PetSmart Koi

[LFriedel]

We recently purchased two 6 inch koi from PetSmart for our pond. There are 12 other fish including small koi and goldfish in the pond and the water quality is excellent. Two days ago the first PetSmart koi began floating tail down and then onto his side on rocks and on the bottom of the pond and showing great effort to keep himself upright. Today the second PetSmart koi is starting to do the same thing. WeThe other fish in the pond are vibrantly active and appear healthy. PetSmart has a 14 day guarantee apparently IF you bring in the dead fish in within that period of time and a water sample.

These are lovely looking koi but the fact that BOTH from PetSmart are in distress leads me to wonder if anyone else has had similar experience with koi from PetSmart?

[BooUrns!]

Get them out of your pond quickly!

I would strongly reccommend anyone buying fish from one of the big box LFS quarantine their fish for at least four weeks before adding them to your general population of fish. Those fish are generally exposed to parasites and pathogens while in the store tanks and this can spread to your own fish when you bring them home. I would return the koi and get a refund or store credit. If you plan to buy fish fom these stores again follow the quarantine procedures to make sure your other fish are protected.

Dont add water from the store's tanks to your own. Match temps and then blend your water with the water the fish were bagged with and then move the fish into a quarantine tank.

Keep them there for a fews weeks for observation to see if any illnesses appear.

[LFriedel]

Update on our PetSmart Koi:

We caught one of them and returned him to PetSmart for a full refund. It looked like he had a scratch on his side which then had some kind of fungus. We treated the entire pond with a product that fizzes and turns the pond blue for a few days and is for various fish conditions such as fungus, swim bladder, etc. (purchased at Big Al's which has an excellent selection of pond treatments).

The other koi seemed laconic for a few days but now is happily swimming around with his fish buddies and any problems he had seemed to have been solved.

[french fries]

I would not trust those petsmart koi. I have a freind that bought a few koi from them once I think he payed waaaaayy to much for them. A few days later one dies while the others where doing fine. Then another one dies so he returned them. After "breaking some heads" her managed to get a refund.

This is what I think happened: I don't know hpw your petsmart is setup but at mine there are big tanks at the bottom of the selfs reserved for koi. Beside the koi tank they had an oscar with hole in the head that someone brought in. There is a tube that connects the two tanks so that there is a current. They had something covering the whole so the oscar would not swim through but it was not commpletly covered so I think the oscars bad water and disease spread into the koi tank.

Edited July 3, 2008 by french fries

[Ishkabod]

I bought my first Koi from Petsmart and i must say it was a little touch and go, I've been visiting Petsmart followed by Aquagiant the last couple of months and it was rare for me to find sick fish in the PS Koi tank. Until recently. I'm sure they get their koi from the same place and this last batch seem to be doing not so good. If you ever buy any fish from any LFS that doesn't quarantine all fish before selling them then your gambling with the lives of all your fish by not keeping the fish quarantined for an adaquite time. For such a small fish a small tank with a salt and heat treatment for a week will kill almost anything a koi can get. Research before useing this treatment because if you don't do it right you can easily kill a cold water fish like a Koi. I just bought a koi from Aquagiant They do a really good job keeping the fish healthy and i have yet to see a sick/dead or even lethargic koi in their tanks. It's five bucks more than Petsmart but worth every penny. Petsmart is a hit and miss for healthy fish i've had two die on me and the fist one i bought is doing wonderfully.

Good luck.

L

[Baos]

petsmart.. one store that does not know a thing about fish. Lets just say it, I love blue rams and know a ton about them. I walked into petsmart and asked how much for them. They told me the tiger barbs were $5, but 2 for 1 so $2.50 each. With special precautions as this particular fish isn't friendly. I bought 14 blue rams that day. I do find them to be the cheapest fish store around, just be sure to hospitalize anything you get for a couple weeks as they are usually already stressed and even if they don't have any diseases, the new fish may not be able to take the stress of your other friendly tank mates.

Edited July 4, 2008 by Baos