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Please Tell Me About Your Petco

966 views 16 replies 15 participants last post by  BettaStarter24 
#1 ·
Hello everyone, I contacted Petco complaining about their poor Betta care. At first they told me not to worry about it-but I didn't stop pushing and they asked me where the mistreatment of Bettas was taking place, and that they would talk with the managers.

I was speaking for most Petcos in general since my Petco actually tries to take care of them.

So I need you guys to tell me Petcos that are bad and really mistreat them so I can report them to Petco. Like if you have one near you that you know is bad, comment it or pm me it. Every bad Petco you report can make a difference to the poor Bettas, so please I urge you to give me the locations of the stores that treat these Bettas badly, it could change.


Unless they're lying and trying to calm me down xD Hopefully that's not the case...
 
#2 ·
The toe with expanded details, the first carries an appropriate amount betta but don't take care of them and don't remove dead ones, keep the females huddled together off to the side. The second overstocks the betta and really doesn't take good care of them
 

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#3 ·
My petco (Roseville California) had and OK variety of diseased and healthy fish. It looks as if they don't to water changes and some are dead others floating having swim bladder disease :( some even have some sort of fuzzy stuff on them :( but this is only some of the Bettas I see at my petco
 
#6 ·
Most if not all of Petcos here in NYC always have dead or dying bettas on the selves. Usually I alert the people that work there.

Also in the union square petco here in NYC i saw something pretty shocking when I went to get my most recent betta. Basically I fell in love with this EE HMPK and had to take him so I was rushing around the store to buy a few things I need to set up the 3 gallon kritter keeper i had. I was picking out some gravel (which at my store is right next to the area with the sinks and such) and I noticed a mother with her 3-4 year old had picked out a gorgeous HM to bring home. The aquarium specialist walked them over to the sinks where he grabbed a bag, took the betta from the mother and DUMPED the betta and water in the cup into the bag. Then the aquarium specialist opened the lid to a tank with goldfish (who were all sick looking) and scooped some of the water and added it the bag. Then he tied up the bag and handed to the mother. I was horrified. He saw that I had a betta cup in my hand and asked if I wanted a bag and i quickly shook my head and ran to the cashier.
 
#7 ·
The Petco that I frequent are actually in the middle of a Staff Rotation (conditions were going downhill fast) and for the most part the fish department looks pretty decent (now) you may find the occasional dead or dying fish but when alerted to the situation they are pretty quick to take care of it.... and should an outbreak of something occur (which is uncommon but does happen from time to time) the tanks are treated, signs are posted, and lights are turned off signifying that all affected fish are under observation and not for sell.. And, I do not know if it is their general policy but, I do know that if your a "regular" and they have your contact information, they will contact you if an outbreak occurs involving a shipment of fish that you may have recently purchased from prior to the outbreak... (At least they have for me)
 
#9 ·
At my local petco, the bettas are actually treated pretty well, still in cups, and they carry baby bettas, and sometimes, not often there are some dead bettas, but I'd say they are doing very well with taking care of them. They do have a very large selection though, with not many females. Their prices are also very high, the elephant ears are $20.00.

I got my 2.5 gallon half the price at petsmart, and they have a bigger selection of decorations, and cheaper bettas, so there weren't many there.
 
#10 ·
EE are $20 where I am too and I have heard that they are that price all over the country because they are harder to come by.

I remember when I first started keeping bettas (like over 10 years ago) petco only sold male veiltails. There weren't the options like there are now.
 
#11 ·
My petco is pretty bad as well. I honestly think they only do water changes on the "attractive" bettas that they think will sell. It seems that once a betta gets less vibrant or sick, they just leave them to languish in dirty water.

Petco Animal Supplies
1049 South Willow Street
Manchester, NH, 03103
 
#13 ·
I've lucked out. My Petco doesn't carry baby bettas, and recently redid the store, and made it so that the bettas are right in plain sight of the guy who runs the fish area (and yes, they even have a register over there so there is always someone on staff). My tail-biter with SBD did come from there, but, i have to assume he was an anomaly, as every time I go in, the water bowls are clean, and the fish look healthy. The only complaint I have is the stupid cups. Wish they were bigger. But, it looks like the employees at mine really actually care, and know their stuff. About all the fish, not just the bettas.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Interesting enough, my petco near me takes really good care of all of their bettas, even the not so pretty ones. I never see dead ones or dirty water. and if they have sickly ones they put them in an area where the fish keepers can keep a close eye on them. They even have a separate take for the fish that don't look so well to monitor them. (not bettas but other tropical to fresh water fish.)

Petsmart on the other hand... not so well I see dirty water and bettas dead almost every time I go there.
I still feel bad about them being in those small cups. I hope one day, they will make an area just for bettas and keep it nice and warm for them. =)
 
#15 · (Edited)
I learned today that my local petco is pretty decent!

I saw a total of 2 dead out of 70+ fish. I saw maybe 3? sick bettas (and none of it serious, all of them just seemed to have some bloating). Of the others I saw maybe two that were stress-lined and a total of maybe 8 who were obviously dulled (my roommates new boy Serafino being one of them). Water was clean but I didn't check ammonia(and didn't risk putting any in Fino's tank either).The staff was pleasant and helpful. I saw an employee looking over the bettas and inspecting them, so that seems to be a good sign. They did have a back stock area that me and my roommate stumbled upon, but the total dead fish included the back stock. The selection was better, brighter and the layout much more easily navigated. I have yet to see how knowledgeable the employees are but when I bought my NLS pellets, saying they were recommended to me but that I'd have to see for myself(kinda sorta testing the employee) the cashier agreed with the recommendation sincerely and wholeheartedly said that it was good for them. I'll likely be going back to inspect them more. If their prices and knowledge/care for the animals seems to be better than petsmart, I will likely transfer my business there.


The Woodlands West - 1481
10864 Kuykendahl Road, The Woodlands, TX
 
#16 ·
The Petco in Gilroy, CA takes horrible care of their bettas. They used to all be filthy, nowadays they kind-of-half-regularly clean the ones on their new fancy betta display piece, but the "extras" off to the side that don't fit and the BABIES are left in filth and their cups are usually murky and full of brown crap. They sometimes pull them off the shelves once they start to look sick and leave them in the back without any extra care or any attempts to treat them, until they die. They lie to concerned customers and tell them that they use conditioner and try to treat sick fish, but I know it's crap because I used to work there and they only clean the betta cups when there's nothing else to do...actually nevermind, not usually even then.

The Morgan Hill, CA Petco cleans their betta cups very frequently but does not use conditioner and something is very clearly really wrong with their water because at any given time around half of their large, impressive stock of fancy, expensive new rosetail and dragon scale bettas is sickly and dying in their clean, chlorinated water.

The Monterey, CA Petco appears to take much better care of their bettas. I don't know if they use dechlorinator or not, but I rarely see unhealthy-looking fish there and their cups are almost always clean. They stock a lot of bettas, quite a lot more than their fancy display piece holds, so this is especially impressive.
 
#17 ·
The Petco I frequent can be bad and it can be good at times too. When I got Jasper they were okay, less than 1/4 of the betas were sick, none dead and clean water. When I got Cas there were 4 dead, most were sick and only like 3 or 4 rather healthy ones. Saturday there were 2 dead, about 8 sick some dulled a lot or at least very lethargic but didn't really have any bloating or stress lines. about 10 really really healthy ones (3 even had bubble nests in their tiny little cups). Walmarts are worse here and I don't even look at petsmart
 
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