I had some time to spare downtown yesterday, and went into a Petsmart, then a Petco to see what their betta fish selection was. Wow – what a difference. Hands down, Petco wins.
The experience at Petsmart: the bettas were in those sad little travel cups. The water in the cups was blue – I believe this is a water conditioner, though it might also be a sedative. When my discus fish were overnighted to me, they were in a similar blue solution and I had to follow a set of instructions to “wake them up” properly.
Anyway, the fish were in whatever that blue solution is, but they looked pretty terrible. Many had fins that were already disappearing or rotting, and they were completely lethargic – when I had my head 4 inches from the cups, they barely moved. Maybe the blue stuff is a sedative.
I did notice the $3.99 32 oz bottles of “betta water” they were selling. As mentioned in this article about betta water conditioners, betta water may be one of the biggest scams going.
Petsmart did have a few female bettas, which they hadn’t had the last time. It was pretty hard to find them, though. The whole betta selection was on one shelf, with betta cups going back all the way to the back of the shelf, if you could see that far. It was kinda depressing and alarming, actually. I wonder if Petsmart has adopted the “lets make the pets look really miserable so people feel sorry for them and take them home” philosophy.
The rest of the store did look OK. The fish in the real display tanks were healthy. And they had live plants which makes my little heart go pitter-patter. I bought my Marineland 5 gallon hex tank there – much more about that later.
Petco was completely different. They had an entire aisle-end dedicated to showing off their bettas. The little cups (alas, still little cups) were crystal-clear clean, with no blue substance. And they had half moons! $13 each.
This was definitely the place to get a betta. The fish looked so much healthier, their colors were so much more vibrant, and they had some really cool, unusual fish (for a pet store; the sky’s the limit if you buy from a breeder) like plakats, and crowntails, and a very cool navy blue butterfly (which means his body was blue, but the exterior half of his fins were transparent).
After I get my two tanks set up for the great betta tank experiment, I’m going back to Petco to get my next fish. I still wish Pete’s Pets, our old local, non-chain pet store was still in business. They would have stomped even Petco.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m with you, PetCo wins in my neck of the woods too. This isn’t always the case. I have found significant differences depending on where in the country you live and sometimes the local PetSmart is better. In southern California, however, PetCo has healthier bettas in cleaner cups.
I had the complete opposite experience. While Petco does have a wider variety of bettas (viel tail, crown tail, half moon, delta tail and I think another one, as well as females in most of these types) their bettas were in pitiful shape. Most had fins that were rotting off in the water and they had a lot more dead fish and the cups they are kept in were only half full of water. I did dose both the the one I brought home with some betta med, but I don’t know if they will make it or now.
Petsmart on the other hand has 2 entire endcaps dedicated to both male and female bettas (viel tale and crown tail only). Their cups were full of water and the fist all looked healthy. I also happened to see the clerk changing their water when I was in one day.
As I am an avid betta lover, I was very sad to see the condition of the poor fish at my local petco. I hope the ones in other parts of the country do better than that!!!