OMG - PetCo Gig Harbor RANT!!!

Was in PetCo yesterday to pick up some fish food for my daughter's guppies and went to visit the Oscars (I'll be setting up a 120 soon and want to get a single oscar plus some tank mates). I was HORRIFIED at what I saw!

OMG, 2 oscars swimming in the tank, absolutely covered with ick spots. One was the tiniest oscar I've seen (1.5 inches or so), really beautiful coloring, so lively and cute, but so sick He was swimming up to me and making eye contact - it took all the restraint I had to not buy him and try to nurse him back to health in my daughter's spare 1.5 gallon cube thing (heat and salt and I could maybe cure the ick within a week or two then put him into my 46 until the 120 is ready - this oscar is sooooo tiny).

The other oscar was a little more lethargic, much bigger (3.5 inches), much more sick looking. Then, as I stared into the tank for a bit, I noticed a little face bobbing up and down inside a lava rock decoration in the tank - another oscar, so ill he seemed to have simply gone in there to wait for death. He couldn't even swim anymore. Then I saw a rotting oscar corpse (another little one, about the same size as my little friend) dead and stuck to the filter. He must have been in there for awhile because he was already falling to pieces.

I didn't know if I should cry or vomit. How can they do this to the fish?! I will NEVER EVER spend a single dollar at PetCo again.

PetSmart, for all their flaws, keeps their fish soooooo much healthier and in better conditions. There's no comparison. Living in a pretty rural area, I'm quite limited and there are no LFS's around (closest is 35 miles away) so PetSmart will have to do for routine purchases, but PetCo = NEVER AGAIN!

So what can I do about this? Call the manager? Complain to corporate HQ? Will they even care?

And do I follow my gut and go get that little oscar who touched my heart, and try to save him? I understand that by getting him, I'd be supporting the store, but OMG it was so hard to walk away from him...the tank is marked "under observation" (what a joke) so I'd have to fight them just to be able to buy him to try and save him.

GAH! What do I do?! I can't get his little face out of my mind...

Even worse, this is not limited to your nearest PetCo. I used to hit up my local one and a few others in the neighborhoods I travel and the story is the same. Tanks full of FW fish covered in ick. Deplorable. Even Petsmart has had the same issues. No matter the store though, take a careful look at the stock every time, you might be the only one who does.

you think petco and petsmart are bad i dont understand wallmart they have maby 30 fish stuck to their filters fish piled on the bottom of the tank bare tanks its just crazy how they can sell fish there. so th next time you are at wallmart check out there fish i think its by garden and you will have more respect for petco and petsmart (not saying they are good just not the worst).

I know Petsmart in Silverdale keeps their fish in all good standings!

That's the PetSmart where I shop - Silverdale. I've been very pleased with the fish I've bought there. One small ick outbreak after bringing home a fish, easily treated and every fish I've bought there (guppies, platys, JD's, giant danios, clown loach, albino cory) are all doing great - just one guppy fatality, and it was a swim bladder issue a few weeks after purchase - not illness. So I'm pleased with that store.

You think petco and petsmart have people who lack knowledge of fish and fish keeping.. Walmart is even worse.. Not to say there arent walmarts with the random person that happens to work there or near the section that knows fish but that is rare.. Most ppl who takes care of the department So the pet department is taken care of by mostly the department manager which usually knows the basics of keeping pets let alone fish.. And they usually dont know much about pets..

Its the department manager that orders the fish and does maintance on the tanks.. You will hardly ever see this person and might do the maintance whenever they might have extra time..
So they might vac the gravel and clean the glass once a week.. Fish come in usually weekly so..
Its usually at this time that the new fish come in the clear out dead bodies befor they put the new fish in..

Walmarts are usually way understaffed on the floor and only somebody that is job coded for the tanks is technically allowed to do anything to them and in my experience there isnt a floor associate coded to do any maintance whenever.

Most of the time if you want a fish you have to have them page for someone cause there is never a associate within sight to new a fish.. And then here come the person to help.. Not a Associate hired to do fish but some random associate that knows nothing about fish to net you out a fish.. Knowing nothing of ick or the signs of a distressed dying or diseased fish.. Which is usually most all of the fish in the tank..

The only time i buy from walmarts tanks is usually right after they recieve the new fish....

I am a old walmart associate and i can tell you some stories of Walmart and how its such a great company... Anyone that shops there is supporting the company and dooming the ppl who are forced to work there because thats all thats available.. Their employees are disposable tools used as a tool, really a slave..

It's true, PetSmart does seem to take better care their fish. I understand that outbreaks happen, but they're completely treatable as well. The PetSmart I frequently visit puts signs on their tank that they are temporarily unavailable for sale until they get better. I don't understand it a lot either...

It really depends. You have to remember that at a major chain retailer like Petco or Petsmart, they cross train people in everything, so they may have potentially just ONE employee that knows the hobby and cares -- while all the rest are making minimum wage and just count the minutes until they're off.
It's sad and deplorable, yes, but they aren't all bad. Petco in Lakewood and Tacoma are EXCELLENT and have numerous staff members that are knowledgeable and in the hobby themselves outside of work. I've bought several fish and corals from both and never had a single problem.
Sorry to hear your experience was so awful, but don't let it spoil you on Petco. There are better ones for sure!

Yup - all it takes is that one person who cares about their job and the fish to make all the difference.

I haven't noticed ich at petslow in Oly or petstupid in Lacey. Granted, there are dead fish here and there at both and I don't browse the cichlids.

I order everything online. i will not enter the "Pet" stores it makes me too sad....its also a several hour drive to get to one for me. all it takes is someone who cares and the fish section can be wonderful but the normal pet employee does not care or know enough to do anything.

I buy fish from anyone who has the fish I'm looking for at the right price. I study the tank and the fish to see if everyone looks good then find someone to pull out and bag what I need. I can't remember the last time I saw ich or anything else in my tanks for the last 25 years. Yes, floaters and sick fish is common at any Live fish store. When I see a sick fish or tank with no message stating "sick fish" then I take it upon myself to inform an employee about what I see then I wait to see what their reaction is. Fast response time will give the store a "pass". If I don't see the reaction I was looking for then I too can be found on any given Aquarium fish forum ranting about what I have witnessed. Will it help? Who knows! Sure makes me feel good to say it.
Walmart fish: Why? That department has to be ran at a loss cause I don't see a profit from all the dead fish.

.oO You guys realize this thread threads a couple years old? I had to double check because I was going to write something. Oh, I did....lol

I've dealt with this before.... I personally walked up to the attendent and was all. "HEY LOOK, THESE FISH HAVE ICK." then, push more of they act like they dont care... Ask em, what r u going to do? Are you going to medicate? You should do it now, there's allread some that are DEAD!
If the attendent looks at you like he's tarded, go find someone else! Manager!!

janky gets the necromancer medal for resurrecting this zombie thread lol

Side note, theChad is spot on. I always visit a store at least three times before I purchase fish from them. I try to talk to the employees that work the fish sections and see how knowledgeable they are and how they take care of their tanks.