# Petco Says I'm Wrong



## SeeingRedAgain (Sep 14, 2005)

Okay, so my gas tank is almost on "E" and I am too broke to put anymore in, so rather than going to "Exotic Aquatics" (where I bought my P's, private owned business), I had to goto Petco.









So I go in there and explain that I have my 3 baby RBPs sitting in my 15G and have set up my newly purchased 55G about 4 days ago and I tell them I want to do fishless cycling. I have gotten the general drift that fishless cycling is faster and safer for my Ps. They proceed to tell me it's not natural and using fish to cycle is better and faster. Well, that contradicts everything that my dad/friends/p-fury forum members have told me. They go on to tell me that my fish will risk getting ich either way because of stress and they tell me to buy 4 zebra danios (I believe that is their name) to cycle my tank. They actually refused to sell me ammonia and bacteria. I brought a list of what to buy from the "Fishless Cycling 101" on these forums and ask them where each of the products are. They keep cutting me off and telling me I should use fish...

Are they allowed to do that? So regardless, I brought the zebras home and they're sitting in the 55G right now. Time will tell if they survive, I'm really not too concerned as long as my precious P's are okay.

So needless to say, the plan will be to attempt to make the zebras survive and cycle my tank for a good week, then I'll probably take them out, put some kind of ich remedy in, put the P's in, then throw some stress coat in...

Does that sound about right?


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## "qickshot" (Apr 19, 2005)

you gave in dude thats bull sh*t? ida bin like fuk you give me my sh*t. and no it not faster it will take about 3-4 weeks that way i think


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

you can get the pure ammonia somewere else

like hardware stores, four little zebras arnt gonna be

enough of a load to cycle the tank in my opinion.

next time i think you just need to be a bit more firm

with those guys and tell this is what i want if you dont

give to me then i will get it somewere else


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## SeeingRedAgain (Sep 14, 2005)

Yeah, I probably should have. I guess the only reason I listened to it was because I cycled my 15G with those fish for years and never had any problems. I really wanted to try it fishless though. I could always take them about and feed them to my brothers bass...


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

They can sell or not sell to who ever they want.....

Either way to cycle works fine...but 4 danios are not near enough.

Moved to water chemistry.


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## mbierzyc (May 10, 2005)

I went to PetSmart today to pick up two powerheads. They were $32 on the shelf, but online they're only $16.99, so i brought in the printout to price match.

The manager of this store is a middleaged man, and always looks pissed off. So when the cashier called him over he yelled at me and was like "HOW MANY FILTERS ARE YOU GONNA BUY?" "WHAT ARE YOU DOIN WITH ALL THESE FILTERS, HOW MANY TANKS DO YOU HAVE?"

I told him, a 75, 55, 29 and two 10s' . He asked me what i was breeding, i told him nothing. i said, "i'm not doing anything wrong, i'm purchasing products from your store"

He was pissed, good thing those two powerheads are the last two items I need for my project.

moral of the story is ... i had a weird experience at a chain pet store today too.


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## Azeral (Dec 28, 2004)

I've had similar run ins with fish stores. One thing I have learned......don't tell them anything about your fish or tank, just buy the stuff.


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## SeeingRedAgain (Sep 14, 2005)

> I've had similar run ins with fish stores. One thing I have learned......don't tell them anything about your fish or tank, just buy the stuff.


SOOO True! There was this other chick in the background, besides the one that was "helping" me and she interupts while having no idea what's going on and says, "What are you cycling for? You know you can not have Piranhas with these fish, right?"

I wanted to purchase a giant gorilla, give him a hammer, and watch him beat her brains into the back of her head. Gee, I had no idea I couldn't put these danios with my Piranhas, it's not like they will eat them or anything, right? *Bursting with sarcasm*

That is the one thing I dislike most about large corporations like petco is they treat their customers like idiots. I've had fish since I was a kid, I was raised in a house with at least a 55G tank at all times, of course I had no idea that a fish known for eating other fish would harm my precious .79 cent garbage fish.


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

SeeingRedAgain said:


> Okay, so my gas tank is almost on "E" and I am too broke to put anymore in, so rather than going to "Exotic Aquatics" (where I bought my P's, private owned business), I had to goto Petco.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nope, that sounds no where near right. The probably "refused" to sell you ammonia and bacteria because they probably do not have what you needed.

At one week with fish, you will be barely on the initial stages of cycling.

Sorry but the Petco people were WAY OFF on this one.


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## Uncle Rico (Sep 4, 2005)

Always take Petco advice with a grain of salt (if that). They have always given me misleading information as well as crappy fish. I dont go there anymore.


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## GlassblowRBPown (Apr 4, 2005)

yeah, it sound like they just got you to buy fish. and i will always tell them my setup because its sometimes amusing if they think there right, but then again i get kickes from messin wit people. i was also at a pestamt gettin feeders. i usually dont quarintine cuz im a weiner, but the dood was tellin me, oh, you nned to soak the bag, all this and that, i said f*ck tht, there gonna last 2 seconds. but he insisted i float it because there shock will get them diseased. uhh 2 seconds...


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## Sam (Mar 18, 2004)

GlassblowRBPown said:


> yeah, it sound like they just got you to buy fish. and i will always tell them my setup because its sometimes amusing if they think there right, but then again i get kickes from messin wit people. i was also at a pestamt gettin feeders. i usually dont quarintine cuz im a weiner, but the dood was tellin me, oh, you nned to soak the bag, all this and that, i said f*ck tht, there gonna last 2 seconds. but he insisted i float it because there shock will get them diseased. uhh 2 seconds...
> [snapback]1196311[/snapback]​


This thread is about ignorant petsmart employees.

What are you complaining about, that the guy gave you good advice?


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## Zoo_Keeper (Aug 31, 2005)

Whichever way you go with cycling, you can do this: Do water changes on your 15G from just under the top surface of the water (cleanest stuff) and add to your 55G. Then take gravel from your 15G and put in your 55G. You can run the filter(s) from your 15G on your 55G. If it will fit, you can run the new filter on your 15G to "preload" it with bacteria. These things will "seed" your 55G with nitrifying bacteria and shorten the time needed to add your piranhas.


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## Susp3nc3 (Jan 27, 2005)

just get bio spira and ammonia ..shake the ammonia first and if it doesn't bubble then get it. I dont tell the fish store anything where i am since piranha are illegal anyway. But the LFS that i go to is pretty chill and theres younger people working there that know their sh*t anyway.


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

> Do water changes on your 15G from just under the top surface of the water (cleanest stuff) and add to your 55G.


This will do nothing.



> Then take gravel from your 15G and put in your 55G.


This will do very little.



> If it will fit, you can run the new filter on your 15G to "preload" it with bacteria.


If he doesn't plan on running the 15 gallon he can just switch that filter over to the 55 and call it a day.


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## rumblesushi (Jul 18, 2005)

That's not entirely true that adding gravel will do very little.

I recently setup a tank, added a load of gravel from an established tank, added a rock, heater, and syphoned gravel from the old tank over a sponge filter. Put that in the new tank, and a power filter.

The tank cycled pretty much right away, no cloudy water, barely any ammonia spike.


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

rumblesushi said:


> That's not entirely true that adding gravel will do very little.
> 
> I recently setup a tank, added a load of gravel from an established tank, added a rock, heater, and syphoned gravel from the old tank over a sponge filter. Put that in the new tank, and a power filter.
> 
> ...


Most of the bacteria came from the sponge filter.


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## Nethius (Feb 23, 2003)

To the OP

I've learned that if you need to buy from them big chain fish stores, just buy, don't talk.

I luckily have a "non-chain" fish store close to me, and the staff are very knowledgeable there. The only bad part is they only sell fish and fish supplies, no reptile or cat/dog stuff. So i'm stuck going to Walmart or the "petco" of my area.


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## jessman (Aug 1, 2005)

Azeral said:


> I've had similar run ins with fish stores. One thing I have learned......don't tell them anything about your fish or tank, just buy the stuff.


You are so right. Don't tell them nothing


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## Dawgz (Aug 18, 2005)

i ask them stupid sh*t all the time, they never refuse to sell me things, id create hell in the store if i didnt get wat i wanted just cause im not listning to them. And in the end id go home with wat i came for...







but then agian, it pays to be bigger than most of them hahaha..


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## mylesc99 (Sep 5, 2005)

Always listen to piranha-fury!!!


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

GlassblowRBPown said:


> but the dood was tellin me, oh, you nned to soak the bag, all this and that, i said f*ck tht, there gonna last 2 seconds. but he insisted i float it because there shock will get them diseased. uhh 2 seconds...


What do you think is one of the main reasons for ich outbreaks...? Exactly, fish that are not acclimatized, and experience a nice temperature shock. In other words, those "uhh 2 seconds" can indeed infect, even kill your precious piranha's.
What that LFS guy said was good advice going to waste...


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## Uncle Rico (Sep 4, 2005)

Judazzz said:


> but the dood was tellin me, oh, you nned to soak the bag, all this and that, i said f*ck tht, there gonna last 2 seconds. but he insisted i float it because there shock will get them diseased. uhh 2 seconds...


What do you think is one of the main reasons for ich outbreaks...? Exactly, fish that are not acclimatized, and experience a nice temperature shock. In other words, those "uhh 2 seconds" can indeed infect, even kill your precious piranha's.
What that LFS guy said was good advice going to waste...
[/quote]
I don't know about that, its true that temperature shock can cause ich, but not in 2 seconds. They get ich from stress such as temperature shock stress(weakening immune system), but if two seconds was enough then the extreme stress from being eaten alive would give them ich anyway.


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