Anyone else taken pity on walmart fish?

[GouramiFanatic]

Oh honestly, I wish people wouldn't make generalizations. Wisconsin walmarts get their fish from APet Inc and most of the fish are wonderful. I prefer getting my fish there, better quality than most area stores. Also, you gotta lay off the fact that some stores don't clean the dead fish out of tanks, they don't have any higher death rate than other pet stores. the other stores are just better at hiding their death rates. If you see poor quality fish, its likely they come from a poor quality supplier.

Fish are pretty sensitive so while it sucks to say this, every pet store will experience deaths. That's just the way it is. Most pet stores however do a better job of removing the dead fish or isolating the sick/dying fish before to many customers see them. When I go my local Petco there's almost always at least one tank with a dead fish or a tank or two where you can clearly see Ich. In a store as large as Petco with such a large fish department, I've kind of come to expect it.

My local WalMart however, there's not just the one tank with a dead fish or the one tank that has Ich, it's seen in just about every tank. Not only that, but most of the dead fish by the time I see them are covered in fuzz which clearly shows that they've been dead and left in the water to rot for quite some time. While I've never worked at WalMart you can't honestly tell me that there's nobody that can take the initiative (or be assigned) to at least feed the fish and remove the dead ones from the tank. If for nothing else to make them look at little more compassionate about the fish. I mean if they can't or aren't willing to at least show some care to them they shouldn't have them to begin with.

 

[Puriti]

I'm happy to say the little gold gourami is still skinny (you can still see his skull protruding out from the skin) but he's very personable and the little blue one is doing well and is constantly picking on the gold one so I may have to seperate them...but so far they're healhy (or healthier...) and are doing great ^__^

 

[Rachelinwy]

I have rescued my share of bettas from Wal-Mart and PetCo. I actually spoke to a manager at PetCo one time, over the condition of the bettas... rotting food at the bottom of those terribly small containers, half-full of water, even some dying... Her response: "Well I just got here, and the other manager has been here since 8:00". Right, because blaming it on someone else will save the fish.

I then wrote an e-mail to PetCo corporate, and got the official PR response blah blah blah... I did tell everyone I know to boycott PetCo. I don't even go there anymore for cat food - having a clean conscience is worth paying the additional $10 at my vet.

 

[Puriti]

IME most PetCo workers don't necessarily know anything about the animals they care for or do much training. One of my friends worked there and she left about a month or so later because of other people's lack of knowledge @__@

 

[hc8719]

if you buy their fish you are encouraging the bad treatment

this has been a debate over a long period of time, I dont think a few purchases are going to do much as other people are still going to continue to buy them and they will continue to sell them, just the sad way it is

exactly blazey, unless we can get every 7 year old who wants a "goldfish" or a "sucker fish" saving the lives we can is not a bad thing.

it's like in schindlers list, the jews he saved would just be replaced by more jews as slave labor and the like. so was it worth it, doing what he did?