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On a petco note.

2K views 43 replies 22 participants last post by  ZentheBetta71614 
#1 · (Edited)
I stopped in at Petco to get a moss ball and a piece of driftwood planted with anubias. In the process I ended up chatting with their aquatics specialist while I was waiting for it to be bagged and priced. I mentioned that it was for my 5 gallon betta tank, at which point the "specialist" told me that 5 gallons is much too much room for a betta and it will cause him to get stressed, I should look into a smaller aquarium. Fred didn't get the memo that 5 gallons is too much room.

He went from this when I bought him:



To this in my 5 gallon in rather short order. This is a 3 day difference, he just came home on the 29th april. :lol:


Excuse the cloudy water in the second picture, I had just finished rearranging the tank and the water hadn't settled yet.
 
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#30 ·
At my local Petsmart, I darn near kissed an employee! I was in the store getting a 5.5 for my betta musical chairs because I need to get Fritz and Saki their own tanks. They just weren't jiving with a divided 10. so I grab the 5.5 and went to get Ghost Shrimp for the other betta tanks and Mollies for the 30. The when I asked for 6 mollies the girl helping me stopped cold in her tracks and asked if I had another tank at home because if I didn't I couldn't have the mollies.

I blinked and told her I had 2 10s and a 30 at home and that the Mollies were going into the 30 for a few months before being upgraded to a 55. She glanced at my freind with me who nodded. then said. "okay."

I told her how happy I was that she did that and she thought I was crazy for thanking her! apparently she only ever gets yelled at. The next day when we had to return a plant I pointed her out to my husband... who went and thanked her. She thinks we are nut jobs, but it was SO nice to be told "No. if you can't take care of them, you can't have them."
 
#41 ·
This is freakin awesome! When my husband and I go into the store he gets so annoyed with employees who do not know their stuff. I have seen him school some of these young kids who get these jobs and have no idea what they are talking about. He always tries to find the one old retired guy who works there because they enjoy keeping tanks and fish. You know the one's who always know WAY too much and are very over qualified for the job but they work their for the discount for their own tanks?! Those are the guys my husband always seems to find and he knows their names and talks with them every time. So funny to me. Fish people, know fish people!
 
#31 ·
Thats good though!

I wish other petco/petsmart employees were like that! When i bought my last betta (who had a 3 gallon heated and cycled tank waiting for him home), I also bought a 1.5 gallon kritter keeper to use as a QT tank and a extra heater and the petco employee told me that my tank was TOO BIG for a betta and that I didn't need a heater.
 
#32 ·
So I just looked at the betta care sheet from Petco...

"Male Bettas are usually housed in individual small containers and do best in containers of 1L or a quarter of a gallon." Um...LOL...

"for containers under 2 gallons do a WC a week" um...LOL...

http://www.petco.com/assets/caresheets/fish/Betta.pdf
 
#36 ·
Some places will automatically turn down college students because they don't want to have to deal with a changing class schedule. It's probably something determined on an individual location basis.
 
#37 ·
This thread makes me glad we don't have petco tor whatever over here. The stores where I shop here are all locally owned and their stock are very well looked after. The closest one which I frequent a lot has some dopey employees, but there was one who was there when a friend of mine was getting her first fish, she told my friend that she was better of buying a bigger tank because it was easier to maintain and her fish would be happier.
Most of the pet store people here have some great knowledge, its a shame your big chain store (some of them) have such silly employees.
 
#39 ·
one LPS (no petco around here) also caters to the uninformed buyers with small tanks and no heaters. I know 1 employee that isn't a fan for a decent size tank nor heater, not sure of the others. he even said that a 5g tank was good for 1-2 goldfish without any equipment ie air pump.
 
#40 ·
My petco recently got redone, and all the tiny tanks disappeared. Now the smallest I've seen is a 5 gallon! Which is kinda weird, as I'd think they'd have a few in the 2-3 gallon range, but nope. 5 gallon is the smallest, and that's a kit. Otherwise they start at 10 gallons and go up. I guess they figured to get you to buy a larger tank and then you'd have to get plants, or decor for a bigger tank. :)
 
#42 ·
It's the complete opposite for me. My petco actually does care for their bettas, they have a nice shelf so all of the bettas can be seen individually, no stacked on top or behind each other, my petsmart however, ughhhhh don't get me started I can rant all day about it. The bettas are stacked on top of each other with some behind, they are not fed, rotting dead fish are left on the shelf, it's just terrible :-/
 
#43 ·
Mine can be ok at times but most times I'm just sickened. I've seen at least two dead every time I've been there, otherwise half are very sick and only about 6 or 7 actually look like they'll make it. One of the reasons I now have 3 instead of the 1 I was ok with three weeks ago
 
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