Wal-Mart should not sell fish!

[nejsux]

i have never even seen a walmart with fish. just supplies. i am lucky i guess. a lot of the major pet stores near me, like petco and petland, are just as bad as the walmart stories you are telling. its horrible.

 

[Viscid Pellicle]

Wal-mart should stick to tetramin!

Here we have two wal-marts. A normal one and a supercenter. They both sell fish. I recently bought my son a 5 gallon tank plus accessories from the super-center. But I went to one of the pet stores to get his two goldfish. The tanks at wal-mart all had a black moss growing on the gravel. It looked very unhealthy to me. I noticed many of the fish had ich and there were dead fish floating everywhere. The normal wal-mart had many dead and sick fish as well. Apparently they clean the gravel though. They should stick to supplies! On top of that the guy working that department was apparently arguing with himself the whole time I looked at aquariums.

 

[jackdp]

My failed Wal-Mart rescue attempt. Wal-Mart keeps their bettas in about 1/4 cup of water in a closed container. My girlfriend and I had to rescue one...I picked out one of the less fuzzy ones and we took him home, put him in a nice 1gal fishbowl with gravel, light, plant, and airstone. Well, 2 days later I'm fighting his body fungus and today he's no longer with us. Now I guess I've got to go to the LFS and get a good betta for her. What surprised me about WM was they actually had tanks of cichlids...pretty bold for a WM.

 

[hisc1ay]

I'm actually VERY impressed with the two Bettas I rescued. It's been what...2 weeks or so, almost 3? And they're doing great. I haven't noticed ich on them at all, no fuzzies, and I didn't even medicate. I'm glad! But I still don't trust their fish

-j

 

[Somethingfishy]

I don't know wal-mart as I am in the UK, but there has been some talk that some wal-marts hold and care for their fish better than other stores. I suppose it might just be luck of the draw as to which one you get??

 

[wolverine121]

Well for my wifes birthday I got her a 10 gal. tank of her own from Wal-mart, one of those all in one kits, for $35 I couldn't go wrong. Now I know you are suppost to set up a tank and let it cycle first, but being her birthday I had to buy some fish too. That was my mistake!!! Every fish died and not because of " new tank syndrom " Everybody is right when they say stay away from Wal-mart for fish.

 

[Murmayde]

I think everynow and then they will have someone who knows something in charge or the fish department, but for the most part I have always seen lots of dead fish. I feel bad for all the fish, but I especially don't like seeing tanks full of Oscars when they don't even carry huge tanks, and I really doubt they tell people they'll need one.

I banned them for about a year because one time I went in and lobsters were eating another lobster (that was still somewhat alive!) and when I told the woman behind the seafood counter she just shrugged.

 

[Chrismac]

They don't sell fish here at Walmart. I saw a T.v show where a guy was attacked by a bird which escaped from its cage and it caused him to swing his neck back and hurt himself. probley got a nice settlement??
Anyway I would also call the head office i'm sure they would do something to fix that nasty Abusive atmosphere.

Chris.
PS I like shopping at Walmart too.

 

[fishfreek]

I saw a T.v show where a guy was attacked by a bird which escaped from its cage and it caused him to swing his neck back and hurt himself. probley got a nice settlement??

There are wal-marts that sell birds. WOW. I can understand fish but birds i would think wal-mart would not bother with.

 

[rallycat]

I'm a wal-mart addict, and I've been irritated by the conditions of fish more than once when I make my trips out. From what the clerk told me, they buy fish wholesale (of course) and many of them come to the store sick. But wal-mart only covers a certain amount of meds for the fish, and alot of the time fish go untreated for way too long.
If anyone's a regular shopper, a little birdie told me that fish shipments come in on Tuesday nights, but that probably differs from place-to-place. Head on over and save a betta today! $2.57 isn't much to make a fishes' day.

 

[Guest]

Boy, all the Wal-Mart bashing..IMOE, I have been in the Wal-marts here, and I can tell you that the quality of the tanks looks much better that in PetSmart and in PetSupermarket, and these are Pet chains. The people that maintian these tanks aren't exactly Biologists. So with that said and I have seen it in this thread, save some fish. buy them and help them and then trade them in at your LFS for other things. He He...

 

[bigmacd86]

I live in Fayetteville, AR, which is about 15-20 miles South of Bentonville and even though this is "Wal-Mart Country" here in North West Arkansas and we supposedly have the cleanest supercenters around, the fish tanks almost seem untouched. Often times, they are dirty and not well-maintained by any means. Dead fish are also not a rarity. Wal-Mart should stick to what they know best. I highly doubt the fish business is what puts the dividends out.

 

[StarrKill]

Wow, thats sad about all those fish in your walmart. The walmarts around here arent supercenters, and both sell fish. I havent really paid attention to the fish in the tanks as i am not usually looking to buy fish when im going to walmart. Ive seen the betta's in the cups and their water always looks nice and clear and while the betta's arent moving very often (not sure if they are like that normally or not), the clerks are NEVER there when you want them. Im not even sure they have specific clerks for the department. Ive always had to hunt down some reluctant person if i had a question. Awful. But, other than the non-existent fish clerks, im a walmart shopper. (Although Target I feel is a much nicer store, unfortunately they dont sell fish. If they did, i think they would be treated much better than the ones at walmart.) Anyway, poor poor fishes. So beautiful, yet so often mistreated.

 

[angelstiger]

Boy do i agree. Walmart should not sell fish. The store in my area stopped selling fish when some teenager dumped garden fertilizer in all the tanks killing all the fish. Another nightmare story: My fiance worked in a Walmart in RI, a skid full of fish from the wholesaler was left on the loading dock in the sun all day. The night crew noticed it and opened it. All the fish were dead. It makes me so sad and angry.

 

[bigmacd86]

Good lord, angelstiger! If I look at your numbers and see you are clearly outnumbered by your fish, I have to wonder whether you live in a house or an aquarium! J/K

 

[angelstiger]

My fiance' is wondering the same thing bigmacd86.

 

[nate]

Where to buy?

I wouldnt worry tooo much, I doubt the walmart you went to has much luck selling fish to anyone with even a small amount of experience with fish. But still, if what you are saying is ture, then that is extremly unprofessional. My favorite place to buy fish is petsmart. I dont know how the one is where you live or if you have one but my local store is great. They take a lot of care and i have never had problems, plus the sales staff are extremly helpful. I reccomend Petsmart.

 

[felipe]

yea, thats pretty disgusting. i hope i never have to resort to getting fish at walmart. i have never even shopped there. big department stores make me hurl. OH oH except for Target! :x

 

[StarrKill]

angelstiger: yikes, thats a lot of fish. about this walmart thing, i think that if enough people that have the "bad" walmarts were to call the company HQ about it, they might stop selling them (and ultimately harming them) altogether. And that way the LFS's could get the fish that would otherwise end up dying at the mercy of people that know nothing about how to care for them, or that just plain dont care. Target is cool, but like i said, they dont sell fishies. (it would be kinda cute if this site had smilies that were fish shaped, instead of round.....hehe...since its a site about fish. i absolutely get a kick out of the ranking fishies under our usernames.) but, with that said, tomorrow i'm going to be going to my LFS, NOT walmart to purchase a betta. on second thought, if they dont all look diseased and/or dead, i might try to rescue one from there, and pick up another from the LFS in case of disaster.

 

[angelstiger]

Unfortunately most chain pet stores are not that much better. Sure the personel is better informed and the fish are a little better cared for, but many a time i have been into Petco. or Petquarters and seen dead fish in tanks that are clogged with black algea. Even though algea is to some extent a good thing, when it's clogging the filter intakes and the air stones, it's a bit too much. Also ich runs wild in a sump system off 50 or so tanks that are constatly getting new fish added to them. I get a kick out of it when they quaretine one tank that has fish in it with ich or some other disease. It's a common sump system. The water borne disease is now in all the tanks. It just isn't showing yet. It's always a good rule to quarentine all new purchases for 2 weeks where ever you buy them. If you don't you take a risk of having to kill your bio-filter medicating your main tanks. Unless you have a really good LFS. If you find one of those rare gems you are truely blessed.