Corals at Petco??

jbittner · #1 12/14/2006, 10:28 AM

I just moved to Nebraska from Colorado. On a recent trip to Omaha, I stoped in a Petco to pick up some supplies for a new kalk drip. To my suprise I found a beautiful coral tank (with all the required gadgets--Mh, ca reactor, refugium ect). I have unfortunately been in a ton of Petco Stores and have never seen coral. Everything was inexpensive and their selection was better than most of the LFS out here (Pink Limeaide zoos even). And there livestock was healthy and beautiful--fat tangs, tank raised clowns no spots, I was floored. I have two ?. Do Petco stores other places have corals?? And is in unethical to buy from this stores because of the other Petco stores??

Also, all but one fish seemed to be in close to perfect shape (one Yellow tang had a pinched stomach)

serpentman · #2 12/14/2006, 10:42 AM

The local Petco here has a very sad attempt at a coral tank. A few toadstools and some brown mushrooms are about it. I think each store is a franchise so some may offer things that others will not.

PrangeWay · #3 12/14/2006, 11:09 AM

Actually if you think about it, instead of starting a LFS for Reefs buying a PetCo franchise, and developing your own Reef/Saltwater section based on YOUR interest that you manage personally, is going to be much much much more financially viable than a Reef Store.

cubber · #4 12/14/2006, 11:22 AM

Our local petco's fish department is pathetic. It was very sad to see the amount of diseased fish and dying corals in thier tanks. When I went there the store had just been open for about 2 weeks and thier tanks where overstocked with fish and corals. Most of the fish had ich and were showing signs of ammonia poisoning. And most if not all of thier corals were going to be visiting the dumpster in a very short period of time.

jbittner · #5 12/14/2006, 11:23 AM

I was just amazed at the quality of livestock they had at this particular location. And a fat beautiful yellow tang for $25.

AVALover5498 · #6 12/14/2006, 11:28 AM

Which petco was it in omaha? You should stop by the new lizard king, they have good prices on all-glass tanks. i was gonna pick up a 90 megaflow for $199. But i didn't.

Do you know of any other good fish stores in omaha that carry corals? I know pet world used to but they closed.

-Chris-

somethingphishy · #7 12/14/2006, 11:34 AM

The petco by me is pretty bad. Lots of tanks and minimal upkeep. Even the two display tanks have lots of algae in them. There "reef" tank lit by a strip light and has one power head in it.
Makes me just laugh to myself.

dcombs44 · #8 12/14/2006, 11:39 AM

The petco in the town where I went to school had a sad attempt at marine fish, but no corals. I just wanted to find the manager and tell them that they needed some help. Ich covered fish, anemones, and a few inverts that were all in bad, bad shape. The Petco here in Springfield, IL thankfully hasn't attempted salt water anything. I would much rather be in a town with no salt water animals than sick and dying ones. Very nice to know that there is a branch of the chain store out there that seem to know what they're doing.

Jon Evans · #9 12/14/2006, 11:41 AM

If I'm not mistaken, PetCo was bought by a private equity firm. I would imagine that each PetCo is like an LFS now, and that the quality of the livestock depends on the people employed by that individual store. I know some LFS's that hire some crappy employees.

jbittner · #10 12/14/2006, 11:48 AM

Lizard King rocks!! I was actually on my way up there when I stopped in to pick up a few dry items. It is the Petco on 72nd and Dodge.

jbittner · #11 12/14/2006, 11:51 AM

Pet world in Millard is still open. Might want to change there name to Dog World but they are still open

AVALover5498 · #12 12/14/2006, 12:23 PM

Really there still open! I used to live in millard by Millard west high school. anyway, Pet world has a huge selcetion of corals if i can remember properly. I didn't think that the petco on dodge would have anything nice in there. It's in a bad part of omaha. Yeah, I really like lizard king. They were always one of my favorite stores in omaha. i think there is a saltwater store there by HobbyTown USA but i'm not sure. I'm going to heading up there saturday so i'm gonna check out all the LFS's.

-Chris-

McCrary · #13 12/14/2006, 02:01 PM

Recently I have become a much bigger fan of Petco saltwater. I got a Orchid Pseudochromis from them for $24 and a Purple Tang for $80. The coral selection at the stores was terrible and most the stuff was dying, but theres no point in complaining or getting upset about it as they aren't going to change.

SDK · #14 12/14/2006, 02:12 PM

Try to find out who's managing the tanks and chat them up a bit to see what's going on. Sometimes you'll get lucky if a chain store hires the right person.

I managed the fish dept at a local chain store while I was going to college. In the two years I was there, I revamped the whole department and had a loyal following of SW and African Cichlid keepers. It quickly went downhill after I left to join the real world, but a lot of folks enjoyed the good times while they lasted.

It's a shame really, as I was able to get incredibly good wholesale prices with the chain. I also worked at two privately owned local stores back then, and they paid higher prices for the same fish.

If they are really taking good care of their livestock, I'd say give your wallet a break and try them out. It will hopefully encourage them to keep their standards up. Just remember to quarantine!

evilsike · #15 12/14/2006, 04:06 PM

I had luck when my local petco sold corals here in ocean county. even my first fish (yellow tang and 6 blue/green chromis) is very alive and well after 3 years. right now that place is just sad. they put a million and one clown fish in a 8-10g tank and algae everywhere

Blinkgyrl2987 · #16 12/14/2006, 04:23 PM

I work at petco currently and I must say that it is hard to work there. At the moment its a fairly new job for me still but I take care of the entire saltwater department on my own with no help or support and the management basically doesnt know anything. I always encourage everyone to quarantine before introducing into their main tank even the healthiest looking fish. But the ick shows up alot and doing water changes weekly is a pain just because mixing the water ahead of time and keeping an eye on the nitrates so they dont creep up is hard. It is a pain. no matter many hours I put in over there it still always needs more work.

But you can get healthy fish from petco.. corals though I dont know. We does are tanks with meds so I dont see ever being able to keep corals at our store.

I would agree it depends on you gets hired. If they top the sumps off everyday with freshwater like they were doing prior to me working there, you can only imagine.

dippin61 · #17 12/14/2006, 04:32 PM

haha.. one of my local petco's also has a "reef" section where they sell soft corals and "live rock".

so i was looking at their rock, LOL, it was just some of their FW rock that they decided to throw in their SW tank and call "live rock"

there was NO life on it, no coralline, no critters, nada. ok.. maybe some diatoms

. and they want $4/lb .. i just laughed.

IMO i would never buy ANYTHING "alive" from a petco. EVER.

InvaderJim · #18 12/14/2006, 04:53 PM

The Petco here doesn't even have a SW section...but they do have a pretty nice FW section. They also have AGA 40g breeders for sale that I have been eyeing.

jbittner · #19 12/14/2006, 05:08 PM

I have been in this hobby for 9 yrs. I have seen horrible fish stored and fantastic ones (Keys Island, Denver-sorry for the plug but this shop is great). I would say that of the 40 or so fish stores I have been to this would be in the top 10, which is amazing for a petco. The coral tank was nice and the fish looked great (maybe I was just there one a great day for them), but I will definately check them out again. If they are independants, I guess it is no different than buying from a good LFS. You don't stop shopping at a good store just because they are close to a bad one.

fishboyy · #20 12/14/2006, 10:50 PM

the petcos in saint augustine dont even sell corals

prob better off that way lol

kroger451 · #21 12/15/2006, 12:36 AM

thank god u dont live here in memphis--petco here in this city is the PITTS,they maintain their fish at low salinities(17-18) they sell them as soon as they arrive(instead of quarantining them first) half the staff don't know sh--- about fish, and their fish are always sickly looking

jbittner · #22 12/15/2006, 10:02 AM

ok--90% of LFS do not quaratine fish and the ones that do don't do it right!! If you are lucky enough to find a fish store that will quarintine fish correctly, expect to pay top dollar!!!! I never ment this as an endorsement for petco saltwater. If you read my questions you will see that I just want to know if it is ethical to purchase from this store knowing the quality of the other Petco Stores. I found the answer to be yes. I will return to this store and if everything looks great again, I will make a livegood purchase. Since they are independants, there is no reason to hold one accountable for the mistakes of the majority of Petco Stores. BTW, I have been in probably 20 Petco Stores, and I have never seen livestock like this.

billsreef · #23 12/15/2006, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jbittner
Since they are independants, there is no reason to hold one accountable for the mistakes of the majority of Petco Stores.

Nope, they are not independants or franchises but a chain like Walmart or Kmart and of course PetsMart. While an individual store might be fortunate to have good people running the fishroom, all proceeds from any store in the country go right to the same place.

jbittner · #24 12/16/2006, 11:49 AM

Petco's are independantly run. Each store is like a franchise.

billsreef · #25 12/16/2006, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jbittner
Petco's are independantly run. Each store is like a franchise.

Nope. They each have a manager, but that manager answers to a district manager who in turn answers to a regional manager and so on and so forth on up to the cooperate headquarters in SanDiego and the president of the company, Brian Devine, at the very top. It's been that way since Brian Devine started the company, gone public (stocks), privatized, gone public again, and now that they are working on going private again via the same investments groups that helped them privatize before. No franchises