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Hemlock140, same. Ive bought fish from walmart and the people there try to act like they know what they are doing. They dont. Never buy fish from walmart, EVER. Onetime i bought a small baby koi their and it brought a disease with it that killed 4 fish, and 2 snails. They dont care for their fish at all. They literally just use tap water and there is a hot temp and a cold temp sink and thats it. And They dont even pump oxygen into the bag. This just makes me hate walmart so much. Stop selling fish and torturing them. My mom litertally stood there while he was getting them and whispered to me "does he know hes not supposed to use tap water." And i think in my mind "of course not" they just sit there and act all friendly and nice and act like they know what they are doing. But really walmart just dosnt care about fish, there is only 1 thing they care about. Money. If they cared they would actually care for the fish. Ive literraly seen a fish that was dead there that had been dead for probably months and it was literally turning into a dust/mold. All the fish were eating it and going crazy because they never take care of them. Some stores actually care about the fish. I buy fish at petco and they will actually give you a REFUND if your fish dies within a month. They are healthy, and usually only die because of low water quality for a long period of time. Please, dont buy fish from walmart, they are a waste of money.
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.
What do you think?
I have only one fish, and she's from Walmart. She seems happy, does her fishy dance, and occasionally does a high five wave after gulping down her food. I thought about adding some cherry shrimp. If you are concerned about introducing sick fish into your tank, I'd buy a fish bowl and keep the new fish in isolation for a while. When you see they are not sick or have parasites, then introduce them into your tank.
Generally speaking, fish from Walmart are low quality to begin with. Then they're poorly cared for and poorly handled. And as with any fish from a pet store with obviously bad water quality, you run the risk of introducing diseases and/or parasites along with fish from such places. Particularly ich.
That said, If I happened to be at a walmart and they were selling a fish I wanted, I wouldn't necessarily rule it out. But certain precautions are in order.
Now, everybody's going to disagree with me here because this contradicts standard advice... but here goes: don't acclimate your fish, particularly if they're from a place with iffy water quality! Don't do it. You don't want yo slowly mix the water in the bag... because you don't want that water in your tank. Here's what I do:
I take some water from my aquarium and put it in a container. Then dump *all* the petstore water out of the bag, and put just the fish into that container. And I leave them in there for 20 min or so. Then dump all that water and put the fish only into my tank. This minimizes any germs/parasites/protozoa that you're introducing from the pet store. I've kept fish for many years and this has never been a problem.
This is particularly important if your tank hasn't been set up very long. An relatively new tank is far more susceptible to nasties from the pet store. Older tanks have enough microbe diversity built up that that ich, fungus, and such are rarely a problem.
Also helps to keep the water warm. Don't overfeed. Change the water, but not too often. Also you can change the water or you can clean/replace the filter... but only do one or the other. Never do both at the same time.
This is what I do with plants from Walmart: I will buy when the shipment first comes in, before the minimum wage clerks have cared for the plants for too many hours. Freshly arrived fish aren't going to be any different from freshly arrived fish at a pet store. get them before people who don't know what they are doing have cared for them for too long.
All I've ever seen at a Walmart are low cost common varieties of fish. They don't sell fancy fish. So far, any time I've looked, the tanks are clean. I've kept fancy goldfish and couldn't have bought them at Walmart because Walmart doesn't sell them.
I suggest a small quarantine tank for newly arrived fish, no matter where you get them from. Get them acclimated, make sure they aren't ill, before you put them into the main tank.
I've seen Ick at a pet store, so that is not necessarily going to guarantee healthy fish. Pet store employees aren't all going to be experts.
Though the coldwater fishes available at my closest walmart, but I was surprised too on seeing the carelessness walmart staff showed in taking care of these pets.
Walmart has done away with live fish at all of their stores, I can personally vouch for this. Most tanks will be removed this or next month and will be replaced with additional pet/animal foods.
Walmart has done away with live fish at all of their stores, I can personally vouch for this. Most tanks will be removed this or next month and will be replaced with additional pet/animal foods.
Depends which Wal-Mart...some are in terrible shape...others not so bad. Just check out the fish before buying and pick out the healthiest ones.
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