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Neon tetra at petsmart?

5K views 22 replies 17 participants last post by  Saltydog33 
#1 ·
I planning to get 12 tetras and petsmart has a bunch, would you be comfortable buying from them? When I buy fish, I ask someone to feed them so I can see how they eat, what else should I look for when buying? thanks
 
#22 ·
I'm comfortable with it, but only because I've learned about the issues most commonly seen, and prepared myself to treat them:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=474425

DarkCobra, thank you for taking the time to educate us on your efforts to treat neon tetra diseases. I have read several of your educational write ups.

I have kept fish for 20 plus years and have hit and miss results with treating illnesses.
 
#5 ·
My biggest gripe with buying ANYTHING from my local Petsmart is that one way or another, it will develop ich.

I bought 8 neons when they were doing a $1/fish sale recently, and one of them died when the ich pandemic hit. I was pretty good at treating them so a few weeks later, the remaining 7 are doing quite well.

That's the only problem i think you would have to deal with. Most big chain stores dont take the best care of their fish :(
 
#6 ·
Every fish I have bought from Petsmart has lived. Petco isn't as good, in my opinion. I've even had fish die on me from the LFS that haven't from Petsmart.

Their neon tetras are really good quality. I've never had one die from Petsmart. I bought 5 originally then added 4 later, and while they do get into all-out battles (figuring out the hierarchy still) they thrive.

They'll eat no matter what -- just get 12 when they're on sale for $1 each.
 
#7 ·
I don't see why people object to buying fish from petsmart. I've bought fish from them and never had issues with ick or death, maybe i just got lucky. I like that their fish usually come younger as well. The only reason why i could see someone objecting to buying from petsmart is they'd rather support a local fish store which is true, please support your local fish stores. But i do agree i'd rather go to petsmart that petco, there is a drastic difference in the stock and what they carry as well. Also most of the neons I've bought in the past, for the most part, never eat for about a week. but it's still nothing to be too worried about because over time they'll learn when feeding time is and what indicates when they're going to be fed.
 
#9 ·
I just recently got some neon tetras from Petsmart and they seem all happy (although the little two babies that they gave me are still a tad shy/hiding). So far none of them have died on me, and they all seem very healthy in terms of how they eat and how they act.

Mine didn't want to eat for the first day and a half, afterward I put some food in there and they ate it like there was no tomorrow. Just takes time for them to adjust to their new area and explore it all out completely.
 
#11 ·
Would look carefully at the fish. Check that fishes have both eye's,no tattered fin's,
don't buy fishes that are isolating themselves from the group,look at gill's and see that the fishes are not breathing rapidly, and that gill's inside appear red as opposed to pink,or white.
Don't buy fishes from tank's where dead fish are present,don't buy fishes that look emaciated,thin,compared to other's .Drip acclimate new fish to quarantine or main tank,
Add a few drop's of Dechlorinator such as PRIME to bucket while drip acclimating.
My two cent's.
 
#12 ·
There are few petsmart and petcos in my area, I agree petsmart has better stocks. In my years of fishkeeping both fresh and saltwater, never had any death or them being sick, and I don't quarantine. I build a good relationship with just one LFS to get and quarantine the fish when I had my saltwater tanks. With freshwater it's easy to just buy on the spot because they're cheap and many to choose from, not realizing that it can infest the whole tank. I've check the tetras at petsmart several times already, but I can't get myself to buy them just yet. However, I bought 6 harlequin rasboras at petsmart, they're the only ones in the tank and they look okay. It turns out the one of them is a jerk keeping one a bay and not letting it swim with others. He/she was gold in color the rest are silver.
 
#13 ·
I personally wouldn't buy from petco because of the puppy mill thing. Petsmart is probably not much different, but I haven't heard of anything like that happening. I have purchased fish from petsmart before because it's closer than other aquarium shops, never had a problem with their fish it's just like any other big store.
 
#14 ·
We've bought neon tetras both from Petsmart and Petco with pretty good luck. We normally just put them all in our tiny quarantine tank, raise the temperature to above 83-84 degrees, if the fish can take it, all the way up to 85, which will completely kill the ick and won't allow it to reproduce. If the fish can't take the temperature rise, we'll just do a standard copper treatment. Just remember to quarantine them for 14-21 days or so, until you are sure all ick is killed both on the fish and the tank. I've found most of the time they won't have ick, but being we have shrimp and a LOT of snails in our big tank and can only treat with heat, we try and completely kill it while they are in the smaller tank.

Otherwise all of our Tetras from Petsmart and Petco have lived. Aside from the 6 tetras our comet ate this week. We have gotten other fish from Petsmart and Petco, and have had great luck with most of them. Aside from the one batch of snails that brought Anchor Worms to the tank.
 
#15 ·
I'd only buy them if I had a way of quarantining them. The tanks at my local Petsmarts share a filter system so if ich is one tank, you can assume it's in the rest. Also, they don't sterilize their nets in between uses the way my LFS does.
But, for a buck a pop, I'd buy them and quarantine them. I'm contemplating getting some albino glowlights and quarantining them in a ten gallon I'm setting up for future use.
 
#17 ·
Pretty much all LFS buy from the same breeders. Treat all LFS equally and individually. If one Petsmart is bad don't assume they all are. Just like if one locally owned store is bad that doesn't mean they all are bad.

Petsmart tanks are all connected but they do run a big UV system to sterilize the water between tanks.

Regardless of where you get fish you should quarantine them. If not you're taking a risk.
 
#18 ·
Yeah it all depends on the employees. One petco store I used to go to, the person who takes care of the fish section knows and cares more because he has tanks himself, he was always willing to discuss what your needs and wants. On the other hand, you get the young kids who don't really know whats going on, you want to smack them when you see them netting the fish with no care at all.
 
#20 ·
I have bought about two dozen neons at petsmart all together and usually lose a few to some random fungus or ich. I started to just preemptively treat them in my QT tank for whatever they might have. They are so small in the stores and they swim in a big school that it's hard to be selective about which ones you buy, which doesn't help.
 
#23 ·
I recently bought 15 neons from Petsmart of those i have 10 left 2 jumped(i blame myself for messing with plants too much and stressed them) and 3 died the first night the girl a younger early twenties was dropping them on their little rolling cart picking them up with her hands head covered in bird feathers was quite the sight. Anyhow the 10 i have left seem very healthy and colorful. I would have said before employees cant have much to do with fish death but man she handled these things so bad i just wanted out of there.
 
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