Zane W Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 To preface this I live in SoCal For the past year or so, my Petco's near me, whether it's in Temecula or Hemet, have been getting nice fish and only once in a while do they show signs of disease. I was wondering if other people have good petco retail stores or I'm just lucky. (Mine actually gets some really nice corals and unintentionally marks them wrong so they are cheaper) 1 Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 There is a really good one in Minnesota that had cheap Petco prices and those 30 percent off sales but the fish were well cared for and they even had a shallow frag tank with high end led lighting over it. I always stopped there when I was in the area. They even had a booth at the frag swaps and I could order just about anything from them. I hear Gem Tangs are showing up at Petcos now at pretty much unbeatable prices. It really just depends on the manager and if corporate will give them upgrades to their systems. The new petcos being built or updated are supposed to have much nicer systems now. Quote Link to comment
Humblefish Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 The one near me (Pensacola, FL) is pretty bad when it comes to saltwater. This has been my experience with most Petcos throughout the south. I have heard of “Flagship stores” that are better maintained, carry nicer fish, have actual frag tanks, etc. Quote Link to comment
FISHnChix Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 Mines ok.. has nice fish but their frag tank is horrible and about double the price they should be.. Quote Link to comment
pgrVII Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 Ours is generally nice. But I also work there😋 Quote Link to comment
Wingy Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 I have one that is usually good has trained staff and clean well kept tanks including use of quarantine tanks, and another that is terrible. Quote Link to comment
Lognor Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 I'm in the NW suburbs of Chicago and they've never had salt water fish that I recall. I see people talk about their local shops having coral and I'm just amazed at the concept. Quote Link to comment
ajkochev Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 27 minutes ago, Lognor said: I'm in the NW suburbs of Chicago and they've never had salt water fish that I recall. I see people talk about their local shops having coral and I'm just amazed at the concept. It depends on the store. Some in my area have the saltwater livestock and some don't. Quote Link to comment
MetaTank Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 In the LA area, out of the 7 or 8 I've been to, only 2 had saltwater, and only one had corals. Quote Link to comment
righttirefire Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 My local petco has no saltwater. But i have been to pne about 45 minutes north that had a terrible saltwater selection. Oregon Quote Link to comment
Draco Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 There's one by my job that used to be maintained really well. Until the guy left and opened his own LFS. That fish section had gone down hill since he left. Quote Link to comment
colinadam Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 16 hours ago, Lognor said: I'm in the NW suburbs of Chicago and they've never had salt water fish that I recall. I see people talk about their local shops having coral and I'm just amazed at the concept. Another NW Burb Nano-Reefer! The Petco in Arlington Heights has SW, but they could never compare to some of the great LFS's we have in the Chicago area. Quote Link to comment
TatorTaco Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 Little Rock AR checking in. They stopped selling a frags and only seem to have a total of about 10 fish spread out through 6 tanks. Dead fish are always present along with cyno. I’ve heard that there is a good Petco about 45 minutes south (BENTON AR) that has good selection, but I’m not driving that far for a Petco. 1 Quote Link to comment
OldManSea Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 We had great salt water sections in CT. Here in the Seattle area no saltwater and almost no freshwater. Quote Link to comment
RickvD Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 We don't have any Petco's here but i think thats a good thing haha 1 Quote Link to comment
TatorTaco Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 4 hours ago, RickvD said: We don't have any Petco's here but i think thats a good thing haha From my experience, you're not missing much. The best thing about mine is I have somewhere close to pick up salt if I run out. Quote Link to comment
Ratvan Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 On 6/29/2019 at 11:04 PM, RickvD said: We don't have any Petco's here but i think thats a good thing haha Same, the only thing I think that I am missing out on is the Dollar per Gallon Sales that I see a few times a year Quote Link to comment
RickvD Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 16 minutes ago, Ratvan said: Same, the only thing I think that I am missing out on is the Dollar per Gallon Sales that I see a few times a year True that! A dollar per gallon sale would be amazing xD Quote Link to comment
Lognor Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 On 6/29/2019 at 7:57 AM, colinadam said: Another NW Burb Nano-Reefer! The Petco in Arlington Heights has SW, but they could never compare to some of the great LFS's we have in the Chicago area. What shops do you find yourself at the most? My regular LFS guy recently sold his place and the new owners got rid of the salt water stuff. Sho Tank in Mundelein is my go to place now for local livestock. I mostly use Amazon or other online for supplies. 1 Quote Link to comment
colinadam Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 32 minutes ago, Lognor said: What shops do you find yourself at the most? My regular LFS guy recently sold his place and the new owners got rid of the salt water stuff. Sho Tank in Mundelein is my go to place now for local livestock. I mostly use Amazon or other online for supplies. I like Seven Seas for my water and good frags ($15 frag bin), Xotic Aquatics in Niles for clean up crews, Reef Geeks has good corals. For fish I like Blue Line in Naperville or Aquatica in Tinley Park, both are far but worth it. The only LFS I haven't hit yet that people rave about is Aquapros in Glen Ellyn, gotta get there. I haven't been to ShoTank in years, they were my go to 10 years ago when I lived up in Antioch. 1 Quote Link to comment
KingOfAll_Tyrants Posted July 2, 2019 Share Posted July 2, 2019 It really just depends on how well things are run at the local store. There are corporate standards, but they are very loose apparently, and it’s hard apparently for them to enforce those standards. So, I would patronize the good ones, and complain to corporate about the bad ones. Zane W - I drove up from San Diego to Idylwild a few weeks ago. Awesome part of the country! Quote Link to comment
Ronin859 Posted July 3, 2019 Share Posted July 3, 2019 The local Petco doesn't have a lot of selection when it comes to saltwater, but what they have look healthy and well cared for. No frag tank at any I've been to in the area. Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 Central Florida here and the ones by me are trash. $4-5 for blue leg hermits,$10-$15lb for basically just baseball sized LR,fish are always sick,corals always just brown or dead its pretty bad. I offered to help a few times but they said naaaaw 😂 Quote Link to comment
A.Berry Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 Waco Texas one is pretty good and their folks seem to really care. Temple is good too as long as the right person is there. Killeen is ok, and have a better selection but seem to have a higher staff turnover. We only have 1 LFS left outside of Austin in the central Texas area that I know of. North Waco Tropical and they are awesome! Just grabbed 4 mushrooms from them yesterday(and another frogspawn and devils hand from Aquadome in Austin today) Quote Link to comment
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