Little Shop of Horrors at local Petco

[Trever]

My local Petco has gotten salt water tanks in the last 3 weeks. I stopped in and the sales guy was nice and honest and apologetic. He said something about the tanks not being fully cycled but the trucks come in and they have nowhere else to put the fish. Anyways, dying and suffering fish left and right. To be clear: he knew it and was upset by it all too. They are trying to get the tanks properly up and running, have great stuff going, etc. He said it was mainly going to fall to him and he'd been on vacation for a week, they are doing what they can as employees, yada yada.

I also learned we apparently have a Petco elsewhere across town that is unusually great for salt water fish and very involved in the reefing community (covid has shut everything down for those of us entering the scene, so I wouldn't know). I'm going to have to check that Petco out. My local Petco wants to go to that level. Great, but man, what a bad start. Clowns on the bottom or flashing, other fish flashing constantly, a Royal Blue Tang lying on the bottom, another fish in the same tank going over to nudge it gently, both of them dying together.... etc. Sick, dead, or obviously dying fish, probably 20+ with maybe two tanks that had a couple of fish that looked better. If he's right, they all have ammonia damage, as I understand it. So purchasing something for a QT tanks doesn't seem like it would amount to a rescue. They had some chromis I would otherwise buy.

I've seen some LFS's where you feel like you need to take a shower afterwards, but this was unusually decimated.

What would you do if you saw that? I don't understand why they are getting fish shipments until they are ready for the fish.

 

[BrandonS]

Most Petco's it depends on the person running that department. If there a hobbyist it can be not bad. Otherwise they have little training and the orders come regardless of what is going on because it's coming from HQ.

 

[harley32907]

I have rescued 3 fish and 4 corals from my local Petco.

 

[RVA REEF]

everytime you "rescue" a fish from petco they will replace it, I would not support them if they are treating livestock inhumanely. Some petcos might find someone to work there who knows what they are doing, but most wont be there long term and as soon as they leave or get replaced, its by someone who doesn't know what they're doing and everything declines again. Also some stores wont allow disease or parasites to be treated so they are left to die. Petco just gave up on liveaquaria so hoping they will give up on their saltwater departments soon.

 

[harley32907]

Well’Cxcuse me all to h###

 

[PicassoClown04]

Hi! Very sad situation. If you see a fish that doesn’t look too bad, you may be able to negotiate a discount price for it. I was able to get free fish from Petco because of ich and they are all doing well today

 

[BackToTheReef]

I worked at a Petco for a few years prior to my LFS days. We were held to a high standard and there are(were) corporate animal care people. File a complaint, we got our butts handed to us once b/c we lost our day to day animal person and fell behind in care on a couple animals. (As managers we missed it while trying to run the rest of the store and deserved the butt chewing).

 

[BrandonS]

everytime you "rescue" a fish from petco they will replace it, I would not support them if they are treating livestock inhumanely. Some petcos might find someone to work there who knows what they are doing, but most wont be there long term and as soon as they leave or get replaced, its by someone who doesn't know what they're doing and everything declines again. Also some stores wont allow disease or parasites to be treated so they are left to die. Petco just gave up on liveaquaria so hoping they will give up on their saltwater departments soon.

just gave up on live aquaria? are you reffering to the decline in quality or is there a business sale in the works?

I agree the quality has gone down since they took over.

 

[kartrsu]

I’m surprised they didn’t dump a bunch of bottles of biospira or other bacterial additive to help expedite the cycle. You can even add prime to detoxify the ammonia. Perhaps the employees didn’t know, but why not educate on protocols before accepting livestock?

 

[Saltyreef]

i was expecting a photo of some zoas.....lol.

This is nothing new and happens in 90% of LFS. Worse when corperately owned.



FEEED ME SEYMOUR!

 

[BrandonS]

I’m surprised they didn’t dump a bunch of bottles of biospira or other bacterial additive to help expedite the cycle. You can even add prime to detoxify the ammonia. Perhaps the employees didn’t know, but why not educate on protocols before accepting livestock?

unfortunately in most cases for them it's not cost effective to do much training. Many employee's are minimum wage and once you factor in the cheap cost they pay for livestock because they pay for large quantities it's cheaper to lose a few shipments than training employee's

 

[BackToTheReef]

unfortunately in most cases for them it's not cost effective to do much training. Many employee's are minimum wage and once you factor in the cheap cost they pay for livestock because they pay for large quantities it's cheaper to lose a few shipments than training employee's

When I was there (late 90s/early 2000) there was a pretty hefty training program/series we had to take before we could take to the floor. Nearly a week's worth (PT hours).

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

We used to have a Petco here in Rocky Mount NC and there is one in Raleigh NC; they always had a fair selection of nice, healthy specimens. It depends on the individual store I would suppose.

 

[Fakegolfnews]

Throw some microbacter7 or microbacterstart in there for the love if god!

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

Throw some microbacter7 or microbacterstart in there for the love if god!

Once the fish become seriously stressed it is too late for cycle starter to save them; as it still takes a quite bit of time for the ammonia and/or nitrite levels to drop....

 

[KrisReef]

My local Petco has gotten salt water tanks in the last 3 weeks. I stopped in and the sales guy was nice and honest and apologetic. He said something about the tanks not being fully cycled but the trucks come in and they have nowhere else to put the fish. Anyways, dying and suffering fish left and right. To be clear: he knew it and was upset by it all too. They are trying to get the tanks properly up and running, have great stuff going, etc. He said it was mainly going to fall to him and he'd been on vacation for a week, they are doing what they can as employees, yada yada.

I also learned we apparently have a Petco elsewhere across town that is unusually great for salt water fish and very involved in the reefing community (covid has shut everything down for those of us entering the scene, so I wouldn't know). I'm going to have to check that Petco out. My local Petco wants to go to that level. Great, but man, what a bad start. Clowns on the bottom or flashing, other fish flashing constantly, a Royal Blue Tang lying on the bottom, another fish in the same tank going over to nudge it gently, both of them dying together.... etc. Sick, dead, or obviously dying fish, probably 20+ with maybe two tanks that had a couple of fish that looked better. If he's right, they all have ammonia damage, as I understand it. So purchasing something for a QT tanks doesn't seem like it would amount to a rescue. They had some chromis I would otherwise buy.

I've seen some LFS's where you feel like you need to take a shower afterwards, but this was unusually decimated.

What would you do if you saw that? I don't understand why they are getting fish shipments until they are ready for the fish.

So if I was at the distribution center I might send the "new store" that had not cycled their tanks yet all of the weak fish I had to help cycle those tanks and to prevent the weak from polluting the rest of the chains stores. Would that make me a monster? What would it look like at Petco ^ ^ ^ perhaps?

I've occasionally rescued fish (and corals) from stores when I can, but I agree that the waste and death in some stores is a disgusting and poor management practice at best.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

My local PetCo had a huge Red Cyano Bacteria outbreak in their tanks which went on for months. They couldn’t use the Boyd’s product without corporate approval, even though they had asked and had it on the shelf. I contacted corporate, and made an extra effort, not to throw their employees under the bus. Finally someone from corporate visited, but told them the wrong way to use the product. After more Emails, they finally got it right.

 

[Fakegolfnews]

Once the fish become seriously stressed it is too late for cycle starter to save them; as it still takes a quite bit of time for the ammonia and/or nitrite levels to drop....

Microbacter makes the water habitable for fish even with the presence of ammonia

 

[Rjmul]

I have rescued 3 fish and 4 corals from my local Petco.

You're not rescuing anything.

 

[KrisReef]

Common!