Spitting MAD at Walmart! ARGHH!!!

[beckyd]

Last week sometime, I saw this cute little yellow betta at Walmart. I wanted her, but I try not to buy their fish because they are usually sick. It made me sad because she was not even in a covered little betta cup. She was in the torn off bottom of a plastic water bottle. The water was all green at the bottom and cloudy, nasty. No lid. (morons-bettas jump!) Anyway, I figured she was cute enough someone would buy her, or she would jump to her death and be released from this misery. Of course, I have also been making mental excuses to go back to check on her. I succeeded today (needed trash bags). She was not only still there, but her water didn't even look like it had been changed! It was slimy! And by now, her tail is all ragged from fin rot. So, some lady comes and tells me I can have(buy) her 'as is'. Since there were several dead bettas in their own covered cups I asked if she could at least dump out one of them and put her in there so I had a lid. Its 40 degrees today! She acted miffed, but put her in a fish bag. The water was so little she started to add more straight from the tap. YES, the tap directly under the sign that says 'TAP WATER NOT CONDITIONED'. I stopped her. She handed me the bag and I got even madder. The water felt really cold for a betta. I tucked her inside my jacket for the ride home.

I got her home and ran my temporal thermometer across the bag. 70 degrees! I put her in a little one gallon with the temp at 74, floated her bag and then put her in. I will slowly raise her temp to normal by tomorrow and will add aeration, but I didn't want to go too fast, as she has got to be stressed. I added some melafix for the fin rot. Poor baby.

Why don't they just stop selling live fish?? They are so cheap and so many of them die from their rotten care there. They can't possibly be profitable!

 

[Newman]

This is why many Walmarts across the nation have stopped. some still carry on though :[

 

[OrangeCones]

I was at a Walmart one night late (close to midnight) and walked through their fish department. Their bettas were all on two shelves over the sink area in the cups with lids, but several of them didn't have enough water to even sit (swim?) upright, if that makes sense. Less than 2" of water. I was furious, got the pimple-faced kid stocking cat litter and pointed it out. He looked at them and said, and I quote, "They can breathe air, so they don't water at all." I said, "Wow, you can just let them flop on the bottom of an empty aquarium? I didn't know that!"

It took 30 minutes to get a manager there to correct the situation, and I also had to point out that they can't just use tap water directly.

 

[Newman]

well they're tough fish, so naturally they can do that ._.

 

[beckyd]

Yeah really. If they make it at all in Walmart they have to be strong. If they were any tougher, they would all jump out and flop away to the nearest pond or to my house, whichever is closer...

 

[Newman]

indeed .

 

[JRB__]

Does the States have an Animal protection society? or something? Here its called the RSPCA, Royal Society for the Protection and Care of Animals. They have powers similar to police. Report the store, have them send out rangers/officers and slap a massive fine on the offending store and possible charges against the owner. They're only fish, but animal cruelty is still animal cruelty..

 

[Doomhed]

the saddest part is that years ago when I was a walmart employee, I wrote their betta fish care information after I made a formal complaint to corporate. Most pet department managers do not even know my instructions are even listed on the walmart intranet.

 

[OrangeCones]

Does the States have an Animal protection society? or something? Here its called the RSPCA, Royal Society for the Protection and Care of Animals. They have powers similar to police. Report the store, have them send out rangers/officers and slap a massive fine on the offending store and possible charges against the owner. They're only fish, but animal cruelty is still animal cruelty..

We do. But sadly, the care of fish is not very well covered. When I called the Animal Protection League, I was told "We don't do fish."

 

[bassbonediva]

I've gotten three of my males from the Walmart here. They are all healthy and happy, but I agree that most of Walmart's fish are given rotten (if any) care. The guy who works in the pet department at my Walmart does seem to care, though. He'll talk to me and ask me questions and if I can answer them, I will, and if I can't, I try to find out for him. HOWEVER, that being said, they have pissed me off royally before. Some moron put a beautiful male cellophane in a tank with two red-tailed botia (members of the loach family) who proceeded to rip the poor bettas fins to shreds. I offered to buy him as soon as I saw it, but they had just received a shipment of fish and wouldn't sell him because they "allow their fish to rest for 24 hours to reduce stress." Okay, but that poor guy had been there for AT LEAST 2 weeks before being put into that tank. I went back the next day and he was in horrible shape. He barely had fins to speak of (they were shorter than a female's fins) and he had two nasty wounds on his body. I marched straight to a manager and complained long and loud about the abuse that fish had received and about the fact that I had offered to buy him to save him from the torture he was receiving, but had been denied because of a BS policy (Petsmart has sold me bettas straight out of the box as they were unloading their new shipment and I never had any "stressed" fish from them). Management just shrugged and said "Oh well." I went and talked to the pet department person (the person who had denied me the day before wasn't a pets associate, but was working in toys and filled in while the pets person was on his/her break) and she said she would have sold him to me the day before if she'd been there and that she had no idea who put him in there! I took him home and put him in a 1.5gal with melafix, but not knowing that the tank needed to be aerated (no one told me), he died within a few days.

 

[littletankbigworld]

I'm so sorry to hear that. I wish the U.S. had better animal protection laws. Beckyd, that's just awful! The Walmart in my area (south western PA) still carries fish...everything from bettas to goldfish. Luckily, their betta care is slightly better. However, there is not one time I go in there where I see at least 10 fish dead. Most of the time it's goldfish, as there are 20+ in one 10 gallon tank. Also, when I go there multiple days in a row, I hardly ever see the same fish twice. The blood tetras are this horrible brown color because they are so sick. The barbs have almost no coloring whatsoever, and all the so-called "pufferfish" (it's not specified which type of puffer) are crammed into a 2 gallon tank. If Walmart wants to keep fish, they should expand their tank space (at the Walmart near me, all these tanks don't even take up half an aisle) and get someone there who actually knows what the heck they are doing.

 

[tom91970]

A local Walmart once sold male plakats as female splendens. Worked out great for me. However, another local store refused to take back a betta that was given to me (had too many males at home and nowhere to put this one). Long story short, I got into a heated arguement with the manager and was lucky the police were not called. Needless to say I avoided that store for a long time.

 

[ValRasbora]

if bettas didn't need water, wouldn't they have legs?

I loathe it when you go into a CHAIN PET store, and some "pimple-faced kid", as Orange put it, tells you the wrong stuff. Once I went into "Pets Unlimited" (chain store) to get some platys. Saw some red wagss I liked, asked the price. They where unlabeled, but I knew what they where. They GUESSED what they where by what tank they where next to! Thus, guessing they where DALMATIAN MOLLIES! Do platys look remotely like mollies? A bit, yes. Does red wag look or even sound like dalmatian? No!
I hate it when the store dosen't even train the "pimple-faced kid".

Another story,
was in a wallmart, (not one near to me, fish section shut down because they couldn't keep their fish alive- good riddance!) they had some yellow lab cichlids. The information sheet said "Needs at least a 30 gallon tank".
Yet, they had like 20 crammed into a five gallon?! GOSH, THESE IDIOTS MAKE ME ANGRY!

 

[Newman]

My favorite is when i ask to get one oto and get pointed to a huge Pictus cat....

 

[emmanuelchavez]

...
The information sheet said "Needs at least a 30 gallon tank".
Yet, they had like 20 crammed into a five gallon?! GOSH, THESE IDIOTS MAKE ME ANGRY!

Well, they're technically only going to be there temporarily, until someone buys them. It's not their permanent home.



I've got to say, though, I've been to a couple of local "mom and pops" lfs here in town, where the fish (and the store itself) where worse off than the chain-store fish.

I see so many posts with complaints about the chain-stores, but no one doing anything productive to stop a lot of what goes on. Has anyone tried to form a petition, with pictures maybe, to try to stop some of these chains-stores from continuing to do what they do? Just a thought.

 

[littletankbigworld]

I like going into Petsmart:
Me: What's the average pH for this type of fish?
Store Clerk: Oh, all the fish we sell aren't picky about water conditions like pH.
Me (sarcastic): And tetras don't prefer soft water?
Store Clerk: Oh, yeah...but most of the fish we sell aren't picky.

Give me a break!

 

[unwritten law]

Well, they're technically only going to be there temporarily, until someone buys them. It's not their permanent home.



I've got to say, though, I've been to a couple of local "mom and pops" lfs here in town, where the fish (and the store itself) where worse off than the chain-store fish.

I see so many posts with complaints about the chain-stores, but no one doing anything productive to stop a lot of what goes on. Has anyone tried to form a petition, with pictures maybe, to try to stop some of these chains-stores from continuing to do what they do? Just a thought.

I'm sure there are some against walmart.. I found one against petco once which I thought was ridiculous but what ever. There is a mom and pop place by me that is about as bad as the walmart near me.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Idiots make me angry, too, Val. A petition should be nice. I vow to take a picture the next time I see something cruel. Everyone else should, too. We can post the images online and someone can assemble a petition. Good idea!

 

[unwritten law]

I like going into Petsmart:
Me: What's the average pH for this type of fish?
Store Clerk: Oh, all the fish we sell aren't picky about water conditions like pH.
Me (sarcastic): And tetras don't prefer soft water?
Store Clerk: Oh, yeah...but most of the fish we sell aren't picky.

Give me a break!

that's ideal but most tetras are hardy enough to live in most conditions... So I understand what he meant.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Petco does a pretty good job. Their tanks are always clean; they remove dead fish right away, and the tanks are much bigger. I wouldn't hesitate to sign a petition against Walmart.