Rumors of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing Partnering with Petco Really Heating Up

Back in May, we uncovered a rumor that Acrylic Tank Manufacturing, the stars of the Animal Planet television show “Tanked”, and Petco would be teaming up. According to the gossip, ATM would go into some or all of the Petco locations and rebuild their entire saltwater aquarium systems. On top of that, ATM would be training folks on how to perform in-home aquarium maintenance, effectively creating a service branch for the large pet retailer. While our initial rumors were founded on just one Petco employee’s information and of a potential partnership and loads of circumstantial evidence, the latest account by an Arizona based aquarium hobbyist adds even more credence to the rumors.

According to “Geemanaz” of AzReefs, one of the Grand Canyon State’s online aquarium communities, a team from ATM was as a local Petco measuring the aquariums in preparation for a large install. “Gemanaz” asked the guys what they were doing, and was told that they were building new saltwater systems and would take over that part of the store. If this account is true, then it would fall right in line with our initial rumors, or at least part of them.

In an attempt to verify the story by “Gemanaz”, we contacted several Arizona Petco stores over the weekend. Unfortunately, none of the stores we contacted could give us a definitive answer, as the managers who would be knowledgable of the situation were not at the store at the time. And while this account of the ATM takeover of Petco saltwater aquariums may not be a strong one on its own, it certainly adds to the growing pile of evidence that something is in fact going on between the two companies. We can still only speculate at this point, and neither Brett Raymer or Wayde King have responded to our emails regarding the partnership.