petco or petsmart? maybe neither!!

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Petland back home is crap. It used to be decent (although the fish were way overpriced) but now it is absolute garbage.

Petco and Petsmart here seem fine. Each have a little difference in the selection of fish which is good. Tanks seem clean. I would have no problem buying from either.

The "mom and pop" store here is the one that has no selection in freshwater fish at all. It is a huge dissapointment. Only good thing about that place is that they will order in fish for you
 
where I am at really neither of them work... I had a great fish guy at a local petco who was very knowledgeable and I learned most of what I know from him. However now that he has left the petco I will not step foot into it. I too have purchased fish from aquarium adventure but do not like to travel an hour for my fish or pay their high prices and the funny thing is that aquarium adventure is a petland affiliate. So basically I support petland through their fish specialty store...
 
If i have to I will visit the petsmart in my area , far better then the petco , but when they have dry goods on sale i will not hesitate to visit either one , i have the store cards for both
 
TheKeyToArson;947250; said:
Where I live Petco is the worst... I don't even bother wasting my time there or at Petsmart.

Petland is the best one that is close to me. Most of the time at least... they have one person working there that irritates the hell out of me. Last time I was at the store she told a customer "yeah you could put two Bala Sharks in a 10 gallon".

But I go over to VA Beach to a place called Animal Jungle where they have EVERYTHING.... Or at least it seems like it. Very knowledgeable staff and a really great pleco selection. I'm still not sure if thats part of a chain of stores or not... Has anyone else ever heard of it?
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i have never heard of Animal Jungle. but i wish they had more mom and pop shops that had a better variety. most the places here either have a lot of freshwater and no saltwater or vice versa!! i like a good selection of both from one store, more convenience that way!!
 
I use to work at Petland and it was alright, they don't make much money off of selling fish hence the small stock they have there. There are Petco and Petsmart by me and Petco is crap; the fish there are always boring types and sick. The prices on equipment is ok. Petsmart I think has the best selection of fish and I like going there.
 
The petsmart on the west side of town here is really good and the staff know their stuff. I prefer Petsmart because of the fish and it's closer. Petco is in Las Cruces, NM and it's about a half an hour drive to get there, and I've only gotten one fish from there and that was it. It was a pike but now they no longer sell pikes so I doubt I'll be there anytime soon. Except for maybe their furred animals like chinchillas.
 
I used to work for Petsmart in the grooming department, but when I didnt have a dog to groom or after I got bit really bad, I worked in the fish department. I was honest with people who wanted to buy fish and didn't have the right tank for it. When I got my first tank I was also sold two red bellied pacu's yeah for my 55 gallon...... tell me that was going to work.. (that was before I worked there) Found out that about 6 months after I had left, there were a few people there asking for me to help them pick out fish for their tanks. The one manager told me the one day while I was taking my dogs to the vet that they had about 3 people who I had helped their friends or neighbors pick out fish and they wanted me to help them. And the manager told them that I didn't work their any longer and they left.

They really need to find people who know more about fish. I think that all the stores would be better off with more information. There is a guy that is trying to work with these chain store to provide better information to customers.
http://www.noclownsinacube.net/
 
I see more Petsmart around here than I do Petco. Petco seems to have better knowledge but Petsmart seems to have more selection and better prices. I know the fish room manager and he's real cool and knows a lot. Some guy at Petsmart actually sold me a RTC as a cory and told me that it'll grow as large as a common pleco at 6" :screwy:
 
Honestly do you think you would buy your kid/little brother/sister/neice/nephew
Red bellied Pacu if the tag said it could get up to 36"
would need a good diet of veggies as well as some feeders.
or an Oscar that get up to 18" and will eat any "prettyfish" that will fit in his mouth
or one of the little pretty cat fish that are an inch long but grow anywhere from 18"-36"
and once they get close to adulthood they need to be switched to brackish water?
as for feeders you have to treat them for parasites and feed them out for a week or two that way you know what your fish is eating!!

bottom line is fish sales would plummet they "doctor" the tags to make it seem like a 10gal can hold so much when it really cant.

If you see a fish you like at one of these places do a little research first then buy it.
 
sweeTang21;946939; said:
ive heard of petland from other websites. apperently their pretty good, according to word of mouth lol.l i really appreciate everybodys input. keep it coming. i got some really bad experiences throught petco, but the one thing that really upsets me about my local petco is that when you walk in there, you stand there for about 20 minutes before one employee aproaches you. kind of upsetting sometimes. i do understand that sometimes people like to look first and then ask later, but for some reason im always in their and nobody ask's if i need help. again just venting lol!!!
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same thing with me i usually go to the register and ask for help, cause i dont wanna wait. but usually they see me walk in and know im hear for feeders
 
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