Question For All Ex ***** Employees And Current Ones Too?

[salty444]

I wouldn't buy anything from *****... I tried purchasing an electric fence for my golden retriever.. The online price was 259.00 the store price was 299.00
I called and asked if they would sell it to me for the online price and their reply was "*****.com and ***** stores are seperate entities"
***** is ***** no matter how you look at it..
they just lost a customer on that one.. petsmart pricematches!

 

[omgsaltwat]

Everything I got from ***** died by the nex day everything I got from a saltwater only store is doing fine and I got them first ***** last. will not get anything else from *****

 

[unleashed]

i have to agree with ophiura 100% on this one. too many people assume that these fish should be 100% safe to add directly to their main tanks and expect nothing to go wrong.when something does happen to go wrong its the LFS fault.oh they gave me bad advice ect.bottom line is you shopuld know what your looking for what to feed it how to care for it .these stores look at thousands of fish on a monthly basis they dont stick around long term so these employees arent always at full knowledge of how to keep them healthy full term.they have rules and regulations and guildlines in which they are trained to and expected to follow.that is their job to sell.as a hobbiest its YOUR job to care for your new fish to th best possible manner you can.do you research before adding new fish Do quarentine fish before adding them to the main tank DO make sure these fish are eating well before you purchase them.Do know the signs of an ill fish and what to avoid when purchasing them.if you have doubts about how a fish looks as far as health goes follow your instinct dont buy it if it doesnt look healthy and active.ask how long it has been in the store ect.read research we have all of the accesabilty right at our fingertips for information utilize it .read the threads posted get an idea of what your looking fo double research there are litterally hundreds of information sites available, books to read ect. bottom line is no matter what information the store tells you if you dont know any better than they do whos fault is that ?

 

[greggti]

I am the aquatics manager at a ***** 2 miles from my house. I personally do my best to maintain and offer a variety of healthy fish for sale. I have had problems with some disease outbreaks from tme to time but so does the average hobbyist. I do my best to treat and heal any sick fish. During that time I will not sell any fish in the system that contains that fish. I work at a ***** that has about 4 year old Mars systems. Each system is essentially a 247 gallon aquarium(that includes a 25 gallon sump). THe sump just has a fiber filter pad, a carbon pillow, and a bio wheel. I have no uv units, a semi functioning protein skimmer, and thats that. I do a 25% water change on each salt system weekly(mondays), we have 2 of these systems. We also use water straight from the tap as ***** feels this makes it easier for the customer to acclimate to their tanks because most of them use the same water source.
I hear a lot of bad things about ***** on this and other message boards. Sometimes it makes me embarrased to work there. But you have too understand that currently I am maintaining 2, 247 gallon saltwater aquariums, 6 247 gallon freshwater aquariums, 1 120 gallon holding tank for feeder fish,1 130 gallon tank that houses aquatic plants and Koi, and 1 90 gallon aquatic turtle tank. Its freakin hard. And this is all while I work in a retail store that does over 125,000 dollars in sales per week(lots of customers). What I am getting at is that with all this livestock and so many different species of salt and freshwater fish you are going to have problems from time to time.
I am currently in the process of trying to gain some saltwater customers because I feel confident that I am offering quality fish at good prices. I am not just trying to feed the evil corporate machine. I actually hate coporate *****. They don't let me do anything the way I want to do it. Policicy and procedure for everything. So i do the best with what they give me. I only order species that I know I can properly house and feed. That is the main thing. If I order something I can't care for it potentially will either die(which i don't want) or it will contract a disease(ich for example) and spread it to the existing fish that are sharing the same water. I then have a huge problem.
At my store the customers tend to be a little cost conservative. So more expensive fish tend to take a while to sell. I have had the same powder blue tang in one of my tanks for 4.5 weeks now. Eating whatever goes in the tank. Beautiful specimen. But I never hear any stories like " my local ***** has had this powder blue tang for a while, and I have been watching it and it looks really good. I may go get it on Friday if its still there" No, instead I hear the masses screaming down with *****
And I should mention that I will NOT sit there and tell someone that a Naso tang will do fine in there 30 gallon, or sure that imperator angel will be fine in your 55. I would rather talk them out of it(***** customers are impulsive) and personally have to care for that fish until someone with a 220 walks in and wants it.
I would just be ecstatic if maybe I could hear about a good experience with the aquatics department at *****(especially mine, email me if you want to know). But if you still want to bash them, please just single out your local store, as they are not all the same.

 

[greggti]

Originally Posted by salty444
I wouldn't buy anything from *****... I tried purchasing an electric fence for my golden retriever.. The online price was 259.00 the store price was 299.00
I called and asked if they would sell it to me for the online price and their reply was "*****.com and ***** stores are seperate entities"
***** is ***** no matter how you look at it..
they just lost a customer on that one.. petsmart pricematches!
Print out the page from the website and bring it in. Our store price matches. But some things you can only get on the website.
I recently sold a fluval 404 for 99.99 cause thats what the website had it for. 179.99 in store.

 

[halo_frk03]

Originally Posted by greggti
I am the aquatics manager at a ***** 2 miles from my house. I personally do my best to maintain and offer a variety of healthy fish for sale. I have had problems with some disease outbreaks from tme to time but so does the average hobbyist. I do my best to treat and heal any sick fish. During that time I will not sell any fish in the system that contains that fish. I work at a ***** that has about 4 year old Mars systems. Each system is essentially a 247 gallon aquarium(that includes a 25 gallon sump). THe sump just has a fiber filter pad, a carbon pillow, and a bio wheel. I have no uv units, a semi functioning protein skimmer, and thats that. I do a 25% water change on each salt system weekly(mondays), we have 2 of these systems. We also use water straight from the tap as ***** feels this makes it easier for the customer to acclimate to their tanks because most of them use the same water source.
I hear a lot of bad things about ***** on this and other message boards. Sometimes it makes me embarrased to work there. But you have too understand that currently I am maintaining 2, 247 gallon saltwater aquariums, 6 247 gallon freshwater aquariums, 1 120 gallon holding tank for feeder fish,1 130 gallon tank that houses aquatic plants and Koi, and 1 90 gallon aquatic turtle tank. Its freakin hard. And this is all while I work in a retail store that does over 125,000 dollars in sales per week(lots of customers). What I am getting at is that with all this livestock and so many different species of salt and freshwater fish you are going to have problems from time to time.
I am currently in the process of trying to gain some saltwater customers because I feel confident that I am offering quality fish at good prices. I am not just trying to feed the evil corporate machine. I actually hate coporate *****. They don't let me do anything the way I want to do it. Policicy and procedure for everything. So i do the best with what they give me. I only order species that I know I can properly house and feed. That is the main thing. If I order something I can't care for it potentially will either die(which i don't want) or it will contract a disease(ich for example) and spread it to the existing fish that are sharing the same water. I then have a huge problem.
At my store the customers tend to be a little cost conservative. So more expensive fish tend to take a while to sell. I have had the same powder blue tang in one of my tanks for 4.5 weeks now. Eating whatever goes in the tank. Beautiful specimen. But I never hear any stories like " my local ***** has had this powder blue tang for a while, and I have been watching it and it looks really good. I may go get it on Friday if its still there" No, instead I hear the masses screaming down with *****
And I should mention that I will NOT sit there and tell someone that a Naso tang will do fine in there 30 gallon, or sure that imperator angel will be fine in your 55. I would rather talk them out of it(***** customers are impulsive) and personally have to care for that fish until someone with a 220 walks in and wants it.
I would just be ecstatic if maybe I could hear about a good experience with the aquatics department at *****(especially mine, email me if you want to know). But if you still want to bash them, please just single out your local store, as they are not all the same.
cool... well i believe if u got a fish from ***** and it died , its your fault for 1) u bought the fish and if your gonna blame it on ***** for having bad tanks and disease stricken fish why did you buy it in the first place? 2) if you are an impulsive buyer and buy a healthy fish into your tank... its probably your fault...ur tank might not have been ready/too small/ or not compatible.....
i have 2 fish in my current tank that i bought from *****...ive had them both for 3 weeks and they are doing awesome...i only bought them cuz they were disease free and very active at the *****...
so stop ***** bashing.... unless it truly is there fault...which im pretty sure it isnt

 

[greggti]

Good to hear that.. I only have 4 fish in my 26 reef and they came from my store and I have had them all for 13-16 months. All inverts, live rock came from somewhere else. I don't carry inverts at my store, again because I don't have the means to properly house and care for them. Bad light, bad flow, no skimmer=no inverts.

 

[halo_frk03]

Originally Posted by greggti
Good to hear that.. I only have 4 fish in my 26 reef and they came from my store and I have had them all for 13-16 months. All inverts, live rock came from somewhere else. I don't carry inverts at my store, again because I don't have the means to properly house and care for them. Bad light, bad flow, no skimmer=no inverts.
ya i wish ***** sold inverts and live rock...

 

[andyaz]

There are a few *****'s near where I live, two older ones and one that opened up about 6 months ago. The older ones seem a lot like what you all are decsribing in the fish department, and I haven't bought anything from those. The newer one has an awesome fish department, and at least two employees that I've talked with who know quite a bit about the hobby. One just posted a board with pictures of his reef tank, must say it's in great shape. He's helped me figure out a few problems as I've been coming along, and also has been very straight with me on which fish he has in stock that I should or shouldn't buy (actually told me not to buy some "Dory" fish saying they got a shipment where the fish were sick when they got them, and they were trying to save as many as they could in the display tank. I don't think that any of the other stores would have given two flips if I bought a sick fish or not, but he he basically said, "No, you don't want those" and had no problem with me leaving the store empty handed for the day, and that kind of honesty gains a few points with me.
Overall, they seem to have a better selection of fish than the other LFS that's close enough to me (at least, fish that I can afford - I'm not trusting myself with a $100 fish yet...), but the LFS hands down has some incredible inverts and better LR. I'll certainly be buying my inverts there rather than the slim pickings at *****. I guess I'm running about 50/50 on fish from *****, and I chalked most of that up to my beginner state. You want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs. You want to learn to care for a saltwater tank, you're going to kill a few fish. I have lost two royal gramma's and a yellow tang that I got from there, but my clown and coral beauty are both doing great, going on 5 months. One gramma got spooked by a domino damsel we had for a couple of days (too aggressive, adopted him off) and died a couple of days later, I don't blame that on *****. The other gramma and tang died mysteriously and suddenly within a week of bringing them into the tank, though the others in the tank at the time didn't show any stress.

 

[ejensen]

Originally Posted by laredo300c
Ok so as it seems , everone on here was right. i have bought a total of 10 fish , three of which have not been bought at ***** and guess how many fish i have in my tank...three...............ok so my question is would anyone here buy fish from ***** the day they arrive and before they take them out of the bag...or are they just arriving from another bigger distributor ***** hell tank.........any comments or advice....

It took you 7 times before you learned that the ***** you are shopping at doesn't know much about swf. Thats as good to say that LFS are all good. That is a bunch of crap. There is 3 ***** within 25 miles of me and only one is good. There are people that acually know how to maintain a system there. Out of proply 10 LFS I would only but fish from 3. alot of them have sick and dieing fish just like the some of the *****'s. So what you are saying is a waste of time and just bashing them as a whole which is wrong. Maybe you just don't know how to maintain a SW tank or pick out fish that are healthy.

 

[chipmaker]

Seems like this is just gong to be one of those forever posts thats not gonna go away, so I guess its ok to keep posting to it with any new dealings with *****....afterall its all about ***** anyhow.
Our local ***** started ot handle liverock about 2 weeks ago and its n sooner in stock than they are sold out. They have just setup a single standalone tank with powerhead and filter etc on it, with nothing but liverock in it, as before they were keeping it in the same tanks as fish were in.....but it proved to be too small of an area.......Their rock looks good, is lighjt andporus, and shapes and sizes are good......Some coraline, lots of typical other critters.......but I did not price it......MAy have to do that tomorrow when I go in to pickup my order than came in Thursday that I did not get into get tyet, but that they are holding for me, and its doing just fine from talking to my friend who is an associate there.
I only really have one problem with ***** and thats their choice of fish, and by this statement its mainly geared for this area and probably not applicable to all areas. I seem to think they buy fish that appeals to the managers more than what is typcially in demand.......25 horseshoe crabs, 20 yellow tangs, 25 fairy wrasse, 30 cheriub angles, dozens and dozens of clowns......but hardly never any shrimp, snails or hermits, lots of eels and lobsters and anenomes though.........and I think they buy damsels by the truck loads. Allthe other nifty neat fish are just stuck in any tank they can fit em in without any fear of them becoming a meal.......so for the yellow clown goby or a scooter or neon, or some other one or two of a kind they order, you just have to really look hard and close at all the tanks. Seems the high dolar fish they order in large amounts yet the cheap (other than damsels) like gobies and blennies etc) they only order one or two of. Their corals they have been getting are a lot nicer now as well so they are getting there little by little. I still buy what I can from *****, and still no problems with the fish, and yes our local store honors website prices as well......

 

[oreo12]

I have recently bought fish from our ***** and they are all still alive and doing great they have had a spoted puffer in a tank for a couple months now and it still looks fine. Must just be your store or maybe your set up.

 

[medic79]

I tend to agree with the others in here that are saying it is up to the individual to investigate and check out the places they buy thier stock from. I bought all my invertrs from ***** (an absolute no no according to some on these boards) and they are all doing fine except for the fact that peppermints attacked camels but that was my fault for mixing them in a single tank not *****'s. All in all like said 100 times before each store being *****, LFS or online you need to check them out do your research talk to other people who have done business with these places.

 

[wilks18702]

My problem with ***** is not the fish, its the people who work there. I don't blame them, however, I blame *****. You cant put someone in a department that does not know about that department. ***** really needs to start provide some training to its staff. The people that work in my local ***** are really nice people. The last time I bought a fish, I asked if it would be ok to put it in with my other fish. The person said sure we do dog grooming, just please make an appointment. Of course that was a joke, but sometimes the answers are that off the wall. I realize that most of the people that work there are not career fish salesmen, however, ***** needs to provide these people with some training. Education is the key. As far as the fish, all the fish I have bought from there, salt and fresh have done really well.

 

[100 guppi]

i have to trust my ***** cause their the fs near me that sells saltwater fish & mine sells live rocks & some inverts

 

[omgsaltwat]

How much is there LR $

 

[shrimpdady]

Will someone please kill this thread.
I don't like ***** but what good does it do to complain about them?
Instead of bashing *****, shouldn't we all spend our tme answering someones question thus helping them out instead of useless whining?
If you don't like ***** don't shop there.
In the words of the great Forrest Gump ........ That's all I got to say about that.