I Have To Hand It To Walmart...

Usually I hate buying fish supplies from Walmart because the fish are in such horrid condition, but I was just visiting Denver, Colorado to watch visit my oldest brother and I went to Walmart. I just have to say I was apalled, in a good way! This Walmart took such great care of their fish that I was apalled. The bettas were still in jars, but the jars were bigger and the fish looked great!

 

That is the same with the Wal-mart near me. They don't only have cheaper supplies than other places, they also have a great selection of fish and the fish are all well kept. The only problem is that the employees don't know 100% about what they are talking about.
Tom

 

My Walmart Superstore was recently in the last few months remodeled from top to bottom and has put in a whole new fish area and the quality has improved greatly. I credit this to the management as they do know their fish and try to give good information and do a good job of keeping the tanks up every morning. I do my shopping every time I go at about 5 am so I see them cleaning the tanks and little containers of the bettas. The bettas are now in gallon Betta bowls which while not ideal is much better than the cups they were in previously. they also are on shelves with under cabinet fluorescent lighting over each shelf so they are not kept in the dark all the time. I was concerned that they were kept lighted 24 hours a day as the store is open that long and the employee told me that it goes off at 9pm and on at 5 am so they get 8 hours of dark which is not quite long enough but something. They each had their food on the shelf in front of them and it was HikarI Betta Bio-gold pellets. He said it kept their colors pretty. I was impressed. They all had bright eyes and were actively swimming around and looked healthy. I haven't been out in a couple of months as I am housebound but my mother who picks up things for me every so often says the same people are there so I have no reason to believe things are any different.

Rose

 

Our WalMart is absolutely different. There's at least a couple dead fishes in each tank and the bettas look half dead. Even if WalMart gets better with their fishes and supplies, I think it's better if they didn't have the fish department. I'm almost afraid to go there. Everytime I go there, there are kids banging the glasses and kids begging their parents for goldfishes or oscars. One time 2 men came saw the fishes and went there and they kept saying stuff like "I had those when I was young. These guys survived living in a my wife's vase. Then the Walmart personal came and asked what he could do to help. They said they wanted to buy some 3 needle fishes. So the personal bagged them and then asked if there was anything else he could do. They asked what could get along with the needle fishes. He said I don't know. So they just bought 1 oscar, 3 African Cichlids, a dozen comet goldfishes, a few a puffer fishes, and a lot more. Then one of the guy said "Where do you sell aquariums?" I was shocked! He didn't have a cycled aquarium! The other guy kept saying that it was going to be a big rumble and that it was going to be exciting who survives. Many people who buy fish at WalMart aren't serious buyers. They just shop at WalMart for other stuff and then they see the fishes and buy the fishes and aquarium at the same time. Also the WalMart near me really neglects their fishes. Most of them have a bad case of ich.

 

The Walmarts here are nothing like that. The fish here are just in terrible shape. I hate going to their fish section b/c it makes me feel bad having to see them living like that. The section with the fish ALWAYS has that really strong fishy odor, every single tank has dead fish in it, either stuck to the filter or being eaten by the others. And their poor bettas are usually dead or half dead in those teeny cups.

 

My Walmart is like Stradius's and Shollia's. I've seen more dead fish there than everywhere else I've been in my life combined. :'( I'll spare you all the details.
Seems like Walmart is where the idiots go because they know Walmart doesn't care what fish they buy or what they do to them. That's so horrible that someone would do that Stradius. I'm just glad I wasn't there to see that guy doing that or I don't even know what I would have done to him........ > I once saw a guy at my Walmart making arrangements to buy all their goldfish for a science experiment. Who knows what he did to those poor little fishies... :'(

 

We were just at Walmart last night. They didn't have too many fish (which I think is good), but when I looked at the Oscar tank, there were 3 Oscars and some live goldfish ??? I'm assuming they were trying to feed the Oscars the goldfish? There were also several pieces of flake food floating at the top and the poor African Cichlids in the tank next door were trying to get to it. Anyway, 1 of the Oscars was already dead, along with a decapitated goldfish, another Oscar was floating half dead on the surface, and the other Oscar had Ich. Wait, there were 4 Oscars........the last one looked reasonably healthy, but not for long I guarantee.

 

Walmart is so scary! I went last night and I happend to notice they had fish!? I was curious and had a peek. Most of the fish were packed into the tanks and were gasping for air at the top. I also noticed they had some beautiful white sailfin mollies... THAT HAD HEARTS AND STRIPES on there sides!!! I was disgusted and really disapointed... they looked like they had graffitti. not attractive at all.. not to mention harmful..

 

Yeah isn't it horrible? My Walmart sells dyed fish too--they call them "fruit tetras". Setting aside the fact that it is so horrible they sell dyed fish, I think the regular Black Widows look much nicer than the dyed and half dead ones, so I don't see why anyone would buy them. I am currently trying to get dyed fish banned in Minnesota (see my post in general discussion I think)...fish dyeing makes me soooo mad >

 

My good friend who works at the Walmart that they just redecorated here said that the fish are gone at our Walmart now. It just happened in the last few days. It was a shock to me as they had just put in that lovely big area for them and plumbed it and all but it is gone now....

Rose

 

As much as I think they shouldn't sell FISH, I am incredibly glad they sell fish SUPPLIES! Walmart was the only way I could afford buying Dory his brand new 5-gallon tank I'll be setting up this weekend. It's so hard for me to protest or boycott Walmart when they're the only place a poor college student like me can buy anything!

 

I know that, I would hate to see them get out of the fish business totally. I do hope that the equipment and food and all are still going to be there for others even if I cannot get there to shop.

Rose

 

I just read in the newspaper here, that's Southeren Cailfornia, that a lot of Walmart stores will be closing their fish department. It seems that this department was'nt doing well. They will keep dog and cat items. Some stores may keep their fish. Has anyone else heard this?

River

 

I think it would be good if they continued selling fish supplies, but quit with the actual fish. I think they could still sell the supplies well (if not better!) even if they didn't sell fish. I have heard that new Walmarts weren't going to add a fish section but I hadn't yet heard a confirmed report that they are actually closing fish sections.

 

Remarkably, the fish in the main tanks in our Walmart don't look too bad. The bettas look pitiful (and I couldn't find a worker in the area to complain to), but they didn't have any bettas on Monday when I was there. But I so do love their fish supplies--it makes it an easy one-stop shop for me.
Sharon

 

My store decorated last fall and made their fish area beautiful and the employees that worked there did a great job of keeping the fish up. All the bettas were in at least gallon containers on lighted shelves and given good food and the other tanks were pristine. They closed the whole department last month. There is nothing there now and all the tanks and everything are gone. I do not know if they still have the supplies as my friend who goes there every day told me about the new things that were going into that space. The dog and cat supplies were at the other end of the store so he did not know if the fish supplies were there too. Maybe I will call out later and find out.


I just called the Walmart store here and they said that they would be removing the live fish from 620 of their 3000+ stores and they will still be carrying aquariums and other fish supplies in all the stores.

Rose

 

HUH....well I hope that the stores that they are keeping it in will be better taken care of. o don't know if he removed any from our stores here in Phoenix. Maybe I'll look the next time we go there. Natalie