Wal - Mart's Fish Department!

[Nameless]

I went to wal-mart yesterday to buy my betta fish bowl and I couldn't help but look at their fish. I have to admit, the fish weren't in such good condition. In just about all the tanks except the feeder goldfish tank, ironically, there was no gravel wut so ever. They had a tank with with what looked more like red-bellied piranhas to me labeled as red-bellied pacus, that had only one heathly "pacu" and another one that looked sicly and hidden in this little log thing, with a baby pleco porbaly 2'' that looked like it was dead and stuck to the glass. There were supposed to be some oscars oscars in the tank, but, probaly they got sold out or removed. They had some baby jewel cichlids that didn't look too bad but only float very still in the water. They also had some labs and other sichlids that didn't look too bad, in fact the 3 or 5 labs they had look very bright and very healthy. They also, had some tetras and angels and gouramis that look very terrible. However, although the baby goldfish didn't have have erect dorsal finds, they seemed somewhat healthy and active (but then again which goldfish isn't). They also had only two bettas. One male look fairly decent, but the other I don't think that I could say the same thing about him. Although, their tanks had dead fish in them and not gravel and proper maintainence was not taken and there was absolutely no one there to ask questions. The wal-mart fish , weren't dreadfully and horrible badly kept, yes the fish and everything there were kept very badly but there are some specimen there that there was a hope of giving them a good life. Even though I probaly wouldn't buy fish there, but may if I was desperate. HOwever there fish were very cheap. I mean very cheap. The most expesive fish there were probaly the bettas that were like $4.89 or $4.82 I think. What do you all think about this article?

[Fishfirst]

article?

[Aqueous]

Same thing at my Wal-Mart.

I was in there just yesterday getting water conditioner. My Wal-Mart doesn't sell cichlids they mostly have gourami, tetras, goldfish, bala sharks, bettas, RTS and a few plecos. Even if I wanted fish from there you're never able to locate the person who works in the pet section and if you have to ask one of the other employees they look at you like the person doesn't exist .

They're prices are very cheap (ie.their RTS was only around $6-$8 while I paid $13 for mine) but I would rather pay higher price for good quality fish.

I find their prices for bettas are not that much cheaper then what I buy mine for. I get mine at $4.99 but I've never had problems with the bettas I buy from my LFS. I used to get bettas from another LFS but they always came down with velvet in the first 2 days.

[Nameless]

Article, sorry I meant what I wrote, I have no idea why I wrote "article."

[t_chelle16]

With big chain stores like that, it all depends on who's running the department (and there's such a high turnover rate that it changes frequently). A couple months ago I was appalled when I talked to the lady at the fish dept and she flat out said she didn't care if she sold someone a 4' long fish for a 10 gallon tank or if her customer's fish died. In fact she wished her fish would die.

But I went back a couple weeks ago, and other than a few ich spots (to be expected when fish are shipped in large quantities like that), the fish looked healthy and there weren't any dead ones. The lady (a different one than before) was helping another customer and actually asked what size tank she had and what fish she had in it (40 gallon with a few peaceful tropicals). She talked the customer out of oscars and africans and ended up selling her an opaline gourami and pictus cats which IMO was a pretty good selection.

I ended up buying 7 neons expecting a couple to die since they're fairly delicate fish. Other than a mild case of ich, all 7 are still alive and healthy.

-Chelle

[Nameless]

Even though I have a part - time job I won't if they would give me a little part - time job there in the fish department only, that would be cool!

[otmmy205]

Nameless
where are you from ?

[M_wm]

my wal-mart is really good. A kid that worked at my LFS (which closed down) now works at wal-mart in the fish department

[t_chelle16]

[Nameless]

I live in Canada.

[Fish Addict]

wooo go canada lol

[M_wm]

Im in Canada to

[dude412]

me 2

[Nameless]

I guess we have have quite a few canadians on this forum then!

Lol!

[Kirk]

I am Canadian as well.

[tuttifrutti]

i have bought all of my bettas there, since they r the only place that sells females. I could've bought them online, but it would've been $100 for shipping, and i didn't care to pay that much for a $5 fish. They all lived for almost a year, and I still have one. One of them I froze, because he looked to be in such misery and wasn't eating. (That was my fault, he was the bathroom fish, he was kept well, but I think the sprays got to him.)

[venom]

Do not buy any fish from Wal-Mart. i took some advice and asked how big of a tank would one of their 1" oscars need? i knew the answer but the guy said, "Since they are only like and 1", you would only need like a 1g tank." I repeat. DO NOT BUY ANY FISH FROM WALMART. Most of the fish are on their death beds.

[grnlemonade]

all depends on the walmart you go to, you cant generalise all walmarts like that.....alot of the places do have inexperienced workers, but others have people who know what they are talking aobut

[t_chelle16]

Yup, like grnlemonade said, it all depends on that particular store and whose working there (the turnover rate is high so even that changes every few weeks). I've actually had better luck with fish from Walmart than from most of my LFS's. I'm not saying I've never seen Walmart's tanks/fish in bad conditions, but when I do, I don't buy anything at that time. If the tanks are clean, there are no dead fish, and they all look pretty healthy (I'm willing to forgive a few ich spots), then I don't have a problem buying fish from them.

-Chelle

[tyler_medeiros]

im in canada to