Managed a tropical fish wholesale operation in the early 80's. We sold to regional pet shops and aquariums. I had over a 100 very small to very large overseas breeding operations to order fish from. I also bought specialty fish from local breeders. I could afford to be particular. One of my rules was 'no constant chemicals'. The only reason to raise fish in chemicals is overcrowding - which also means inbreeding. Late 90's and being offered management at a 'big box' pet store. I looked into it. Only a few massive, industrial fish farms are used by them and the monopolization killed off the good fish breeders I was familiar with. Now all tropicals are raised in overcrowded conditions, in a soup of anti-fungal and anti-bacterial chemicals, totally inbred. Then people don't understand why they can't keep formerly hardy fish like guppies alive when they get them home to a 'normal' aquarium. The only way these big box stores are going to get good fish is to turn the industrialized fish farm model around. Buy Local.
My Convict and Blue Peacock are from Petsmart and are the hardiest fish I have bought. The Blue Peacock has been a tank boss ever since he outsized the convict(yes, he is the oddball but he is thriving - nobody enters his coveted cave), and even after several unsuccessful attempts to put him in my jail tank to calm him down he returns to the big tank like he was never even handled. So now I have a baby Venustus in my grow out tank, hanging with 3 Star Sapphires, and a Malawi Hawk from Imperial Tropicals. All little 1.5" guys. That group will cause my 75 to be way too small eventually and I am looking for a 150gallon for the future. Many of these guys were bought from watching your videos. Cheers, Ben!
I have a half dozen skirt tetras (black and white) as well as an albino BN pleco from PetSmart still going strong six years later, even after a six-hour move! So, yes you can get decent common fish from the big box. :)
Hey Ben. For shoots and giggles, I asked my local Petco what were the water parameters for their freshwater tanks and to my surprise, he said pH is 7.0 with very very low GH and kh. He said they rely on their huge RO system in the back that runs to the tanks via pipes under the store floor so sediment and mineral build up doesn't build up.
There’s almost always at least one tank with a sick fish at my local Petco. I usually end up pointing it out to the employees who usually respond with “oh. Ok.” And go on to other things
My friend and I who are in 2 different fish clubs, only local store is petco. We went in today to get some common mollie/ swordtails/ simple livebearers. The girl heard us talking and said I cant sell you fish if you are planning to breed them. They are sold for pets only. The she took random scoop out tank mollie to give me. I told her I wanted to pick them. Well we arent suposed to do that but I guess since IM not busy. What nightmare.
Surprisingly enough, I've had pretty good luck with petco or petsmart. More recently, my petsmart just started doing the money back guarantee within 2 weeks, which is nice piece of mind. Thanks for upload!
One question before I make my comment - can the bobblehead predict the outcome of soccer games? 😆 I was at a PetSmart recently and saw something I really never expected to see. I've just recently started up an aquarium for the first time in many many years so it's not like I've been shopping for fish at any stores for a long time. So, a few weeks ago, my daughter and I decided to go pick out some new fish for the aquarium. We drove to a big town about an hour and a half from home. There are two aquarium stores and a PetSmart there. I was pretty excited and planned on coming home with about 20 fish but when we walked into PetSmart, my heart broke and that feeling immediately turned into "what the heck happened here?". Every tank was empty of fish. They all had water and the filtration system was still running but no fish. There was a worker who was scooping out gravel from the tanks and putting it into a 55 gal trash can. My first thought was they had an outbreak of something and emptied & treated all the tanks....but where were all the fish? My next thought was "dang, they all died". Honestly, I didn't know what to think and I didn't bother to ask. I'm not bashing PetSmart or anything and I'd happily go back to that store now to shop for fish but I just thought it was odd that they had no fish in all those tanks. Have you ever experienced anything like that? Was it just a routine full system cleaning or did I witness the end results of a tragedy? Oh, and just for the heck of it....the next town over from us about 30 miles away is opening a PetSmart so I won't have to drive an hour and a half to shop for fish anymore, YAY!!! I haven't tried it yet but ordering fish online is starting to look pretty good to me. All this driving is starting to add up but my daughter and I have spent some fun afternoons on the road and shopping for fish together - plus she's getting some good driving experience before she takes here learner's test in a few months 😊
I have four LFS around me that I shop at. Two I would never buy fish from, one I may if they had a hard to find fish and it would definitely be quarantined. The fourth is where I got 90% of my fish from. Do fish from them die? Of course, but they haven't spread anything in my tanks before dying. The one LFS could be very nice, but every time I walk in, there are dead fish in the tanks. In my opinion, that shows they aren't observing their tanks very well. My Petco and Petsmart most of the time have nice looking fish and tanks. They just don't have fish I'm looking for otherwise I would buy from them.
Hi Ben! Remember when we met at Cichlid Shank? Well they have gotten worse. They moved and don’t have a sign on the door. Don’t answer the phone either. Once I got there, I drove around for 30 minutes until I found a piece of paper taped to the door. Walked in, and was handed a flashlight- they STILL have no lights on the tanks! Aside from the haps and peacocks, they had a very poor selection. So disappointing….
I agree 100% with your advice. A quarantine tank can be any plastic or glass container of at least a few gallons. I put an air stone in and water changes every 2 - 3 days. I even had my betta Sammy from PETCO in a gallon jar with an air stone for a month. I've had him for over 2 years now.
Ben, I have bought a lot of my fish from Petco and PetSmart. I only have one LFS and if they have what I am looking for I buy from them. I got all my red eye tetras, German blue rams, giant danios and rainbow fish all from a PetSmart or Petco. I definitely look at the fish before I buy them. Nothing wrong with fish from a Petco or PetSmart.
Petsmart used to have some really nice 3-4 inch african cichlids before the pandemic. In my area, people used to line up outside the petsmart the morning of the shipment to get the best ones. Now they have small stuff
Managed a tropical fish wholesale operation in the early 80's. We sold to regional pet shops and aquariums.
I had over a 100 very small to very large overseas breeding operations to order fish from. I also bought specialty fish from local breeders. I could afford to be particular. One of my rules was 'no constant chemicals'. The only reason to raise fish in chemicals is overcrowding - which also means inbreeding.
Late 90's and being offered management at a 'big box' pet store. I looked into it. Only a few massive, industrial fish farms are used by them and the monopolization killed off the good fish breeders I was familiar with. Now all tropicals are raised in overcrowded conditions, in a soup of anti-fungal and anti-bacterial chemicals, totally inbred. Then people don't understand why they can't keep formerly hardy fish like guppies alive when they get them home to a 'normal' aquarium.
The only way these big box stores are going to get good fish is to turn the industrialized fish farm model around.
Buy Local.
Love Petco has that great 30 day guarantee
Yes my Petco is great petsmart by me has too many dead fish, but I’m happy with Petco
My Convict and Blue Peacock are from Petsmart and are the hardiest fish I have bought. The Blue Peacock has been a tank boss ever since he outsized the convict(yes, he is the oddball but he is thriving - nobody enters his coveted cave), and even after several unsuccessful attempts to put him in my jail tank to calm him down he returns to the big tank like he was never even handled. So now I have a baby Venustus in my grow out tank, hanging with 3 Star Sapphires, and a Malawi Hawk from Imperial Tropicals. All little 1.5" guys.
That group will cause my 75 to be way too small eventually and I am looking for a 150gallon for the future. Many of these guys were bought from watching your videos. Cheers, Ben!
Your haps might look even better (more natural) if you use white LEDs🤔🤔
Filmed during sunset phase of light. Love the blue in that phase. Thanks for watching 😀👍🏻
I always buy fish from my petco even when I had my saltwater tank I'd buy there even coral frags. I think petco gets a bad rap
They certainly did in the past but they’re trying to clean up their act
Great looking fish
Thanks 👍
A lot of people do not have quarantine tanks
Anything, including small Rubbermaid containers, can be used as a quarantine tank.
I have a half dozen skirt tetras (black and white) as well as an albino BN pleco from PetSmart still going strong six years later, even after a six-hour move! So, yes you can get decent common fish from the big box. :)
Hey Ben. For shoots and giggles, I asked my local Petco what were the water parameters for their freshwater tanks and to my surprise, he said pH is 7.0 with very very low GH and kh. He said they rely on their huge RO system in the back that runs to the tanks via pipes under the store floor so sediment and mineral build up doesn't build up.
All I have is Petco for a 50 mile radius 😓🐠🎸
ben....looks like the community fish are keeping you more relaxed and stress free these days!
I am really enjoying them (but I enjoy the big guys too😀👍🏻)
There’s almost always at least one tank with a sick fish at my local Petco. I usually end up pointing it out to the employees who usually respond with “oh. Ok.” And go on to other things
I would not buy fish there.
@@BenOchart I don’t… I keep hoping it gets better. I go to OSA, have had luck there.
I'VE had zero luck with Petco fish. Especially neons. Except black skirt tetras. They're undestructable.
Were there dead or sick fish in their tanks?
I've had good luck with both pet smart and pet co. and I definitely quarantine like you said 30 days if not longer...
My friend and I who are in 2 different fish clubs, only local store is petco. We went in today to get some common mollie/ swordtails/ simple livebearers. The girl heard us talking and said I cant sell you fish if you are planning to breed them. They are sold for pets only. The she took random scoop out tank mollie to give me. I told her I wanted to pick them. Well we arent suposed to do that but I guess since IM not busy. What nightmare.
Nightmare indeed! Seems like each store is as good as the local store manager.
Good morning Ben and everyone
Surprisingly enough, I've had pretty good luck with petco or petsmart. More recently, my petsmart just started doing the money back guarantee within 2 weeks, which is nice piece of mind. Thanks for upload!
They’re trying. Maybe they paid attention to some of the older negative UA-cam videos and decided to clean up their act🤷🏼♂️
@BenOchart Yeah, that could be. I know Pet Supplies Plus have been doing that 2 week money back for a long time now.
One question before I make my comment - can the bobblehead predict the outcome of soccer games? 😆 I was at a PetSmart recently and saw something I really never expected to see. I've just recently started up an aquarium for the first time in many many years so it's not like I've been shopping for fish at any stores for a long time. So, a few weeks ago, my daughter and I decided to go pick out some new fish for the aquarium. We drove to a big town about an hour and a half from home. There are two aquarium stores and a PetSmart there. I was pretty excited and planned on coming home with about 20 fish but when we walked into PetSmart, my heart broke and that feeling immediately turned into "what the heck happened here?". Every tank was empty of fish. They all had water and the filtration system was still running but no fish. There was a worker who was scooping out gravel from the tanks and putting it into a 55 gal trash can. My first thought was they had an outbreak of something and emptied & treated all the tanks....but where were all the fish? My next thought was "dang, they all died". Honestly, I didn't know what to think and I didn't bother to ask. I'm not bashing PetSmart or anything and I'd happily go back to that store now to shop for fish but I just thought it was odd that they had no fish in all those tanks. Have you ever experienced anything like that? Was it just a routine full system cleaning or did I witness the end results of a tragedy? Oh, and just for the heck of it....the next town over from us about 30 miles away is opening a PetSmart so I won't have to drive an hour and a half to shop for fish anymore, YAY!!! I haven't tried it yet but ordering fish online is starting to look pretty good to me. All this driving is starting to add up but my daughter and I have spent some fun afternoons on the road and shopping for fish together - plus she's getting some good driving experience before she takes here learner's test in a few months 😊
I have four LFS around me that I shop at. Two I would never buy fish from, one I may if they had a hard to find fish and it would definitely be quarantined. The fourth is where I got 90% of my fish from. Do fish from them die? Of course, but they haven't spread anything in my tanks before dying. The one LFS could be very nice, but every time I walk in, there are dead fish in the tanks. In my opinion, that shows they aren't observing their tanks very well. My Petco and Petsmart most of the time have nice looking fish and tanks. They just don't have fish I'm looking for otherwise I would buy from them.
Hi Ben! Remember when we met at Cichlid Shank? Well they have gotten worse. They moved and don’t have a sign on the door. Don’t answer the phone either. Once I got there, I drove around for 30 minutes until I found a piece of paper taped to the door. Walked in, and was handed a flashlight- they STILL have no lights on the tanks! Aside from the haps and peacocks, they had a very poor selection. So disappointing….
I asked the Petco by me in Florida which is awful for Saltwater about their policy regarding returns. They don’t and always dead fish in their tanks.
Again, GREAT info !!!!!!!!!!! Thanks Ben !!
I agree I’ve gotten a few fish from Petco my two Jacks as for pet smart I got a group of six green tiger barbs about six months ago
I agree 100% with your advice. A quarantine tank can be any plastic or glass container of at least a few gallons. I put an air stone in and water changes every 2 - 3 days. I even had my betta Sammy from PETCO in a gallon jar with an air stone for a month. I've had him for over 2 years now.
Great advice, thanks Ben !
Great tips
Ben,
I have bought a lot of my fish from Petco and PetSmart. I only have one LFS and if they have what I am looking for I buy from them. I got all my red eye tetras, German blue rams, giant danios and rainbow fish all from a PetSmart or Petco. I definitely look at the fish before I buy them. Nothing wrong with fish from a Petco or PetSmart.
Petsmart used to have some really nice 3-4 inch african cichlids before the pandemic. In my area, people used to line up outside the petsmart the morning of the shipment to get the best ones.
Now they have small stuff
I HAVE A TURQOISE GREEN SEVERUM THAT I BOUGHT FROM A PETSMART....HE'S TREMENDOUS AND HEALTHY....I HAVE HIM ALREADY FOR ALMOST A YEAR....