petsmart cares?!

[Chicklette]

My pet smart is pretty good. The staff cared, their are a couple that are clueless but most of them care and know what they are talking about.

 

[komodo182]

My friend was told that he should have 3 females bettas for every male betta...
I was told if I ever touch a firebelly toad, my hand would be numb for a long time.
I was also told that oscar can go in a 30 gallon, just like their sign said, but I could probably get away with a 20 gallon if I wanted.
Also, ID sharks can live in a 75 gallon for life, but i could probably get away with a 55 gallon.

 

[Industrial]

If petsmart talked about ammonia drop cycling I am sure a lot more people would either A) Be scared away or B) Just not do that. At work I used to advise fishless cycling but then people would have conniptions at the thought of an empty tank in their house for a month. Now I just suggest danios and other hardy fish to cycle tanks. The average fishkeeper IMO is a new fish keeper who either had a tank years back and knows nothing about fishkeeping or will be setting up their first tank which will last 6 months.

Anyways, petsmart IMO does a pretty good job informing customers. I asked mine if they ever carried glassfish "the kind that is sometimes painted" and the girl told me that painting fish is cruel and kills them a lot of the times. I knew that, but it's still cool that they know and tell the customers that.

 

[eatingleg4peanut]

NO place out there is perfect...But to the big corporate stores selling fish (around me its only Petsmart, Petco and Walmart) Petsmart blows them away, and actually blows some of the small LFS's I've been to away. My stores tank are always very clean, I very rarely see dead fish, I don't have to try to find someone to help me like at the other stores they are always in the department, I have never had an disease from there fish(even when I used rosy reds as feeders). Yes the info cards are mostly incorrect, but this is sadly normal, look at alot of the online sellers, I can hardley even find accurate info on what size a fish gets to as it differs from site to site. I'm sure there are stores out there that are cruddy, but the 2 Petsmarts I've been to in MD have been great. And the people at my store although some are young kids who dont know a whole lot about fish, they are very helpful, but usually there are 2-3 people working the fish dept, and there are 2 people that work there (one is always there, never at the same time though) that really know fish, maybe not as much as you guys or even me for that matter, but I have seen them tell people not to get certain fish, be it do to tank size or temperment, and before they knew me they actually questioned me alot do to the number of fish I've purchased. So all in all I really like Petsmart.

With that said, I did ask if the had any Jag's in one time to one of the boys who works the dept, and was told know they are to rare, as I browsed the tanks I quickly noticed the tank of managuense cichlids.