Reef Central Online Community

Home Forum Here you can view your subscribed threads, work with private messages and edit your profile and preferences View New Posts View Today's Posts

Find other members Frequently Asked Questions Search Reefkeeping ...an online magazine for marine aquarists Support our sponsors and mention Reef Central

Go Back   Reef Central Online Community Archives > General Interest Forums > Responsible Reefkeeping

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #51  
Old 01/17/2007, 03:55 PM
kyrie_eleison kyrie_eleison is offline
Moved On
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 33
jb,

Oh...that's alright. There are intelligent people who know only the saltwater hobby and there are those like us who understand saltwater biology. Besides, this thread is about Petco.
  #52  
Old 01/18/2007, 09:25 AM
jbittner jbittner is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Humboldt, NE
Posts: 1,000
zactly!
  #53  
Old 01/27/2007, 12:15 PM
drozz13 drozz13 is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: NY
Posts: 36
I was there in my town last week. Its sad. I went there to look for a better power head wave maker. I didnt even buy it there. I got it at petland. Which also is attempting SW . Their selections were in fact healthy. VERY pricy but healthy looking they had Lots of fish and LOTS of SPS and LPS. I didnt buy because I kept thinking of petco's reputation. They had a torch coral with 6 or 7 frags huge! for 119.99. thats probably the best deal in the tank. But overall my local petco is pathetic here too
  #54  
Old 01/27/2007, 09:55 PM
Rosseau Rosseau is offline
------------
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Toronto
Posts: 1,704
Petco had a great sale on today, I picked up some new stock for my 10G.


__________________
Still fighting entropy.
  #55  
Old 01/27/2007, 11:04 PM
billsreef billsreef is offline
Moderator
10 & Over Club
 
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 12,688
Please tell me that your just joking about that being a 10 gallon with all those fish crammed in.
__________________
Bill

"LOL, well I have no brain apparently. " - dc (Debi)
  #56  
Old 01/27/2007, 11:09 PM
Rosseau Rosseau is offline
------------
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Toronto
Posts: 1,704
yes, it's a joke...

however if we want to talk about big chain pet stores.. IME most won't shy away from allowing you to stock like crazy.
__________________
Still fighting entropy.
  #57  
Old 01/27/2007, 11:11 PM
billsreef billsreef is offline
Moderator
10 & Over Club
 
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 12,688
You scared me for a minute
__________________
Bill

"LOL, well I have no brain apparently. " - dc (Debi)
  #58  
Old 01/28/2007, 12:01 AM
thecichlidpleco thecichlidpleco is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Toledo
Posts: 814
Having worked at a small pet store, The livestock is normally chosen by and manager or the customer service person who deals with all livestock. It seems to be both and personal choice and monetary one when going saltwater or even having coral. The manager may want to go salt but quotas will not let him. Mostly, the manager doesnt actually care aboyut keeping the stock healthy, he just wants to get in the door and then push it out on the customer. This is why coral may look good for some time, then because it is not purchased, it slowly dies in the poorly maintained tank. This is Petcos mentality, thye must meet quotas and sell stuff, whether it is healthy or not, in the end stick to the small fish stores that know what they are doing. But I guess if it is cheap and healthy, what the heh.
__________________
-it's okay to eat fish because they don't have any feelings.
  #59  
Old 01/28/2007, 07:24 PM
Slakker Slakker is offline
Slowly Stocking
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Southeastern Wisconsin
Posts: 2,453
The Petco near me has a fairly decent looking coral selection. I'm sure the lighting they use is less than stellar for corals, but the tank is only 6-8inches deep. I would never buy livestock of any kind from petco, but it is cool to go check out the shallow coral tank...something about the open top and the shallow water just draws me in, it's like watching a miniature version of an entire ocean.
__________________
-Tyler

Check the red house.
  #60  
Old 02/11/2007, 01:41 PM
helloreef helloreef is offline
Moved On
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Ft. Worth Tx.
Posts: 50
My petco is a disgrace, not one fish that dosent have ich! they had an 8" naso tang in an 18x18x18 tank! And even if you do have adequate room I do not think that 8" nasos should be removed from the ocean anyway.

Helloreef
  #61  
Old 02/15/2007, 11:40 AM
gitdog gitdog is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 14
Quote:
Originally posted by saltycreefer
I dont think anyone should support the saltwater end of Petco. None of their stores in my area have the ability to keep anything alive. I think it sucks to go into a shop and see a bunch of sick fish. That's what I like about chains like Petsmart, no saltwater.
There actually are some Petsmart's with salt water. When I was living in Ohio 2 of them had salt water. Could have changed since then.
__________________
Hobby Exp. 15 yrs Fresh, 13 yrs salt
  #62  
Old 02/17/2007, 03:16 AM
audioaddiction audioaddiction is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Wilmington/Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Posts: 80
not upset at anyone, just the situation

i've seen a lot of posts about "no refunds on saltwater fish" and "Petco doesn't quarantine!"

can anyone imagine what would be going on if Petco DID have a return policy on saltwater? people buy fish from them all the time without giving them any proper care whatsoever. they would be getting returns and giving out cash left and right all day long to people who'd buy the same wrong fish again and again killing more and more. it's actually not completely about Petco's greed, as Petco loses money on their saltwater. they do this to attract customers who will spend on the dry goods. just last night a couple bought a Clown Surgeonfish (grows 15 inches quickly, 180 gallon tank minimum recommendation) and finally admitted, as i was checking them out at the register, that it was going in a 20 gallon tank (surely with sorry filtration). i tried to sway them, and they just said they were going to "try him out". we can't blame big corporations for greed causing mis-care of fish when it's also we the customers doing the same redicoulous things.

there is no reason to quarantine the fish that come in each week either. they all come from the same place, and they wouldn't go in pristine tanks after the quarantine. they would also be going to just another not-perfect tank than they already have, probably making things worse by stress, etc. there would also have to be twice the amount of saltwater tanks at Petco. the best thing you could do with double the amount of tanks at each Petco would be to just use them as more tanks to sell the same amount of fish, doubling each fish's space!

i work at Petco and honestly spend way more time in aquatics than my managers care to let me. just the other day i finally got permission to vaccume every tank, take out most of the gravel (way, way too deep), stabilize the salinity, etc. it really is a chore to keep those tanks right, and the store's tanks are sometimes going to be in a lot better condition than other times. we have 18 tanks split 12 on one sump, 6 on the other. we occasionally get a few corals in with the usually weekly fish shipment. those are put in the smaller system of 6 tanks, and mostly do fine. they sell quickly, sometimes a a couple hanging around for over a week. people have mentioned that we don't quarantine before we sell. there's no need for all this specialized treatment when shift-changes happen all day long and workers like me have long periods away from it all. if you know how working is, everyone just wouldn't keep track with who's doing what and why.

there are some other pet stores in town, and honestly i'd rather get my fish here then at either of the others, and one of those stores specializes in only saltwater! why? specimens are guaranteed to only from the breeder (you know the history, the relative age, etc). this is not the case at ANY other store in town, where the same fin-nipped, ick-ridden specimens can be found. but not only that! they have old fish, fish coming from some previous customer's agressive tank (which once half-killed the fish you just bought), and absolutely any random place imaginable including the local docks (as i know for a fact many do, and same goes for any of you anywhere near ocean). also i buy specimens from Petco because they are indeed inexpensive or atleast reasonably priced (and that's even before my employee discount). honestly, i hope we all don't pay too cheap for fish in the years to come. this will just lead to more wreckless carelessness of our "mini-ecosystems" to where they're inexpensive enough that some will just let crash and start over!

there are many remarks and questions i could speak on, agreeing with many of them. it is definitely NOT true that "At Petco, our pets ALWAYS come first!". Petco is a huge corporation just like most of the places we go to for deals like Wal-Mart, so why is it such a shock? and each store's aquatics department is goign to vary in quality by the people running them. they hire the same teenagers many of you have. we don't know everything, and MOST of them don't know as much as i do, if anything at all. like with any job, everyone's trying to please those people above them, some more than others. i do take flak for spending "too much" time and may or may not be seen as a better worker for doing it.

(to clear my name ):as an employee, it IS animals first. i'm honest with every customer, as informative as i can be, and when they don't know things, or i dont know an answer, i urge them to research and find out before they make a move.

i think about what we're discussing a lot while at work. if there was going to be a change, it'd only maybe happen if there was a very large country wide protest showing exactly how Petco's slogan is a lie. every person on Reef Central could boycott Petco and they wouldn't even notice. i hope something will change someday... it could happen right?...

this is a late night, and i probably littered this with errors and typo's, sorry in advance! i'll be tagging along though,
zack
  #63  
Old 02/18/2007, 10:27 PM
naldopr naldopr is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: kissimmee fl
Posts: 144
I WORK FOR PETCO FOR MORE THAN 2 YEARS AND I'M SO GLAD THAT TOMORROW IS MY LAST DAY
WORST PLACE TO WORK, IGNORANCE,IS WHAT PETCO IS ALL ABOUT....
  #64  
Old 02/22/2007, 12:10 AM
ILoveLlamas ILoveLlamas is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Redondo Beach, CA
Posts: 133
This thread makes me want to work at PetCo so I can fix up the saltwater department. That would be cool, creating cool display tanks on someone else's dime. Plus, I would no I am helping out the fish there a lot.
  #65  
Old 03/06/2007, 02:17 AM
acidlittle acidlittle is offline
Give me some sugar Baby!
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Ames Iowa
Posts: 907
I also happen to work at Petco, and I would have to say that the biggest problem in the Salt department, is the fact that they put people there with no FIRST-HAND experience. Then some employees don't ask customers questions.
I honestly have refused to sell people multiple fish multiple times, due to knowing that they didn't know how to care for them.
The fish that have ich usually are shipped that way, and the suppliers need to do a better job. Just today we got a shipment of fish in.....NO HEATPACK.....everything was dead, ****ed me off to the fact that I actually yelled outloud profanity.
Then we also have the inexperience of people making orders. My store actually had some other employee order, 2 spotted Groupers...????? WHY???? They get massive and eat anything smaller than them. Then people put Firefish in with Squirelfish, and wonder where they disappear to.
Next is I told our manager to STOP ordering corals and anem just because they DON'T live under normal output lighting.

I feel bad because I take a lot of offense to the comments people have made, when I agree that some stores shouldn't have salt. But since petco does have salt, don't just complain, if you can or have the time, get a job there, do some good. Please don't Generalize Petco as one store, every store is a shade different, and a lot of it depends on the experience of the Employees...I'm doing my best to get stuff that is going to live and thrive. Not to mention how they understaff the stores, so people DON'T have the time to do the basic maintenence.
Lol don't tell my bosses, but i Ignore a lot of customers just so I can spend more time cleaning and maintaining the saltwater.

Anyways, My rant is over. just know that you all make valid points, but need to know that there are good employees out there that do all they can! and get paid next to nothing to do so...
__________________
start small

"This is my BOOMSTICK"~~~Bruce Campbell
  #66  
Old 03/07/2007, 04:22 AM
Slakker Slakker is offline
Slowly Stocking
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Southeastern Wisconsin
Posts: 2,453
I'm not sure it's valid to tell people to go get a job at PetCo just because they're dissatisfied with the quality care that the livestock gets.

If fish are being shipped to the store with Ich, it should be the stores responsibility to treat them properly before trying to sell them to some poor soul who doesn't know a thing about saltwater. The problem is, while yes, SOME petcos have a competent employee or two, plenty more don't, and they're doing nothing to educate people about the marine fishkeeping hobby, they're just selling it next to the goldfish kits and pocketing the coin.

THAT'S what's wrong here.
__________________
-Tyler

Check the red house.
  #67  
Old 03/07/2007, 09:04 AM
jbittner jbittner is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Humboldt, NE
Posts: 1,000
"Poor Soul"--"doesn't know a thing about saltwater" almost every LFS will take advantage of these customers. If this describes you, you are in the wrong hobby. I know of 2 LFS that quarintine their livestock. These stores also charge a heavy premium for the convience. It is a buyer beware market. The uneduacated will get taken advantage of.
  #68  
Old 03/07/2007, 09:55 AM
samherston samherston is offline
Moved On
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Indiana
Posts: 122
I walked into a PETCO near me one time and told the manager how bad the tanks looked.. FULL of algae and such. They said that they were understaffed and needed help.. So I applied to come in and work PT to get the tanks cleaned and aslo to maintaine them to keep nice fish alive and to help educate customers.. Got called in for an interview and they were very interesrted in what I had to say and what I could do... and then never heard back from them. I called and left several messages and never got a responce. So its there own fault that they hire anyone off the street to come in and catch a bag fish with NO knowledge at all...
  #69  
Old 03/07/2007, 07:33 PM
acidlittle acidlittle is offline
Give me some sugar Baby!
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Ames Iowa
Posts: 907
Slakker I agree with you fully. And your comment about the "people shouldn't get jobs at petco" makes perfect sense, I'm kinda a heat of the moment person don't really think when i get on a subject, but I do agree with you!

I agree, i've heard of some fellow employees taking advantage of the local PETCO's because some stores have VERY ignorant people working and you can usually catch them off-gaurd and get stuff even cheaper. The story incase was a feather duster that was attached to a rock that had some mushies and some zoas on it. Well because they didn't know anything the guy got the rock for 15 bucks....Saw the rock and it was a BOULDER prolly a 7lber with 8 deep purple mushies and 20 zoas. It was great!

I just want to clarify that, I do try and educate people on saltwater. People come in and TRY to buy long tenticle anems from me and I always refuse if they don't have adequate lighting or an established tank. Same with Mandarins and ANY corals. I also ask people what they know about the fish they are trying to buy in an attempt to make sure they won't kill it. Like the time the guy wanted to buy 2 lawnmowers and a midas blenny for his 20gal....had to tell him no.

With all that being said, I respect everybody's opinions and experiences!
Thanks all
__________________
start small

"This is my BOOMSTICK"~~~Bruce Campbell
  #70  
Old 03/09/2007, 05:11 AM
littlefish72 littlefish72 is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 282
To make a blanket statement like "all petcos are terrible" is just silly......have you been to EVERY petco? believe it or not there are a few petcos that actually have a knowledgable and caring employee working in the fish section.........trust me, i've seen a few pet shops/fish stores that would love to look as good as good as the petcos i've worked at........like any good LFS, the good petcos try to have healthy fish that are eating and will not sell you a fish unless it's perfect......ANY fish store is only as good as it's employees so please don't bash the ones that actually give a darn.........if your local petco is crap then don't go to it, but do support the ones that are good because you will actually get a good price on most livestock
__________________
GO CANES!!! GO WOLFPACK!!!!!
"There are no stupid questions Stanley, just stupid people."-Mr. Garrison
  #71  
Old 03/10/2007, 01:15 AM
acidlittle acidlittle is offline
Give me some sugar Baby!
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Ames Iowa
Posts: 907
Amen! LOL

The fish are also only as good as the suppliers pack them aswell. (been having an issue with suppliers recently in our store)
__________________
start small

"This is my BOOMSTICK"~~~Bruce Campbell
  #72  
Old 03/10/2007, 01:47 AM
audioaddiction audioaddiction is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Wilmington/Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Posts: 80
funny you mention that. today at work we got a horrible shipment in- over 20 nasty looking false-percula's, assorted tangs with messed up mouths, puffer with fungus, half the fish had ich... no kidding. i think our supplier sends the sick.

i talked to the manger for 3 seconds about it...

no wonder petco's have a bad rep.
  #73  
Old 03/10/2007, 01:48 AM
audioaddiction audioaddiction is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Wilmington/Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Posts: 80
funny you mention that. today at work we got a horrible shipment in- over 20 nasty looking false-percula's, assorted tangs with messed up mouths, puffer with fungus, half the fish had ich... no kidding. i think our supplier sends the sick.

i talked to the manger for 3 seconds about it...

no wonder petco's have a bad rep.
  #74  
Old 03/10/2007, 01:05 PM
littlefish72 littlefish72 is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 282
I have had a few shipments of diseased fish too.........drives me crazy.......if you have to send sick fish how bout just not send me anything at all
__________________
GO CANES!!! GO WOLFPACK!!!!!
"There are no stupid questions Stanley, just stupid people."-Mr. Garrison
  #75  
Old 03/10/2007, 07:01 PM
acidlittle acidlittle is offline
Give me some sugar Baby!
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Ames Iowa
Posts: 907
we actually look at our fish, next time i'm there when we get them in, if they don't look healthy I'm going to see if we can return them to the sender.

I really think that some of the problem in is the poor suppliers we have, it also hurts when they hire any JOE off the street and stick them in Aquatics.

Oh on a good note, the shipment that we got, looked GREAT the other day we got a shipment in and i SWEAR TO GOD we got the LARGEST, HEALTHIEST looking Tangs I have ever seen. We got a yellow tang that was seriously larger than a softball, and we got a Powder Brown Tang that is gorgeous, I will have pictures of the Powder Brown in a few days :-)
__________________
start small

"This is my BOOMSTICK"~~~Bruce Campbell
 

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:21 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Use of this web site is subject to the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.
Reef Central™ Reef Central, LLC. Copyright ©1999-2009