diff --git a/build_tools/travis/install.sh b/build_tools/travis/install.sh
index 9a5b65ce225bd..443bfb9d812a9 100755
--- a/build_tools/travis/install.sh
+++ b/build_tools/travis/install.sh
@@ -62,6 +62,11 @@ if [[ "$DISTRIB" == "conda" ]]; then
     conda create -n testenv --yes $TO_INSTALL
     source activate testenv
 
+    # for python 3.4, conda does not have recent pytest packages
+    if [[ "$PYTHON_VERSION" == "3.4" ]]; then
+        pip install pytest==3.5
+    fi
+
 elif [[ "$DISTRIB" == "ubuntu" ]]; then
     # At the time of writing numpy 1.9.1 is included in the travis
     # virtualenv but we want to use the numpy installed through apt-get
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index f96e9cf9f85ab..4ed3f87cc4b3c 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ test = pytest
 addopts =
     --doctest-modules
     --disable-pytest-warnings
+    -r skipped
 
 [wheelhouse_uploader]
 artifact_indexes=