Walmart Vs Petsmart

[vammpiire]

Wow.
The other day I was at walmart to get some food for Lester. (Betta) They didn't have any so I went to look at their fish to see what was going on with them. Surprisingly they were in larger containers than usual. Females and males both had the same amount of space. It was better than what other local pet stores kept them in, which are smaller tight containers. So I was surprised with that and most of them were looking healthy.
But, anyways I didn't buy any because I was looking for food. So On my way home from summer school I went into a petsmart. (Petco) I was looking at their food and got what I needed. I was done with that but, I decided to go visit the fishies! lol. Well when I was looking at the bettas.. I was disgusted! The males we in cramped up tiny containers with no space to spread their tails out and the females.. holy crap! The females were so tiny and unhealthy! They were in half the size of the male containers, yes there was space for them to swim around because they were so tiny!
I was REALLy surprised because I was hearing how badly walmart kept their fish VS Petsmart. So that was a HUGE turn off for me.

What do you think?

~Cike

 

[Lokis_Daddy]

It all really depends on the people working at the stores in different areas. It's gonna be different everywhere you go. I can see a difference between petsmarts, petcos, and walmarts by just driving across town.

 

[LuanaNeko]

We dont have any nearby Walmarts for me, but I have seen Petsmarts... It makes me sad every time I see them Petco is a little better, same size containers but at least they're not stacked on top of each other in shelves so that the back ones are completely in the dark... The petco ones are all up where they can see people walk by at least, and they always seem more active and healthy for it. People just dont understand bettas

 

[Amunet]

ditto what lokis said.
When our Walmarts still sold fish, they were awful. I mean just the worst you could imagine.

Our local Petsmart isn't the best, but they've gotten better.

 

[afireinside]

Around my house, this is how it generaly works. Walmart has bigger containers, but they don't appear to be cleaned as often as they should. Petsmart has smaller containers, but they are better maintained.

 

[metromyers]

The worst in my area is the local petsmart. They keep their bettas in tiny cups that are half way filled with something that looks like the tidybowl man was there. What up with blue water? It breaks my heart because the fish look so unhealthy. I refuse to buy anything from them. I know going to my local fish store is more expensive but their fish are well cared for and when I have a question they usually know the answer.

 

[Amunet]

The worst in my area is the local petsmart. They keep their bettas in tiny cups that are half way filled with something that looks like the tidybowl man was there. What up with blue water? It breaks my heart because the fish look so unhealthy. I refuse to buy anything from them. I know going to my local fish store is more expensive but their fish are well cared for and when I have a question they usually know the answer.

I wish I could say that about our local fish place.
They take great care of their saltwater fish. Ok care of their freshwater fish in the tanks. The bettas though.... they could care less about them. All of their bettas are stuck in freakin cocktail glasses and small teeny tiny fish vase things. They usually even have one stuck in one of those deathtrap donut shaped pieces of crap.

 

[newfishy]

for petsmart vrs walmart, the local petsmart is pretty decent about their fish and bettas, yea you do get fish that are so over stessed from shipping and transit that you get a few that dont make it. it does not help that my husband happens to be a manager there and thus I get on his case to have all the animals as well cared for as is possible in a superstore.

our local walmart, the fish are only healthy when a certain person has a shift in the fish dept, he is normaly a heavy stocker so isnt there hardly enough but does take good care of them. if that guy is not there or has some time off 90% of the fish die and bettas have been so neglected as to have all the water evaporate out of their cups and become crispy critters.

 

[pika06]

I don't have to worry about the conditions of wal-mart's fish anymore because the ones in north carolina don't sell fish anymore

 

[Bubblenester]

Around my house, this is how it generaly works. Walmart has bigger containers, but they don't appear to be cleaned as often as they should. Petsmart has smaller containers, but they are better maintained.

Same here. The Petsmart fish are in small cups but the water always looks clean and the bettas are always active and healthy looking, and the Walmart bettas are in larger cups but generally 1/4 of them are just lethargic, 1/2 of them are obviously sick and dying, and 1/4 of them are dead. Yes, dead. They sometimes leave dead bettas there for days at a time.

The Petco here keeps bettas in the larger cups AND they are always clean.

 

[Bubblenester]

The worst in my area is the local petsmart. They keep their bettas in tiny cups that are half way filled with something that looks like the tidybowl man was there. What up with blue water? It breaks my heart because the fish look so unhealthy. I refuse to buy anything from them. I know going to my local fish store is more expensive but their fish are well cared for and when I have a question they usually know the answer.

The blue stuff is... now I can't think of the name! It's an antifungal medication. Keeping the water clean is a much better fungus prevention though of course. Are the cups always halfway filled or just sometimes? Bettas are often shipped in half filled cups so they may have just come in and the water hasn't been changed yet.

 

[ReMz]

The worst in my area is the local petsmart. They keep their bettas in tiny cups that are half way filled with something that looks like the tidybowl man was there. What up with blue water? It breaks my heart because the fish look so unhealthy. I refuse to buy anything from them. I know going to my local fish store is more expensive but their fish are well cared for and when I have a question they usually know the answer.

The blue stuff is... now I can't think of the name! It's an antifungal medication. Keeping the water clean is a much better fungus prevention though of course. Are the cups always halfway filled or just sometimes? Bettas are often shipped in half filled cups so they may have just come in and the water hasn't been changed yet.

The blue antifungus med is also supposed to act as a bit of a sedative to keep the fish less stressed. So, it's not a bad thing, but often they use it as an excuse to not change the water.

I've had nothing but bad experiences with all the walmarts around here and am at least moderately impressed with petsmart.

So this is interesting.

 

[trojannemo]

well i had this same thing happen to me and i remember i left a very heated response to a similar thread like this where people were just bashing on walmart for taking horrible care of their bettas.

my regular LFS that i visit are 1 pet supermarket, 2 petcos, 1 petsmart. out of all of those, the best water quality has been the latest petco i found, which also happens to carry exotic bettas (HM, SD, DT, etc). however, a close second would be WALMART. though they only seem to carry VTs at my local walmart, they have bigger cups than the other LFS, tight-fitting lids with nice holes, and great specimens too. one of my two guys is from them. he's BIG, FAT and very active. i've had him for nearly 2 months now and he's doing great...and i got him for like $3.49 at WALMART at 2AM


another thing that bugs me, which i know is a different story from the water being cleaned and the fish being fed...people complaining about the size of the containers and the fact that the "poor bettas" aren't filtered or heated. i'm sure none of those people ever stop to consider the cost of doing so, and the fact that even though a lot of people complain about stores, none of you would pay $30 for a betta just so that while he is at the LFS he can have his own heated, filtered tank!

 

[azulfire24]

true true, as for the small unfiltered unheated tank thing goes, well its is a space time and money issue. also to think about this , just in the way bettas have to be kept as they are bred. my adult parents< my personal fish> are in nice filtered heated tanks with at lest 1 gal per fish right now there are only 3 fish to a ten gal so lots o space. but when i breed babies are in a twenty gal till 8 to 12 weks depending on the number of fry and the aggresion levels, then i jar them out to glasses, all are al least 32 onces < yea know like big glass jars > or more and all have lids, as for heating i just heat they room they stay in so yes i realize the jars arnt ideal, but it is completly unrealistic to get 1 gal heated filtered tanks for the 50 pluss fry i get at each spawning, so keeps me busy with lots o water changes but thats how they have to be kept.

but yea my wallmart usually sucks, i think the managment dosent even realize about it till someone says somthing, i went and talked to a manager last 2 am wallyworld trip and the manager tweaked out and yelled at someone over the talkie about they better be at it or he is gonna ,, well you can guess whats he was saying at that point. mostly i think its a lack of careing on an employee end, lazy a@#$%.

 

[Corleone]

Location has a lot to do with it. My area's the exact opposite of what a couple people have posted. Petco, you can tell when you walk in it's not a good store. It's got a faint smell like a dirty refrigerator. You can't pin it down, but you know it's there. Dead and dying fish in almost every tank, and the water in the tanks smells horrible. They've got more unusual betta colors and types, but half of them are dead or dying in their cups.

Wal Mart's another matter entirely. For three consecutive days, every fish in my local one has been dead and they're still in the tanks. I was there Wednesday for groceries and had to run there today for cat food, and the same sight greeted me both times.

Petsmart, on the other hand, is actually better than most of the dedicated fish stores for bettas. Limited color selection, but they at least have crowntails, which you don't see here very often.