- Location
- Long Island
So i was given, by a close friend, a total of $100 in gift cards to infamous PETCO, where the pets go. She knows im a long time aquarist, as do all of my friends, but she knew no better than to get me gift cards from THAT pet store.
I had no choice but to enter this place of witchery. lol. I figured id get my puppy some toys for christmas and some dog food, etc. I had to, of course, swing by the fish department, however.
From about 20 feet away i saw one of their 10 gallon tanks with about 15-18 Banggai Cardinals in it. My heart began to beat faster and my skin flushed. They were very small, definitely juveniles, when i came closer to inspect. Then.... I noticed that they were all Captive Bred. My heart rate dropped to normal rate. I browsed through the rest of the saltwater tanks, and it was obvious they had brought in a lot of SW fish for the holiday shoppers. There entire SW livestock inventory consisted of Clarki, Occelaris, Occelaris B&W, Saddleback misbar, Tomato and Percula clowns. They were ALL captive bred. They also had springeri and purple dottybacks. Both Captive bred. The tank of cardinals, as i said, was captive bred, which is great because there is that terrible virus spreading amongst wild caught Banggai/Kaudern cardinals resulting in less than half of those collected making it to export and then even less surviving a week after import.
So basically almost ALL of the fish that Petco was offering, and there were others im not recalling, and a decent amount in total, were Captive Bred. I saw no signs of disease on any of the fish at all. I still dont promote "mega-pet stores" for the very obvious reasons. But i felt like this was definitely a step in the right direction. I believe this particular situation may have to do with the manager who I've spoken too, and spoke to that day, and who seems to have some morals and some knowledge.
But anyway i was incredibly suprised and a little bit glad that somebody is trying to make a change.
Captive Bred is the way to go. Just 2 cents.
I had no choice but to enter this place of witchery. lol. I figured id get my puppy some toys for christmas and some dog food, etc. I had to, of course, swing by the fish department, however.
From about 20 feet away i saw one of their 10 gallon tanks with about 15-18 Banggai Cardinals in it. My heart began to beat faster and my skin flushed. They were very small, definitely juveniles, when i came closer to inspect. Then.... I noticed that they were all Captive Bred. My heart rate dropped to normal rate. I browsed through the rest of the saltwater tanks, and it was obvious they had brought in a lot of SW fish for the holiday shoppers. There entire SW livestock inventory consisted of Clarki, Occelaris, Occelaris B&W, Saddleback misbar, Tomato and Percula clowns. They were ALL captive bred. They also had springeri and purple dottybacks. Both Captive bred. The tank of cardinals, as i said, was captive bred, which is great because there is that terrible virus spreading amongst wild caught Banggai/Kaudern cardinals resulting in less than half of those collected making it to export and then even less surviving a week after import.
So basically almost ALL of the fish that Petco was offering, and there were others im not recalling, and a decent amount in total, were Captive Bred. I saw no signs of disease on any of the fish at all. I still dont promote "mega-pet stores" for the very obvious reasons. But i felt like this was definitely a step in the right direction. I believe this particular situation may have to do with the manager who I've spoken too, and spoke to that day, and who seems to have some morals and some knowledge.
But anyway i was incredibly suprised and a little bit glad that somebody is trying to make a change.
Captive Bred is the way to go. Just 2 cents.
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. Thank you for the kind words
