Experience with Petco online

Their warehouse/facilities for livestock wouldn't be any different than in the store. Honestly, people talk about the conditions of the fish tanks and such at Petco but most people haven't been to wholesalers where the fish are kept in rubbermaids (essentially) with no sand or anything. Some of the smaller fish are just kept in cups with holes in them floating in those rubbermaids. I have no problem purchasing a fish from petco if they are a healthy looking specimen which most of them are. Petco stores, btw, don't get their fish from a "Petco" wholesaler. They get their critters from the same wholesalers that your LFS does. seagrest, underwater world, etc.....

 

I bet they are okay, keep in mind PetCo doesn't have their own warehouses full of Fish. In fact my local PetCo gets the same shipments as my LFS...

I honestly feel it all depends what fish you get, if it was something really special then LA. If you want basic fish/inverts I bet they are fine.

Lastly, save yourself the shipping costs and order inside the store. Ask when the fish are delivered, you can take them home in the shipping bag. Iv done this a few times without worry.

 

I would go with what Biocube said if you don't mind waiting a few days. I would make it a point to get there before they are taken out of the bags though.

 

I have ordered from Petco.com. I think it was late November.
I purchased some live rock, a CUC, a bubble tip anemone, and an assorted mushroom pack.

Everything arrived in great shape. The Bubble Tip is huge and gorgeous. The live rocks arrived with lots of great critters, and I haven't noticed anything bad on them (love the spaghetti worms). The rocks are much better than what Petco carries in our local store. The mushrooms are a great variety and look very pretty.

The only thing that I was not pleased about was the shipping. The shipping is "overnight shipping", but it took over a week for them to arrive. The amount of time did not bother me, but I did not get an email letting me know that they had shipped. When you order live animals and they are being shipped in water filled plastic bags; every hour sitting on a cold front porch in the winter matters. Everytime I had to leave my house I worried that they would be delivered while I was away and they would freeze to death. I will order from them again, but I will wait until the weather is more temperate.

 

Correct me if i'm wrong but doesnt Petco's livestock come from Quality Marine?

 

It says that it comes from Texas A&M aquatics.

 

My local petco gets a shipment every wed. from quality marine. I guess each petco is different?

 

I do not think petco.com and the petco stores get their livestock from the same source. I may be completely wrong, but what I got from Petco.com looks so much better than what is available in my local store.