system is just one button. On 40 individual tanks....oh no...a siphon!
By the way, that fantails name is "Buck" due to the cash he ended up generating.

Angela_96

wait a sec... lol you say you are 18 and have been keeping fish for 16 years... this is going to be what my 2 year old says in 16 years.... Of coarse I hope it develops into a love of science, and maybe vet medicine or marine biology?? (just a mom hoping)
We got him a guppy tank when he was 1, and he has been obsessed w/ fish all his life.
Now the whole family is invovled (namely me w/ my many tanks).

Its a great hobby!

PetSmart

I'm a biochemistry and physics double major. If he turns out like me, your odds are good!

Cody

how old do you have to be to work at petsmart i always wanted to knw that

PetSmart

It was 16 for a very long time, but the head offices just bumped it to 18.

Cody

well i dont even get fish from mine anymore, they really dont know how to take care of them, what they read off the info cards is all they know

Devon

Welcome to FishLore!!

Amanda

Any chance you'd like to work in NY? The Petsmart near me is AWFUL. I can't even walk into that store anymore. My mother has to pull me out of the fish section b/c I sstand there and correct the workers constantly. Let's just say that the workers are never happy to see me when I walk in.

PetSmart

Many of those tags are wrong, so if you took their advice...maybe do some internet research. Tags claim an Oscar can go in a 30 gallon tank, for life. They state that Pacu grow to 24 inches only. Plecos are listed as a 13 incher in my store, but I've seen various lengths at other stores I write a letter occasionally to the big office requesting a review of the fish tags.

Cody

i hate that so much, its a joke. Sometimes theres ok people there, i go to my LFS and get good deals and info and learn alot, and i learned alot from every body here to. im going to be 16 in a few days, to bad they changed it, i could of been a decent addition

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.