A trip to Deathco, aka Petco

wow my local petco is fine Now that i think of it it just came up 2 months ago!

 

I just stopped by our local PetCo and they usually have a descent selection at descent prices. That being said 98% of their tanks have ick with none being treated and most are overgrown with you name it kind of algae. A giant clam just arrived and unless someone bought it in the next day or two I don't see how low lights and bad water quality this clam will last. I've bought stuff from them in the past as long as it was still floating in the bags before they introduced to their tanks but I think I'm done. They talk to you like your clueless and just listen to what they say cuz they're the experts.

On another note -- PETA did win one against PetCo. I'm also part of a parrot rescue organization and PETA agreed to stop some kind of suit against PetCo after PetCo agreed to stop selling Medium-Large parrots.

If you think some dead fish make you made you should see some poor abused Parrots that scream, pull out their feathers, and hate everything to do with life (not their fault either).

 

Ive thought about opening a store next to deathco here, and take as much of their business as possible.

 

just so happens to be 1000-5000 sqft available within 100yards from their door

 

As a part-time Petco employee, Petco actually loses fish because corporate makes all the decisions. The problem with Petco and Petsmart is that they are companies that care only about dogs and think they are too smart to do their research on fish keeping, only needing to know the basics. Most Petco stores can't keep local talent around long due to employee frustration and burnout, because corporate has such a tight grip around their balls and won't let the employee make decisions, even though this employee knows more about this stuff than the higher ups would know in two lifetimes. No matter what employees a Petco store has, either it be an expert or a noob, it's a losing battle working there because the employees don't get enough time to work on the stuff in most stores due to the lack of adequate payroll, so they only get an hour or two before open for feeding and dead fish pull, then they have to spend the remainder of their shift at cash register. Each section gets a water change almost weekly if time allows, but with the fish load, nitrates are always high even after three water changes. Also stores usually don't have more than 3 occupants working at a time, which includes a manager, a bird and small animal person, and a fish/reptiles/cashier. Other problems occur due to inadequate supplies at times as well as a required heavy load of fish by corporate in the display tanks, which makes nitrates high, which results with ich outbreaks. Other reasons are lack of dependable staff to help the one or two employees that do care about their aquatics department, such as dead fish not getting pulled, overfeeding, not feeding at all or properly, sumps not getting topped off. Corporate doesn't allow a quarantine tank for fish because they believe it's a stupid and wasteful idea, so we're forced to dump fish right in and hope for the best. We also have to keep anemones under T-8's, even though just about all nems need halides. Cheap fish suppliers are used as well, resulting in fish comming in banged up. Also like most chain retail settings, employees make suggestions to managers just to have the managers removed by site moderator because its a lowly sales associate that's making the suggestion. I must have told may manager several times not to order certain species due to impossible diets (princess parrot, sea hares, high light demanding corals and nems), poor survivibility (sebae nem), and potientally massive size (louti grouper, sweetlips, emp snapper) and they are still being ordered anyway. Petco and petsmart, as well as privately owned shops have noob employees or those who are selling fish without ever owning any of their own. Some of these stores also have very dedicated and experienced aquarium keepers who have a lot of passion for their hobby, but have to waste their talent being slaves at these places because their hometown has no decent aquarium only shops to work at. I keep a 180g mixed reef and a 20g all SPS reef with 17 years aquarium experience and I work at Petco part-time while in college as a last resort. I wish people would learn not to judge a book by its cover. Not everybody who works in retail is there to support a drug habit!!!! I get all my coral from a garage vendor because the pet stores, not worthy aquarium stores, can't sell quality stock. I wish it would be illegal for "pet stores" to carry wild caught fish and inverts. Wild caught stock should only be kept by aquarium only, as in no dog, cat, bird or hamster B.S., stores! Leave it to people who take pride in what they do and who can prove themselves worthy. You might be a redneck if: you get your frags and fish from a place that sells puppies. In ten years or so, we may not be able to have wild caught stock because these degenerate pet stores and cheap wholesellers killed all the fish. I don't pray anymore, because I just can't see what kind of a god would allow this! Hell, yellow tangs may go extinct in Hawaii because Petco and lousy pet stores are killing them all. In twenty years, we'll only be keeping clownfish and dottybacks, you just watch.