PetCo vs. PetSmart? Which is better?

I've seen people here call it DeathCo. Is PetSmart really that much better?

I really don't have many options around me. It seems no matter where I go, a LFS or PetCo, the fish are NEVER treated nicely.

 

I prefer petsmart over Petco. The main reason being that Petco imo is very filthy and very disorganized. Plus there is never anybody around if you need to talk to someone. Petsmart is much cleaner, more organized, and there is usually someone there if you have a question. Usually when I go someone is always asking me if I need help with something. IMO also I do think that they do care a bit ore about there fish then at Petco. The Bettas may still be in those cups, but they atleast put some kind dechlor in the cups to keep the ammonia down and whatever. Petco as far as I have seen at mine does not do that. This is just my opnion. Natalie

 

don't be sorry! This is what I want to hear. I'm relatively new (just a handful of months) to the whole fish-thing. I seem to be going to PetCo because they are near my home and my school.

I had to bring 8 guppies to a store because I couldn't keep them. It was a saturday. No one would take them except for the PetCo up the street. The guy said to bring them in asap. So I brought them in and the manager yelled at him, saying there was no place to put them... but he said "no, she called and I told her I would take them for her so I'm taking them home with me tonight". I thought it was very sweet of him to help me out.

There is only one PetSmart in the area and when I went there... being a newbie, I asked if I could put a sick balloon molly in a bowl with daily w.c. until he got better.... and I got yelled at! I quickly told the guy off, explaining that if someone asks a question, he should be patient because it is merely a question.. but I won't go back there.

I really want to find a non-chain LFS that is so good. Maybe someday I'll open one up!

 

I've seen people here call it DeathCo. Is PetSmart really that much better?

I really don't have many options around me. It seems no matter where I go, a LFS or PetCo, the fish are NEVER treated nicely.

petsmart is by far cleaner

 

I agree with everyone that said that Petsmart take care of its customers. They have always been so helpful to me, answer any and all questions I may have and seem to be knowledgable in fishkeeping. Of course you have the isolated case where it is usually the management that is the problem, and if there is a bad manager, then everything can go downhill and that can be in any chain or small time LFS. The tanks and fish are well kept at my local petsmart and wow those folks are as friendly and helpful as the tv ads shows them to be. they have a great return policy and will match any online price and competitors price. I even brought a cracked tank from another LFS that would not exchange it for me, and when I told the story to the employee at petsmart she said they will take it back as their own and replace it for me and the first tank wasn't even from a petsmart to begin with! Where can you find that kind of service?? I will stick with them for all my supplies and most of my fish.
~ kate

 

If anyone has a PetLAND near them, it's worth checking out. I've got one about 20 miles from where I live, and I love it! I know there aren't many, in fact the one near me is the only one in the whole state of Iowa. I have never had anything bad to say about it, always a great experience!

 

ok, it's offtopic, but mike just added new smileys since the last post I read so I have to use them: this is me: :;a2 if I the manual correctly.

anyway.. back to deathco versus petsmart. Petsmart might be far from perfect but compared to deathco they look pretty good.. I do see dead fish in tanks there and some petsmart stores have the erroneous practice of betta sorority tanks (although all the ones i've been to have females in cups now).. but the deathco tanks usually are filled with dead fish and are so dirty that when an employee pulled up a plant the tank turned into a storm of dead fish parts, rotted food and poop. Deathco betta cups are more dirty and their bettas fall into the dead & dying category much more than petsmart.. we've also found the fish area to usually be devoid of employees and so far about 95% of advice we got there was totally wrong. My fav. was when I heard the manager suggest a constipated male betta was pregnant. I don't know if they all do it, but the deathco here routinely double-charges items.. I missed it once being distracted filling out their little card application and the manager pretty much told me I was stupid and tough luck, no money back. I don't know how petsmart is since we don't have one in our little town, but our deatcho refuses to discount very sick or almost dead bettas if someone wants to try to save it.. the manager said "just get a healthy one" when we inquired about a discount on one that had been shoved to the back and was obviously almost dead. (we'd read posts on here about other pet stores that would discount or give away a really bad off betta if someone wanted them.)

we only have them in our town but fortunately we found out about the DFS website to order from here at fishlore and they get our business since after so many times of "let's try this one more time" with deathco.

 

I haven't been to a PetCo in my area and our PetSmart is quite a ways away, we also have another store nearer than those, a PetMania small store. The PetSmart in our area has a wonderful selection of fish and a nice staff who knows a lot. I have only seen a few dead fish in the tanks but with so many tanks you can't always take out dead fish every 10 minutes or so. --I think it was so rude that someone would yell at you for asking a simple question.

 

--I think it was so rude that someone would yell at you for asking a simple question.

I agree!!! I was with my boyfriend and I thought he was going to go back in and beat the out of that guy when I started to tear up outside the store.

 

--I think it was so rude that someone would yell at you for asking a simple question.

I agree!!! I was with my boyfriend and I thought he was going to go back in and beat the out of that guy when I started to tear up outside the store.

lol.. good for him.. don't go to deathco with him or he'll have to stuff a few employees into the tanks -- IF you can find some.

 

hahahah-- I think that's funny

 

lol... well he is the one who bought me a $100 gift certificate to PetCo to get me started with a tank! He thinks I've gone completely overboard and obsessed.... but that's just what made him so mad! I'm just a poor, innocent, obsessed-with-fish-girl who just wants the best for her fish!

 

lol... well he is the one who bought me a $100 gift certificate to PetCo to get me started with a tank! He thinks I've gone completely overboard and obsessed.... but that's just what made him so mad! I'm just a poor, innocent, obsessed-with-fish-girl who just wants the best for her fish!

and it doesn't hurt if you're cute and have tears forming.. that's a good way to get a guy mad. <grrr>

 

lol oh of course!! It's almost my best defense!! :'( :-* :'(

 

Its my fish that get to me too, my black skirt tetras especially whenever I come into my bedroom they all swim up to the glass and look at me, follow me around the room. Too cute. A funny trait with them I have seen a couple times is when they swim opposite from me (butt is facing me) they will spread out their fins so I see what looks like arms and legs!! Even more cute it makes me giggle. I love my fish so much I want to start a saltwater tank. So I plan on saving up some big bucks for a nice saltwater cube aquarium. I could spend a lifetime going around and around a fishstore just looking at the fish they have.

 

lol oh of course!! It's almost my best defense!! :'( :-* :'(

it doesn't work for me.. I guess i'm not cute.. <boohoo!>

 

lol or don't have boobs.

 

lol or don't have boobs.

well since i'm a guy, i'm not complaining about that! ..and that's why petsmart's better.. oh, i'm so clever to get back on-topic just in the nick of time..

 

hahaha you're so good. <--this guy just because

 

--I think it was so rude that someone would yell at you for asking a simple question.

I agree!!! I was with my boyfriend and I thought he was going to go back in and beat the out of that guy when I started to tear up outside the store.

They made you cry? Insanity. Karma will catch up with them, don't worry about it.

I'm really lucky to live in a town that has an excellent selection of lfs, completely devoted to fishkeeping. I've found good and bad employeee's in all of them. Nothing can replace being an educated consumer.

 

I live in the DFW, TX area and I'm also very lucky to have a multitude of pet/fish stores, depending on how far and thru how much traffic I want to drive.

I go to different stores for different things. There are two non-chain stores that I use for my reef/SW tank needs. But I would say that I spend more time and money shopping online, and then at Petco. I have said it elsewhere, but I think the Petco as "deathco" thing is unfair as a generalization. The Petco that I visit is huge, bright, clean, well stocked and well staffed. The fish department is awesome, has a much better selection of items than the Petsmart across the street, and includes Freshwater and Saltwater fish. The staff is very friendly and last Saturday I got a box of dog biscuits free from the manager. My healthiest betta came from this store.

As always, your results may vary. I just hate to see such generalizations based on a name and not entirely on experience.

 

It seems that a good personal experience at petco is rare.. yours is a TOTAL 180 from ours and the other petcos i've been in really don't look, smell or act much different. i'm glad you have a good one, but given the experiences of other fishlore members, I wonder if it's the only one in the chain..

 

I have to say this topic has amazed me. My local PetCo is a great store. Everything is always clean and alive and in good health. They adopt out cats and dogs and have a grooming parlor, all that jazz. They always have better prices and selection than PetSmart including reptile supplies. Heck even the reptiles. I'm not saying the PetSmart is bad, just pricier. I buy frozen food at PetCo because the price is at least $5 cheaper and they have a better variety. If I'm going to buy livestock, I don't go to either. I did purchase a few fish from PetCo in the early days of my addiction. My Oscar and a Rosy Barb are 2 of them. I've always gotten great service as well. Our PetSmarts problem is that they are geared strongly toward dogs and horses. I am in Colorado after all. I do buy my dog toys and treats at PetSmart, now that I think about it though. Sorry to hear you all have poor PetCos. It can really pay to have good competitiveness.
A salute to the apparently oh so rare "Good" PetCo.

 

you're not in denver, are you? I know we didn't get to check them all out, but the petcos there that we went to weren't much better than the one here. I have found petsmart to be more than petco on a lot of things, but have found things that are cheaper at petsmart along with a much greater selection of fish & supplies. Of course they're both highly priced compared to where we do most of our supplies ordering now. The manager of that petco should send a "how-to" guide to the rest of the stores - the %$#@^ store here has us wanting to never give them a dime of business again and if we need 'emergency' supplies after moving back to Denver we'll go to petsmart even if it costs more and is further from our place.. and until we find the good LFS's there, we'll head to a petsmart when we get the urge to fish shop. congrats on having a good one.. seems to be a diamond amid a sea of fish poo.

 

back to the "Fish Poo" are we?

 

back to the "Fish Poo" are we?

yea, but deathco is the bad fish poo, not the good fish poo.

 

back to the "Fish Poo" are we?

yea, but deathco is the bad fish poo, not the good fish poo.

lol...I know what you mean...someone said something about a really big arowana the other day...and I had just posted something about fish poo and it made me wonder "how big is a big arowanas poo?"

anybody have any experience with this fish poo?

 

back to the"Fish Poo" are we?

yea, but deathco is the bad fish poo, not the good fish poo.

lol...I know what you mean...someone said something about a really big arowana the other day...and I had just posted something about fish poo and it made me wonder "how big is a big arowanas poo?"

anybody have any experience with this fish poo?

About this big: (imagine them not moving or rainbowcolored )

My petco used to be better than my petsmart until they relocated the fish manager to reptiles, he was the smartest person there and would stand around and talk about general fishkeeping and let me buy fish. Now the new manager is a ditzy blond that got the stocking messed up so now the oscars are community fish "because they don't chase eachother like the tetras do". My petsmart isn't any better, it is overpriced and they only sell tanks up to 37 gallons and half of the fish I have seen them sell can't even fit in a 37. Instead I go to a really nice family owned store that sells 200 gallon tanks and have the know-how to keep fish, every time I have been in there I have not seen a single dead fish. :Last time I was in they even offered me to be a part time breeder for them (I am only 14!) because I showed good fish keeping skills.

The reason that I think it is called DeathCo and makes petsmart sound better is that DeathSmart seems like they actually know what they are doing (I think so anyway).
As long as this thread is here I would like to know: Is it Pets-mart or Pet-smart? Never could figure out wich.

 

Well, each Petco and Petsmart seems different. The Petco near me is very clean and has great people working there while Petsmart is the exact opposite.

 

I am going to be near my petco tommorrow, so I will go check it out for ya'll, might even rescue a betta while i'm in there

 

lol I agree. They're all different!!

I went today to pick up just one oto... and got two. And really wanted to buy a betta!! I just can't.....yet....

 

lol I agree. They're all different!!

I went today to pick up just one oto... and got two. And really wanted to buy a betta!! I just can't.....yet....

lol...MTS??
I just picked up a 5 gal. last week, it should be cycled...if not close to being done.
I figured a betta in my tank is better than a betta in their 8 oz. water bottles

 

While I was at Petco today, this 21 year old kid told me how it's HIS fish department and the guy that took my guppies for me is going to be written up now.. and he kept giving me all these snotty comments. My friend, Ali, was with me. She recently bought a 5 gallon tank and tried her hand with goldfish. She went through 8 of them. I'm pretty sure it's all due to the cycle.. but now she refuses to do anything!! I'm slowly going to try and get her to get another fish but I have to work her over. Anyways, she asked the guy about it, and instead of just telling her what she should do, he told her very rudely what she did wrong. I then proceded to tell him everything I saw wrong with "his" fish department, told him that I only came to this store because they had otos, and took my otos to the cash register.

I fully agree that it depends on the store. Some PetCos are going to be better than some PetSmarts... etc. But so far, I haven't had good experiences with ANY of them!

 

While I was at Petco today, this 21 year old kid told me how it's HIS fish department and the guy that took my guppies for me is going to be written up now.. and he kept giving me all these snotty comments.
I fully agree that it depends on the store. Some PetCos are going to be better than some PetSmarts... etc. But so far, I haven't had good experiences with ANY of them!

You should have slapped him silly. Thank you for agreeing with me. :;qu

 

lol.. I think the best thing to do would be to give him a closeup and personal view of the fish. he sounds like he'd fit in at our deathco.

 

you're not in Denver, are you? I know we didn't get to check them all out, but the petcos there that we went to weren't much better than the one here. I have found petsmart to be more than petco on a lot of things, but have found things that are cheaper at petsmart along with a much greater selection of fish & supplies. Of course they're both highly priced compared to where we do most of our supplies ordering now. The manager of that petco should send a "how-to" guide to the rest of the stores - the %$#@^ store here has us wanting to never give them a dime of business again and if we need 'emergency' supplies after moving back to Denver we'll go to petsmart even if it costs more and is further from our place.. and until we find the good LFS's there, we'll head to a petsmart when we get the urge to fish shop. congrats on having a good one.. seems to be a diamond amid a sea of fish poo.

lol No I'm, western slope. It's probably the only one out here, and I gotta say, it's not so much that either are great stores exactly. They are both still just "box stores". I have to go 70 miles to get there anyway. LFS's are the way to go for fish in my opinion. Usually a local owner has more of their livelyhood invested, so they tend to take more care. Although that isn't always true either. The only LFS in my town.....not so good. I am almost exclusively online at this point.Marine Depot
I buy a bunch of cheap frozen food when I make the trek to a pet "supercenter" but that's about it.

 

imo, as long people don't go to wal-mart, its all gravy!!!

 

I actually noticed.... the wal-mart in my town did USED to have fish... but now they use it for the garden section..

However, in the KNIFE section, they have them all in a case. What is lining the bottom of the case? Blue Fishy Gravel!! hahaha guess they had some leftovers...

 

I actually noticed.... the wal-mart in my town did USED to have fish... but now they use it for the garden section..

However, in the KNIFE section, they have them all in a case. What is lining the bottom of the case? Blue Fishy Gravel!! hahaha guess they had some leftovers...

The wal-mart here sells fish....their tanks are nasty. Makes me mad.

 

They're too busy watching for falling prices!!

8)