Petsmart vs Petco......

[AJ31655]

I have until recently thought of these two stores to be basically the same (to be avioded). Although lately I have been forced to turn to petsmart for things that I simply could not track down via my LFS, mostly books. I must say Petsmart does not appear to be in nearly as bad a shape as Petco, I even saw an Anenome in a petsmart tank which appeared, as far as my not so seasoned eyes could tell, to be in good shape. Does Petsmart have a better track record than the now infamous petco?

[oama]

Petsmart has SW livestock???

[mmgm]

I think it depends on the Local store. We have a Petco near us that sells LR and some half decent livestock. I asked the manager if Petco was going into the Saltwater supply business. He told me it is on a store to store basis. The fish manager in this store is a reefer and convinced them to carry LR and other salt water products.

In the end it will depend on how much they sell if they decide to keep it up...... Other Petco stores in my area will not touch salt water products with a 10 foot pole......

[oama]

Originally posted by oama
Petsmart has SW livestock???

Petsmart or Petco???

[AJ31655]

I am pretty sure it was the Petsmart in Coon Rapids MN.

[AJ31655]

With the anenome. although there is a petco right across the street so i may be on crack now that I think about it.

[Reefmaniac1]

Never seen a Petsmart with Salt/Reef animals. Not even sure why they carry saltwater supplies.

[Bluetangclan]

The reason the majority of Petsmarts do not carry SW livestock is the limit of trained personnel to run that area. Petsmart is always sending it's employees to training classes and programs(one of my best friends is a manager there) and for the most part SW is very difficult and time consuming to do and maintain correctly and in MHO Petsmart has better ethics than Petco and doesnt want half trained idiots messing up that image with SW livestock. On the other hand FW livestock is about fool proof especially when you only carry relatively hardy and common species of fish, any monkey who can use his thumbs can maintain the huge but simple FW system of Petsmart. They carry SW supplies because it doesnt take anyone trained specially in order to maintain it. Not complaining either Petsmart is definately cheaper than my LFS on dry goods that I need in a hurry plus have better hours. and no I dont work at Petsmart.

[hopkinkm]

One just opened up not too far from me, and while they dont have SW livestock available, I did notice that they make a point of not selling puppies or kittens but instead offering space to local adoption shelters, which strikes me a a very good thing.

Their FW fish were in good shape in my estimation though.

Kory

[GreasyMidget]

Petsmart sucks unless you have a dog or cat. that is all they are good for IMO

[Reefmaniac1]

So far, I have yet to see a Petsmart selling dogs/cats...all of them use the Humane Society or some other adoption agency, which I applaud. Fish sections, though seem to leave something to be desired (not horrible, just not good).

[luceneck]

I worked at the fish/reptile/small animal section of a petsmart in Rockville MD. I can vouche for the fact that fish/small animal care is definetly dependent on the store and it's managers. I can tell you that we went about everything in an extremely professional manner. Water tests twice a day, constant monitoring of fish tanks and stocking levels, and the manager there knew more about FW fish then I have ever seen. I know that Petsmart does not carry SW fish/inverts because of their policy on how they were caught, but I think that it is due to the fact that they are a huge investment for stores. Working there after Finding Nemo came out was a disaster, people coming in with small children asking if we had nemo fish with no idea of what they were getting into. We were constantly denying purchase to those whose tanks were either not cycled (fw), or to those who were buying community fish for their aggressive tank setup.

I have also been to Petsmarts where the fish have been in horrible conditions. So it is really dependent on the managers and employee knowledge. We made a real effort to learn what people have and what we could do to help them out.

We also would take small furry animals/birds to vets when needed. I have only been to about 3 Petcos around here and I haven't seen one that I would trust.

[JohnW.II]

I worked at Petco for about six months and unfortunately they carried a wide variety of ill-cared for SW fish. "Wal-mart" type petstores should not carry animals that require a certain level of knowledge and discipline. (ie. SW, iguanas, chameleons, RETICULATED PYTHONS. ) serious hobbyists are going to seek out professional stores anyway avoiding these kind. My entire day entaled of rejecting customers who wanted to purchase an exotic pet and not try to learn or pay the money for the resources the pet required. Perfect examples are a mom wanting to put a clown fish in "****" fish bowl, or a dad wanting to put a bearded dragon in a little tank with no UVA-UVB bulb. I'm not saying that Goldfish and hamsters don't special care like any other creature, I'm just saying these "Wal-mart" style pet stores have such a high turn over rate of mostly young kids, that they have no consistency in workers with good ethics to provide proper care and distribution of any pets that are more difficult to keep than a hamster or goldfish.

[DgenR8]

Hi John,
Good first post
[welcome]

[Saltz Creep]

I wouldn't go to Petsmart or Petco for SW fish, but for equipment or other animal supplies Petsmart would be my choice out of the two.

[snobanker]

The Petcos around here must sell mass quantities of SW fish because one day they have tanks full of them and the next day they are all gone ...actually they all die because Petco SW fish are so unhealthy. I won't shop there. None of our Petsmarts have SW fish but they do have a limited amount of supplies. I usually mail order my stuff, but have bought there in a pinch....funny thing is a salesperson at my LFS steered me there once for some certain products the LFS didn't carry, and said that is where they bought them....lol

[xvaughan]

I live in the New Orleans metro Area, and our Petco is far superior to the local Petsmart. Petco has 5 or 6 different species of saltwater fish, and a few hermit crabs in the SW tanks. The persmart only has freshwater stock.

[cyan0069]

We have one of each here, and a block apart. Petsmart doesn't carry SW, and they don't carry much in the way of SW supplies either (at least not here). Petco didn't start carrying saltwater here until about four or five months ago. A kid that I trained at the pet store that I managed went to work for Petco, and he does really well with their SW fish/inverts. I am still hesitant to buy SW fish from him, but may do so, as they are about the only place that carries any pacific fish within 30-40 miles. The store that I managed only carries Caribbean fish and LR since I left, because they are "bulletproof". Anyway, I often opt not to use either one, I am definately an online orderer.

[Blindmelonbob]

I was told by a Petsmart employee here that they didn't carry saltwater fish, because they only had one filtration system, and the cost of another for saltwater along with the size of the unit ruled it out. That said, the local Petco carries saltwater fish and fresh in less space than Petsmart's got. Go figure. Last time I was in Petco, they had 4 or 5 purple tangs in the same little tank. All were covered in ich.

[crzy4reefs]

it all depends on where you go and who's working there. i was the manager of fish and reptiles department for 6yrs(don't work there anymore)......and my animals were taking great care of and i did all the training of the people who worked in my department. i have been to other petco's and it was like a disater area...............so it really just depends on the store and the people. now i make my living breeding reptiles and selling them whole sale and in the process of breeding CB seahorses

[raynelly23]

around here there is both a petsmart and petco, but only the petco has a saltwater selection, although they shouldnt because it look terrible...there are always dead fish lying around in thier tanks

[Saltz Creep]

PETCO
For all things pet.

[Drakis]

I used to work at petsmart, and they don't carry sw cause it would cost too much, but I've notice there sw supplies section is getting bigger. They do help save alot of cats and dogs lives through there adoptions. They even give damaged bags of food to shelters. Petsmart over Petco anyday.

[brc0488]

i got a question since petco does usually have sw fish but no inverts why wouldnt they just run copper sulfate. It would help a lot and make the fish look a lot better....???

[DgenR8]

I guess there's the cost factor, but more importantly, it has to be regulated. If you don't use enough, it might as well not be used at all. If you use too much, you create more problems than you solve.
Then there's the issue of which fish can and can't be exposed to it.
Petco is not well known for it's highly skilled employees, I would think that running copper is one of the things they shouldn't be doing.