# Buying fish from Petco



## dankcik09 (Feb 17, 2016)

Since Petco is the only fish store close by we buy mostly all our fish from there. Occassionally online. We recently bought 6 Electric blue rams and 6 Balloon rams. Nearly all of each has died. 

The issue isnt returning the dead fish for our money back. Petco does not acclimate their fish before releasing them, they also do no treat them. So when they receive their new fish shipment you can bet that the bags will sit in the tanks for over 5 hours with lights off. Then they release them without acclimating them to the water other than temperature. This isnt the first time or last this will happen. 

Soon after there is a wolfpack of people that buy them right then and there, we have done this as well, since those fish are such hot items they are gone within several hours to a day. They dont always get good shipments so i can see the reason why the frenzy happens.

So the problem I see is once the fish are released in shock, they bag them up 5 minutes after release for the customer to take home and put in their tank. Regardless if we drip acclimate or use a half cup every 5 min, the fish are usually ticking time bombs. Not to mention 30-40% have ich.

So my question to any of you familiar with this scenario with big pet stores, have you had large die offs? I'm fully aware that in a perfect world Petco would treat the fish before releasing them to the public. I would then wait 2 days once in the main tanks for any die offs. Then I could somewhat safely purchase them, but unfortunately if you want the cool fish you gotta act like a heathen wolf as well.


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

Well stated.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i worked for petco , briefly....their tanks are designated for certain species...lights are turned off for about an hour while the fish acclimate to temp.fish are then dumped in the tank and half an hour later lights are turned on.all tanks are treated with salt.if 1 tanks gets ich , all tanks on that bank get ich.(or any other obvious disease for that matter).they might turn the light off on one tank but not the others...
since you are kind of forced to buy from them you will need to do the following.......

set up a quarantine tank.(10-15 gal.) i use Aquarisol as it is a good treatment for ich and a number of other issues.it is also good as a preventive treatment.it is safe to use on all species and does not stain the water...you can use whatever med you have available.
treat the tank the day before going fish shopping.float the bag in the tank for about 10-15 minutes.i place a net over a 5 gallon bucket and dump the fish into the net.then put the fish into the tank.we never drip acclimate as it can do more harm than good..while you are dripping the fish are producing more ammonia than the drip can dilute.i would try to quarantine for a week or 2.
rams need warmer water..80-82 degrees. they also like more acidic water.we like to keep them in their own.10-15 gal. tank . some driftwood , plants , flat rocks and a cave and some dried oak leaves..


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## dankcik09 (Feb 17, 2016)

We have a holding and a quarantine tank.

I've not heard that drip or the half cup acclimation were potentially dangerous. Looks like i need to start doing some research.

We treat our ich with Ich guard, malakite green or whatever. then we will add half doses or full doses antibiotics if secondary infections come in, which they often do.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

I buy Petco fish sometimes. The go straight to quarantine. 

Petco sells this herbal anti-ick stuff called simply "Herbal Ick Treatment." It's their cheap knock-off of Herbtana. 
Another med is called Ich-X, in an orange bottle.
They can be used together, which I do, and this combo works fantastically. The directions on the bottles say to change water between doses, but I don't. I just add a dose every 4 days for 2 weeks, and I don't see a trace of Ick. Very simple.

While I'm doing that, I also add Melafix and Pimafix.

After two weeks, the fish go into a secondary q-tine tank for 1-2 weeks of observation. So far I haven't had to send any fish back to the drug tank.


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## dankcik09 (Feb 17, 2016)

looks like one of our threadfins had ich that we thought we cured. we put him in the 125g for a day and a half to realize that it still had ich. 

we were sweating bullets, hoping nothing dropped off, since then though we've been noticing fish have been flashing more. Today just noticed two identical dorsal fin spots on 2 rummy nose. So now we are starting to see a much bigger problem that might hit us really soon.

we have Ich Attack which is an herbal treatment, as well as pimaflex, which works great with our copper safe.

However we have snails, scaleless fish, and cherry shrimp, glasscats and betas we cannot risk killing with Copper or Malachite green.

Also this herbal stuff says its safe for everyone. I think its very unreasonable to catch all my fish, this seems like a disaster waiting to happen, however I do have a 55g running, and a 20g quarantine tank, as well as a 30g holding.

thinking we might just go ahead and start using the herbal ich stuff, ich attack by Kordon with Pimafex. 

We do have 2 9watt uvs in our canaster filters as well as a 29 watt that runs a pump. this might be keeping down infections as to why we havnt seen any outbreak until now. 

Any advice would be appreciated.


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## dankcik09 (Feb 17, 2016)

Nope, looks like this stuff is a preventative, not a cure, looks like its gonna be doomsday soon, gotta do the unthinkable and cure these fish with real products.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Bummer. Remember that UV light destroys drugs, so you can't use them together.


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## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

Both electric blue and balloon Rams are on the delicate side to start with, essentially like neon tetras compared to other, hardier cichlids. Electric blue acara's are a better bet for surviving more than a few days after being through the PetCo process. You may have better results buying them online. You'll pay more with shipping, but chances of getting fish in better condition to start with are higher.


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## SueK (Mar 26, 2016)

Reading your post, I couldn't help but wonder if it wouldn't be smarter to buy fish BEFORE they're released into the Petco tanks? I know normally you want to see them in tank swimming and eating, but under the circumstances, you could have better luck acclimating them once yourself instead of letting them go through the shock at Petco first?


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

petco will not sell fish to customers out of the bag.


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