What fish would you like to see gone from petco?

[bridget1476]

I'm the aquatics specialist at a petco and both my manager and supervisor are fish keepers and they support me putting the well being of the fish over profits more than other Petcos. I would like to compile a "never sell" and a "sometimes sell" list of species based on the ethics of how the fish was bred and the target customer of petco.

Never sell:
Balloon fish
blood parrot cichlids
irredecent sharks
any dyed fish

sometimes sell (have one in stock a month):
hi fin banded loach
oscar
discus
flowerhorn
common pleco

Let me know if there are any others!

 

[fishguy1978]

Never sell GMO: flowerhorn, blood parrot or glo fish

 

[bridget1476]

Never sell GMO: flowerhorn, blood parrot or glo fish

I don't have an issue with glo fish themselves. The company is super ****ty and makes it illegal to breed their fish. The fish are not harmed in any way because of their color other than being more likely to end up in a child's neglected aquarium

 

[The Masked Shadow]

I say f the whole Petco and blow it to pieces! They shouldn't sell fish at all. To be specific:

-Balloon belly fish (they GMO the spine)
-Any expensive saltwater fish
-Angelfish (every time I go there, they are beaten up)
-any glofish, but especially the red shark glofish
- Koi
-Bichirs

 

[Jexnell]

I think they should not stock anything that gets bigger than six inches.
Let's be real here, the base customers are newer, non experienced keepers. And having these bigger fish looking cute while tiny readily available just leads to trouble later. Your more advanced keepers have moved onto a LFS or online ordering.
But have signs posted for more advanced keepers your ability to order "Special "fish for thier advanced skills.

 

[Deadeye]

The color doesn’t harm them, but the inbreeding is going to cause some issues same for any designer fish. I know I’m the odd one out but I do like the look of glofish though...
I think that if anything, Petco needs to seriously rework their saltwater. Lots of nice fish but everything is unhealthy. Corals are sad too. Either drop them or do proper disease treatment.

I don’t have a problem with parrots either, genetic messes but fun to keep and so far in the hobby that they aren’t going anywhere. For some reason they act completely unaffected by their problems.

As a standard, anything impaired (like a ballon or long fin fish) shouldn’t be sold or anything too large for the average hobbyist should be left out.

I would also drop all puffers. Cute, amazing fish, which is exactly why they are bad for a big box store. People come to buy them, have no idea about their difficult needs, kill them, and try again. Good for business but horrible for the fish.

 

[bridget1476]

I think they should not stock anything that gets bigger than six inches.
Let's be real here, the base customers are newer, non experienced keepers. And having these bigger fish looking cute while tiny readily available just leads to trouble later. Your more advanced keepers have moved onto a LFS or online ordering.
But have signs posted for more advanced keepers your ability to order "Special "fish for thier advanced skills.

Thanks! Thats one thing im going to change. I do get some experenced keepers because my store has a saltwater section

 

[Deadeye]

I think they should not stock anything that gets bigger than six inches.
Let's be real here, the base customers are newer, non experienced keepers. And having these bigger fish looking cute while tiny readily available just leads to trouble later. Your more advanced keepers have moved onto a LFS or online ordering.
But have signs posted for more advanced keepers your ability to order "Special "fish for thier advanced skills.

I like the idea of special ordering. This way some of those nice things on the website may actually show up in stores. It would be nice to go to a local petco for something really cool (sometimes I value ease over disease risk) rather than hike over to the LFS.

Also balas should be out. So big and skittish but recommended for 30 gallons? Either sell them as monsters or don’t sell them at all.

 

[bridget1476]

The color doesn’t harm them, but the inbreeding is going to cause some issues same for any designer fish. I know I’m the odd one out but I do like the look of glofish though...
I think that if anything, Petco needs to seriously rework their saltwater. Lots of nice fish but everything is unhealthy. Corals are sad too. Either drop them or do proper disease treatment.

I don’t have a problem with parrots either, genetic messes but fun to keep and so far in the hobby that they aren’t going anywhere. For some reason they act completely unaffected by their problems.

As a standard, anything impaired (like a ballon or long fin fish) shouldn’t be sold or anything too large for the average hobbyist should be left out.

I would also drop all puffers. Cute, amazing fish, which is exactly why they are bad for a big box store. People come to buy them, have no idea about their difficult needs, kill them, and try again. Good for business but horrible for the fish.

I aggree. The stores frag tank is a disaster. I have no freshwater puffers at my store thankfully. Are longfin varieties impared? Elaborate

 

[Potato Patatto]

Pacu