A good word about Pet Smart

[vanpudin]

I did'nt mean to get off topic.
I'm glad that the petsmart in your area is kept up. It's nice to see that employees like you AnnetteG care and take of their stock and tanks. I would believe most employees are like you and your co-workers. The sad truth is that for some or a few employees, at 7.50 an hr or less, that's just another job for them. Maybe their not as knowledgeable in that department. Maybe max. effort may not be given by some. As for myself i live in the pasadena area in tx. The local petsmart actually redid their tank setup recently. The store itself is kept up well. The employees in the fish department seem nice. Their is one young employee that stands out as he seems real knoweledgeable. I've bought fish from their before. But the truth is the last time i went their in many tanks their were dead fish, some decaying or stuck to filters. Maybe their were water issues, i dont know as the tanks were not that bad looking. I'm sure this could happen at other pet stores also. One of the local petco's though went down hill recently in the fish department. Exsessive algae in lot of tanks. Fish dying or dead in cichlid tanks. About a month before i managed to buy some nice yellow labs and rustys from their, before the cichlid tanks were at the worst, as the few cichlids they had left were dead or dying.
In general i like the petco's and petsmarts in the houston area.

I'm sorry and i will not talk about the stores anymore, and i'm not trying to affend anybody. I just know what i see. Thanks...

 

[lili70]

It depends on what Petsmart. I know a good one with bigger tanks (they have discus too and just 2-3 bettas) and a bad one (with fungus in their tanks and lots of bettas). I talked with the manager from the "bad" one and he said like this is better for bussiness and the way the other Petsmart is kept won't suit him. Ha, go figure.
Nobody was offended, it's just bussiness. I wish it was more about animal care but that's not the reality.
L

 

[jm1212]

there are two Petsmart's near me.

one has very healthy fish, all of the fish i have gotten from the store have lived and are very healthy (one even had fry ), and their tanks are pretty clean. rarley see any diseases or dead fish, except for the feeder tank, which usually has a few. their staff is pretty informative, except they dwell on the inch per gallon rule still.

the other is mediocre. the tanks are kept in aqequate conditions, but just adequate. there are more diseased tanks at this store than the other, and their fish arent in the greatest health overall. the staff isnt great either.

fortunatley, they get the same species and types of fish, so i can go to the good store even though the mediocre store is about a mile closer.

the Petco near me is pretty bad. the store itself smells pretty unpleasant, even for a pet store. the Petsmart's usually dont smell as bad as this Petco does.

 

[AnnetteG]

not to be argumentative at all, just wanted to point out a few things. It doesn't matter what store you're at, there is always going to be some dead or dying fish. These fish are shipped from all over the place and stressed out before arriving at the store and depending on what day you go, you might get there just after the new fish are put in and the die off starts. We try to always remove the dead as we find them, but sometimes it's busy and you can't get to it before a customer sees them.
The other thing is, we have no control over the origin of the fish and how they're raised. Sometimes fish come in diseased and it doesn't show up till they're in the tank for a few days. There is no way to QT all new fish in a big box type store, there just isn't space for it. I always hear people generalizing "oh I bought fish from X store and they all had ich, I'll never go back there". Well, it could have been a 1 time thing, you never know. While I was working there, we had a batch of mollies come in Ichy and we were treating them and removing the sick ones and putting in a sick tank in the back and treating them. BUT, if someone came in wanting a molly, or for that matter any fish at that moment, since all the tanks are on the same system, I was supposed to sell them one. I just can't tell people "oh our tanks have ich right now". I just did my best to pick fish that look good and we do have that 2 week guarantee, so..... This is why we all should have QT tanks at home, but we know that's not going to happen for everyone.

I'm in no way defending the places that just don't do the maintenance work on their tanks. I've been in some stores where I was tempted to complain to the management, but it was obvious they didn't care, so I didn't waste my time, I just left and don't give them my business. Bottom line is, if you have a good manager who cares and is knowledgeable, then everyone below them will be doing what they're supposed to or they won't be working there. BUT, these BIG stores just don't pay their employees enough to keep them, if something better comes along. While I was at PS, there was an awesome asst. mgr who left for a "day job" because of better pay. He was So good and really knew fish keeping, and who knows, if he made better money there, he might have stayed. I know he liked his job. Same thing for me, if I were making say, $10 an hour, it might have been worth it for my husband to leave work a bit early 2 days a week and put up with having our kids by himself all day on Saturdays, but when I wasn't even bringing home $100 a week, it just wasn't worth the aggravation (for him). I could (and have) made more money babysitting!

Anyhoo, this has basically turned into a rant about Big Business, so I'll end here by saying, if you find a good PetSmart, or any store, make friends with someone there and they'll always treat you right. Extra crickets, a baker's dozen of feeders, holding a particularly pretty fish back for you if they know what day you're coming by, etc. I had fun there and hope to go back one of these days, when my kids are older maybe.

Oh, one more thing. Someone mentioned fish having fry. My PS has a tank in the back where they put fry that they find in the tanks at the store! They can't sell them and are supposed to vac them out, but they keep them and grow them out and anyone who wants them can take them home. That's how I got all the babies I have in my 28 right now! So, if you want some fry, you might ask at your stores if they happen to have any. I know they don't all do it and it's against the "rules", but our mgr let us keep the fry. She's awesome. :clap:

eta: woo! sorry so long!

 

[lilrhody]

The guy working the fish section at my Petsmart is the person who introduced me to this site. Like anything, it's all about the people.