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Petsmart- why do I keep going there!?

16K views 38 replies 23 participants last post by  Solarfall 
#1 ·
Every once and a while I convince myself that maybe that new chain store isn't that bad and I should visit. A new PetSmart opened nearby and I thought I'd visit it. Well, it was that bad. It really, really was. Here's an email I sent to PetSmart today. I just don't feel OK visiting a store like that and keeping my mouth shut. I hope others will speak up with me.

I recently visited the Fish section of this store. I was excited to visit it because it is new and large and I was hopeful about the conditions the fish were kept in.

When I arrived, I was extremely disappointed. I saw two fish in particular that worried me- a fish with an extreme case of Ich and one with Fin Rot so bad that it no longer had any fins. Both of these were extremely far progressed and the fish had clearly had the condition for some time. These fish were clearly sick and contagious and should have been quarantined. The more reputable fish stores I visit refuse to sell any fish from a tank with a sick fish in it. However, the employees seemed to have no idea that these fish were sick and did were quite happy to sell those fish and others from the tank.

These fish are not only being improperly cared for, but you are doing a great disservice to all of your customers. Anyone who buys fish from these tanks runs the risk of infecting all of the healthy fish they have at home. I asked your employees if they had any training in fish health and they said yes, but the training must not have been very good. All that would be needed to train employees to identify these types of illnesses would be to simply show them a picture of a similarly infected fish.

I brought this subject up with the store manager and she said she would speak to the Fish Care manager the next day, as he was already gone for the night. However, I did not hold out much hope for the situation as these fish had been sick for a long time and the Fish Care manager was either uninformed or negligent enough to not remove them earlier. I do not see why someone like this would be appointed and maintained as the person in charge of the health of fish.

The obvious sickness of these fish depressed and disappointed me. Clearly I cannot purchase any of your fish as I run the risk of seriously infecting my current pet fish. I am a member of the Boston Aquarium Society and of a popular online fish forum and will be sure to warn every fish keeper I meet to buy their fish from a better kept store.

I'd certainly like to give your store a try again sometime, but right now I don't have the heart to return.

Regards,
Maeve
 
#32 ·
I have to agree with the earlier post about the individual stores.
I've lived in 3 different states and never had a problem with petsmart,
The knowledge does lack a bit, but I'll apply at my local one s soon as I turn 17... (Dec 13th)
I've been keeping fish for 5 years now...
All the way from Guppies to Cichlids which is what I'm on right now.
I do also dare to say that I've had every fish petsmart has carried in the past 4 1/2-5 years...
I've moved so many times out of state.
My parents refused to move the fish also...
I just gave them to local "ma&pa" stores of great quality.
 
#35 ·
At the petsmart by me an employe told some one that they could breed Bettas in a one gallon tank:evil: they also sell cages that are way to small and food that has weed killer in it:shock: but they take better care of the animals then any of the smaller pet stores by me.
 
#38 ·
ROFL!

But my local Petsmart isn't too bad. There is a guy there who actually knows what he is talking about, I overheard him talkin about the nitrogen cycle to a kid getting his first tank, and he was right about it.
 
#39 ·
I actually work at Petco, and I've recently undertaken the fish department since the other guy left. And it was a massive undertaking.

What a lot of people don't realize is how hard it really is to maintain this many fish with the supplies we're given. We have no quarentine tanks, inadaquate store use food, inadequate means of treating illnesses, and abyssmally overcrowded tanks. Not to mention our protein skimmers don't even work and WE DON'T EVEN HAVE A FREAKING RO UNIT!!! This is corperate America at work for you. My hands are pretty much tied when saltwater gets ick, which is often. With no QT tanks I'm left to do low-salinity "dips" with specimen cups contantly which presents a whole new array of problems itself. Our store manager couldn't even help me out if he wanted to, this is all BS from the higher-ups. We are literally screwed.

That doesn't mean our department isn't well-kept, but it takes absolutely every single one of my 35 hours or so in a workweek to keep them alive. Seriously, the corperate managers cut us no breaks as far as resources. I'm constantly juggling between sick fish, helping customers, keeping my department clean and organized, doing water changes, and a multitude of other issues.

Another thing people don't realize is that most of the employees at a place like Petco or Petsmart are barely making more than minimum wage, and getting raises is not easy. So hiring a marine biologist at $8.50 an hour is pretty heinous to expect. Any given store is lucky to even have one or two people that have any idea what they're talking about. We have one or two people per type of animal that are great and can explain things well, the rest are basically work horses. And going there when one of those people are there is a hit-or-miss. Luckily for our Petco, our old fish guy was suffering economic problems and was forced to get a job there. He made aquatics into a brand new department and knew anything our customers could've needed to know. We were told we had one of the best aquatic departments in the entire company, actually. But now I'm maintaining everything and it's beyond brutal. This is around 1260 gallons in fish tanks (including sumps) with equipment that isn't up date.

All I'm saying is, don't hate the individual store. Hate the company as a whole. I personally think fish stores should be kept seperate from regular pet stores, because there is a lot more to know and a lot more maintainence neccesary for fish than hamsters or snakes.
 
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