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I restarted this hobby at 62. Started with a 3 gallon, next was 10, next 20, neeeeext- 55 ( my dream) then a 10 gallon quarantine and a 5 for my baby girl betta. I am the happiest I have been in a very long time.

We have bought about 75% of our tanks from Petco. Recently the 60B, 75G and all open top tanks have been included in the 50% off sale. Our Petco has always been staffed with aquarists so the tanks are well taken care of. Since they sell a lot of aquatic life, they get to special order stuff. Freshwater livestock gets a 30 warranty but marine has no warranty. We have bought marine livestock from there with no issues whereas every fish that has ever gotten sick was from our LFS. We QT everything wet so it was dealt with before adding to the DT. In saltwater according to Ryan from BRS, 90% of the people who get a saltwater tank don't last a year. So getting the people starting up a new tank is a good money maker.

Another great talk. I live in Missouri, I'm making it to Chicago show some how now.

The locations around me aren’t too great, nothing ABYSMAL, but nothing spectacular. I always feel an aura of “Yeah ok but I’m still gonna go do ten hours of research” whenever advised by an employee because I was steered wrong so many times when I was younger. They’re plenty nice but, you can’t expect them to be fish experts when they’re just trying to get the near-minimum-wage bag…honestly lol

I'm realizing that John's experience with target vs Walmart is very different than my own

I have to admit that my experience has been hit or miss. Some stores are great others not so much. These stores fill a need. I use them when they have a sale.

True petco is one reason I'm in this fish plus I have three dogs and wild birds that I feed and a frog so it keeps this old lady busy I now have some zebra dino's love them theybare very busy little fish. I have wo many babies, so now I'm saving up for a 75 gal, "it just keeps on going' 😆

It's the Walmart effect. Big box comes to town. Drop the price, run the competition out of business, and then increase the prices.

Speaking of big box stores I got my first fish from Walmart. Have been in and out of the hobby ever since. If it hadn't been for that i probably never would have gotten into fish. PetSmart and 1 tiny fish store is the only thing within 1hr

Really great podcast I enjoy it if I was to choose a big box store it would be Petco but I have bought fish from there quarantine them they were perfectly fine but I usually go to my local fish store because they deal with local breeders such as myself and you just simply get a better variety of fish

Personally I would not buy any fish from the bigger chain stores or even a general pet shop for that matter. The whole inferior fish thing may have some merit when it comes to the big box stores but for me this is not the reason and I think this is quite often unjustified. For me I actually just enjoy going to a dedicated Local Fish Shop, there is always much more variety and I do not know about anyone else but once you have bought fish from a reliable source you tend to keep going back. A trip to the LFS is a good day out, mine probably wishes more of my trips actually involved purchasing something. Admittedly I bought my first aquarium from Pets at Home and in fairness the person I dealt with that day did seem to know his stuff but I still do not think I would ever buy any fish there. There is just something more reassuring about going to the LFS. I think the average purchaser of fish from a big box store is someone buying some fish on a whI'm or for one of their children who has been pestering them for the past few months for a fish tank. Generally people who probably have never kept any fish or done much research into it. I think it is this lack of experience which often leads to the fish dying prematurely and not always a reflection of the quality of the fish on offer. Of course there are many well documented cases of fish neglect in such places with racks full of dead fish, notably Wallmart but I think it is a tad unfair to label all big box stores in that way. Do all so called experienced aquarists feel this way or are there any out there who would happily buy their fish from a big box store if the fish looked healthy enough? What do you all reckon?

I have 3 petsmart and 1 petco in my area. Have bought tanks and supplies from both. Fish only from petsmart and LFS. Have had equal good and bad fish experiences with both

I know PetSmart was around in 1995 because there was one in the same lot where I worked.

Consumers need to do their OWN research. Why would we rely on store employees? With RUclips, there is ZERO excuse - just find consistent advice and run with it.

Not gonna lie... I thought you 2 where the same guy

Guess I'm lucky from seeing other comments. My Petco and PetSmart are pretty awesome. A lot of this falls on who is hired and assigned to work the fish area of the stores. I developed a great relationship with a Petco fish employee over last couple years. Often he would call me on delivery day so I could be there before he put fish into the tanks. I literally bought several of my fish in the bag from distributor, which reduced one more catch/release cycle for them. Just depends on the store.

Nice

as an employee at one of these stores i will say it very much depends on the manager of the pet section, the corporations themselves have pretty decent policies on care of fish and maintenance of tanks but it depends on if the manager is enforcing policy, the one place i think these stores fail at is the "recommended" tank size for fish they can be misleading or flat out wrong and are usually the tank recommendation for one individual fish which a lot of the fish that we sell shouldnt be kept alone... also for the last few months at least my district has been getting sterbai corys in labelled as julii corys and have been selling them at the julii price so with my employee discount i been taking full advantage of that

In my opinion, I think it's good for beginners to get them in the hobby including myself. Then once they learn more(from watching videos 😉) they will start to support the LFS if they are serious about keeping fish.

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I also got a surrendered clown loach that is 8 inches at a mom and pop store, going there so often and knowing the staff, they sold it to me for 40$. I was so pumped!

When I started the hobby 5 years ago, I only really went to feeders supply or PetSmart. But now that I’m this into the hobby the ma and pa stores are the only stores I go to.

have to say pets at home the big box in the uk are pretty good they have a tablet for their Employees which has questions on their and will trow up red flags on compatibility of fish along with tank size and cycle etc .Bit mean of me but i tested the theory out and asked for a Betta to add to my tiger barb tank after a bit of tapping she came back i can not sell you long fin fish for your current setup .she did also offer solutions if i still wanted a Betta think they call it up selling which would involve buying a 5-6 gallon tank and keeping it solo . So Kudos to the company for giving their staff the tools to make sure any live stock transactions are safe .That said they only sell sort of starter fish .So it is back to the LFS for something a bit more exotic

27:00 You should see if you could do a video at that Petco near you. It sounds interesting!

20:00 I think the quarantine is really the biggest reason why LFS's seem to have healthier fish. I'd bet you have the same amount of die-off, but you dont see it at LFS's because they're not put directly in the buying area.

I have only been a customer for the supplies and TC plants and I have 20 Petco & PetSmart stores within a half hour drive , but I do drive fast here in the Twin cities and I will actually count the right # just to know so it might be 19 or 28 . Petco is moving in the direction of Aquascaping much faster than PS but both are 20 + years behind Asia and Europe and the stores in Germany and Holland , AMAZING selection with inventory that would completely make the CEO's realize just how pathetic the stores in America are compared to what they were 10 years ago , 5 years ago and whenever they were DEFINITELY GOING AFTER THE LOCAL LFS , guarantee that they knew what they would do when they sized up the easy ones , and that's usually the Dinosaur stores and the smoke qnd mirrors stores that wouldn't have been doing it for much longer.

Im a fan of petco have 3 about an hour away. Petsmarts are everywhere (9 off top of my head abkut 40 minutes away)few of them are difficult to get fish just no caring people for aquatics. Don't particularly care for how petsmart locates thier stores they put locations about a block away from other pet and fish stores when they open to outcompete them.

Both the Petco in my area are getting a major overhaul. I think they are upping their game overall.

I've visited almost every single mom and pop fish store in the Atlanta area and the Petco near me (Duluth) has the best price, best selection, and best customer service. Not only do their tanks look good they even stock more fun fish like Discus, Rainbow fish, peacock gudgeons, and rams. I have also talked to all three of their Aquarium employees and they have all several tanks, know their stuff and respectfully respond to my stocking questions when the fish or plant doesn't fit my current set ups.

I like visiting Petco and Petsmart so I can snicker then go to my local aquarium store to have a conversation with ahem coffee (Irish) 😊

I think both of them are ok fish stores. But the help there is hit and miss. The other problem is they will not Buy fish from hobbies. I will not spend my money in a shop that refuses to buy from hobbies. Just I rule I have.

I have been too a few petcos here in Arizona, tend to be pretty good except the one in Kingman, that one is trash. Haven’t had much luck with AZ petsmarts though

In my experience it ALL depends on the management and quality of employees at each store.

big box is it for me unless i wanna drive an hour 🤷‍♂️

Skittles tank 🦐 And rainbow platy tank

In my neck of the woods in Florida the LFS are usually busy. I don’t see them going anywhere.

where I live the closest mom n pop fish store is 3 hours away. I have a Petco , a petsmart, and a pet supplies plus about an hour away. if it weren't for them I wouldn't be in the hobby. I currently have 17 aquariums and 6 ponds. when I started fish keeping in 84 I got all my fish at Walmart.

Everyone of those stores are totally different, luck of the draw.

Unfortunately they are evil necessities lol.

You're so right. Location, location. Some Petco sell saltwater fish, drift wood out of the tank, I have also seen a Petco sell live corals. I think Petco lets their managers sell what they want. My Petsmarts are basically the same store to store.

I live in a area in California were there are 6 main areas: Carmel, Pebble Beach, Pacific Grove, Monterey, Seaside, and Marina. In all of that area there are no fish stores except Pet Smart and Petco. For us fish enthusiast we have to travel over 100 mile.

Definitely Accessibility

Our problem here in the West Central coast of Florida is not the Big Box stores, we have plenty of them. It is the quality of the few remaining Mom & Pop fish stores around. Overall the tanks are far better maintained in the Big Box stores and it is now to the point where I won't buy fish from any of the local Mom & Pops except one. Without exception the Mom & Pop's have dirty tanks with multiple dead fish in them. The only really good Mom & Pop we had in the area closed up last year. The folks that owned it retired. So now its buy online for the most part.

If I had to choose one it would be PetSmart. All around better experience on average

Without Petsmart and Petland I probably wouldn't even be in the hobby as they are the only pet stores with fish in my city. Most of the pet stores are about cats and dogs.

I live in the middle of Alaska, and am lucky to have a Petco here. The next available fish shop is a 6-8 hr drive away. I would not be able to keep fish if Petco wasn't here, because shipping is prohibitively expensive. I would rather spend more to go on a vacation to Seattle and bring fish back with me, but that's not what I would do if I didn't get to dip my toe in and get hooked with Petco fish.

Ya notice how humble Jason is, with all is schooling and experience, and yet does the least amount of talking. And then John, well takes forever to make a point, name drops and talks the most. You can learn things from an 18yr old, "Oh wait, we are good here..." how ARROGANT!!! Just my opinion.

Love/hate relationship with those two stores. Bad thing, I do believe their presence caused the death of a lot of great little mom and pop fish stores here in Portland. But, for equipment they are usually good places to go. And just this weekend, Petco was a lifesaver for me when the heater went out in my 60 gallon and needed a new heater ASAP. It was in the evening, too late to get same day delivery. But by late Saturday morning, Doordash brought my new heater to my door without the need for me to do any running. I would have ordered from Pet Mountain, but unfortunately I found out they do not have overnight shipping. As far as fish though, those two stores are not the greatest places to go at least not around here.

Great podcast 😊 Detroit

You’re spot on with all your points…both good and bad. It is very much a buyer-beware situation. However, a tremendous positive to bringing in new folks to the hobby or to expanding fish rooms are the dollar-per-gallon/50% off tanks sales. They deserve some credit for this.