Ich must be in season this time of year. (wal-mart)

[patryuji]

I was in one of the local Wal-marts and I always like to look at what they have in their tanks...this time I saw their "silver dollars" had Ich. I then turned to the person working there and told them of the infection (which was looking very bad on several fish). I hope they have some type of "diatom" filter since the water is shared otherwise all of their fish will have it eventually. The local person working there then dumped in some good ol Ich medicine (I hope it wasn't a copper based med or they will lose the ghost shrimp I saw in one of the other tanks). Now if they treat one little tank with the appropriate amount for that tank and the water is shared...I guess it is unlikely to kill all of the parasites since it will be diluted amongst the entire volume of all their tanks.

The girl then proceeded to sell a fish from a different tank without a second thought...

[pkremer]

Originally Posted by patryuji

I hope they have some type of "diatom" filter since the water is shared otherwise all of their fish will have it eventually.

You wish! No, unfortunately, I counted 8 tanks sharing the same water at my local Wal-Mart, and then 4 sets of those. 32 total tanks, only 4 water systems. Watch one tank get ich, and all 8 are infected.

Originally Posted by patryuji

The girl then proceeded to sell a fish from a different tank without a second thought...

Of course! Wal-Mart employees for the most part don't even know anything about fish (diseases are contagious???). They don't even understand the tank system (hence dosing for one tank when the water is shared between 8)!

I feel bad for the fish at Wal-Mart, but am too scared to try and rescue one for fear of contaminating my tanks with something. If you were going to buy a fish at Wal-Mart, you would have to carefully study every fish in all tanks connected to the same water system...a lot of hassle just to save a dollar.

Paul

[William]

You think thats bad..

My local wal-mart has everyone one of their tanks [ 40 or so, I'd guess ] HOoked up through ONE filtration unit, a Marineland Tidepool filter.



Their betta's arn't safe either, evne isolated in their little cups.

I just brought one home and had her ravage my female betta tank and kill every last one of my female bettas in that tank with some kind of Betta Specific Fungus that spread like wildfire.