# Buying fish from PetSmart?



## KuroKyoto

Is it a bad idea? I'm looking for pet stores with senegal bichirs in my area. The one near by just sold out and won't have any in for a long time ><. They might carry them at PetSmart, but is this a bad place to buy them? I have a bad feeling about it, and I'm double checking here before I move on.


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## Blue Cray

Well I have only ever bought a clown knife from them and I had to nurse the hell out of it. The fish they have there are kept together with fish they shouldn't, bitten and beat up and mostly finless, and all the tanks are connected and very poorly taken care of. I'm not saying don't do it but just remember the price of the fish doesn't include the time and money needed to help the fish survive.


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## Cam

I would say wait. Petsmart is okay, but like Blue Cray said, there are risks. I can remember when I once bought a pair of blue gouramis there...that didn't end well...


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## hXcChic22

We haven't had a lot of bad luck with Petsmart... sometimes we lose fish but since we usually pick them up Tuesday (when their shipment comes in) it doesn't shock us because they are already stressed when we pick them up. At least their return policy is good. 
We have two gouramis from there, different breeds, and they both are great. Our dragon goby and most of our loaches are from there too, no problems other than a little bit of ich. (Which showed up long after they came up so it wasn't their fault)


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## bmlbytes

Kuro here is what I do. I get to know the staff. I know for a fact that most of the staff at my Petsmart knows what they are doing and that they are taking good care of the fish. I never see disease or dirty tanks there. One of the staff has even recommended me to specialty stores when I can't find what I want. 

At my PetCo, there is only one person who knows what he is doing. He only works a couple days a week. There are sick fish all the time there, tanks with the lights off, dirty tanks, etc. I know I can buy supplies there but not fish. I would buy fish from my Petsmart in an instant if they had a fish I wanted.

My local pet store is kind of right in between. Once in a while a sick tank or a tank with incompatible fish. I don't like going in there because it is in the mall, and people who have no intent of buying stop in. Therefore, the store is always crowded with people who are there only to look at the animals. On top of that the prices are high, and supplies are limited. 

Try to stop into your Petsmart every few days and just look at the fish. Observe them. Do they seem healthy most of the time? Does the staff know what they are talking about? Are the fish tanks clean and the fish with compatible tankmates? These things will indicate the ability of the shop. A local pet store could know nothing about fish, and there may be an expert in your Petsmart. Treat even the big box stores as if they were local shops in this case, and find the best one of them all.


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## emc7

Agreed that sometimes a chain store will have a great employee and the fish there will be better. And there are certainly lots of PetSmart fish around. But they are my last choice (except for wal-mart). Their fish come from a central distribution center and they are always kept in central filtration which exposes them to disease from other fish. They never buy local fish, they routinely carry fish that aren't aquarium fish (IR sharks are a 6ft pond-size food fish), and they sell those micro-tanks that really aren't suitable for anything but shrimp and Betta as "fish tanks or starter goldfish kits", and their signs are often wrong (3" max for assorted Africans that include Venustus, for example).

But its all local. In some places, PetSmart may be your best choice. They've been know to price match their online prices in the stores, occasionally have really good tank sales, and are open until 9, so if you need a med quickly, they are open. 

Its kind of ironic, I know people who won't go into PetLand because of the puppy mill puppies. But PetLand's fish are locally managed and often have local fish suppliers and PetSmart has humane shelter dog adoption and "fry mill" fish.

No matter where you buy fish, quarantine them before you put them in the fish you already have.


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## bmlbytes

I would like to point out that the majority of fish in LFS are also from big corporations. Although not from a Petsmart distribution center, they are from a large wholesaler who will likely treat the fish the same way as the Petsmart distribution center. The only difference is that you will sometimes get fish from local breeders, which may be a good or bad thing. 

Like I said before, judge each store equally, don't throw them out because of the bad press people give them. You want to buy strong healthy fish. If those come from a big store, then thats OK. If they come from a local shop, that is OK too. Just choose the best store, and go with them.


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## daniel89

Unless you live where I do, as I take care of all the tanks of my breaks and stuff at walmart since there is nothing else to do. I inspect the fish for awhile looking at each tank seeing if there is anything fish that are stressed or sick looking. When I find one I look to see what may be causing the problem. If I see signs of ich I go ahead and treat all the tanks through the sump. 

So you can say the fish at my walmart store are healthy  and my local petsmart has ich problems... but I do go to my lfs all the time cause there have very knowledgable staff, Ron- working for 20+ years, George- keeping fish all his life, Tom- has a degree for plecos  and there is another guy i forget his name but he has been keeping saltwater tanks for 18 years so they are all knowledge staff and since i usually go by there weekly i always get a 10% discount and they share more knowledge with me and such.


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## lennyboy222

I personally do not like PetSmart because big company usually stock their fish i many tanks sharing one central filter which I read from the book. If one fish get sick, many other fish get sick. I buy from my local pet store at dolphinpetvillage
If you find a local store who know a lot about fish keeping, you come to the right place. Petsmart staff tends not to know much about fish keeping.

Leonard
My brine shrimp egg store
www.brineshrimpegg.com


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## emc7

Most stores have central filtration now. In the best case, the water goes to each tank, then a common filter, and then past a UV sterilizer and back to each tank. In petsmart, the water seems to flow tank to tank. IMO this is worse. But assume every new fish has been recently exposed to every disease and quarantine them. You can buy a "healthy fish" and 2 weeks later it will come down with something it caught in the store and wasn't showing symptoms of yet when you bought it. The big chains often do have better warranties. Bml is right about the wholesalers. SunPet is near Atlanta's airport and has a central filtration system that rivals the GA aquarium.

Support the place you want to see stick around, even if it costs a bit more. If there is a LFS you would be upset to lose, shop there or you will lose it when it closes.


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## pinetree

Like others have said, I believe it is really localized. Some Petcos, Petsmarts and Wal Marts might have a good staff that know their fish and care for them well, while others do not. It's a good suggestion to just go there a lot to see how the fish are over several weeks, and talk to the staff to see if they know anything about fish.


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## Obsidian

A lot of my fish are from PetSmart and I have had few problems with them. I have had more Ich come in on my LFS fish than the PS ones. The LFS doesn't take much care of their tanks. I like to support mom and pop, but in this instance it is very hard to do. They have had fish orders that were made 5 and 6 weeks ago that have still not come in. I just ordered my puffers from there. We will see if they actually come in or not. The ONLY reason I ordered from them is because the PS and PC stores don't special order. I didn't verify that though. I should probably do that LOL. I would like to find some from someone trustworthy online but that is hard too. Fish can come from a bunch of sources in reality. Its more a Q of how much are you willing to pay for the birchirs. Aquabid is always an option if you can find what you want.


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## soada101

i have bought a bit of fish through petsmart... closest and the hot lil lady actually is knowledgeable there.! lol but all have been fine excep when i first bought mollys.... those were the first fish i ever had though.... but other then that ive never had a problem with fish. i always give my fish away or to parents bros or something cause i just always like a new scene but i would listen to all the vets here that said case the place out then if you feel comfortable then go for it.. talking to the person in the fish dept for 5 mins can prob tell you if they are a bonehead or not! just my opinion. like some1 here said.. they do have a good return policy!


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## BL1

I finally found an LFS (non-petsmart) in my town today and went in to check it out. PetSmart, at least the one where I live is 300% better staffed and take care of the fish that much better than this shop I was in. Not only was the store filthy and smelled like stale cigarettes but, the water in all the tanks looked yellowish. They had a probably 100g tank with about 12 full grown Tiger Oscars, and 5 or 6 other fish of equal size stuck in there and I'm not totally sure what hole in head disease looks like but, I saw at least 3 Oscars that had huge pits in their face. I was totally disgusted while I was there. Meanwhile in the 6 months that I've been going into PetSmart, I have only seen 2 dead fish in the tanks and they were quickly scooped out (without me even saying anything). I can't speak for the other Pet chain stores in other cities but, the one here most certainly deserves my business more than the mom and pop shop.
(sorry about the long rant, but I really just could not believe what I saw today)


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