KyWildFish

So I am currently trying to find new homes for hamsters as they are coming out of my ears. I am trying to sell them on craigslist on-the-cheap with a house so I was out shopping for cheap small cages. Walmart was on my list and I had to look at the fish tanks while I was there. In the feeder tank was a Blackmoor goldfish! I was already planning on getting a nurse tank and they had a pretty small but useful for my needs tank so I bought the little guy, for 88 Cents! My LFS sells them for 6-10$ depending on size so this was a bit of a steal.
My fiance has always wanted a goldie tank so this little guy once he goes through quarantine will be the entrance into our houses MTS.

rifter098

hahaha nice find!

Cody

one time petco gave me the beautiful and amazing pond snails with a plant, this happend 6 months ago and im still trying to get rid of them, i got there numbers to a less anoying amount, good job on the find

Shaina

Nice find.

About the hamsters - why don't you just separate your males and females? Chances are if you are selling them for cheap on Craigslist, they will just become feeders for someone's reptile. NOT a pleasant way to go. And if you don't sell them cheap...well then they will just be really hard to sell.

Lucy

You're not allowed to sell pets on Craig's List, is says so right at the top of the pet's section. You're allowed to re-home them for the cost of vet bills you paid to get them ready for a new home.
You'd be better giving them away, but do a home visit to make sure they have proper housing for them or run the risk of them being reptile food like Shaina said.

Shaina

That's true, Lucy, though a lot of people twist the rules by "rehoming" their pets, and charging an adoption fee that is essentially the sell price.

Not all people, but I've seen it a lot -- not that that makes it right in any way.

/me reiterates separating the males and females

Barbrella

Never give away any animal for free. Cats and dogs may end up being sold to experimental laboratories, and rodents (and even kittens!) are very likely to be used to feed reptiles as Shaina says.

ALWAYS charge an adoption fee and use an adoption contract. This makes the pet not worthwhile for "bunchers" or reptile owners to acquire since they only profit if the animal is free. Not to mention that to many people, "FREE" = Worthless and the pet may be abandoned or abused. There's no guarantees either way, but any precaution that can be taken, should be taken.

Are you breeding your hamsters?

KyWildFish

Doubt they will be bought by a reptile owner. I am dodging the rules by selling the housing and including the hamsters for free, what a bargain eh? If someone can buy a mouse or rat for a buck, I doubt they will be buying a hamster with a full cage set up for 30 bucks. It is undercutting all the pet stores and I still make a small profit after the cage and housing costs. Rules are meant to inspire creative thinking I always say .

I am way smarter than to just hock them to anyone too. Will be delivering the animals personally and giving them a packet of information on how to care for them and all that. Most hamster owners end up being kids so there will also be a demonstration on how to handle them etc.

Also, males are in one cage and the females in another now. We meant to separate them sooner but sexing dwarfs takes time (about 3 weeks, and its still difficult). We also didn't count on the mother allowing mating less than a week after the first clutch was born. She is very aggressive and bickers at the dad constantly so we thought wrong I suppose. They are separate now and will be from now on. No more rodents are needed at this time, lol.

Intrepidcub

i got my shubunkins at walmart . Saw a injured one hes missing his outer gill . I saw him a month or two ago and he was still there when i went last night for another one so i talked to the pet guy and he gave him to me half off, I knew noone would adopt him since he was different and handicappes and if hes survived living at walmart he should be healthy LOL I think walmart is hit or miss they had one tank with 9 dead guppies and then the othertanks were thriving so i dunno. I did see a poor mickymouse platy is it? in with the gold fish i felt sorry for it and let the guy know.

Impogolis

Sometimes I'm guessing the customers are just as ignorant as the employees though. I was visiting the fish section and admiring how small their livestock is compared to my LFS, and a woman asks me if I knew anything about fish. I told her I knew some about some fish, but I was far from an expert. She asked me how fast they breed, but couldn't tell me what she had.

She said the previous week her sister (or cousin, or aunt, etc.) had given her son two fish for his birthday and they'd been reproducing very quickly. She said they were goldfish, but when she pointed at the tanks she thought they were in, she pointed one goldfish and one... something else. In fact, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was listed as a Non-Community tropical. Didn't really make me believe they were breeding but she insisted that they'd had two batches of hatched eggs in a week (but the fry were being eaten anyway) and she'd been having a hard time describing to her son why sometimes there were babies and other times there weren't.

Anyone care to wager what was going on here?

kieley

probably a mollie, swordtail or something like that.. once they get pregnant they can have a few batches of babies so im assuming whoever it was that made the purchase picked up a goldfish and one of those that was already pregnant?

Impogolis

I suggested that the female would have probably been pregnant when bought, she didn't seem to like that suggestion. Oh well.

kieley

lol some people.. i guess if there was eggs it couldnt have been the livebearers that i mentioned either

lilFishyfish

I have found cool local fish species at walmart and have gotten them for a great deal since they are mixed with the feeders or g shrimp. It annoys me though that they sell certain fish without explaining that some of these fish need special needs and will grow huge. Theres a bunch there but among these, they sell baby Bichirs and I THEY recommend them to anyone....... not mentioning they will get HUGE, need a very large tank eventually and eat anything in sight if it fits in their mouth. They also say peacock eels eat fish flakes.........LOL......... now that is funny..................