WalMart Kills!

[airwen]

They trust you, that's awesome. My LFS people tell me my fish'll get 8 inches long without knowing what kind she is.

[BettaLover]

Yes, I have been what I think of as ~extremely~ fortunate as far as the dealings I've had with folks at Walmart. Managers return my calls, people ask questions...even the manager asked questions, like, "How do I know if a snail is dead?" I mean, it's a basic question, sure, but if you don't know, then it's GREAT to ask - after that, you will know!

I guess my luck is good.

[GuppiesNPuppies]

What most people dont know about walmarts tanks is that all the tanks are connected to a central filter system and it mixes water from one tank in to all the other tanks, thus spreading any infections or water treatements to all the tanks.

[BettaLover]

EEEEEK! Oh no!

[joyce tryoon]

Our Walmart is really bad too. This is where I got my snails almost three months ago. Think I told you about it. I walked past these tiny little cups. Little tiny snail in each cup. The water was yucky and most of the snails were dead. The little hard foot laying in one place by its self and the shell in another. I told the kid that half the snails were dead. He said no they were not. Told him I didn't know diddley about snails, but if the foot was in one place and the snail in another it was dead. I bought the rest that were alive. They were only two dollars apiece. Now I'm hooked and in love with them. I will call Monday and give them what for. Then I will write a letter. If its not in writing no one usually pays any attention. They have frogs now and half of them were dead in the cups last week. Last year there were two people in that dept. taking pictures. They were carrying clip boards. I stood off and watched them. In a few minutes there were at least five Walmart people running up and talking to them. The people just kept on taking pictures and writing on their clipboards. Son came and told me Dad is waiting up at check out for you. Don't know what happened. The next week I went back their and NOTHING WAS IN THERE TANKS! Stayed like that for two weeks. Had it all clean and nice and a real nice young man that really knew his stuff. He was there about a month and then gone. Its really nasty now. Two weeks ago, I looked in a tank with feeder fish and there must have been a hundred just piled up dead by the air flow. I asked the girl what happened. She said, and I quote. " I don't know they came in that way." I was shocked, and said you dumped a bunch of dead fish in a tank. She says real perky. " I just do what they tell me." I told a manager and he looks at me like I'm nuts and says "uhhhh oookkey thanks for telling me and walks to the back of the store. I am going to put this in a letter and send it to Who ever is in charge of this store and to this store. Going to do some research for an address. Had no idea this was going on in all Walmart stores.

Joyce

[BettaLover]

GO, JOYCE!!!

Don't let 'em get away with this!

Fortunately, my WalMarts are slightly better maintained, and the employees, by and large, seem more polite.

It's the only place in town to buy female Bettas, BTW...so if you want one, you're stuck!

[joyce tryoon]

Found a e-mail address. You can e-mail to the main co. Has a nice little box to write complaints etc. http://www.walmartstores.com/wmstore/wmstores/Hom

Lets send them as many as we can. I read once that if a company gets ten letters from people who aren't happy over one subject, they panic. Its surposed to equal ten thousand unhappy people. Going to round up ten people at least to e-mail about our store. And I thought it was just my store that was nasty!
Joyce

[Donya]

I remember that sometime recently PETA got on Walmart and forced them to change something about how they were keeping their animals, maybe that's what the people with the clipboards and cameras were?

[BettaLover]

I know that they are keeping their Bettas in bigger little cups...

[mouse74]

I can tell you that Wal-mart in Canada does not sell sails at all so if they do i will keep you informed

[Nijgel]

The Wal-Mart here is not any better, either. In fact I usually try to avoid the fish aisle altogether but awhile back I was in Wal-Mart to buy some Mela-Fix for my goldfish. I looked at the tanks and to my horror there was a display of betta-cups with only about an inch of water in each one. In fact, all of the bettas were laying on their sides to try to stay in the water. Unfortunately the other side of them was still exposed to air. Goldfish, bettas and snails are my passion and I was MAD! I looked into the tanks and in the goldfish tank there were about 20 4-5 inch koi in one 10 gallon tank and the ones that were not dead were very sick. I almost lost it when I noticed that one of the koi didn't have any skin left!!!!! All of its muscles were exposed... and he was still alive! At this point I started crying and my husband and I left, where as when we got home he called for me and gave them a reality check. The next few times we went in, the tanks were clean-(er) and now it is back to the same old routine. I don't think Wal-Mart should be allowed to sell animals in this type of condition. If they are going to be allowed to sell them, there should be some changes made. I mean, the medicine is on the shelf next to the tanks - USE IT!!! Stupid people....
Jennifer

[crystal blue]

Doesn't it just make you sick???????????????????

I try to aviod the tanks at Wal-Mart, too. But last week I went to that department to get some filter cartrages and just had to look at the tanks. They had some very pretty shells in the tank that usually has most of the snails. There was some wild type, a nice looking chestnut, a couple purple striped olive, a blue, and a baby gold cana. All dead.

You would think that they would hire someone the has some knowledge about aquatic life to work in that department.

If I was younger, I'd put my bid in.

[iTZKooPA]

I was just about to start this topic myself. I had a very similar story when I went to the pet section to grab some gravel (local store was closed) for my turtle tank and new 2 gal tank (for baby snails and guppies/balloon fish to grow in) and I just walked over to see if they had any Rosie Reds to feed to my turtles. I was ASTONISHED at the conditions there aquatic animals were living in, PETA should hop on this.

Not only was their Apple Snail tanks completley DEAD (at least 30 shells empty or completley inactive). But they had an infestation of trumpet snails in 3 of their other tanks. They also seemed to have a severe "ick" problem going on in their goldfish tank. I wanted to buy all these guys to save them from their horrible deaths but I just don't have the money or the supplies, plus then they would just get another shipment in and do the same to them.

God just imagine if Walmart started carrying birds or worse, cats and dogs.

[firefly]

YEs, walmart is not good. I've not seen snails at any walmart yet, but I"ve not been to them all. The one closest to where I work is very odd. THere is one person who works in the fish department who is ancient and has been there forever. I still have not met her, but am told I must. The people I work with call her the 'fish nazi' (ala seinfelds soup nazi). She has outdated fish information from the 60's or 70's (we've learned tons since then) and refuses to sell fish to most people because she is convinced they will kill them. She tells everyone they don't know how to take care of fish (especially if they don't follow her outdated husbandry techniques) and they will all die. she also refuses to sell rosie reds if she suspects you may actually feed them to something. IF you point out to her that the sign for the fish says they are feeder fish she gets extra mad. I"ve decided I should go tell her that I have a small fish bowl and want an angle fish , but that might be to cruel to her he he. I do think I should go meet her though and see how she really is (though I don't doubt my coworkers claims, I hear this from many many people!!)

Emily

[iTZKooPA]

Hahah god that probably would be a funny sight.