A Sad State

This is a bit of a rant. I am sure this has been ranted about before but what I've seen is just pure negligence. I've been on the hunt for Ember Tetras to add to my shoal, but because of Covid a lot of stores including the big box stores have limited supply of anything and avoid these guys for some reason. Anyway, I called my local Petco and to my surprise I was told that they had Embers in stock. Silly me. I get there, don't bother to look, (my mistake) and ask for 10 Embers. I received 10 glowlight Tetras. I gave em back immediately. This is just the beginning and not the negligence part. I don't blame this employee. She was very polite and accommodating. I believe she was new because I have not seen her there before. Honest mistake, so I moved on with a bit of aggravation.

I called a few other Petcos and they were all out of stock and I know Petsmart never carries them so I moved onto my next pick. Long fin or "regular" leopard dianos, whichever were in stock. Oddly enough, I've never seen any leopard danios in Petcos around here, so I called a bunch of Petsmarts. Two locations had them. This is what sickens me. I walked into the first location and it was a sea of floaters. Every tank had multiple dead fish, algae growing everywhere, fish at the surface trying to breathe, etc. It was astonishing in the most negative way. I saw the only two leopard danios left and grabbed them. It turned into me wanting new fish to me saving some fish. The department was completely neglected. At this point I decided to look at the Betta cups. Out of about 15 cups, at least 10 were dead. The remaining 5 looked like they wanted to die and be at peace. If I had the space, I would have purchased those Bettas.

The second Petsmart that I went to didn't actually have the leopard danios so that was a waste of time but much like the first location, it was a death sentence to any remaining fish. I just do not understand how a company this large allows the fish department in most stores in my area to become a wasteland of obvious neglect. It was honestly to the point where I wanted to apply for top fish guy position and just fix the entire territory. It was depressing. I moved on to the third location which was about 40 minutes away. They seemed to have a few in stock and I was hoping that it wouldn't be a repeat of the Petco experience. This location was better. I did not see any dead fish in any tank which was a huge sigh of relief. They had 7 leopard danios, so I grabbed them all. Now...on the way back I saw a Petco in the same town so I popped in, hoping they had some Embers. They had 2 left, so I grabbed them. This Petco was pretty awesome with their selection and cleanliness. Again, didn't notice any dead fish or inverts. I know that it can be hit or miss but I feel like the good locations are few and far between. Even some of my LFS are abysmal when it comes to quality. I can only hope that things get better for the fish in this area. Today was a punch in the face.

 

I ran the aquatic and small animal department at petsmart back in the late 90s early 2000 in the biggest petsmart in the region. I was in charge of 120 fish tanks, 30 reptile, 30 birds and small animals. Including a sick room and quarantine tanks. As much as I hated bettas in the cups I did the best I could and had all 200 changed every other day.

I also dumped them in our huge plant tank (200 gallon with MH lighting).

I kept that place spotless, I raised sales and education beyond records. But it came down to one thing.

Funding.

In those days I could request any medication including prescription, collaborate with the vets, I brought back about 90% of animals sick from transportation and poor breeding (again just trying to do the best with what I could control), any supplements I needed I just took, I hired based on knowledge and I could pay $3-$4 over minimum wage. Even more with simple communication, getting near $15.00 an hour which in the late 90s was a great wage. None of that is possible now, they’re very monitored and restricted.

My employees were happy to work, I loved managing it and everyone loved my aquatic section for about 4 years.

Then they cut funding big time. Animals got sick, the people were hired based on customer service rather than interest and knowledge, and with that sales and animal health dropped.

I wouldn’t blame the employees it’s simply the economy. Petco and petsmart do what they have to to survive. They hire at $10 an hour if you’re lucky. What can you do with that? Just hire a bunch of children. What can you do? I ended up leaving even after being offered a big time position. They just weren’t going in a good direction and I knew it.

Something should be done though at a higher corporation level, but it’s all about profits.

I miss those days and I don’t know how old everyone is but walking into a petsmart in the late 90s vs today is night and day. They were spectacular. They’ve gone way way downhill. I think the 2008 recession is what broke the camels back. Now I hate going in, like you said, 1 out of 4 are well done and I bet anything that store simply has more funding.

 

It seems the whole covid thing has caused the big box stores to lower their care on fish even more. My petco was the same story plus they had hardly any fish and had virtually no saltwater fish.

 

It seems the whole covid thing has caused the big box stores to lower their care on fish even more. My petco was the same story plus they had hardly any fish and had virtually no saltwater fish.

My Petco has dropped the saltwater section since Covid.

At least they aren't using sanitizer in the tanks... yet.

 

I ran the aquatic and small animal department at petsmart back in the late 90s early 2000 in the biggest petsmart in the region. I was in charge of 120 fish tanks, 30 reptile, 30 birds and small animals. Including a sick room and quarantine tanks. As much as I hated bettas in the cups I did the best I could and had all 200 changed every other day.

I also dumped them in our huge plant tank (200 gallon with MH lighting).

I kept that place spotless, I raised sales and education beyond records. But it came down to one thing.

Funding.

In those days I could request any medication including prescription, collaborate with the vets, I brought back about 90% of animals sick from transportation and poor breeding (again just trying to do the best with what I could control), any supplements I needed I just took, I hired based on knowledge and I could pay $3-$4 over minimum wage. Even more with simple communication, getting near $15.00 an hour which in the late 90s was a great wage. None of that is possible now, they’re very monitored and restricted.

My employees were happy to work, I loved managing it and everyone loved my aquatic section for about 4 years.

Then they cut funding big time. Animals got sick, the people were hired based on customer service rather than interest and knowledge, and with that sales and animal health dropped.

I wouldn’t blame the employees it’s simply the economy. Petco and petsmart do what they have to to survive. They hire at $10 an hour if you’re lucky. What can you do with that? Just hire a bunch of children. What can you do? I ended up leaving even after being offered a big time position. They just weren’t going in a good direction and I knew it.

Something should be done though at a higher corporation level, but it’s all about profits.

I miss those days and I don’t know how old everyone is but walking into a petsmart in the late 90s vs today is night and day. They were spectacular. They’ve gone way way downhill. I think the 2008 recession is what broke the camels back. Now I hate going in, like you said, 1 out of 4 are well done and I bet anything that store simply has more funding.

My BIL had the same position at a Petsmart on the east coast. I’ll have to ask him what years. He’s a few years older than you and it was before I knew him.
Anyway, he said funding was an issue for him and everyday he expected to get fired for putting the animals first. He also mentioned that the employees were not that knowledgeable nor paid that well.
But it’s his fault I’m back into the fish hobby lol!

 

Yeah. Petcos in my town are usually better for fish than the Petsmarts. I haven't been to the big Petco for some time, but they always had a great selection of fish and both Petco's did a pretty good job at keeping bettas with fresh water. Helps a lot in my mind that both petcos have hobbyists usually working in aquatics, whereas petsmart most that work seem to have little clue. Sometimes i decide if i will buy anything by acting like someone trying to "get my first betta, know nothing about fish, what do i need?"....