Should I buy Fish From Wal-Mart? (feeder, along, food, petsmart)
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I have heard a couple horror stories about buying fish at walmart. What are your experiences? Are they sick? Do they die right away? Would you recommend buying them there? I avoid it because Taking care of fish at walmart is the emplyees job, where as at the pet shop I go to it's their career. However, today I saw that walmart had sm beautiful fish and at a low price. Looked heakthy as well.
you take the chance no matter where you buy from but i personally wouldnt risk it. walmart employees have NO training in the care of fish, signs of illness, quarenteen procedures ect.
and its a GREAT way to infest your new tank with anything, most particularly Ich.
its your money, your tank and your choice, if your going to be sure hat you introduce fish slowly and keep ALL new fish in a minimum of 2 week quarenten to prevent them infecting existing fish and dont be upset if they all die...
I just bought twenty goldfish at Walmart for twenty eight cents each. They just received a fresh shipment today. I put them in a 10 foot diameter stock tank with 2 larger goldfish and 30 sunfish we had caught earlier this fall and a channel cat. Seem like they are getting along ok. I wonder how they are going to like their new, cold, home.
you take the chance no matter where you buy from but i personally wouldnt risk it. walmart employees have NO training in the care of fish, signs of illness, quarenteen procedures ect.
and its a GREAT way to infest your new tank with anything, most particularly Ich.
its your money, your tank and your choice, if your going to be sure hat you introduce fish slowly and keep ALL new fish in a minimum of 2 week quarenten to prevent them infecting existing fish and dont be upset if they all die...
if you use tap water, you are putting ich into your tank. ich is present in ALL non-RO filtered water. ALL. not some. ALL.
the only way to minimize your ich chances are 1) RO water. 2) UV sterilizer. 3) quarantine tank.
if you do get ich:
1) water change WILL NOT HELP.
2) get a UV sterilizer ASAP
3) quarantine the fish with ICH. move them out of the main tank to a QT tank. raise the temp SLOWLY to around 83F. SPARINGLY add aquarium salt until the ich is gone.
The Wal-Mart in Shelton, Ct. still sells them. The poor things are horribly neglected, too. I have complained to them repeatedly. At least the last few times I was there they didn't have bettas in the cups. They would leave the cups there for weeks, never feeding them. The water was brown, very low, eventually with dead bettas. The last time I complained to the store manager, he kept asking me if I wanted to buy one. I pretty much avoid that Wal-Mart now, only checking to see if they are still torturing bettas from time to time. I hope they do stop selling fish.
Ours have them. We only buy the fish food and filter media there. Their feeder goldfish are about the same price as everywhere else, and at 25-30 cents even buying 10 there's not much difference. We only buy name-brand products at WM, no meat, produce or live fish.
I've generally had success buying fish at Wal-Mart.
There is no rubber stamp answer, health of the tanks
is going to vary according to the store's particular
situation at the time.
I wouldn't write them off, just use your head.
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I pretty much avoid that Wal-Mart now, only checking to see if they are still torturing bettas from time to time. I hope they do stop selling fish.
