Wallmart fish
- Thread starter dreamweave
- Start date
my local walmart keeps a nice fish area with clean well maintained tanks and a nice selection of fish at a very good price and they will match fish prices and any other pet item a local pet store might have for sale at a cheaper price.
It's really all about who's running the place. One of my local PetSmarts the fish area is run by a marine biologist that also works at Riverbanks Zoo in their aquarium area: http://www.riverbanks.org/animals/arc.shtml
Needless to say, the stock there is better kept than most.
Needless to say, the stock there is better kept than most.
i agree it depends on the store.Out of the three walmarts in my area one took out the live fish,another has horrble tanks with sick fish and the third has great looking tanks and fish.For my area the petco's and i mean all 3 of them have the worst looking fish.They are sick and alot got fin rot and numerous other things wrong with them.So it pays to shop around.
It certainly does vary by store, but in general, retail stores hire retail salespeople, often without any experience in dealing with pets/fish.
In the very uncommon event that they get knowledgeable employees that they allow the time to properly maintain the pet/fish section, then yes, they can be good places to purchase healthy fish at a great price.
Around here, both Walmart and Petco have more dead fish in their tanks than live ones. Every time I go in, I alert the employees or management to the dead fish in the tanks. Not once have I seen them do anything about it, even seeing the same dead fish in the tanks, days later. As a result, I absolutely refuse to buy fish from either of them (in this area). And the local Petsmart, while having healthy looking fish, there's a 50/50 chance of introducing a parasite to your tank when you bring one home. I still buy there on rare occasion, but I always quarantine anything I get there. Still, I often end up having to spend more to treat the ones that do have health issues, if the issues only become visible after the 2 week return policy. I find it much safer and more reliable to just wait until the same species are stocked at the LFS, or purchase for just a little bit more money at the LFS in the first place.
In the very uncommon event that they get knowledgeable employees that they allow the time to properly maintain the pet/fish section, then yes, they can be good places to purchase healthy fish at a great price.
Around here, both Walmart and Petco have more dead fish in their tanks than live ones. Every time I go in, I alert the employees or management to the dead fish in the tanks. Not once have I seen them do anything about it, even seeing the same dead fish in the tanks, days later. As a result, I absolutely refuse to buy fish from either of them (in this area). And the local Petsmart, while having healthy looking fish, there's a 50/50 chance of introducing a parasite to your tank when you bring one home. I still buy there on rare occasion, but I always quarantine anything I get there. Still, I often end up having to spend more to treat the ones that do have health issues, if the issues only become visible after the 2 week return policy. I find it much safer and more reliable to just wait until the same species are stocked at the LFS, or purchase for just a little bit more money at the LFS in the first place.
Sadly I've had better luck with Petsmart stock than my LFS stock lately. It's hard to spend 2, even 3x as much on something when there's maybe even a higher chance it's going to die on you in a matter of days or a couple weeks. I don't think it's their fault as such (the store owners) but wherever they're ordering from is terrible.
I'm sure there's plenty of bad LFS too. Bad in general, and not even just due to the sources of their stock. But on average, they tend to be better. After all, there are exceptions to every rule.
thats kinda sad, itd be like saving them from the pound before they get euthenized(spelling?). i bought a gsp from walmart and ive had him for almost two years. a pleco too
