Chef.ryan
Community Member
The retail chain pet stores get a lot of guff from the saltwater community. And I admit I'm one of the complainers. The sub-par conditions, the wildly out-of-parameter waters, the scores of bubble or cyano algae, the ICH!!! And there is usually a malnourished fish or worse, a corpse. I frequent the petco near me because it is one of only 3 local places to get my "fix" and from time to time, there is something I feel like rescuing usually because it's a real steal of a deal. ( like a small hippo tang for 4$ because the "expert" thought it was a damsel!). About 3 months ago, I purchased a trio of really good looking Orange Barred Zebra Dartfish for $11.00. Anyways, last night, I was just watching my tank as we all do, enjoying my hobby and I realized that all of my livestock, save 2, have come from Petco. All my long-lived, fat,healthy fish came from Big Box! My current line up consists of the 3 zebra Dartfish, a golden Midas blenny, a large ruby head wrasse, 1 orange and 1 black clownfish, a neon dotty back, a copperband butterfly, a clown goby, an exquisite wrasse, and a lemon peel angel. My non-petco fish are 1 Singapore angel ( who runs the entire tank) and a blue stripe pipefish leftover from my sehorse days.
I've had $80 butterflies come in the mail and acclimate just fine, eat right away, and die 3 weeks later. I've lost $100's of fish, coral and inverts from the quality lfs. I've had jumpers, and suicide intake stuffers! I've even had a massive outbreak of marine ich that wiped out my lfs guys but my petco fish simply got better. I start to wonder if the squalid conditions that my survivors come from have made them strong and disease resistant and even smarter? Like the aquatic equivalent of cyborgs.
I don't want it to sound like the lfs I have here are crap because they are not. In fact, they are the opposite and one is nationally recognized. They take care and pride in what they do and quarentine their livestock properly. They help me and every customer with decision after decision. They will even refuse to sell a fish or coral if they know it isn't healthy or if they know it isn't compatible with my tankmates! I'm thankful for their knowledge because it helped me tremendously in my short 6 years in the hobby.
I also don't want to discount the petco employees. Some of them are very knowledgeable and have a sincere passion for the trade. I wish there were more of you out there! I know they have to do as "corporate" dictates. It's the ones who will reach into a tank bare handed and stir up tons of garbage after holding a filthy snake or frog and not even wash his hands.
My point is that you may not be able to get a bio-luminescent Aussie that costs $300 at petco. You might not always see the highest quality or healthiest fish there either. And any fish can have ich, but the frequent stress of a pet store and tank mates induces it, I'm sure. But in my opinion, we should not write off chain pet stores with such disgust and hatred. If you don't want to buy from them, don't, but don't do Facebook rants about how crappy they are because you saw a skinny mandarin dragonette. These fish just need our homes and stable environments to bounce back to being happy again instead of dosed with "sleeping medicines" and bagged up and shipped from place to place.
Wow, this got long winded and took a strange turn. Oh well. Here's a picture...
I've had $80 butterflies come in the mail and acclimate just fine, eat right away, and die 3 weeks later. I've lost $100's of fish, coral and inverts from the quality lfs. I've had jumpers, and suicide intake stuffers! I've even had a massive outbreak of marine ich that wiped out my lfs guys but my petco fish simply got better. I start to wonder if the squalid conditions that my survivors come from have made them strong and disease resistant and even smarter? Like the aquatic equivalent of cyborgs.
I don't want it to sound like the lfs I have here are crap because they are not. In fact, they are the opposite and one is nationally recognized. They take care and pride in what they do and quarentine their livestock properly. They help me and every customer with decision after decision. They will even refuse to sell a fish or coral if they know it isn't healthy or if they know it isn't compatible with my tankmates! I'm thankful for their knowledge because it helped me tremendously in my short 6 years in the hobby.
I also don't want to discount the petco employees. Some of them are very knowledgeable and have a sincere passion for the trade. I wish there were more of you out there! I know they have to do as "corporate" dictates. It's the ones who will reach into a tank bare handed and stir up tons of garbage after holding a filthy snake or frog and not even wash his hands.
My point is that you may not be able to get a bio-luminescent Aussie that costs $300 at petco. You might not always see the highest quality or healthiest fish there either. And any fish can have ich, but the frequent stress of a pet store and tank mates induces it, I'm sure. But in my opinion, we should not write off chain pet stores with such disgust and hatred. If you don't want to buy from them, don't, but don't do Facebook rants about how crappy they are because you saw a skinny mandarin dragonette. These fish just need our homes and stable environments to bounce back to being happy again instead of dosed with "sleeping medicines" and bagged up and shipped from place to place.
Wow, this got long winded and took a strange turn. Oh well. Here's a picture...
