Animal Farm
Written by Bryan Los on March 28th, 2006 @ 5:50 PM
Visiting my local Petco store, I was shocked at what I saw. To be sure, I will never do business there again.
Last week I purchased three fish (platy) for a starter tank for my grandfather. As of today, he has one less. Yesterday, I observed the fish in question just sitting near the bottom of the tank. Two others were very lively, but this guy was just moping around. I figured he’d be dead soon. I was right.
Let me go back to Monday, before the fish died. I went to the Petco store in question to pick up a few neon tetras. A sign on the take read “Under Observation.” Maybe a virus I mused. Anyway, all the tetras were under some type of quarantine, so we didn’t buy any.
Fish Wars
Come today, I find one platy dead. So I go back to Petco to try and get an exchange, and what I saw was startling.
Forget that the service is horrible. I mean, you could stand or 15 minutes with no service if you don’t go and ask at least twice to get some help. So while I’m waiting I’m looking at the different tanks. Some look like war zones, with dead bodies strewn about. You’d think that the “Fishy WWII” got started in a big hurry in there. In one tank, there was this large fish, dead, and other fish were biting at it’s fins, and one sucker fish was actually trying to suck it’s eye off.
Going Postal
It was like Hitler meets Jeffrey Dahmer in there, really sick stuff. I couldn’t believe the lack of care for these fish, which is why that tank must be under observation. Hello! You better start observing those other takes with all the other casualties. What a mess.
Anyway, I couldn’t get an exchange without a receipt and a sample of water. Looking at the conditions in those tanks, I don’t think I will get that exchange. I won’t do business with Petco, or at least that store in particular, ever again. What a mess!
