Walmart

[ScubaSteve]

Are the fish sold at Walmarts and PetSmarts of lesser quality than the fish sold at a more traditional pet store?


I know most of the employees at Walmart don't know the difference between goldfish and tropical fish and the tanks are almost always miss- labeled.

 

[Eire]

Not as far as I know. I always thought that they came from the same source as the fish in the local fish stores, but I may be wrong.

 

[FroggyFox]

Actually there are some gorgeous fancy guppies at my walmart. I think they're the same as stock that petstores sell, so they're the same quality. Of course the difference comes in how each pet store deals with their fish, their care and how well their employees know about the fish. Walmart is a great place to get "stuff" but I'd be careful getting fish out of their tanks...do a good check for fish that have any sign of disease or wierd behavior in ANY of their tanks, and quarentine new fish when you bring them home like usual.

I'd say a local petstore who takes good care of their fish or specializes in a certain kind of fish would have the best quality, and also charge the most.

Petsmart would probably follow them...most of the petsmarts I know take pretty good care of their fish, even if their employees don't know as much.

Then Walmart...as you pointed out their employees don't know much of anything about the fish and I think they are paid less attention as far as care goes.

 

[shimpboat]

I would never buy fish from WalMart. First, they really don't know what they are doing and second, have you seen their tanks?!? Not only are they overstocked, they usually have a few fish dead in there. I actually bought a few fish and my tank from PetSmart. They are doing fine. The only bummer is, that my lfs had the same size tank and set up for less. Support your lfs for fish at least and check the prices on supplies. I found that the supplies at my lfs were cheaper. Good luck.
Michelle

 

[FroggyFox]

oops didn't mean to generalize about the local pet store thing. My closest petstore knows a lot about fish, keep great tanks, but they are way more expensive with most things, including their fish. My petsmart is very reasonably priced. My walmart's supplies are reasonable and cheap...and the tanks arent as bad as shrimpboat's walmart apparantly. I just found another local pet store a few days ago who is cheapest for just about everything...and also keep great tanks, a family owned store.

SO basically it takes a lot of shopping around and asking questions etc Didn't mean to dish the lps