petco

people on here have told me that buying liverock and stuff from petco is not the smartest idea. the problem is i only know of petco and another place called fishtopia, where the prices are much more expensive. so my question is... is it ok to buy fish from petco as long as they look healthy and i keep as much of the petco water as i can out of my own tank?

 

Just put them in QT for a few weeks before you put them in your display tank, and you should be good.

 

im not sure exactly what QT is but i think its another tank for sick animals and stuff right? i only have 1 tank because im fairly new to the hobby.

 

It's good to question Petco's practices... I guess it really depends on the individual store and how well the livestock is doing in their tank when you purchase it.

I have bought several fish from petco that I've had for over a year... There aren't a lot of aquarium stores that have a good selection of fish near me.

Does petco DO stupid things? Sure. They ordered a lemon peel angel for me and when it got in, stuck it into a tank with an undulated trigger fish. The trigger took a chunk out of it's side before I could get there to pick it up (same day it arrived in the store).

I was pretty upset about it... they just offered to order me another one, and didn't care about the well being of the fish... I knew it would die if I left it there, and I the best they could do was a 15% discount. Well, I took a chance on it and I still have this fish, over a year later. He is really fat and happy, and still has a bit of a scar to show from his day in petco. I'm glad I saved him, even though it may have been against better judgement.

I have a target mandarin, several gobies, snails, emerald crabs, hermits, etc that I've had longer than a year too from this store. I have an awesome pink birdsnest from there (the only coral I have purchased from there).

On the other hand, I see a lot sick fish in their tanks. Usually laden with ich or just not doing well in general... I would stay away from anything that doesn't look healthy. It's probably not going to get better in your tank, unless you have the best husbandry skills... and even then, you're taking your chances.

Their live rock is a bit suspicious to me though... the stuff I see for sale is solid pink, but it's not covered in coralline, it just looks like it's artificially colored... don't ask me how they get it that color though.

I believe that the petcos are all about how they are run... the one close to me has one knowledgeable person working there and a few not so much (it was the latter who put the lemonpeel in with the undulated trigger).

Anyway, these are my experiences... some folks may tell you that they are not ethical, or that it's better to patron a mom and pop... and these are probably valid arguments. So, you'll have to make up your mind here.

 

I am sorry Steve - petco threads seem to explode and then I get a creepy knock at my door - so I am going to be proactive and close this since I am going to sleep. Please do a search for petco in the search box above. Plenty of threads and info.

matt