Wal Mart Fish Question

[Fish Kate]

Howdy:

I have a couple questions for you more experienced fish folk. I've read lots of posts saying not to buy fish from big chain stores if you can avoid it...well, I was in Wal-Mart this weekend and was "just looking" at the fish. I asked the sales lady how long one particular kind of fish had been there (they looked a lot healthier and less crowded than the others). She said they had JUST gotten there -- only been in the tank about half an hour or less.

Since they were exactly the fish I was looking for, and my LFS did not have them, I bought them.

Question #1 is, is it really any safer to buy fish from a big chain store if you can figure out when the fish get there and buy them right away? Or is it already too late once they're the store's system? My 10 gal just finished cycling and I wanted to get my rasbora some company (he's been pretty lonely since his first tankmates all died of ich -- now I keep the tank at 79 - 80 degrees and have had salt in there to kill the ich for 3 weeks.)

Question #2 is, should I keep adding salt in case the new rasboras have ich from Wal Mart, or will the high temp suffice to keep it at bay?

Thanks for any info.

 

[sublime1184]

Howdy:
Question #1 is, is it really any safer to buy fish from a big chain store if you can figure out when the fish get there and buy them right away? Or is it already too late once they're the store's system? My 10 gal just finished cycling and I wanted to get my rasbora some company (he's been pretty lonely since his first tankmates all died of ich -- now I keep the tank at 79 - 80 degrees and have had salt in there to kill the ich for 3 weeks.)

Question #2 is, should I keep adding salt in case the new rasboras have ich from Wal Mart, or will the high temp suffice to keep it at bay?

Thanks for any info.

#1) I like to wait on the fish and see if it settles in to the tank well before I consider buying it. That way you can tell the weak apart and see if there is any illnesses. The problem is that their tanks are on central filtration, so if one fish gets sick, any other fish on that filtration can get sick as well. Also, big fish stores have been notorious for lack of info\care for their fish. While this isn't always the case, its still a majority I would say.

#2) High temps alone are only half the battle. If the rasboras do have ich, treat with both salt and temperature raise. Also, I would raise the temp to 82 degrees. Don't stop till you are relatively sure that the ich is gone. Don't add any tank mates till you are sure that the ich is defeated.

 

[Blueiz]

I have bought fish from walmart onseveral occasions. My lfs is 60 miles away, 120 mile round trip. If I see a fish that i like these are teh procedures I follow before making the purchas. I look at all there tanks. If any fish in those tanks looks sick with ick, velvet, or there are a lot of injured fish throughout the tanks I do not purchase. As far as dead fish in the tanks are concerend one or 2 throughout the whole system to me is ok so long as you can tell they haven't been dead long. I also make suer the fish are swimming properly without clamped fins, heavy breathing. Abouve all what you have to remeber is that buying fish from any store whether it be large or small is a risk. New fish need to be quarantined before adding them to the main tank. I myself do not do this, I take my chances. You have to decide whether you want to take the risk of buying them from a place that you know does not give the best of care to them. I myself have never had a problem frm any of the fish I have purchased from walmart.

 

[Jerm]

raising the temperature only speeds up the ich's life-cycle, thus making it easier to kill.

 

[FreddytheFish]

you can probably buy from big chains and still get healthy fish (depending on the circumstances), just don't take advice from them! (no,walmart, you can't keep Black Ghost Knives in a 10 gallon...or hystrix stingrays...or senegal bichirs (dinosaur eels as they call 'em)...or...)

 

[Jericho]

As with any fish store look at their stock and keep looking at their stock. Some stores keep good fish others do not, if they look like they keep healthy fish then buy from them. If their fish look sick or there are a lot of dead and fuzzy fish in their tanks run.

 

[Holly9937]

I would buy my fish from a street vendor if his tanks were healthy looking and he seemed reputable!! LOL!! Some people also just don't like to support the big chains b/c they often give misleading advice and don't take very good care of their fish b/c it is not the only thing they do/how they make money. I will not buy fish from a place if ANY of their fish look unhealthy. Plus I always QT, so that makes me feel 100% better, even if I do get a bad batch somehow, I don't worry about infecting my main tank.

 

[tomm10]

I wouldn't buy from Walmart but I have other options. If I didn't I probably would buy from them on occasion.

The thing you have to consider is that Walmart's tank system runs off of one filtration system usually. That's not a whole lot different from some lfs but usually the lfs keeps a watch on the tanks for illness.

While I might buy from Walmart, there's no way I would just dump the fish into my established tank. I'd quarrantine them for at least a few weeks to make sure they weren't carrying anything. You should Q every fish you buy but some of us are too lazy to keep a Q tank set up

I generally don't recommend treating a disease before it shows up. Keep a very close watch on the tank so that if something shows up, you can start treating quickly.

 

[wataugachicken]

i've been buying fish at walmart recently (always QT them though) and haven't had any problems. I don't expect to get good advice there, but I've decided to stop going to the other (and only) LFS in town because they SHOULD give out good advice and SHOULD have good customer service, but they don't. Plus all of their tank supplies are marked up at least 50% higher than anywhere else.

 

[insomniac.vivi]

Many people will say not to buy fish from large chain stores because thier local chain store has:

1. Useless employees running the tanks

and/or

2. Horrible choice of local/regional fish breeders.

Another alternative is that they are clinically insane. "Don't buy fish from wal-mart, that's just how big brother tracks ya!" A lot of people don't like huge, faceless corporations, but I don't care, because if it doesn't have a face it doesn't have big giant... nosey... thing. Anyway.

There is no one large 300000000 acre Wal-Mart fish breeding planet somewhere in the central US. Most chain stores try to find the nearest willing providers for thier stock, the same way an LFS works. However, due to chain store's variety of products, little fish in the back corner of the store sadly get less attention.

I can say with some 'pride' that my local Wal-Mart and Petco (both are within the same strip mall too, lol!) have a decent variety of fish that are surprisingly healthy. Now, to say that ALL fish from Wal-Mart or Petco or any other chainstore are bad and unhealthy is ignorant and uneducated.

Take stock of what your stores have, and be sure to question them lightly- don't expect these people to be experts on these fish, most of these people haven't even finished high school yet. When I say lightly, don't ask them "What are the (Gh, Kh, any other parameter you can think of) requirements for this fish, and if I was on the moon and a tree fell on it, would I hear it?"

It's YOUR responsibility as a fish buyer to do the proper research on fish before you buy them. If you've ever went around and browsed around a store for any large purchase (save furniture) without any prior knowledge or no research on the subject and bought it, you are a moron and should play in traffic all day. Fish are delecate creatures that require compassion and understanding, and they are not fashion items or works of art. Fish are pets the same way a domesticated dog or cat is a pet. You don't let your dog chew on electrical wires, and your cat doesn't crap in the bathtub. At least, they shouldn't if you've taught them properly.

Also, if you buy fish from a large chain store and it dies, don't come on here bashing them and saying they sold you a bad fish. YOU bought the fish, and after it left that tank and into the bag, it became YOUR responsibility. It seems on many forums I see more complaints when Wal-Mart fish die than when LFS fish die. YOU as a consumer make a concious descision to buy the fish- anything that happens afterward is either an accident or YOUR fault. Don't blame the store because you got an ich infestation or because for some reason the fish is building a small spaceship in the back corner of the tank- do your research and always quarentine!