I can’t even take Petco

Belly up

Piranha
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Sep 19, 2008
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My single biggest reason to avoid the big chains is the fact that if I buy their fish and successfully spawn them they will not take the babies in sale or trade. Same goes for plants. How they treat the livestock is a mute point to me.
 

jaws7777

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Whats the big deal. Fish have ich and arent for sale. What more are they supposed to do ?
 
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jaws7777

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I doubt that they would have given them to you even at a discount.They would rather the fish waste away while they wait for some poor sap to buy them at full price.
The only lfs i remember not selling sick fish was absolutely fish. As much as i loved shark AQ the conditions were nothing to write home about. I once purchased a few argentea knowing they had IP
 

The Morning

Potamotrygon
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Jan 10, 2018
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I am not used to seeing fish in this condition other than petco. The LFS I used to go to had around 100 tanks and over the ten plus years I went there I can’t recall ever seeing ich. And even a dead fish was a rare occasion. As I said every time I go into this store I check to see what they have and always find struggling fish, sick or dead. That being said this is the first time I have seen ich to that degree. Makes me question the quality of their suppliers.
 

krichardson

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Jun 19, 2006
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The only lfs i remember not selling sick fish was absolutely fish. As much as i loved shark AQ the conditions were nothing to write home about. I once purchased a few argentea knowing they had IP
I've always wanted to check out AF,are they still open?
 

skjl47

Goliath Tigerfish
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May 16, 2011
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I have never seen ich that bad before.
hello; You will be amazed then if you do a search of @duanes photos. He has posted a few much worse cases.
Check petsmart’s silver dollars. They usually have so much ich they’re almost solid white. I made the mistake of buying four and not quarantining them.... rip every fish in the 75
Hello: How is this the fault of the fish store? Before I buy from a shop I go around to all the tanks. If I see ick or dead fish I talk to the clerks. Many times I do not buy from some stores at all. If the clerks give decent information I may buy from healthy tanks. By decent I mean they are aware of the issues and have taken steps to deal with it.
Even the better shops I go to sometimes have dead fish. Not always a sign of bad practice.

I buy from them from time to time and have had very good luck. I also QT all new fish. If I did not QT and infected my other fish that is on me. I find no particular issues with Petco that are not sometimes found in most shops.
 

Gourami Swami

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totally possible that your Petco is not a good one. Just pointing out that a store having some fish with ich, does not make the store a bad one, and from your original post alone, It seems like they did the right thing. Likely scenario is they got a bunch of fish in (they get them every week) and some had ich, so they had to isolate all those tanks. The hole in the grand design is that the ich could likely have spread to the whole system before they saw it; though that's true of any fish store that has many fish on a large system.

I also worked at absolutely fish for a couple years, they are still open and doing well. Their FW tanks were mostly all enclosed individual systems, which I think is better than having large systems in stores. Even at AF they get fish in with ich, and they put a little paper sign up that the fish aren't for sale as well. I'd recommend checking it out if your in the area, real nice store. Which is probably why they are outlasting so many other LFS's in Jersey.
 
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skjl47

Goliath Tigerfish
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May 16, 2011
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totally possible that your Petco is not a good one
Hello; I go to two different Petco stores in cities about 80 miles apart. Both have had good tanks and I have bought from both with good results.
I also stop most times when out and about at a Hardies. Most are good clean stores. There is only one I no longer will stop at because of a nasty restroom. But that may have been just a bad day.

So yeah he may have a bad shop but I have seen this dump on big chain stores before. I have not personally been to a bad one myself.
 

jaws7777

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Mar 1, 2014
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White house 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington
I've always wanted to check out AF,are they still open?
Yeah havent been there in a while. Tanks are clean, good employees too. But way over priced. They dont cary anything close to what shark had tho. Not worth the drive for you unless your in the area. You should definitely check out monster if your ever in nyc.

Hello; I go to two different Petco stores in cities about 80 miles apart. Both have had good tanks and I have bought from both with good results.
I also stop most times when out and about at a Hardies. Most are good clean stores. There is only one I no longer will stop at because of a nasty restroom. But that may have been just a bad day.

So yeah he may have a bad shop but I have seen this dump on big chain stores before. I have not personally been to a bad one myself.
I agree. Most of the petco's and petsmarts ive been in had spotless tanks. Complaining about these stores is just the poplar thaaang to do.
 
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