EVERETT PETSMART - PLEASE LEARN HOW TO FISHLESS-CYCLE YOUR DISPLAY TANKS. THEIR WATER QUALITY IS UNSAFE. I recently purchased a school of red minor tetras with ammonia poisoning from this location. I have good reason to believe it is from their tank water in the store. Immediately once they were put in the bag, I noticed many of them had noticeably puffy, red inflamed gills. All of them were pale. They are small fishes so it may have been hard to notice at first, but I have taken care of their species for years now and it was very clear up close that these ones were not feeling well. Before they moved into the quarantine tank I had prepared for them, I took 4 vials of water from the bag of tank water they were put in at PetSmart. I was surprised that after finally being in a well-aerated, nitrogen-cycled tank for only one day, I noticed that all of the visible inflammation on their gills went away. And now I know why-- the tetras' tank at this PetSmart had an ammonia level of at least 0.5ppm. Anything over zero is toxic. Their tank in the store was not even cycled. It makes sense in a way, because I've always been shocked by how stores like PetSmart and Petco won't even mention to unknowing customers the most important part of keeping a fish alive: nitrogen-cycling their tank first. But it's very distressing that these PetSmart staff themselves don't even seem to be taught how to properly take care of the aquatic animals living in the store. The nitrate level in the water from the tetras' bag was also not good. It looked to be between 40-80ppm, suggesting insufficient water changes. While the API freshwater test kit sets 40ppm as the highest tolerable threshold for freshwater aquariums, the aquatic vet I work with has personally seen poor health resulting from nitrate levels much lower. Bottom line: This is not acceptable animal husbandry. Everett PetSmart - please test your water and make sure your display tanks are fully nitrogen-cycled before our finned friends have to live in them. read more