Anyone else taken pity on walmart fish?

[Puriti]

I was at walmart today and naturally ...I go over to the small fish section... and everyone knows how bad their fish are, so yeah, you guessed it I found crappy fish tanks and bad looking fish. But what REALLY caught my attention was their gouramis... skinny as a sheet of paper and there was one blue one that was 1" long and a bunch of similar sized gold gourami's.... Now I feel bad for the babies.. there were few adults but a LOT of baby gourami's so... I took pity on the baby blue one and one of the smaller gold ones and took them home. About a minute after I had put them into the tank... of course there was some stress but I put flaked food in and they were going at it like SHARKS! @___@ I hope they survive and become fat adults because this just makes me hurt inside... Anyone else ever taken pity on these poor wal-mart fish? >.<

 

[hsherman1986]

yea, most of my bettas have been from walmart. I found an angelicus botia there once, but it didn't live very long. I try not to go back to that section of walmart anymore. It just makes me so sad, and I don't have the tank space for the fish that they carry.

 

[theotheragentm]

I pity them, but unfortunately I can't rescue fish all the time. It's unfortunate that any store that sells fish can make you want to take pity on the fish they stock.

 

[Puriti]

Yeah, I only took pity on these ones because I've seen babies at like petsmart but they're not like..emaciated. X.x I have the space for them ATM so I said...ah what the heck?

 

[blazeyreef]

I to pitty them, but dont trust them! I dont want to risk my tanks.... although I have seen angel fish their once that were just amazing colors!

 

[Puriti]

Yeah... I have a quartentine tank I put them in so I'm not too worried ^^;

 

[blazeyreef]

Yeah... I have a quartentine tank I put them in so I'm not too worried ^^;

I wish I could have a QT tank....but my mom wont let me set up any more tanks (I managed to get 4 up as it is...)

 

[Puriti]

Yeah my mom won't let me have anymore either but I dropped off a bunch of my fish off at school so it was just kinda housing a pair of bettas temporarily so I took them out and put the gourami's in.. they seem to be doing okay I just hope they make it :?

 

[DepotFish]

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.

 

[cabezon]

if you buy their fish you are encouraging the bad treatment

 

[blazeyreef]

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

 

[DepotFish]

what bad treatment, what I see in our local walmarts is proper retail treatment for fish

 

[WaterPond]

lately, my walmart has had healthier fish than my most trusted LFS... they dont have much of a variety though. I see the odd dead fish, but thats it.

I buy the odd fish from walmart, if they have particular nice looking speciemens. I dont think that buying from walmart "encourages the bad treatmet", i think that a little kid going there to buy a goldfish for his bowl envourages bad treatement. The thing is, with walmart, the cator to a whole different type of person. The people why know only limited things about fish.

We on the other hand prefer to buy from breeders and reputable fish stores because we have heard bad stories about walmart.

 

[Burks]

The past few times I've been at Wal-Mart, not one Betta was alive. Two trips ago they actually had one that was so decomposed you could see bones.

Yeah.........I really can't see "saving" a fish from Wal-Mart because that "saved" fish could kill the rest in your tank (provided you don't QT like myself). Plus the odds of surviving the stress of moving them isn't exactly in the fish's favor.

 

[Puriti]

Yeah this is the very first time I've actually 'saved' a fish from walmart, I normally go to Petsmart but the gourami's were breaking my heart because mine are naturally plump and healthy and the big ones seemed a bit fatter ...making me think they're eating all the food so I just saved the tiniest ones of the two species there....I wasn't gonna go all out. Trust me there were some worse off fish in that store @___@ lol

 

[jdizzle3id]

The Wal-mart here is by far the best place to buy fish within a 40 mile radius. I never see dead fish there, if a fish is suspected of disease they quarantine it and don't sell it, and all of the tanks are clean. The only other places around here are a Petco and a locally owned pet store with a small fish section. Both the quality and selection at either one is awful. I think the people in charge of the fish section and who their supplier is has much more to do with the quality of their fish than the name above the door.

 

[gu2high]

My nearby Walmart is fairely good. It doesn't have many fish but whenever I go there, there is someone to help me and this means he/she is there to 'help' the fish too. I bought 1 pair of Dwarf Gourami and the fish are good.

 

[tropicfishman]

I wanna dress up like the hamburgalur with a big cooler on wheels and just run in one day and start filling the cooler witht ank water and throw in as many fish as possible, then just take off running and pushing the cooler while hysterically laughing..........

 

[7Enigma]

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.

Not me. That shows a general disregard for ammonia levels and disease. Rotting fish in a tank can cause a whole host of problems, and if a store fails to remove them in a timely fashion I most definitely will not shop there.

I have 2 PetSmart's near me. 1 has very nice well-maintained tanks with minimum dead fish in the tank (except for the feeder fish). The other (the closest to my house) is a disaster. 1/2 eaten fish swimming around (due to incompatible species or overcrowding), floaters, sinkers, fish being eaten by other fish, clearly apparent disease (parasites) etc. I ALMOST bought a gourami from this PetSmart due to wanting to "rescue" but ultimately I did not want to support a store that treats their animals this way, and was concerned about the health of the fish (I even have a 10 gallon QT tank).

My LFS that I purchase all of my fish at is farther away then the bad PetSmart but closer than the farther one, and while the place looks like a total dive, I can normally count on one hand the number of dead fish in the place. No overstocked fish, no incompatible species kept together, and while the prices are higher, I'll gladly pay the premium knowing that I'm getting (hopefully) disease-free healthy fish.

 

[cabezon]

what bad treatment, what I see in our local walmarts is proper retail treatment for fish

walmart, LFS, petco, wherever you go that has crappy tanks that makes you want to "rescue" fish. buying is not rescuing, buying is encouraging. speaking with the manager and getting the fish for free would be a rescue.