Does Your Petco Have An "adoption Tank"?

I went to my Petco for the first time in a very long time and was pleasantly surprised. Their fish section was huge and well maintained. All their fish were healthy and didn't seem to be too crowed. They even had some really nice-looking plants. When I was there, they had this huge tank set up with all of the fish people had returned. They were charging $1 for small fish and $5 for large fish. It was an interesting concept, and it got me wondering if it was just my Petco doing it or if it was all of them.

 

yup, mine does. I think they all do.

 

Mine doesn't...

 

My petco has an adoption tank and last time I was there there was a 6-8 inch flowerhorn in the adoption tank

 

Well In Canada we don't have Petco but ive heard Petsmart does it too! I have only seen it at Big Als my local fish store called a "Surrender Tank"

 

What! I’ve never seen this at a Petco or Petsmart. Next time I’m around one I’m going to ask. Also who returns fish?

 

Also who returns fish?

My friend when the kids lost interest in the idea of having fish after a week

 

What! I’ve never seen this at a Petco or Petsmart. Next time I’m around one I’m going to ask. Also who returns fish?

Who hasn’t returned fish.

 

My friend when the kids lost interest in the idea of having fish after a week

Huh. I’ve never heard of a thing. Guess it’s better than letting the fish float like most.

Who hasn’t returned fish.

Me obviously lol

 

Okay, so I voted yes, but I only saw the adoption tank once, and it had puffers in it, so if it was a one time thing does it count?

 

not that i'm aware of. i've never seen one.

 

Ours does. Its always full of fish that normal aquariasts shouldn't have bought in first place.

 

The one where I live now doesn’t, but where I used to live (until 2012) did have one. However, it was against policy to charge for them since they weren’t inventoried, so they were either free or given a “suggested donation” price for the Petco Foundation (the donations were really only for larger pets like reptiles, rodents, etc. though). I wish my local one would do it, since I’m sure a lot of those fish just get flushed instead. (Also, because I have the room for big goldfish so I’d love to rescue some!)

 

My favorite petco has a "Dump" tank for unwanted fish ..... usually fish that are more aggressive then the orginal owner understood or is too large for their tank. Currently there is a huge sail fin molly, a dwarf gourami, and a chinese algae eater in there .... beautiful fish .... bad uneducated owners .... I was there when the lady dumped the dwarf there .... told the woman he's mean to all her other gourami she explained she had a pearl, a blue, a gold, and a very small kissing .... all with this larger dwarf in the same 40 gallon tank ‍♀️ and that she also kept other fish like tetra, guppy, barbs, and danios in there..... like if she couldn't add to the frustration of the gourami.... I just let my head hang listening to this .... I really do love my pair of pearls and listening to this lady was like nails on a chalk board.... my regular petco guy and talked about it after she left and we agreed that she will remove him and the next dominant one will take over..... because her tank is over crowded with incompatible fish and all of them suffer now. Tragic.

 

What! I’ve never seen this at a Petco or Petsmart. Next time I’m around one I’m going to ask. Also who returns fish?

Every time I'm in there, there's a big, aggressive fish in there. First time I saw it, there was a beautiful 8 inch Jack Dempsey, and the most recent time, there was a tiger oscar and an albino tiger oscar. They were both about ten inches. My guess is that the owner wasn't well informed and the fish just got too big or too aggressive. They charge $5 for large fish and $1 for small fish. All the "small fish" in there are platys, guppies, and mollys, so people probably surrender the livebearer fry they don't have room for.

 

Mine has a couple of signs to ask staff about adopting.

 

I've never seen such a thing at my Petco. I think they just take fish and put them with everything else. But to be fair, my Petco is pretty dumpy. I can't believe I used to buy fish from there, these days I wouldn't take a fish from them if they paid me to do it, it's that level of bad. Luckily there's a much better PetSmart right down the road. Still wouldn't buy fish from them either though.

 

I've never seen such a thing at my Petco. I think they just take fish and put them with everything else. But to be fair, my Petco is pretty dumpy. I can't believe I used to buy fish from there, these days I wouldn't take a fish from them if they paid me to do it, it's that level of bad. Luckily there's a much better PetSmart right down the road. Still wouldn't buy fish from them either though.

Mine is the exact opposite. I wouldn't ever buy fish from my Petsmart, but the Petco isn't too bad. My LFSs are really good, but Petco sells food and water conditioner is a lot cheaper.

 

My petco has a 2 rescue tanks...one for small docile fish and a 55 for larger fish.

They ask for a donation of a dollar a fish, although the only time I did get fish from the rescue tank the guy in aquatics gave me 5 fish and wrote 4 on the ticket.

 

None of them say adoption. More like what the fish names are and the price to buy them at. Yet I still say adopting them. And what I will say. When it's time for me to go adopt my fishies!