Petsmart doesn't custom order fish, but Petco does! I used to work at Petsmart, and we never ordered fish custom for anyone or held them for you or anything. If I was working and someone I knew wanted a specific fish, usually I would fish around the one they wanted all day until they came to pick it up, but stock selection and quanitity was all controlled by corporate.
Petco on the other hand does do custom orders, at least the one in my area. Petco (again referring to the one by me which is in the St. Louis area) does order from Segrest though (among other distributers). That being said, they don't get the same choice as Petsmart. When buying the Red Texas's lately I had been going all over the place to find them, and I got to look at the Segrest order form at Petco. Every other fish on the order form had their name followed by a size approximation. Petco didn't have the Red Texas on there, or anything other than very basic cichlids. Some that I know Petsmart regularly gets shipped in weren't even on the list. The only thing they had that Petco could order that MAY have been a Red Texas was the ambiguously titled "Flowerhorn" without a size approximation behind it (and if you go to Segrest's stock list online, you can see they have like 12 different flowerhorn possibilities including different sizes/variants).
ANYWAY I guess the purpose of this diatribe is that Petsmart probably has a contractual agreement worked out with Segrest that it will provide these opportunity buys ONLY TO PETSMART at a specific time. So it's not likely you'll be able to just go to another LFS that orders from Segrest and obtain them.
Petco on the other hand does do custom orders, at least the one in my area. Petco (again referring to the one by me which is in the St. Louis area) does order from Segrest though (among other distributers). That being said, they don't get the same choice as Petsmart. When buying the Red Texas's lately I had been going all over the place to find them, and I got to look at the Segrest order form at Petco. Every other fish on the order form had their name followed by a size approximation. Petco didn't have the Red Texas on there, or anything other than very basic cichlids. Some that I know Petsmart regularly gets shipped in weren't even on the list. The only thing they had that Petco could order that MAY have been a Red Texas was the ambiguously titled "Flowerhorn" without a size approximation behind it (and if you go to Segrest's stock list online, you can see they have like 12 different flowerhorn possibilities including different sizes/variants).
ANYWAY I guess the purpose of this diatribe is that Petsmart probably has a contractual agreement worked out with Segrest that it will provide these opportunity buys ONLY TO PETSMART at a specific time. So it's not likely you'll be able to just go to another LFS that orders from Segrest and obtain them.
