# Walmart & Petco



## SemioticSleep (Mar 31, 2010)

I feel like ranting right now. A person recently on youtube told me that They like to go to walmart throw water all over the fish aisle and put the betta's in water jugs!!! 0.o why would you even do that?? It's mean for the person who has to clean it up and the bettas for getting shocked into their new enviroment. Then what if someone buys the water??? The bettas are kept in those small jars as temporary homes do you really expect petco and walmart to put them each in 5g tanks? So then what also ticks me off is when ppl say walmart is evil and don't buy your fish from them. Well think about it if you buy your fish from them you will be saving them in a sense. Actually no pet store can properly take care of fish, it's just to big of a job that's why it's up to you to take into consideration buying the fish and giving it a better home than it could ever dream of  I love animals and I'm sure you do too! Please don't bash other stores and discourage someone from having a happy betta.


----------



## Felessan (Jun 24, 2010)

by buying a fish from petco or any other chain store you are contributing to the fish in a cup market wich we all know and hate if you think about it by buying a fish in a cup you are just opening up a new spot for a nother fish in a cup!


----------



## JKfish (Apr 8, 2010)

both of you are correct. In my opinion, yes, petstores are temporary homes for bettas, and it's not bad to buy from the LFS, but when you do, making an effort to buy from LFS that take good care of their fish, and keep them in clean containers with few sick fish will not be supporting and 'evil' store. While you are buying from a Petco or Walmart, you are also supporting that one store, and you have the comfort of knowing that the fish replacing the one you bought will be in a small but clean enviornment until he is bought.


----------



## decamptownlady (Apr 16, 2010)

I got mine from Petland Discount. Yes, the fish were in small bowls, but all seemed to have fresh water and were tended to.


----------



## SemioticSleep (Mar 31, 2010)

Felessan said:


> by buying a fish from petco or any other chain store you are contributing to the fish in a cup market wich we all know and hate if you think about it by buying a fish in a cup you are just opening up a new spot for a nother fish in a cup!


so is there some magical and amazing pet store that doesn't sell them in jars or cups? Even non chain stores in my area sell them in small jars. The walmart in my area really does a good job with keeping the fish and they always get bought, the only ones that are left behind are the sick or unhealthy looking ones. So when someone does go to the fish aisle they see all the sick fish but when in reality all the healthy ones got bought.

I'm only saying this b/c another person was discouraging another person from buying their Betta from walmart, when that Betta could have had a lovely home, so they went to petco which is just as worse. Helping a chain store or not I would rather give a Betta an amazing home than spite a store.


----------



## Miharu (Dec 6, 2010)

I dont know if everyone knows this but stores like Walmart, petco, petsmart ect. have their employees keep a daily tally of all of the fish that pass away at the store. The stores are then reimbursed by the suppliers for the fish that pass away. So if a fish dies on the shelves or in the tanks the stores do not lose any money. I dont agree that buying from those places is encouraging them really, I mean whether you buy the fish or it dies in the store, no money is lost, and a spot still opens up for a new fish, just food for thought!


----------



## Blaxicanlatino (Jan 28, 2008)

I love all animals, God I love animals and would love to save them all... but buying them would be supporting the bad habit... i dont discourage it either cause my first betta was purchased from a horrible petstore ^^ i love em so ^^


----------



## bettacare (Dec 8, 2010)

I haven't been to petland we don't have one here in my area, but the wallmart I visit alwasy seems to be ok in those regards..


----------



## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

Interesting Miharu...so really the whole by buying a fish you're contributing to the problem should be dismissed.


----------



## demonicangel132007 (Nov 27, 2010)

What if you are like me and don't have any other option of buying a fish unless it comes from Wal-Mart or PetSmart (okay, I wouldn't do Petsmart because that would be too long of a car ride for the poor fish as opposed to Wal-Mart being ten minutes away but you get the idea, right?) and if you can't afford the shipping costs of Aquabid or eBay?


----------



## danifacetastic (Nov 11, 2010)

I agree that when you're getting a betta from a pet store you really aren't 'saving it' since you're supporting the business but you can make a difference by writing letters and complaining. But some people can't afford to get on aquabid and buy these fancy bred bettas...


----------



## Tsuhei (Nov 26, 2010)

I agree with not buying a betta from Walmart. It does save that fish, but think about the many more that take its place. :-( 

In fact, I don't support Walmart's fish section at all! I just went to one next to my college (about 30 minutes ago), and I was appalled at what I saw! 

Warning: These images are really disturbing :-(

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/2981/1208101243.jpg
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3575/1208101244.jpg

Picture one: Yes, that's some sort of fungus. It's black. I don't know what it is, but something that big can't just grow overnight.

Picture two: I'm pretty sure those fish aren't supposed to be green...and I'm sure they're supposed to be breathing too. :-(

The rest of the tanks had algae and dead crabs. The betta fish weren't doing so well either...dirty cups..and the water odor smelled foul. I actually gagged walking by the sink.

If you don't buy certain products at a large chain store like Walmart or Petco/Petsmart, then they usually order less and less stock or stop buying the product all together because they lose money on it. The less fish you buy, the less fish they order to torture.


----------



## Miharu (Dec 6, 2010)

MrVampire181 said:


> Interesting Miharu...so really the whole by buying a fish you're contributing to the problem should be dismissed.


I think in a way yes. Big stores like that don't want to lose money, they don't want to give items away for free, because then they are losing money, if a fish dies they don't lose money, they are compensated and given back whatever they spent on that fish. 

If a fish dies on the shelf, it makes room for another fish, just like it would if you bought the fish, and the store doesn't suffer so because they're not losing money so they don't care if the fish dies. I don't think you're contributing to the problem by buying the fish, but I also don't think you can call it a rescue unless you get the betta for free, I hope that makes sense! haha


----------



## Blaxicanlatino (Jan 28, 2008)

Tsuhei said:


> I agree with not buying a betta from Walmart. It does save that fish, but think about the many more that take its place. :-(
> 
> In fact, I don't support Walmart's fish section at all! I just went to one next to my college (about 30 minutes ago), and I was appalled at what I saw!
> 
> ...


thats horrible!! there was a petstore that just opened up near me (forgot the name of it) and after a week or 2, some tanks had 2 inches of white mush above the substrate. mold? fungus? not sure. dead fish? everwhere. i complained. but didnt workout since the manager ***** a sleeveless undershirt and covered with tattoos. had to go to the register person, who I also had to hunt down, to ask who was the manager!!! He just shrugged 0_0 im like?!?! ?!0_0?! WHA?!!! i came back the next daywith my camera and took pics of the tanks. He was very upset and demanded to know why i was taking pics, even tried to snatch the camera from me. I said Oh youll find out soon enough. I did nothing however... but after 2 or so weeks, they closed down...


----------



## hailukah (Nov 13, 2010)

I'm rather impressed with the Wal-marts in my area. I went to one recently and stopped by the fish tanks and all of the tanks were empty. We tracked down the pet associate and he said they had to remove all of their fish because of issues with their water hardness. He said he didn't know if/when they would start carrying fish again.

It's good to see that they would forgo sales when faced with unhealthy tanks.


----------



## Blaxicanlatino (Jan 28, 2008)

hailukah said:


> I'm rather impressed with the Wal-marts in my area. I went to one recently and stopped by the fish tanks and all of the tanks were empty. We tracked down the pet associate and he said they had to remove all of their fish because of issues with their water hardness. He said he didn't know if/when they would start carrying fish again.
> 
> 
> It's good to see that they would forgo sales when faced with unhealthy tanks.


that is good to hear 0_0 :-D


----------



## nomoretickets (Sep 29, 2010)

i dont have a problem with bettas in cups so long as they are maintained. i understand it is impossible to keep store bettas in the appropriate tanks because it is far to expensive and impractical. my objection to walmart and similar stores treatment of the fish is not the size of the cups, but the lack of maintainence of said cups.


----------



## baylee767 (Nov 5, 2010)

hailukah said:


> I'm rather impressed with the Wal-marts in my area. I went to one recently and stopped by the fish tanks and all of the tanks were empty. We tracked down the pet associate and he said they had to remove all of their fish because of issues with their water hardness. He said he didn't know if/when they would start carrying fish again.
> 
> It's good to see that they would forgo sales when faced with unhealthy tanks.


I feel so stuipid but what exactly is water hardness? 0_0


----------



## celine18 (Sep 25, 2010)

nomoretickets said:


> i dont have a problem with bettas in cups so long as they are maintained. i understand it is impossible to keep store bettas in the appropriate tanks because it is far to expensive and impractical. my objection to walmart and similar stores treatment of the fish is not the size of the cups, but the lack of maintainence of said cups.


i agree! i think of cups as a holding place until bettas can find their new, nice home. i know, not all people will take good care of their bettas, but i like to think they do. but when i go to a store, and the water quality is bad, it's wrong, because technically, that is a product, and stores are supposed to maintain the quality of their products. by allowing the bettas to get to such a horrible point is extreeemely irresponsible, by the fish care-taker, and the management, who should be making sure that their employees are taking care of their responsibilities that they are being paid to do.

oh! on a nicer note, one of my local walmartshas officially stopped selling bettas!!! (sadly, this isn't the one where soda had been poured into the cup, i think that one's still selling them....)


----------



## BettaGirl290 (Jul 29, 2010)

My petco isnt that bad, i found a gold betta there once, i begged my dad but he said no.


----------



## BettaGirl290 (Jul 29, 2010)

*Maybe!!!!*

uggggggh, i have enough money for a hamster but i need money for a cage and stuff..... maybe for X-mas i cant get a cage!:twisted:


----------



## LikeDiscoSuperfly (Oct 18, 2010)

Maybe, you should have your parents watch craigslist for you!


----------



## hailukah (Nov 13, 2010)

baylee767 said:


> I feel so stuipid but what exactly is water hardness? 0_0


It's the amount of minerals in water. Too much can have a crazy effect on PH.


----------



## kaythenewbie (Aug 23, 2010)

Even if a store is reimbursed for dead fish, at least they did not make any money off of it. You're forgetting that Walmart pays less for the fish than they sell them for. It DOES make a difference if you buy a fish from a store with bad conditions than not. I work in retail. My store buys products wholesale which is 1/4 of what we sell them for. From what I understand, the majority of stores work the same way. So if you buy a fish from a Walmart that takes horrid care of their fish, you just enabled them to buy 4 more fish, not one.

Even if a store does not lose money from dead fish, they do not make a profit either.


----------



## Miharu (Dec 6, 2010)

Im aware of that, I never said they made money off of dead fish, but they don't lose any either. Buying a fish from a place that takes horrible care of their fish, is showing them that people will buy the fish, I agree with that. But not ALL walmarts, petcos, petsmart, ect. are bad...


----------



## jpicking1 (Dec 5, 2010)

i bought all my stuff at petco even my fish near me. the guy there was great telling me he would never but a tank for a betta smaller then 2.5 gallons he even directed me to your guys forums. i went to walmart near me rarly do i go to walmart casue basicly i think most of there stuff is cheap and fall apwart clothes so on. what i saw was fish not taken care of dead fish in bowls. i left no way would i buy from them. mayby stores with condition liek that if we do not buy from them they will ether a change there ways b go out of busnies. now petco on the other hand near my house everything looked great all the fish very healthy. very knowladable person. so i think its the individual stores compared to a chain as a hell for on taking care of the fish the right way. thoguh to me its kind of strange walmart trying to sell fish they trying to sell way to many diffrent things the quality will go by the way side. 
just my point of view and what i saw as a new betta owner.


----------

