Don't add fish from petco/petsmart

[amb3rgarcia]

When adding fish to a discus tank I advise never to buy fish from petco or pets mart. These fish are Unhealthy and bring a lot of unwanted guest into ur very clean tanks.

These fish are usually held in small tanks that over over populated. And not very well taken care of.

I prefer to order fish from breeders or dealers or go to your none franchise local fish stores. These people are better educated on caring for fish and aquariums. They keep their tanks clean and very few in one tank.

Remember one bad fish can wipe out an entire aquarium.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

[DiscusLoverJeff]

That is why we always QT our fish before adding to any established tank.

[wild4discus]

I agree to a certain point. No fish should be added to a main tank without QT no matter where you buy from, not just petco or petsmart. I have purchased quite a few fish from petsmart over the years and haven't had much trouble with sick fish. I always QT for at least 4-6 weeks and begin treatment at the first sign of trouble. You can sometimes get really good deals when they have sales. You have to know what to look for and avoid fish that are obviously sick. I always single a few fish out, observe them carefully, look for any signs of external disease, and ask and employee to put a small amount of food in the tank to see how they eat. You can avoid a lot of problems just by picking fish that appear healthy and never adding even a single drop of bag water into your tank. Also, good idea to always have salt, meds, separate equipment for Qt purposes on hand.

[dennin7418]

100% Agree.....my thread in the disease section is a testament to this.....I started with all Petco Discus, which then almost wiped out my quality discuss...then stupidly added 2 new beautiful discus from Petco and am now battling for everyones life.

The weird part is that of the 5 discus I've ever bought from Petco ALL are still alive....the ones I have lost have all been from a quality breeder. Maybe just luck but it's interesting none the less. I think it probably because their immune systems are bolstered from the poor conditions but none-the-less they carry horrible things that are hard to get rid of...

The 2 new additions remain in pristine health which also drives me crazy...

[1.0reef]

Agreed, although some have better managers and employees, one nearby me had no dead fish, clean plants, very nice employees, some can be the exact opposite. Thank someone for QT.

[DiscusAB]

Really? Damn maybe I should return every single fish I got from petsmart...

U sound like them loser who blame all pit bull over one pit bull.

Dont blame every petsmart ... petco over one store.

[Skip]

Really? Damn maybe I should return every single fish I got from petsmart...

U sound like them loser who blame all pit bull over one pit bull.

Dont blame every petsmart ... petco over one store.

yep, i am loser.. pit bulls are all bad because they kill people.. irish setters.. do not

[amb3rgarcia]

I wasn't trying to be mean in anyway. I recently bought a school of neon tetras from petco. 5 at a time. The second 5 wiped out almost the entire tank I had the first 5 for months they were very good I added the 2nd 5 think it would be OK they came from the same tank at the same store and within days of adding them to the rest of the fish all 10 were dead even treated for ich and it didn't help I had to re quarantine my smallest discus bc he didn't look so good. A lot of fish I've bought from there didn't survive in my other non discus tanks. I'd rather buy the same fish from an actual fish store that have workers that care about the tanks and the lives inside of them. And nooooooooooooooooo way do I believe the pit bull **** I blame the owners on that on. Abusing dogs is just horrible

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

[amb3rgarcia]

I wasn't trying to be mean in anyway. I recently bought a school of neon tetras from petco. 5 at a time. The second 5 wiped out almost the entire tank I had the first 5 for months they were very good I added the 2nd 5 think it would be OK they came from the same tank at the same store and within days of adding them to the rest of the fish all 10 were dead even treated for ich and it didn't help I had to re quarantine my smallest discus bc he didn't look so good. A lot of fish I've bought from there didn't survive in my other non discus tanks. I'd rather buy the same fish from an actual fish store that have workers that care about the tanks and the lives inside of them. And nooooooooooooooooo way do I believe the pit bull are at fault I blame the owners on that on. Abusing dogs is just horrible

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk



Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

[Skip]

i have never seen discus sold at Petsmart/Petco.. not in texas

[Bill63SG]

Really? Damn maybe I should return every single fish I got from petsmart...

U sound like them loser who blame all pit bull over one pit bull.

Dont blame every petsmart ... petco over one store.

They are usally on an inclosed system.If one fish is sick,the tank 5 over is also sick,same water,even if you dont see it yet.

[DiscusAB]

That is why we always QT our fish before adding to any established tank.


doesnt matter if all tank are inclosed into one system ... everyone should still do this ^

[OC Discus]

I would agree that it is usually better to order fish from a reputable supplier who ships overnight. But I would not agree that it is not possible to get good fish from Petco or Petsmart. It is a matter of getting healthy fish and quarantine properly. Their water quality is definitely not as good. A girl was cleaning tanks at Petsmart last week. I asked her where the water went that she was vacuuming out of the tanks. She said it is filtered and put back into the tanks. Fish kept there for many weeks probably experience deficiencies in vitamins and minerals. But, they usually have a pretty heavy turnover on some popular fish, meaning you have to be there the day they come in or shortly after just to get them. A good rule of thumb "if" buying locally is never buy from a nasty tank with sick or dead fish in it.

[wild4discus]

i have never seen discus sold at Petsmart/Petco.. not in texas

Every once in a great while, select stores will get them in. They never carry discus on a regular basis. I wouldn't spend the money on discus from either petsmart or petco though.

[pastry]

i have never seen discus sold at Petsmart/Petco.. not in texas

Skip, I would've said the same here up until a week ago. I went to my local Petco to get some supplies and my 2 year old still loves looking at their fish... then I hear, "Daaadaa... a discus!" I looked over and low and behold they had one, lone little discus in a tank. Just had to shake my head at walk on.

[Madaboutdiscus]

Ive never seen any discus at petsmart but I have seen them on petcos website. I dont know about the store itself as the closest one is 2 hours away. Petsmart has told me before when I told them I had discus that theyre too hard to keep for them and they dont carry them for that reason lol.

-Victoria

[amb3rgarcia]

I've never seen a discus in any of the petcos or petsmart here in town I would imagine they wouldn't be held in the correct environment there. I could see getting some goldfish for a goldfish tank or something like that since those are easy to take care of but I've seen a worker there arguing with someone that she couldn't sell them a fish or couldn't guarantee the fish bc the person had to many fish in their tank at home yet the fish he wanted was in a tank with probably 30-40 other fish and about 3 different kinds the fish didn't even have room to swim. What's the irony on that one

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

[amb3rgarcia]

i have never seen discus sold at Petsmart/Petco.. not in texas

I've never seen them either I was referring to buy other fish for ur discus tank from there. Although they may be good u run a high risk of hurting ur prized fish.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

[OC Discus]

Memphis TN has 5-6 Petco stores in the area. Only one sells discus- low quality pb.