petco beef

[bigevill]

I just wanted to put a beef out about a local petco. I stopped in there yesterday just for giggles(Iwould never buy a fish from there) they had a 3 inch sohal tang in one of there 10 gallon tanks for sale with a 3 inch asfur angel!!!! If I had the dough I would have bought them both and took them to another store for him to try to resell them for me, he has nothing smaller than 75 gallon tanks for his fish.....

[beerguy]

Originally posted by bigevill
If I had the dough I would have bought them both and took them to another store for him to try to resell them for me.

That sends exactly the WRONG message to Petco. It's sad, but the best way to put an end to those kinds of practices is to let the fish die in the vendor's tank. Buying the fish, even for humanitarian reasons, tells Petco that the fish sells and makes money. They buy more of the same fish for that tiny tank.

Protest with your wallet buy not shopping there; it's really the best you can do.

[DgenR8]

Write a letter! Tell Petco that you don't approve of what you saw, and decided to go elsewhere to buy the 20 lb bag of dog food you originally went to them for.
Unless you give them reason to believe it's effecting their bottom line, they will pay you no mind.

[bigevill]

you know a couple of months ago I was there and they had two flame angels in the same tank and one was beating on the other. I told them they needed to seperate them. a week later I came back they were still in there together and the one looked really bad. I got the store manger and told her she needed to have this fixed, and told her that I had told one of the fish people this. I came back three days later and they were both still there, only the one was dead in the tank........

[bigevill]

I have never bought anything from them by the way, but my morbid curiosity brings me back from time to time.

[DgenR8]

I buy dog food there all the time, always have to look in the fish dept, I'm never happy with what I see. My local Petco doesn't have much besides clowns, damsels, the occasional puffer. They are good in a pinch for a heater or other odds and ends.
I don't recommend buying fish or inverts there, but everyone here knows that already.
If you are really bothered by what you saw, a letter or even an email couldn't hurt, and telling them that you were there to buy supplies for other pets will help get the point across that we don't just keep fish ;)

[gregmoeck]

Thats really sad

[Aaron1100us]

I really don't like Petco. I only buy dry goods there. Back a few months ago, the local Petco had three 1-2 inch maxima clams in a 20 with a small antinic light (there silly reef wannabe tank). I asked the person working if they fed them and he said that they had just got them in a few days ago and hadn't fed them yet. I asked what they feed them and he said that the clams eat the zooplankton in CoralVite. ***.:lol: I told him that the best way was to take them out and bowl feed them phytoplankton and he thought I was crazy. So I sent a letter to Petco and told them about it. I got a reply back saying that he would forward that onto the management and make sure they wouldn't do that again. This is what he wrote back.

"Dear Aaron
Thank you for contacting PETCO!

Each department has specialist in their field. The aquatics department has a trained aquatics specialist that should no all about the care and feeding of animals in his/her department. An associate from another department might not no the specifics about all of the aquatics. I will forward your e-mail onto the store management to make sure they are taking the appropriate care of the aquatic animals in question. Thank you for taking the time to write us.

If you have any more questions please don't hesitate to contact me at 1-888-824-PALS (7257).

Thank you for your loyal support and have a great week!

Take care,
Matt Young,
Customer Satisfaction Coordinator
PETCO Animal Supplies, Inc. "

[knowse]

On Jan 3, I went into my first and last Petco. The stench was like walking into a brick wall right at the front door. Lasted all of 2 minutes there, and the smell lasted on my clothing all day. Will never venture into another one.

[Shoestring Reefer]

knowse,

I know the feeling. I was checking out several LFSs and one mom and pop LFS smelt like urine. I looked around, and all they had were fish.

I did not stay long.

[nanocat]

Funny how everyone always beefs Petco. Almost every LFS I've been in has Tangs in tiny tanks :(

[bigevill]

well the store I buy from has nothing but 75 gallon tanks for there fish. mind you those tanks are too small for some of the fish he brings in there, but 75 is much better than 10. the other stores in my area dont bring in bigger fish if they dont have tanks to hold them.....

[nanocat]

Los Angeles is the hub of importing. You should see the way the LFS shoehorn in fish after a shipment :D

[tcarlson]

Originally posted by Aaron1100us

"Dear Aaron
Thank you for contacting PETCO!

Each department has specialist in their field. The aquatics department has a trained aquatics specialist that should no all about the care and feeding of animals in his/her department. An associate from another department might not no the specifics about all of the aquatics. I will forward your e-mail onto the store management to make sure they are taking the appropriate care of the aquatic animals in question. Thank you for taking the time to write us.

If you have any more questions please don't hesitate to contact me at 1-888-824-PALS (7257).

Thank you for your loyal support and have a great week!

Take care,
Matt Young,
Customer Satisfaction Coordinator
PETCO Animal Supplies, Inc. "

Shows how stupid they are it should be "know all"

[ratedgl]

I agree with nanocat. Also, I have yet to see a a lfs with a holding tank for their stock greater than 10 gallons, and i've gone into many. I don't support Petco but I think there a lot of LFS in the same class as them. We just pick on Petco maybe because they are such a large chain and we have all been in one to talk about them.

[bigevill]

no I was picking on petco because they are by far the worst saltwater store in my area.

[polymorphus]

The clowns at my local petco are covered in marine velvet.

The sad thing is they keep adding new stock to the same tank and then they get it.

[AReeferIsExpensive]

In my area...if you go to the petco, the only time you see living fish is if you went the day they were shipped. within a couple days they are all on their sides...laying next to already dead fish. Almost every fish in every tank has ick and they keep adding more fish.
Its upsetting to see so i mentioned how inhumane it was one day and the worker replied "no, it would be inhumane if we had more tanks, notice how we only have 12 saltwater tanks??" YEA!...with dead fish in them!!! >=/ I wont even buy my rat food there now!

I SAY EVERY FISH OWNER BOYCOTTS!! =P

[Jim in santa barbara]

See below

[LHHFMF]

We went to one of our local Petco's not that long ago to pick up cat food but like others I always go to the fish department to look around. One of the saltwater tanks that looked to be a 33G tank had at least 10 fish in it. There were:

(5) Purple Tangs - 3 were 5" fish and the others were 3". They Tangs were all very aggressive towards each other and were starving. They were searching and picking at everything just trying to get a bit to eat.

There were also a couple Angels, a Mandarin and others I can't remember but it was a sad sight.

[pixburg-reefer]

my petco sucks to. So, i don't go their. But, all they ever order is clowns, which is good i guess, but they are always sick, and have the advertisement "come and get nemo! we have em'!" Their fish cellection sucks, but, since they don't get in many fish, that meens they kill less.
Kelly

[ratboy]

Ive seen their fish and Im not eatting any beef from Petco!

[wee-reefer]

Sad ain't it Kelly? Ugh I hate that store!!! The whole chain needs to wither and die.



[Deep breathes]

[Vitesse304]

okay, devil's advocate...

most LFS do the same thing. When they get a large shipment of fish in, they cram them all into their tanks the same way!

Now granted, the staff at LFS are better educated, but all LFS do the same thing that Petco does. They purchase a quantity of animals, store them, then sell them...

In most cases, Petcos get the same livestock that the LFS down the street gets too! Petco does not have their own livestock distribution...they have an extra step in ordering in livestock by going through their regional buyer...so the quality of the fish is the same as down at the LFS...

[deladarkstep]

What is unfortunate is that the stores usually start off ok. Then the "fish aquarist" quits and they can't get someone with enough knowledge to keep it running. I worked at a petco as a stockboy when I was 17. Dont believe what they told you about having "trained" employees. There was a fish guy who quit. I was stuck baging crickets and fish all day. I told my manager I knew nothing about em. they didnt care. I mean they had to teach me how to tie the rubber bands around the fish bags so air would stay in them. ( this is how I got into fish btw). I only worked there a few weeks. So Technically a petco can be nice if they hire a decent aquarist and dont drive him to quit.

Dela

[Vitesse304]

Dela,

Petco is changing the way they train. Employees must attend training classes within the first 60 days of hire. But it is up to the Store Manager to make sure people are attending the training.

At the trainings, they bring in experts...In each department, they bring in a product vendor to talk about products, animal health, and animal welfare. This is true for reptiles, small animal, birds, dog/cat, and fish as well...

I don't work for Petco, but with my job, I spend a lot of time in them...and I've been invited to many training sessions...although I'm a vendor for Dog/Cat, I have seen the other presentations as well...and they are informative.

[deladarkstep]

Yeah I remember those videos. heh. You are correct about it being upto the store manager.

[Vitesse304]

the videos are used as a supplement now...it used to be, they just plopped you down in front of a video and a booklet...but not anymore!

Andrew

[Scuba Dog]

Oh well , when ever i make it to petco, my little pom loves the place so I go on ocasion, I find myself educationg the customers and the aquarist there, I dont mind, the lady has a desire to learn and I respect that.....a month or so ago I explained to her what mandarins need to surve, The pod lecture........and she got it and passes it on to her customeres, so I guess there might be some hope.......

[Nemo 79]

i worked at the petco in skokie IL (prolly the one this thread is about) they just dont take care f the fish, actually they get em from the exact same people as the store i work in now. petco just sucks and thats that. i remember why i quit after only about 4 weeks there. there were no sick animals at our, cause we were instructed that if there were any sick fish, birds, reptiles, to simply throw them in the freezer and be done with them. i walked right on on that **** and wrote letters to the dept. of agriculture and the BBB. dont shop there!!!!!!

and BTW what pet shop has only 75g tanks? ive been in almost all of em arounf chicago but would like to check that one out.

[bigevill]

well the petco I was talking about is in highland IN so it is not the same one you worked at. the store with the 75 gallon tanks is a little hole in the wall called exotic aqautics also in highland IN they sell nothing but saltwater, and they really dont have much but the owner, and only employee, is very knowledgable and will try to get me whatever I need. Sad but he is the best store I got around here.

[Nemo 79]

wow, thats odd, there is an exotic aquatics in algonquin IL also, i wonder if jeff (the owner)knows about that.

[RalphP]

We do all realize these are buissness.Its not a showcase to view animals in there natural habitat.I understand why people would be upset by seeing fish or coral that are either to difficult to feed give proper tank sizes for .I also think that going in there is just as bad.I know people will complain about a fish in too small a tank and say they will never buy anything from a store like that but if there was a mh on sale for 1/2 the price elsewhere or that 1 coral alot cheaper than anywhere else it would be bought on site.Just my feelings.

[Strandedthinker]

Im going to apply to petco today, hopefully I can help :). Just need to learn about freshwater and Im doing good.

[bigevill]

yeah I have seen other people talk about that exotic aquatics. I doubt either owner cares much as the distance between them is great enough to not cause competion.

[biomekanic]

as another devil's advocate, at least the Petco here in town is run by reefkeepers, so they do their best to make sure animals are spread out and anything diseased is isolated. They're also nicer than the two other stores we have here. Usually, if I'm looking for stuff I can't get at Petco, I'm better off driving the 120 miles to Portland to get it.

[lil'salty]

having been a manager at a petco i can say that petco home offices act like taking care of the animals is a big deal its not delt with in a very timely manner
if the store has a good aquarist and a management staff that will let them do the job then petco can be a very good store
i know that i personally stayed till 3 am more than a couple of times to make sure that things were as good as they needed to be

[mobius9oo]

I've been into the Petco numerous times in Tallahassee. I've only looked at buying clowns there. I went in last Friday and they were floating in the bags, so they were atleast somewhat acclimating them. I talked to the guy in the fish department and he said he had a tank at home with a couple clowns in it. He said they take pretty good care of them. Most likely when I go to buy them, if I get them from there, I will do it on a Friday when they are still sitting in the bags.

[A Reef Scene]

I'm not defending Petco but it all comes down to money. It takes money to properly take care of and medicate any animal. And thay dont want to spend it. The people at corporate are the ones who set the rules and the stores must follow.

[Al G Blenny]

I am not against corporations except when they are selling animals. Corporate pet stores should not sell animals. Look at Petcos track record. You see how many people complain about them. There are reasons. I used to work for a Petco a long time ago. Let me just give you one situation. I got a call from another fish department guy at another local Petco. He told me that he received a wrong delivery with salt water fish in it. His store didn't have salt water tanks. I said no prob just tell your manager to bring them to my store. He called me back a few minutes later. It turnes out that he told his manager the situation and his manager said F*** the fish. Let them die. I couldn't belive what I heard. I told my manager and she told the district manager. Guess what happened. The employee at the other store got yelled at for telling. My store manager had to go to the other store to get the fish. The district manager called me and told me to forget anything happened. Not a single thing happened to the BAD manager. I have other stories like that but it would take too long to tell them. Just so you know Petco managers are usually brought in from other companies. They usually don't even know anything abot animals. You would think that would be a requirement. I still have friends that work for Petco. I know about their wonderfull "training". It is non-existant. It's not that Petco tries to be a bad company. They just can't avoid it. In order to make more money they have to pay their employees very low wages. How are you going to find well trained workers if you don't pay them enough. All of the good workers that know a lot about what they are selling work for more reputable stores. Most of the Petco aquatics employees are high school kids that have had a fish tank so they think they know about aquariums.
Yes Petco get their fish from mostly the same wholesalers as the other LFS(not always). That is not even a point. It's how they care for the animals. JUST LOOK AT THEM! You have to be blind to think the fish are healthy. You know they get their clowns for O.R.A. That means they are tank raised. Yet their clown look worse than most wild collected. O.R.A. reported more claims on dead fish in the first year of selling to Petco than they did in thier entire history of selling fish. O.R.A. fish are indestructable. Leave it to Petco to find a way to kill them. For all of you people that buy your other pet supplies from them, shame on you. You should know better. It doesn't matter if you are buying fish or dog food. You are still supporting them. One way to hurt them is to boycott them. Another is to actually complain to animal control when you see problems there. Complaining to a Petco doesn't solve anything. I actually had a guy for The Department Of Public Safety (the people that inspect pet stores anually) tell me to make a lot of complaints about Petcos. With every valid comlaint they get a citation. If they get enough citation in a year they can get shut down.

[Triterium]

My local PetCo reduced their number of salt water tanks to about a third of what they had. Now they only have about 9 of them. WooHoo!!

[A Reef Scene]

That is the same here.

[biggoby]

i worked for petco for the last 3 years and much of the things that were said i the previous threads the person would get fired in my area. i have worked in 4 of the 7 in my area and have been and know most of the fish people. the major problem is that there are the petco ways and the better way. the petco ways are not wrong but they are old non-effective ways. most petco employees are not the animal care people but are trained to help you if you ask for it. there is a animal care person on every shift that should know what they are doing and if don’t have the answers can find them. petco and mom and pops have the same problems but petco has a higher customer flow and their problems are more publicized. im not defending petco because they are evil. im just stating that a lot of that is said about petco is blown out of proportions. and i do agree that petco needs to fix may practices.

[hmoore]

The Laurel, MD Petco used to have one guy who honestly cared about the saltwater fish there and actually owned a 55G salt tank personally. The fish that he did stock (mostly ORA clowns and damsels) were at least maintained with some level of decency. He would never order mandarins, even though they would show up occasionally out of the blue. Overall, he seemed pretty responsible.

Of course, he has since quit and the salt tanks are all deplorable. It would be nice if they would just stick to the sale of dry goods and maybe a few FW tanks. I have yet to see a Petsmart with a saltwater section.

[bigevill]

well, I had to go to kohls this week for new shoes and decided to revisit the petco that started this thread. guess what. they still have the sohal and the purple tang. the sohal has no color at all and is breathing rapidly (they still want $140 for him) but the purple looks OK. However, they did have 3 dead yellow tangs in there tanks.....:mad:

[hmoore]

Must have been that morbid curiosity at work bigevill.

[bigevill]

I should really stop doing it to myself......