# Walmart



## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

I went to Walmart today, and they had NO bettas. They always had bettas, so this shocked me. Are they going to stop selling bettas? Has anyone seen bettas at a Walmart?


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Some walmarts don't sell bettas and some do. They could possibly be out of stock, this happens very often.


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

Yeah.. I sort of thought that. Just wonderin' if anyone else saw them.


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

yeah. Sometimes it takes a while for them to restock


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

Yeah. I haven't seen them out before. And they had like half of their flowers and plants dead.


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## nicebear24 (May 7, 2012)

Maybe they stopped selling Bettas


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

It took a while for the WM to phase out fish selling here. It started with less and less fish in the tanks and then they turned off all the lights. All the tanks and nets an stuff was still there for a while then suddenly there were dog beds and kennels there!! It was great. I hope your WM stops selling live fish.


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## lexylex0526 (Dec 27, 2011)

Back in January I rescued a female betta from there, but recently when I go back to the fish isle I haven't seen any there. I actually asked the manager if they weren't going to sell bettas anymore and he said no they weren't going to sell them because they were to much trouble shipping them in or something like that. I'm actually really happy about that because they treated their fish badly anyway.


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## Skaht (May 13, 2012)

If you see tanks in operation, they still carry bettas. They are either out or in some extremely rare instance, the manager has had them taken off the store's trait (items they sell).

A number of stores are remodeling to expand foods and the live fish are often one of the key categories to go, so that's a possibility, too.

Hopefully you're never there to see the shipment of bettas come in...


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

The Walmart I went to had tanks still running, with fish in them. No lights on though, it was kind of hard to see the fish..


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## MyRainbowBettaFish (May 9, 2012)

I am kinda glad they stopped selling them........


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

Yes. They didn't care for them much. I wanted to get a fish once, ( I was little ) from a tank, and I asked an employee and he said.. "Oh..-oh Ok. I don't know how to this but I'll try." (Meaning he didn't know how to get the fish out..)


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

Sometimes I see bettas, sometimes not. They may be waiting on a new shipment


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

Sometimes they move them around, too. I looked all over the fish aisle, so if they were else where, I didn't see them.


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## Sivan (Aug 30, 2010)

Went to Walmart yesterday and saw death row. Poor li'l guys and girls.


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

Aww. That's sad.


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## LuckyBlue (Mar 26, 2012)

Sivan said:


> Went to Walmart yesterday and saw death row. Poor li'l guys and girls.


So very sad... and very true..


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## makoisland (Mar 2, 2012)

gidgeystartedit said:


> Sometimes they move them around, too. I looked all over the fish aisle, so if they were else where, I didn't see them.


Our WalMart had them in the same aisle as home decor one time. :roll:


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

That's odd.


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## Bethydan (Mar 22, 2012)

Home decor? As in glass vases and bowls? :evil: So I guess they're nothing more than decorations now...


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## ZackyBear (Dec 1, 2011)

I wish my wal-mart wouldn't sell bettas. The prices also went up on them. Crown tails now go for $7 instead of $3 and Veils are now $4 instead of $2. Most of them are in such bad condition they really aren't worth it unless you get there right when they restock. 

EDIT: I also noticed that all of the bettas had either chronic cases of fin rot or necro...something. Necrolepsy? I don't know the word x.x


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

Thats so sad!


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

Maybe because they're finally losing money on them? Or maybe it's because they're trying to weed people out from buying them. My petsmart and pets unlimited use USA bred bettas and sell them for 4.99 (VT) and 7.99 (CT). Not a bad price. But then there are two other small family-ish stores who buy theirs directly from Asia. A VT is 9.99 and HM and CT are 14.99. That would definitely weed out the kids and morons (you would think). 
Whatever their reason behind raising prices (probably just inflation) you can be assurred care will not improve. :/


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## duluoz (Mar 3, 2012)

I went to WalMart the other day and ended up looking in the fish aisle. Almost every betta there seemed in fairly poor condition. They had multiple kinds of corys together and labeled the tank "misc. corys" Really?

An older couple looking around wanted to get an employee to grab some fish for them. I really wanted to be like "You don't want to do that..."

Anyway, WM is terrible to both fish and people. I boycott them, but always end up walking around in there for some ridiculous reason.


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## xShainax (Feb 11, 2012)

gidgeystartedit said:


> Yeah.. I sort of thought that. Just wonderin' if anyone else saw them.


I bought a beautiful VT mutt from Wal-mart but he passed from fin rot. His name was Lestat since he had a pale body. This picture is when I first got him, his tail never re-grew


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## Delta (May 18, 2012)

Wal-mart treats their bettas awfully... two days ago I was picking up cat food when I saw a very sad looking betta. It was a female that had finrot, pale as a ghost, one blind eye, and was so bloated that she couldn't swim right. I felt so bad I bought her and took her home.

I tried to do all I could to save her, but she passed away last night... At least she died in a warm tank rather than in a filthy, yellow water, small plastic cup.


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## ZackyBear (Dec 1, 2011)

If I had the space and money, I would buy bettas from wal-mart more often than the exotic ones from petsmart or petco.

Just to try and save them and give them something better than burning alive in a cup of ammonia. When I get my own apartment I am definitely doing that. Does anyone know a betta rescue group in tx? D:


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

Delta said:


> Wal-mart treats their bettas awfully... two days ago I was picking up cat food when I saw a very sad looking betta. It was a female that had finrot, pale as a ghost, one blind eye, and was so bloated that she couldn't swim right. I felt so bad I bought her and took her home.
> 
> I tried to do all I could to save her, but she passed away last night... At least she died in a warm tank rather than in a filthy, yellow water, small plastic cup.


Oh thats so sad. At least she had you to watch over her.


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## Larkspur (Jun 26, 2011)

my Walmart takes excellent care of all their fish :/ it's really strange but they take better care of their bettas than the petsmart down the street XD


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## xShainax (Feb 11, 2012)

Larkspur said:


> my Walmart takes excellent care of all their fish :/ it's really strange but they take better care of their bettas than the petsmart down the street XD


I bought one betta from Walmart, it had fin rot but other than that, he was healthy


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## Larkspur (Jun 26, 2011)

xShainax said:


> I bought one betta from Walmart, it had fin rot but other than that, he was healthy


I've never seen a betta with any problems at this walmart (don't get me started on my meijer tho >.> they are horrible to their fish)


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## xShainax (Feb 11, 2012)

Larkspur said:


> I've never seen a betta with any problems at this walmart (don't get me started on my meijer tho >.> they are horrible to their fish)


I really only trust Petsmart


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

I wish all Walmarts treated their fish well. At least those fish get treated well!


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## Sheldon31 (Mar 21, 2012)

I only trust my LFS Jaydee Aquatics. It's more expensive and ferther to drive but the fish are treated better than my [email protected] We have a garden centre that sells fish too but despite my inlaws telling me they are they best (yeah what do they know they think their fin rotten veil tail must be a crown tail...) I don't trust them. Their neons were white last time I went and their bristlenose plecos were mixed with with commons so it would be hit or miss if you got what you wanted!


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## SamJustice (May 5, 2012)

xShainax said:


> I bought one betta from Walmart, it had fin rot but other than that, he was healthy





Larkspur said:


> I've never seen a betta with any problems at this walmart (don't get me started on my meijer tho >.> they are horrible to their fish)





xShainax said:


> I really only trust Petsmart


My petsmart, and walmart care horribly for their fish. Depends on the store management and staff.
One day, Larkspur, you might go into walmart to see their fish in horrible conditions do to management/staffing changes. 
My walmart lost their fish guy and now.. all the fish are in horrible conditions
I trust my LPS, World of Pets, and our regional chain, Jack's Pets and Aquarium. ^.^


ZackyBear said:


> If I had the space and money, I would buy bettas from wal-mart more often than the exotic ones from petsmart or petco.
> 
> Just to try and save them and give them something better than burning alive in a cup of ammonia. When I get my own apartment I am definitely doing that. Does anyone know a betta rescue group in tx? D:


^^ This. 
I want to SOOO bad. Except my other half may object. A Lot. XD
But, a rescue group in kentucky or ohio? Does one EXIST?
Would love to get a betta or two from them. And help with funds. XD (May even do one that has to be shipped, but that would depend.)
So.. Rescue groups in general?
If anyone knows any, PM me their websites/email addresses or whatever.


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## atomicjade (Mar 29, 2012)

I bought my one and only betta, Epic, from Wal-Mart. I wouldn't say they take great care of their fish but its not terrible, and their bettas are nicer looking (IMO) than the Pet Supermarket down the street. If it wasn't for me randomly looking around and deciding to buy him on the spot, I would've never gotten involved and realized what little gems they are. However their customer service is terrible, I went and asked two different people for assistance and twice they called for yet another person to help me over the intercom, and TWICE I waited for 15 minutes. Eventually I said screw it and poured him into a cup myself, wish I did it sooner! He's a happy guy these days


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## chibir3dpanda (Feb 15, 2012)

I think it depends on which Walmart you go to. The really crappy and run-down Walmarts are bound to have either no bettas or dead/sick ones. The Walmarts in "rich people" areas would probably be much nicer and have nice, well-kept bettas.


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## ZackyBear (Dec 1, 2011)

I kinda of have some advice for Wal-Mart...

If the employees don't give a dang about their job, then the bettas are probably suffering.

I only trust the Petco across my street to have healthy bettas. The manager admitted the water is only changed every other day but they still keep it clean. Only reason some of the bettas aren't peppy sometimes is because some have been in their cups a while....


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## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

I honestly couldn't imagine cleaning about a 100 cups of bettas a day. But if you chose to make your money with bettas, it's what is needed to be done and when you neglect that, you lose business and money..
Like Walmart. They are shooing away customers with the disgusting "treatment" of their bettas. That and it's animal abuse. So sad.


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## viviandponyo (May 21, 2012)

i went there a couple of weeks ago and they had like 4 fish.. all of them looked terrible and just miserable... i was sooo sad becuase i couldnt get one until i had another tank..  they looked like they were taking all of them out and after the 4 were gone they would stop selling them.. this is good!!!! i hate how poorly some stores treat animals..


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## SamJustice (May 5, 2012)

They don't get fish shipments in too often down here, might be the same at yours.
Unless a manager told you they stopped, give it a month or so before you count them out. /=
My walmart sold out of them/they all died. and it took them almost a month to get them back in.


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## ZackyBear (Dec 1, 2011)

The bad thing is, they will keep selling fish in these conditions if someone buys them.

If I suddenly went on a buying spree of every miserable looking fish they had, in the end they still win and replace the sick ones with soon-to-be sick ones. :/


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## SamJustice (May 5, 2012)

yeah.
;-;
it's horribly depressing.
every time i go, I raise hell about it.
and if they don't respond in 5 minutes. i do things myself. |=


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## ZackyBear (Dec 1, 2011)

I know a lot of people on this board say not to breed VTs or CTs because no one wants them, but if you really think about it, that's not true.

Dunno about you guys, but I would rather buy a VT/CT from a breeder. You know who their parents are, and they are in better condition (meaning higher survival rate) than the wal-mart bettas.

If I had my own little spot somewhere I would sell VT/CT I bred. But only locally. Shipping them would be pointless, I think


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## BettaGirl677 (Jul 2, 2012)

I hope they stop selling Bettas. They have no idea how to treat them and take care of them. Smh..


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## Knitterly (Jun 3, 2012)

Sivan said:


> Went to Walmart yesterday and saw death row. Poor li'l guys and girls.


Ours was so bad last time I went I almost bought them all just out of pity, but as someone else says, they'd just buy more. They had 6 king betta females. They've had them for at least 2 weeks. They haven't ONCE changed their water. They're in 1" deep water and their feces is molding under their bellies. I am absolutely disgusted.



Delta said:


> Wal-mart treats their bettas awfully... two days ago I was picking up cat food when I saw a very sad looking betta. It was a female that had finrot, pale as a ghost, one blind eye, and was so bloated that she couldn't swim right. I felt so bad I bought her and took her home.
> 
> I tried to do all I could to save her, but she passed away last night... At least she died in a warm tank rather than in a filthy, yellow water, small plastic cup.


Yep, we did that, too, and she didn't make it. Poor thing.



ZackyBear said:


> The bad thing is, they will keep selling fish in these conditions if someone buys them.
> 
> If I suddenly went on a buying spree of every miserable looking fish they had, in the end they still win and replace the sick ones with soon-to-be sick ones. :/


Exactly!!!


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## Lost Eventide (Jun 30, 2012)

I've never seen bettas in our Wal-Mart after they moved locations. I think there may have been some at their old location though, and their fish section in general was much larger before the move. They had a couple rows of fish rather than the single wall they have now, and from what I remember the conditions of the tanks themselves were actually rather decent. From just looking, they were at least on par with the local pet stores.

Quality has really declined since then though. I think they may be trying to phase them out, which, quite frankly, I'm happy for. They _do_ have some common medicines there (like for that common fungus, which I had a small outbreak of two years ago and Wal-Mart saved my tail because I couldn't really afford the stuff at the pet store) for cheap that work fairly well and I'll be sorry to let that go for how cheap they were, but I've never had fungus issues since so it's not a huge loss.

At least if they get phased out they'll never have fish they don't know how to take care of again. I hate looking at the tanks if I don't have to. Usually I just walk down and quickly grab whatever item I'm looking for and leave.


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## Striker0086 (Jul 1, 2012)

I just got my betta from Walmart in Circleville Ohio last Friday. Most of the bettas looked healthy from what I could tell. Several of the cups had huge bubble nest blown in them. The water for the most part was clean with the exception of some waste at the bottom of the cup. All of the tanks were clean and he fish looked healthy.

Last time I was there (5-6months ago??) The fish looked fine, not near as many bettas as they have now. There was one exception though, one of the tanks that housed puffer fish had some fish in it that had tail rot.

I am betting that my experience this time was just from new shipments but one can only hope that they truly did improve.

I live in between both Circleville and Lancaster, both are about 15 min away; about 30 south of Columbus.

The Walmart in Lancaster does not carry live animals. They do have a fair pet section though. Aquarium section is stocked like the stores that carry fish, they have all of the medications, etc.

Last I heard Walmart was loosing its right to carry fish because of the poor living conditions most stores would house the fish in. I remember reading somewhere that most Walmart stores have their tanks set up on one main system. They would order fish to stock their tanks and the fish would have parasites and other strands misc. strands of disease. Because the tanks were filtered with one unit, disease would rapidly spread from one tank to all and the fish would die.

As for Meijer, the store in Lancaster has improved over the past few years. I barely see an outbreak of disease. The fish are much healthier looking as well. Bettas on the other hand...well there can't be much said on the quality of care for them. That Meijer hasn't had bettas in a while and they only order half a dozen every now and again.


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## konstargirl (Mar 9, 2010)

The walmart near me still sells bettas.


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## lelei (Apr 30, 2012)

Our local Walmart does not, I have to go over the border of MA to get them!! I hear that one is very nice tho, It's a SuperWalmart, so It's new and very well taken care of, I am actually anxious to see what betta's they have there!!!


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## Scruffy Nerfherder (Dec 12, 2011)

SamJustice said:


> yeah.
> ;-;
> it's horribly depressing.
> every time i go, I raise hell about it.
> and if they don't respond in 5 minutes. i do things myself. |=


When you raise hell about it at the store, the only thing that's going to happen is this: the employees will go in the back and make fun of the customer who stomps their feet and raises their voice (I've done it, myself). If you really want something to change, write to corporate. Stores aren't where changes are made; regular employees can't do anything. It's the same as complaining to the cashier about raised prices. They have no control over it. They are told what to do and how to do it. If they don't, Walmart will find someone that will.


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## RainbowSocks (May 31, 2012)

I was going to buy my first betta from a breeder, but decided to buy from my Walmart based on a) working there, I'm able to stop by the fish every day, b) I personally know the employees who take care of the fish, c) my Walmart only orders/carries between 5-10 bettas a time, and d) he was the last betta left in the shipment, presumably since he arrived with damaged fins. I don't know what happened between point A and our Walmart, but there were a couple fish that didn't look so hot when they got here, and one fish had obviously died soon after she'd been shipped. Poor thing! 

Upon rereading, the list is not meant to sound snappy! lol

I personally hate how the quality of care fish receive varies from store to store, and employee to employee. If we can get it right at some stores, you'd think we'd be able to transfer that knowledge and care to the others.


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## nicebear24 (May 7, 2012)

Scruffy Nerfherder said:


> When you raise hell about it at the store, the only thing that's going to happen is this: the employees will go in the back and make fun of the customer who stomps their feet and raises their voice (I've done it, myself). If you really want something to change, write to corporate. Stores aren't where changes are made; regular employees can't do anything. It's the same as complaining to the cashier about raised prices. They have no control over it. They are told what to do and how to do it. If they don't, Walmart will find someone that will.


 That's so true.


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