Petco Rescue. Oh the humanity!!!!!!
 

All,

Tell me if I'm going of the "deep end," please...

I've been in my local Petco store on many occasions to buy stuff for my Beagle. Needless to say, I stop over at their "marine aquariums" only to be horrified by the conditions of their stock, mainly their Anemones. Last time I was in there, there was a white-pink tipped anemone almost completely dead with shriveled up tentacles. Petco wouldn't allow me to purchase it for a very reduced price, but would rather let it die off. Tell me that isn't bizarre.

Anyhow. Today I stopped in to see what horrors were taking place. Low and behold, a brand new anemone (just like the last) struggling to live. I told the lady that I wanted to purchase it, but I also wanted to know the SG in their tank. She had no idea what I was talking about, but after I explained to her that I need this "thingy" with a little floating arm (so the less educated on marine aquariums could understand), I proceeded to measure their SG. Low and behold it was at best 1.010 on a INstant Ocean hydrometer.

I ended up buying the white anemone. But I can't continually feel compelled to rescue marine critters from Petco. I'll go broke!

Have I lost my mind?? And I'm a dude who's supposed to be cold hearted! LOL

What is their policy if it dies off? Anemone's are difficult to rescue.

No refunds. Doing it on my own I hope

i know what you mean. i was at a petco and i wanted to buy a freshwater fish so i checked them out. they were in bad shape, some dead ones were just lying there, they didn't care at all. weird, but i guess they just don't care

Wow, I wounder if you write a nasty letter to the corp office how their running the show down their if it would have any affect. I think I would if I was in your shows, heck if Vick can go to jail killing dogs, what rights do sea life have?

The petco in my area does an ok job with their fish department. Your Petco will probably just replace the anemone you bought with another one though. It's nice to save them, but they will just take another out of the ocean to put in their tanks.

I do commend you for saving that anemone.

If you do write a letter, include pictures of the stock and names of employees. They may tell you not to take a picture, but I'd try. Good luck. Is there anywhere else you can shop? You may also try a letter to the editor of your local paper and a call to the Better Business Bureau.

do yourself a favor and save some money go in get your dog food and leave. I've never seen a petco that I would buy a fresh water fish from much less a marine fish or creature. Them guys are sick that work there how hard is to check even salt.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11514185#post11514185 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tcilmo [/i]
[B]Wow, I wounder if you write a nasty letter to the corp office how their running the show down their if it would have any affect. I think I would if I was in your shows, heck if Vick can go to jail killing dogs, what rights do sea life have? [/B][/QUOTE]

I don't want to get into the "rights" or actually the lack there of in sea life. However, I thought about writing a letter to Petco, but will it really do any good?

Moved to this forum as more a propos here.

In my opinion, giving PetCo money for animals only encourages them to buy more animals.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11514274#post11514274 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kzickovich [/i]
[B]do yourself a favor and save some money go in get your dog food and leave. I've never seen a petco that I would buy a fresh water fish from much less a marine fish or creature. Them guys are sick that work there how hard is to check even salt. [/B][/QUOTE]

I can say that the young lady working there wasn't the sharpest dart on the dart board. I mainly get my dog food on base, but every now-and-then I stop at Petco and pick up things when the base runs out. Unfortunately I live in a backwoods town in Maryland that hasn't seen much in marine life with maybe the exception of the dead jelly fish that wash up on shore from the Chesapeake.

There's a small privately owned LFS nearer to my home, but his prices are very high which is to be expected since he has no competition.

I've considered ordering my marine life online or simply driving to Virginia Beach since there's more to choose from.

Looking better
 

Get this. I was dripping the anemone and I started noticing that he was beginning to shrivel up at a very fast rate. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I quickly put it into my tank and it is now starting to "re-inflate."
[IMG]http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj65/tlisom/DSCN1421.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11514328#post11514328 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni [/i]
[B]Moved to this forum as more a propos here.

In my opinion, giving PetCo money for animals only encourages them to buy more animals. [/B][/QUOTE]

Good point!

Anchor it?
 

It's rolling around in the corner of my tank a bit. Should I anchor it down in the substrate or just let it be for now???

You may find it difficult to stomach but NEVER, EVER should you "rescue" a salt water fish or anything else salt from a Petco. They don't care about the one you "rescued" so the next one they put in the tank to take its place will die a slow death as well. The more they have to eat in cost as a business the less they will stay in the salt business as a whole and the better off the hobby will be as a whole as well.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11514443#post11514443 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Freed [/i]
[B]You may find it difficult to stomach but NEVER, EVER should you "rescue" a salt water fish or anything else salt from a Petco. They don't care about the one you "rescued" so the next one they put in the tank to take its place will die a slow death as well. The more they have to eat in cost as a business the less they will stay in the salt business as a whole and the better off the hobby will be as a whole as well. [/B][/QUOTE]

Yes...OK I agree already. It's all about the economics of it. I'm rather in a bind considering I live in BFE and haven't got any other place locally to choose from.

Back to my one post. Can anyone tell me if ordering online is a successful approach to sea life?

Chief,

Vote with your wallet and shop somewhere else. Places that take good care of their animals must charge more for their products in order to recoup those costs. Petco runs wholesale death camps all across the country and this is funded by pet lovers (including reefers) nationwide. If they make no money on the items they sell, they will no longer offer them; this is basic economics. Don't encourage them to carry these animals by buying the sick ones.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11514503#post11514503 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by old salty [/i]
[B]Chief,

Vote with your wallet and shop somewhere else. Places that take good care of their animals must charge more for their products in order to recoup those costs. Petco runs wholesale death camps all across the country and this is funded by pet lovers (including reefers) nationwide. If they make no money on the items they sell, they will no longer offer them; this is basic economics. Don't encourage them to carry these animals by buying the sick ones. [/B][/QUOTE]

OK. Enough of taking the old Chief to the "locker" for some "training." No more Petco for me except for the necessity to keep my dog from tearing my leg off because he's hungry.

You guys are great!

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11514503#post11514503 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by old salty [/i]
[B]Chief,

Vote with your wallet and shop somewhere else. Places that take good care of their animals must charge more for their products in order to recoup those costs. Petco runs wholesale death camps all across the country and this is funded by pet lovers (including reefers) nationwide. If they make no money on the items they sell, they will no longer offer them; this is basic economics. Don't encourage them to carry these animals by buying the sick ones. [/B][/QUOTE]

Love the signature. Isn't that so true!

There are many RC sponsors that take much better care of their salt livestock than any Petco ever has. Drs Foster Smith is a good one as are many others. I would buy from one of them way before I would buy from any Petco. Dr's even has a 14 day stay alive guarantee.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11514536#post11514536 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Freed [/i]
[B]There are many RC sponsors that take much better care of their salt livestock than any Petco ever has. Drs Foster Smith is a good one as are many others. I would buy from one of them way before I would buy from any Petco. Dr's even has a 14 day stay alive guarantee. [/B][/QUOTE]

"Roger that. The pattern is full hazard aircraft. Proceed to bingo station for emergency divert."

In other words, we'll give it a try elsewhere.

[url]www.liveaquaria[/url] and marinedepotlive are both great and never had a problem with costomer service very willing to help.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11514328#post11514328 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni [/i]
[B]Moved to this forum as more a propos here.

In my opinion, giving PetCo money for animals only encourages them to buy more animals. [/B][/QUOTE]

Did you bump the thread to another location?

Oh.. I guess so. Thanks. Didn't realize the category existed.

Boycot Petco
 

I think that we should all boycot Petco entirely. Don't buy anything from one of their stores. Recently, a new Petco opened up in my area. I received a $30.00 gift certificate from someone for my birthday. Having the gift certificate, I thought that I would check out Petco. Low and behold, they had some marine fish and corals. I check things out, everything looked pretty good, so I purchased. I spent my gift certificate on a Kole Tang. I took the fish home, aclimated him with a two hour drip acclimation, was careful not to transfer any water from the bag, and made the mistake of putting him into the main tank (180 gal.) without quarantining the fish first. The fish was dead in the morning, and I began to notice some of the other fish in the tank with ick. Within two days, my Lemon Peel Angel died (which I had for 2.5 years), my Flame Angel died (which I had for about 3 years), and a maroon clown followed shortly after that. I had about 6 green chromis that didn't seem affected, and a lawn mower blenny that didn't show any signs of stress. I decided to find out what Petco's policy was. The manager said that someone "should" have told me that marine fish did not carry any kind of stay alive warranty. I walked over to the tanks and sure enough almost all of the tanks were showing sever signs of stress. The manager didn't seem to care. I decided to go to the petco website and file a complaint which I did, and to this day have not received any responses (3 months later). My suggestion to anyone is to stay away. Don't risk any of our precious systems to anything from Petco. They just don't care about our hobby!