Wal-Mart should not sell fish!

[sunsplash76]

Let me first start by saying, that I am not anti-walmart. I love the prices on clothes and shoes & have been a faithful shopper for years. They also make a tasty flavored water, but that's beside my point, lol

I went to take a look at the fish they had in their tanks and I was just disgusted with what I saw! I felt like calling peta or the aspca or somebody to help these poor fish. There was a tank of red gourami's and they all had big patches of white spots all over their bodies. Like a white velvet mold or something, it was disgusting. Many dead fish floating about and stuck to the filter decaying even. Then they had a separate tank off to the side which contained the sickest fish I have ever seen in my life. This poor fish had scales sticking out of his body all over, plus he had no eyes on either side. I dunno if he was attacked or if it was birth defects or bad maintenance; but that poor fish looked like the swimming dead. I was surprised it could live in that condition. The tanks didn't look filthy per-say, but the fish were just in bad shape. My heart was bleeding for all these fish. I think they should stick to home and garden and clothes, but definitely no fish!!!!!!!!! OOOOOOOohhhh I am sick from this.
~Melissa~

[Jacob Morgan]

I thought they were no longer allowed to carry fsh in walmart. Maybe its just the new supercenters. I know they quit carrying them here for legal issues I thought(this was a few yrs ago and thats just w hat I heard). Carrying live creatures when you also carry food for humans was a no no I believe :-/



Jacob

Sunsplash,

Got this from the walmart website, give the home office a call and tell them your experience, maybe something will happen. Also, I'd call the manager of the store you went to. I'm glad the walmart near me doesn't carry fish.

Call Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., at 1-800-WALMART (1-800-925-627, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. (CT) Monday - Friday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (CT) Saturday or from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. (CT) Sunday.

To reach the home office, call 479-273-4000.

Mail

Mail your questions or comments regarding our stores or home office to:

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Attn: Customer Service
702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72716

[swmmnglessons]

I got my first 2 fish at Wal-Mart a few months ago, a black moor and a regular old goldfish. I had to go to the garden department to ask for help in pets and went back to the fish and waited for probably 10 minutes till someone finally showed up. It was 2 young guys and I could tell they knew absolutely nothing about fish. They took a plastic drinking cup to scoop some water into the bag, only after first dropping it on the floor TWICE...Then the guy broke the little flip-top thingy that covers up the tops of the tanks. It was pretty sad. I agree that they shouldn't carry fish, especially since fish can be hard to take care of properly if you don't know what you're doing. Heck, even dogs and cats would be better because at least they can halfway take care of themselves. I also hate those tiny little cups that stores keep bettas in. I know they don't need much more than that but it's still kinda sad. But you can at least be kinda happy that some people do actually buy fish at Wal-Mart and get them outta that **** hole...lol

[loganj]

I wholeheartedly agree that Wal-Mart should limit themselves to filter floss and containers of Goldfish food. I hate to go in there for any reason. However, on the subject of experienced help, you would not believe how hard it is to get someone with experience to work in a pet store. When you can find someone, as often as not, they steal you blind. Then you hire a high school kid and try to train them. They work a few weeks, soak up lots of your time training them, and then quit because they find out that running a pet store is a lot like work. It's a hard business to be in.
Logan J

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

our walmart supercenter sells fish.....

[SleeplessLwd]

I know the Walmart near me sells fish. I personally wouldn't buy my fish from them because I know the people in that dept don't have too much knowledge about fish. Therefore, I'm sure they aren't taken care of properly. although the tanks look clean and the fish don't seem to have any problems, I just have to wonder what sick fish were in the tanks previously that weren't treated because the workers didn't know anything about fish or the diseases and parasites they get.

[Katfish]

I bought 4 guppyies and 2 mollies the other day and took them home, about 3 hour drive. They made it very well. However the person in charge of the aquariums was a middle-aged woman who seem to know her job well. I recall a few years back i was getting ready to buy 2 redtail sharks and found the aquariums in a mess. It turns out that some kids decided to feed the fish and opened up some flakes containers and overfed the fish (overfed here is an UNDERSTATEMENT). Almost all of the aquariums had food all over the place. The employees where cleaning out 3 tanks and getting all the fish out of the dirty ones. They knew that all this stress would kill off a lot of the fish, that was sad, and all of this due to lack of supervision.

I obviously didn't get anything that day.

[d9hp]

I have bought two algae eaters and four ghost shrimp from my local walmart, the tanks there are spotless, unlike some petstores. I have gotten to personally know the man who keeps the tanks clean and he really knows his stuff, after a year of learning. He is always running magnets on the tanks and making sure they look well-kept-up. There are some dead fish in them at times, only when he isnt working tho. The tanks and kits there are a great deal aswell. I got my entire set-up, except some fish from there and i am highly impressed. Maybe you have to find a good one.

[hisc1ay]

Yeah, the first time I bought fish at WalMart, the clerk there was actually THERE, and he was an older man who was telling me about his fish at home, and he's been keeping fish for a number of years, and it was really good. It's just that you probably don't have to be skilled in the fish world to work that department. I don't think I've seen in any other walmart I've been to someone actually in the fish department taking care of the fish. But I used that store for all of my fish needs when I was in Rochester, and my favorite Betta came from there. I still miss Vinny.

-j