Never again!!

[fuman_chica]

I will never buy another fish from Wal-Mart.

I went there today to get a betta, but they only had three and their colors weren't very bright. So I started looking at the other fish.

In more than one tank, I think it was two or three, there was at least one dead fish laying on the bottom, half eaten from the other fish. In one of the tanks, there were two mollies laying on the bottom getting eaten at the time I looked in there.

And several of the tanks of fish had ich. Most of the fish were covered in very large white spots.


So never again will I buy fish from Wal-Mart...until conditions improve. If they don't, I won't.

 

[smb]

Dang, that sounds like a mess in there. Is it always like that or was this just a bad day?

 

[fuman_chica]

I had never seen it like that in there before, but I don't know for sure if it has never happened. The last time I had gone in and looked at them, several of the tanks did have fish with ich, but I didn't see any dead fish getting eaten. The person working in that department didn't come over the entire 10 minutes that I was looking at them, so they probably don't pay much attention to the fish.

 

[royhandy]

I was in my local WalMart today and the tanks were horrible. In fact, they were all 'closed for treatment'. Most of them (about 20) had dead fish, fish with what I think was finrot, dying fish trapped against the pump intakes, or dead snails. Actually I am assuming the snails were dead because they were on the bottom with their 'feet(?)' pointed towards the top of the tank. I can see a dead fish or two...but when there are three or four dead fish in a tank...maybe it's time to break out the ol' net and clean up a bit. I usually rave against selling cats and dogs at pet stores. I generally don't see anything wrong with selling fish...but these conditions were really, really bad. I was looking for a 48" bubble wall...ended up buying nothing.

Who takes care of the fish at WalMart stores? Do they have *any* training?

 

[Liz05]

I was in my local Wal Mart's fish department less than an hour ago. Only one tank said, "Not for Sale" - which basically means, sick and being treated. Several tanks did have dead or dying fish. As for bettas, their shelves were empty.. all they had were a few males in plastic floaters in the other tanks, and some females. I can say though that I have seen worse conditions there. I ended up leaving with two new orange lyretail mollies. But I will give them credit where credit is due: generally, the fish I buy from Wal Mart, which is most of my fish, are not sick and don't end up dying. The people who work in the fish departments at Wal Mart don't necessarily know anything about fish, unless Wal Mart happens to get lucky. They're trained, but they only know as much as Wal Mart knows, which obviously isn't much.

 

[fishdude]

they have no training so they will accept teens who are dumb about fish. some walmarts have people who take better care of fish just depends on the people.

 

[baseballfan111]

mine isnt 2 bad but most are morons i think there is one smart person there tho,

 

[kevy]

Seeing the poor conditions of fish at Wal-marts just makes me want to work there more. I'm 100% sure I know more about fish then the people that currently work in the fish area (I've told costumers about the fish they were buying and stopped a couple of people from putting oscars in their 10 gallons) but I'm not old enough Though I'll be 17 soon, maybe they'll let me work there then.

 

[MattL]

There are a few LPS in the UK that are particularly bad. Ahem pets at home ahem!

I wouldnt buy a fish from there! I dont like to see dead fish in any tank, but esepescially the same dead fish for the 2nd week running! Shows how well maintained there tanks are.

I felt like arguin the toss, but im sure it wouldnt have done any good.

Matt

 

[cory]

W*l-m*rt, the evil empire, is now the largest corporation on the planet. Does anyone have any ideas to the numbers of W*l-M*rt owned stores with tanks containing stressed, mistreated and diseased fish that are out there? It's staggering to think about. But I guess that since to most people these fish rank only slightly higher than "bait," no special interest groups want to tackle this problem. But if puppies and kittens were treated this way, oh yeah, it'd be a different story.

I will not even consider stopping at W*l-M*rt.


*Care to buy a vowel?

 

[Gabe]

At my local Wal-Mart they put decorations into the tank with the plastic that holds the tag still on it. It's horrible, I mean how long does it take to snip it off? About 2 seconds really. It drives me nuts every time I see it. That and the dead fish, there is at least one in every second tank. And the service sucks. I swear the people who work there are always on a break or something.

Gabe

 

[AquaNut]

I think it's gross that *insert discount department store name here* tanks are like that, but I think it's even WORSE that *insert large franchise pet store name here* tanks are as bad as any I've read described here. My town is too small for a *same pet store here*, but there's one about an hour from here... Their tanks are an abomination. For one thing, the tanks appear to be about 2 gallons each, some JAMMED full of fish, mostly dead and decomposing. Ich, clamped fins, fungus, dropsy... you name it and you can find it on any given day at that *pet store*. Also, for a huge pet store, their staff is grossly ignorant about fish. I've gone there at least ten times over a period of a couple of years... again and again checking to see if things had changed, they had better staff, or I'd just caught them on a succession of 'bad' days... but nope. Always the same. I won't even stop to look anymore.

 

[guppymonkey]

I went to go check out fish at Walmart (not really to buy anything because WalMart is a disgusting redneck store that treats customers and employees like they are all convicts). They had a shelf of Bettas that they kept in flower vases (with the flowers still in them) and all of the fish were dead. It was totally gross. The shelf wasn't even near the pet department. It was next to some clothing.

 

[Alien Anna]

In UK, ASDA supermarkets have been bought out by Walmart. British planning laws are currently keeping them in check to a certain extent, and I think many of the fish-keeping practices you describe would get them a prosecution under animal cruelty legislation, however this is all bad publicity for them. British people, it seems, are somewhat suspicious of Walmart in UK, and Walmart have found the UK No.1, Tesco, harder than expected to beat.

Here's a story to warm the cockles of your heart if you don't like Walmart/ASDA:

ASDA Fined for Selling Out of Date Food

 

[Thomas A. Anderson]

This has been brought up before about naming 'bad' stores or experiences.

To save the risk of being sued it would be better IMO NOT to mention the stores by name.