What's up with my local petco?

weston

Candiru
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Jun 14, 2015
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So Ill admit it I've found this one petco I really like and sometimes when I'm in the area I'll go in to this particular store and check things out, I've even purchased fish from this store more recently as they get a wide variety of fish in and seem on top of their fish husbandry I've seen them having quarenteen tanks set up for new arrivals with ich instead of using the cheap chemicals in all the tanks like most chain stores and on top of this the two guys over fish department who I've talked to both keep tanks and seem somewhat experienced having personal knowledge about the fish they are selling. I'm just wondering why this petco in particular carries a wide variety of rare fish? And why all petcos can't be this way? Is this store personally owned instead of by the petco chain? I mean they have their wall tanks with their saltwater and freshwater usuals but they also carried a wide variety of fish I wasn't expecting to see for sale they even have a large planted tank in the center of the U shaped wall of tanks where they had fire and tire track eels, baby whales, elephant fish, discus, large angles, a few larger silver dollars and even a silver aro and a jardini, however the silver was already sold the jardini was close to 4-5 inches long and looked really nice. This store also had a banded Leporinus and a couple SA/CA cichlids I wanted including a decent looking flowerhorn, they also had some large growing saltwater fish and even some brackish fish (monos, archer fish,Scats) for sale but again they were out of everything but the Scats for brackish I talked to a newer guy who said they were getting a shipment in soon with more of these fish and they were even getting some large cats? What's up with this store any ideas?
 

o5b0rn3b

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2014
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Pittsburgh
Wow, sounds better than my mom and pop LFS. If the people who run the fish department are educated on what they are doing, and as interested in this hobby as you and me. If they have the OK to order whatever then there's your answer. If some guy who doesn't know much about fish is making the fish orders, what do you think he's gonna order? Guppies, barbs and the like. Stuff that sells.

PS. You're lucky.
 

Ihsnshaik

Giant Snakehead
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Aug 20, 2015
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You sure it was a petco? LOL my petco around me 4-5 stores all suck! Like horrible. Petsmart I can say some stores are legit they got some decent fish for a good price at times. They get some adult angels for 3.00 at times.

The only thing thats cheap and free from petco is their ich. lol
 
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Warborg

Goliath Tigerfish
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Sep 2, 2009
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Yea, it has to do with who orders it. Rare fish can be ordered by any store. Most will just order the common stuff. People who know their fish may risk ordering rarer fish
 
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Texas321

Plecostomus
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Feb 26, 2016
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The petco near me doesn't have a huge selection and only carry the usual but I will say they keep the tanks and fish in good condition. They also have a really good selection of live plants.
 

weston

Candiru
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Jun 14, 2015
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You sure it was a petco? LOL my petco around me 4-5 stores all suck! Like horrible. Petsmart I can say some stores are legit they got some decent fish for a good price at times. They get some adult angels for 3.00 at times.

The only thing thats cheap and free from petco is their ich. lol
Yeah I'm pretty sure it's a petco I go their pretty often when I'm in south Austin next time I go I'm gonna take a photo of that planted tank and put it up but they will even order you a fish If you ask that's what the guy told me and that's more then my LFS will do. This ones just really nice and yeah I know ich seems to be a problem from whoever they order from but this place is doing their best to fix the problems and I've been to a few decent petsmarts but I can't speak highly of them either this is really the only chain store I've ever been to like this. I was just wondering why and thought I'd put this out there, props to petco on Brodie in south Austin. Lol
 
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tlindsey

Silver Tier VIP
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Aug 6, 2011
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Yea, it has to do with who orders it. Rare fish can be ordered by any store. Most will just order the common stuff. People who know their fish may risk ordering rarer fish


W Warborg is absolutely right, it solely depends on the Manager of the location, or their personal ordering the fish. You are one lucky person :D
 

tlindsey

Silver Tier VIP
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Aug 6, 2011
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Once worked partime at Petsuppliesplus and the assistant manager was very nice , she would special order fish for me from Segcrest Farm that's where the fish for the store came from. After the assistant manager was relocated so I could not special order anymore.:(
 

weston

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 14, 2015
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Never been there. I only go to the petco and petsmarts close to my house(north Austin).
Yeah when I'm in north Austin I always go to fish gallery or aquatek if I need anything but if your ever in south Austin I usually either go to this petco or Aquadome you should check it out sometime. Also I picked up some fish at a petsmart in north Austin close to the fish gallery if that's the one your talking about they were selling decent sized silver dollars for only $1.50 so I got all 7 they had for like 10 dollars and I still have them all I have to say is that when I got them they were coated in ich luckily it went away pretty fast in my heated quarantine tank.
 
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