PetoCo Fish

[Gdel]

So I’m not a new member… been in the hobby for more than a year now and my tank is doing well at the moment. I was at Petco the other day and they have a beautiful wrasse, some sort of blue belly fairy wrasse variety. The only catch is that it definitely has ick. Doesn’t seem to be dying but it needs to be treated or it will likely die.

My heart is telling me to buy it and treat with copper. I do quarantine all my fish, but my brain is saying to just let it go. Would I be nuts to try and treat it?

I honestly just hate to see such a beautiful fish die, which is where it’s headed. Also, any quarantine would need to be prolonged (30+ days) since it’s somewhat risky to do anything less.

Can someone give me some sound advice? Should I just put it out of my mind?

 

[civics14]

Personally, I would not touch it. Also, wrasses usually don’t do well in copper.

 

[ActiveAngel]

I agree, unfortunately.

 

[york1]

I agree with @civics14 It is not gonna end well

 

[billyocean]

It's not a definite that it's going to die with copper. Fairy wrasses seem to do better in copper. The key (from what I read when my old pintail had it) was to raise the copper levels slowly over a week to treatment levels. Keep plenty of aeration and make sure ammonia stays away. I added biospira with a piece of live rock in the qt for bacteria to help with ammonia. It's a bit of work but can be done successfully. If its going to most likely die at petco..why not? You can tell the worker or a manager about the situation and see what price you could get it at..I've heard of HEAVY discounts. Personally, I wouldn't buy one off the rip with ich, but if you're up to the challenge, go for it.

I used copper power which is supposedly less harsh but I'm no scientist. It did work though

 

[Adam]

There are options beyond copper too. Initially treat the fish with Metro & Focus in the food. Then move to the Modified TTM method for the balance of the QT. You could even haggle with Petco on the price of the fish as it has ich.

Personally Ich doesn't scare me at all. Velvet, Brook, Uronema... signs of those and I wouldn't touch the fish.

Good info here:

Hybrid TTM Discussion

Use this forum to ask questions and for general Hybrid TTM discussion.

humble.fish

 

[civics14]

TIL you can haggle price at petco

 

[myvwrock]

TIL you can haggle price at petco

I do it all the time. Especially at Home Depot.

Sent from my LM-K500 using Tapatalk

 

[gill]

Let it go. You can't save all of them. Time = money = happy = what else you got going on?

 

[90gDreams]

You can always do a TTM to treat it. Easy way to avoid this issue is to just stay out of Petco though....

 

[silentdeath5]

You can always do a TTM to treat it. Easy way to avoid this issue is to just stay out of Petco though....

I wouldn’t say stay out of Petco lol. Just don’t go the trying to save everything route.

 

[90gDreams]

I wouldn’t say stay out of Petco lol. Just don’t go the trying to save everything route.

I gave some advice a while ago on how to do a cheap nano. First 4 items were a tank, salt, sand, and hydrometer from petco. Next sentence was "then forget Petco exists" lol

 

[enderg60]

I gave some advice a while ago on how to do a cheap nano. First 4 items were a tank, salt, sand, and hydrometer from petco. Next sentence was "then forget Petco exists" lol

This is the way, I have honestly never been in a petco and seen healthy fish. Not once.

And NEVER try to save a fish. All you will do is feel bad when it dies and threaten your entire tank with illness.

 

[Reefer-Madness]

My first two clowns were from petco. They came with a nasty case of flukes. They made it out okay but I was worried about them and luckily there weren't any other fish in my tank yet but I avoid them now. It's case by case because some petcos do have staff that care but there's only one near me that sell marine fish and it's a gamble every time. Not worth it when we have awesome reef stores around.

 

[90gDreams]

Not worth it when we have awesome reef stores around.

This here really sums it up. There are very few industries where small businesses are a choice. Everyone here has heard me yap and rant about retail prices of livestock in this hobby but when I do buy something from a store and not fellow hobbyist it is from a LFS not Petco. Some employees and some stores are good, and heck a lot of the time the LFS and Petco are leaning on the same wholesaler. The difference really comes down to giving money to wallstreet corporations or supporting some reef crazed hobbyist that was just crazy enough to think they could make money doing this stuff.

 

[drnecropolis]

I made a hard rule about 10 years ago. Never buy sick fish to try and save them. I still stand by it and will never waiver, saves me a lot of potential headache..