Last night, my girlfriend and I went to get stuff for a betta tank, and decided to look at their fish we found a tank of barbs with one glass cat in it. The barbs were attacking him, and I wanted to buy it. But, I am not getting my 29g for another two days. It just irritates me that they sell thing that they don't know how to take care of. I know its commonplace, but it makes me mad.
Wal-Mart is stupid
- Thread starter darby
- Start date
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smarsh7903
Aquarium Advice Activist
Yea, I was at mine a few weeks ago and I always check out the fish. In one tank an oscar was dead, just floating around, and about a million starving plecos were eating on him. Thats pretty sad imo
TheCrazyFishLady
Aquarium Advice Addict
It makes everyone mad. I'm pretty sure everyone on this site will have a horror story of what happens when you visit the fish aisle.
Apparently, Walmart is going to stop selling the live fish. Some states already don't allow it. Sadly, my state of Georgia just doesn't allow the newly built Walmarts to have the fish.
Apparently, Walmart is going to stop selling the live fish. Some states already don't allow it. Sadly, my state of Georgia just doesn't allow the newly built Walmarts to have the fish.
Yea, it happens. I haven't actually been to a walmart with an aquatics section before, but I can assume from Walmart's general policy that the goal is to "sell the most variety with the least cost" so they end up treating fish like Jelly Beans and Asparagus - putting them on the same shelf even though they clearly don't go together. 
ChelseaLake
Aquarium Advice Activist
Has anyone else ever thought about how weird it is that they sell fish? I mean, it's a grocery store to me. It's like, you go in wanting to buy a head of lettuce and some potato chips, and there are LIVE FISH there!
I think it's time for wally world to wave the white flag on this one. They won't though. Enough parents of little kids buy goldfish or bettas. You know, "disposable fish". It irks me too. I know how maddening it is.
I think it's time for wally world to wave the white flag on this one. They won't though. Enough parents of little kids buy goldfish or bettas. You know, "disposable fish". It irks me too. I know how maddening it is.
dkpate
Aquarium Advice Addict
I just had to comment because I think we might have the same name LOL. Walmart fish suck.
NODAK1979
Aquarium Advice Activist
I had no clue Walmart sold live fish.
aquabeast
Aquarium Advice FINatic
they had large oscars, like 5 or 6 in one of those little tanks, they had ich so bad, they were bleeding.. i was stupid then, i bought a pleco from there, but it got lucky, he lived, got healthy, now hes like 7 inches..
Josh
Aquarium Advice Activist
I actively boycott any store that mistreats animals. Be it a pet store that sells dyed/clipped/tattoo'd fish or a giant superstore that doesn't care about the living creatures they sell enough to give them proper care.
OhNeil1969
Aquarium Advice Addict
Years ago I bought my first tank and fish from Woolworth's (you know - the five and dime store
. It was the Walmart of it's day without the groceries). So I'm not surprised to see Walmart selling fish. It's no more weird than getting an oil change and haircut at the same place you buy your food.
Deep Seven
Aquarium Advice Addict
The Walmart where I live in Canada stopped selling live fish a while ago. They really only sold fish to push their aquarium equipment sales. They noticed that they still sold the same amount of equipment without selling live fish.
HUKIT
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have bought a few of the most beatiful malawi peacocks from Walmart here in town and could not be any happier. I even had a local breeder ask where I purchased them from and was almost embarressed to tell the truth. No complaints with my local Walmat.
maxima423
Aquarium Advice Addict
so does that mean you specifically shop online? i mean, all pet stores have cramped tanks, i dont know if you can really stop them from selling dyed fish, i personally have told 5-6 managers about selling dyed fish and most of them give a good fight that, business is business, if a product can bring in money like hot cakes, how do you run away from it? you arent paying their bills to rent out the place, or to have electricity... even though i hate it, i wont tell them to rot in a hole
and shopping online is expensive, REAL expensive, i 99.9% guarantee that their are no fish stores out there that accommodate every fish, because if they do, they would have to own a whole block to do so, lots of 55/75 for all the cichlids, 300g per arrowana, lots of 20g longs or even 30g for every school of tetra/cories, 55g for one or two RTS, its just insane to accommodate every fish, and think about if its a pet store that sells dogs, cats, guinea pigs, lizards, snakes... forget about it, i havent even gotten into africans, each section for each lake if you want to be specific and serious about fish keeping, lots of 75g-90g if you want to accommodate each species
and speaking of mistreatment, bettas? 5g per betta? and petco has 30-40 bettas each week, do you expect them to make 5g tanks across the shelf w/ heater, filter for each betta? thats insane, each betta would cost about 20$, just because they need the money to pay for their bills
i can go on and on with hundreds of scenarios
ejaramillo01
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yep, it is hard to survive in todays economy and have your own business.
TheCrazyFishLady
Aquarium Advice Addict
so does that mean you specifically shop online? i mean, all pet stores have cramped tanks, i dont know if you can really stop them from selling dyed fish, i personally have told 5-6 managers about selling dyed fish and most of them give a good fight that, business is business, if a product can bring in money like hot cakes, how do you run away from it? you arent paying their bills to rent out the place, or to have electricity... even though i hate it, i wont tell them to rot in a hole
and shopping online is expensive, REAL expensive, i 99.9% guarantee that their are no fish stores out there that accommodate every fish, because if they do, they would have to own a whole block to do so, lots of 55/75 for all the cichlids, 300g per arrowana, lots of 20g longs or even 30g for every school of tetra/cories, 55g for one or two RTS, its just insane to accommodate every fish, and think about if its a pet store that sells dogs, cats, guinea pigs, lizards, snakes... forget about it, i havent even gotten into africans, each section for each lake if you want to be specific and serious about fish keeping, lots of 75g-90g if you want to accommodate each species
and speaking of mistreatment, bettas? 5g per betta? and petco has 30-40 bettas each week, do you expect them to make 5g tanks across the shelf w/ heater, filter for each betta? thats insane, each betta would cost about 20$, just because they need the money to pay for their bills
i can go on and on with hundreds of scenarios
I'm going to partially agree with you on this one. Outside of the pretty display tanks that some shops set up, there is no possible way to fully accommodate the fish. But, what good shops do is to do what they can to make sure the fish are in good shape. They do high quality foods and all that. This makes up for their cramped lives and hopefully they are only stuck there for a bit.
Other stores simply don't do this and that is usually due to the mentality that the fish are just a product. Hence why they order in a ridiculously large amount of bettas at one time. They predict a large amount will die, so they need more fish to fill in the empty cups.
