I am an aquatics specialist at Petco. Ask me anything.

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Do you ever get tired of sending animals to their deaths to customers who are obviously going to neglect their animal to death once they get bored of it in a month?

>>2273085
I try to educate the stupid fuckers, but I know a majority of the animals sold here will be dead in a month.
90% of the time I have to refuse to sell them what they want because nobody has a tank bigger than 3 gal.

>>2273085
>sending animals to their deaths
it's worse than that, it's sending animals to a neglect dungeon, a prison of social isolation, boredom and living in your own shit and piss.

I'd rather die than have to live as a guineapig of some white trash american family

>>2273078
What do you do when someone ass you about something you don't know about aquarium wise?

>>2273078
why do you assholes lie to people and tell them they can safely house inverts with loaches?

>>2273078
Have you ever dealt with anchor worms in an aquarium, I'd like to treat my albino corys, but every medicine I've found will kill my shrimp

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>>2273087
It's mostly the average family. Some woman comes in and wants a betta or goldfish to put in her vases around the home. White trash don't give a shit about how much space a tank takes up. Black always come in to buy oscars and they die even though there set up was huge when it was a 20 gallon. Girl that use to work in the aquatic department told everyone what they wanted to hear to sell as many fish as she could. She had so many complaints they let her go.

>>2273210
Not OP but move your shrimp and snails into a bucket with a air stone until treatment is done. Shrimps and snails don't give a heck about where they live as long as there's food.

>>2273178
Why do you assume we all do it?

>>2273178
Some loach do not go after inverts. You gotta do your part of research before buying anyway.

>>2273078
How do you feel someone shows up asking to put non feeder, cheaper fish and inverts into predator tank?

(I do this with danios and livebearers in a turtle tank because the stock looks healthier than the feeder tanks and prefer to stay on the inexpensive side. Not all of them get repeatedly sacrificed though in bulk though, I have fish that been living there for like half a year and only suffered 2 casualties, only one of them actually being eaten. )

>>2273085
I work in an aquatics shop (an independant garden centre) and i hate how it works. I hate that our company values profit over the health of the animals. I hate that we throw money away on and refund / replace fucking idiots who cant pick up a book or even learn from their mistakes. I hate that we have to believe every blatant lie because "they seem genuine". THAT'S WHAT A LIE IS, BARRY, YOU ASSHOLE.

>>2273246
Depends on petco. They have a policy not to sell to those who keep coming back and buying a bunch of fish so close together as its suspicious. Thank fish stores for coming to buy fish on sale and then jacking prices up at there store.

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>>2273249


That's pretty odd. That's like that always sunny episode where they buy a bunch of gasoline and try to sell it to people.

Anyway, I make it a point to tell the aquarium guys what kind of tank I have and research fish and usually go in with a list of potential fish (most of which they never have.) I'm running 12 fish across three tanks. Lots of shrimps, crabs and snails.

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I know it's not your department but if I came into your store and was like "hello yes I would like to buy a mouse to release in my house so my cat can chase it" would you still sell it to me? It's not something I actually want to do because that's clearly fucked but it just struck me as an amusing thought and then I wondered if people actually did it.

>>2273294
I remember someone calling a Petco I go to to buy a kitten to feed his Monitor Lizard, boy was the guy who answered the phone pissed.

>>2273078
How long do fish generally survive in store?

>>2273326
why would you buy a kitten when kittens are literally free everywhere all the time?

>>2273251
>Go to pet store expecting to get some Corys
>Had called before to make sure I don't waste my time, as next fish store lies across the town
>Get there, no fucking Corys
>About to leave and get asked if I was looking for something
>Lady tells me there are other fish that would do fine in my aquarium
>Beyond all better judgement I listened to her because she seemed to know what she was talking about
>She sells me a couple fish
>Later learn these fish should be in a much bigger tank and do not need to be in groups
>Tfw listening to people fucked my tank up

Never, ever, ever go off someone's word. Always do your own research

>>2273356
To be edgy ecks dee
Seriously though I see people buy fluffy lop ear bunnies to feed to their snakes for the edge. Those rabbits cost at the very least $50 while a live meat rabbit is like $5 or $10 depending on quality. Hell someone bought a fucking purebred beagle to video tape his snake eating it, that's $300-600 assuming it's byb. There's a video circulating with some big fluffy puppy getting bit in the face by a cobra, looks like a leonberger. Those go for $800 or more, pretty rare breed.

Do you take care of your saltwater fish well? Do you have a frag tank for corals? Whenever I go to my Petco, the tank has aptasia and all this other slew of problems and they want lots of money for obviously unhealthy corals. Once I went and overheard some people wanting to buy a tang and put it into a small tank. I almost went full autist on them, but they decided not to do it. Do you generally talk customers out of purchases like that?

>>2273364
huh

i bought rats for pets from the feeder tank at a reptile store

got a dumbo and a rex.. the rex turned out to be female (supposedly they only stocked males) so in the end i had a lot of rats

>>2273294
Not OP but we had a group of high school kids come in and the group of boys said they wanted to buy a rat to let loose on the bus. We said no, not to mention they were under 18.

>>2273294
Petsmart instead of Petco, but we refused to sell live rats and mice to people who wanted to feed their snakes and lizards. We would try to sell them frozen instead, but if not we'd tell them to try the shit store down the road that specifically sold feeder rodents

>>2273356
To avoid giving their pet parasites

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>>2273685
because everyone knows pet store kittens don't have any parasites

>>2273720
The cats that go through Petsmart are fully vetted

>>2273685
To be fair, it is much cheaper to get a kitten on the street and give it revolution (takes care of a plethora of parasites) then buy one that's dewormed, fixed, microchipped, vaccinated etc for $150-200. A sample of revolution is $5 for a dog so I assume it's much cheaper for a kitten.

And not all cats at pet stores are vetted. I believe all Petco and PetSmart ones should be (as part of their charities this was made a rule), but I've seen employees with oops litters shove them in a cage in the store

>>2273229
>move your shrimp and snails into a bucket with a air stone until treatment is done
Or do that with the cory so he doesn't have to worry about leftover meds in the tank.

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>>2273294
I did that once when I was a teenager...

>>2273731
I worked there for 3 years and never even heard of something like that. Maybe because we had cages assigned to the different shelters specifically that the volunteers from the shelters rotated coming in and cleaning every night. They got really territorial about their cages, food, and accessories

>>2273078
hey me too!!!

It's not so bad right? I don't have saltwater at my store but luckily i inherited the job from an alright guy. Our blue acara's fry are almost at a sellable size..
It's a beautiful job. Ofc its not the best tho.

>>2273942

>>2273294
No you have to sign a thing saying yr going to care for it until it gets fed alive..
>>2273247
My manager tells me and customers that the inch per gallon rule of thumb is a myth. She overstocks her tanks and says that her average loss of a fish per month is healthy...
But when she's not in my face I get to send people home and laugh at fat middle aged women who want to put kois in betta cups..
I get triggered when people say, "Whatever happened to just a goldfish in a bowl?"
that comes up pretty often desu..

>>2273945
>inch by gallon rule
This is mostly a myth. I stress being sensible including growth rate, waste production and general size of the aquarium.

"How many fish can I get in this?" is a hated question because its not an easy number to just throw at people.

Our manager overstocks shit too. Just reorders the same stuff despite last weeks still being in the tank. Whats worse is its my job to treat all these ill fish (which, on my days off he complicates with using conflicting chemicals..) as well as to help the four other staff maintain parameters in over 150 tropical and 50 marine tanks.

Dont even get me started on goldfish..

What do you guys do with the fish that die at the store? Do you feed them to the other animals or something?

My local pet store had this turtle that would happily eat any fish or lizard that died in its tank.

>>2273078
I work at petland and I hate my new manager for being lazy using senior status. What's a good time to apply for petco and when will I get back? I'm in ny so I was thinking about applying to other petstores

Do you let people give you fish that they don't want anymore?

>>2273685
The rats and mice are sold as live feeders at petco and petsmart

>>2273913
>stressing the Cory out even more

>>2274137
incorrect petsmart does not sell live feeders only frozen and if we found out you were buying as food we were told to refuse the sale to you which is why are mice and rats are alot more expensive than petco who does sell live feeders

>>2274140
This

>>2273364
Jesus, and I thought the videos of snakes eating dwarf hamsters were a stupid waste of money for an edgy video.

Also risky for the snake because I've heard stories about how snakes ended up choking to death on the hamster due to its excess skin and thick fur. I imagine a lop ear rabbit would be worse too, much less a leonberger pup.

>>2273237
It was more of a bait question since I just witnessed it happening the last time I was at the local Petco.

>>2273238
Yeah, but the kid asking had a tank full of Dojo Loaches, and wanted to get apple snails. That was going to end with tragedy.

>>2273078
What's Petco's policy for sick fish and other animals in the store?

What kind of meds does the store give you access to?

Do you have an isolation period for newly acquired animals?

What kind of profit margins does Petco get on their live animals?

Does Petco still get their bettas shipped to them in those 2 oz pyramid bags?

Why did you get this job?

>>2273078
Why don't you guys sell Tabbits any more?

Small animal section is just hamsters, tats, guine pigs and chin chillas or snorlax is what I call em.

>>2274007
Not OP but also work at a Petco. At ours we recycle them for multiple purposes.

>>2274076
Not OP but at my Petco we do take adoption fish. We keep them under observation for 3-4 days to make sure they're healthy and make note of their personalities so we can provide them a good fitting home.

>>2274184
Not OP but also work at a Petco. We have a wellness room where any sick or suspectedly sick animals will be held separate for treatment.

I work in the grooming department so medicine access I'm not sure about but we do have access to a 24 hour local vet.

We have an isolation period of 3-5 days for pretty much every animal.

Our bettas don't come in bags.

I enjoy grooming and spending my work time with animals. They aren't as annoying as people and let me pet their cute faces.

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>>2273078
Tips on picking that babe who works in the dog training section?

Why are the dog trainers always so hot?

Every damn time

>>2275063
Some Petcos still get them in bags, unless that changed within the last couple months.

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I have a Indian glassy fish with a problem. The problem appeared about 2 days ago.
There seems to be something inside it. I can't get a picture of the fish, but I marked the area where the object is. It's about half the size of a rice grain and goes along the spine. It can be clearly seen since the fish is transparent.
Today the fish was swimming in weird patterns. mostly upside down near the ground and then staying motionless for a while. I'm assuming it's in terrible pain and I'm considering putting it out of it's misery. Is chopping it's head of my best bet?

>>2275240
sure, or you can just give it a good thwack. clove oil is nice too for a non messy solution.

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>>2275063
>Our bettas don't come in bags.
I'd read they come like pic related and are transferred to the cups afterward. PetSmart gets them shipped already in the cups, so I thought it was odd.

>>2275393
they do; I've seen them on the floor. 30+ tiny bags packed into a box. could be a regional thing? I'm in the PNW.

>>2275393
PetSmart employee here.

This blows my mind. I've never seen bettas shipped like that.