Irresponsible fish owners

Be careful. One of my friends and his reef club made this offer and their whole reef club is banned from their Petco.

Crazy huh?

 

I get my RO from petco cause it is a new store and the culligan man runs the ro plus it is free here. But that is all I get there. They have a high turn over for employees and no one person is there for over 3 months. There fresh water tanks look normal but there salt is just plan nasty. But to my story not too long ago It was around last christmas that a lady was going to buy her husband a lizard of some sorts. She thought she could wrap the lizard up and put it under her bed christmas was 3 weeks away. Well the employee wouldn't sell her the lizard (thank god for that). But the point being some people are stupied some are lazy and some just don't give a rats azz. I don't think salt water is hard you just have to want to learn about it before you do it and that is where I think people fail in the first place. Most people just jump in and take any advise they can get.

 

Couldn't think of a better place to get banned from Overpriced and shoddy products. I think I can get everything cheaper at other stores or online.

If this happened to me, I would write an editorial in the local newspaper. Probably wouldn't do much, but at least you would be able to get your opinion out and make others aware of what kind of organization they run.

 

every few months a thread of this version seems to show up and i will again respond as i normally due.

i think it is irresponsible of a person to bad talk all stores in a franchise based off there expierence with a few. i will present it to you this way. you go to the local mcdonalds and order a burger. you then get sick. are all mcdonalds bad or was it just that one. i am lucky to have a good petco in my area where i get 90% of the items for my tank. the other lfs in the area has horrid loccking tanks and i wouldnt put anything in my tank from there. the next closest place is an hour awaymso the 30 min drive to petco is worth it to me.

if you all feel so strongly then just dont fo there. why bash all stores when they are all not this way? it almost feels like high school where everyone singles one guy out and picks on them just because. i am sure that you can find other places just as bad as petco and yet how often are they talked about?

end rant.

 

I understand that most LFS's are out to make $ but it makes me nuts when they will sell things that we all know are tough or nearly impossible for the novice to keep successfully. What even bothers me more is when a LFS has 20 little bicolor blennies, flame angel's, or similar in the same tank and when you walk by they are kicking the S#!& out of each other for territory and have no place to hide. The fish already made it through a very stressful time getting there now you are going to put them together so they stress each other even more!?!?!?!?!?!? Probably to death!?!?!? And then they have the nerve to tell the customer that you can keep more than one in a 10g!!!! "they will get along fine" - pisses me off!

Not to mention a bunch of pearly jawfish in a tank with less than 1/2" of sand and no place to hide so they die of stress or swimming up and crashing into the glass cover on the tank!

Sorry for the rant but us as people can be pretty selfish when it comes to the all mighty dollar!

 

I don't go to Petco, and I most certainly don't go to McD's - and yes, all of them make me sick. ;D But that's my personal opinion, and know folks that do go to Petco, McD's, etc.

It's good to hear you have a nice Petco - I know not all stores in chains are bad, but with my personal experience, I've yet to find a Petco that's really worth going to - I've bought items there, yes, but after finding a good local store, I buy almost exclusively from them now.

When I see a yellow tang that has his fins ripped to shreds and is faded, or clarkii clowns that have little to no color, or other varieties that are overpriced and look sick and stressed, I don't care to support that.

-Edit - I prefer actually to support the local guy that's 5 minutes down the road from me, gives great advice, and is struggling to stay in business because of our current situation with the economy - yet at the same time, his livestock is half the price of other LFS in the area. Good advice, healthy livestock - I'll throw my $$ there.

 

only thing about that though, is Petco is a national chain, and they should be setting a higher standard for all of their stores. In my mind, it is not acceptable to support one store because they do a good job, when many of them do a very very poor job. All transactions at all stores support the same corporate entity. So when you buy at a "good" petco, you are still supporting the "bad" ones. Fact of the matter is big box stores have no business selling SW fish or inverts. They can stick to the supplies, but should stay out of the livestock - Like Petsmart does. In my opinion...end of my rant

I stopped buying catfood at Petco as well...part of my overall boycott of them. All because of the SW fish situation. Okay...now I am done.

 

matt will probably end this thread he don't like bashing one place too much.

 

They banned the club because you offered training wow

If i was the manager i would welcome any new knowledge that would help grow the business. This is what happens to all big corporations, they get locked into policies and bullsht and eventually the business dies. Look at the current state of corporate America.

I think for all saltwater buyers, they should pass a test and have some sort of license to buy coral, live rock and other saltwater creatures.

I cant believe one of my LFS takes saltwater creatures back, there is no way in hell i would take them back. Too many variables that come into play with saltwater creatures.

 

after becoming interested in this hobby me and my husband went driving around checking out all the stores in the area, see who has what, who not to go to, etc. Petco was one of them, we stayed for a while looking at all the salt water fish they all seemed fine, the employee in that section was very knowledgable too, we talked to him for a while about clownfish. I think that big chain stores should probably check up on all their stores more often and make sure all their employees are properly trained. We went to a petland a while ago and they had two maroon clowns in a 10gallon with a small dog faced puffer and they beat the crap out of him it was horrible. We also have a walmart and a local pet store that sells green spotted puffers and figure 8 puffers, neither of them know anything about the fish, and the last time we went to that walmart i tore into the manager for the sake of the puffers, they all had parasites were starving, and barely had any fins left it was sad. the manager said the employees only bag the fish up, the person who brings the fish in actually deals with the water quality and treatment, which obviously wasnt happening. [we have 2 brackish tanks one with a green spotted puffer and one with a figure 8 puffer]. one thing i DO like is mcdonald's sausage egg & cheese mcgriddles, no one comes between me and a mcgriddle. lol.