Walmart's main objective is selling money, and sadly that shows in the way they care for fish. I was reading a reddit AMA of a Walmart pet supplies & fish area that once worked at an actual pet store had good knowledge of fish.
Here are some of the more disturbing things he said...
-There was a shipment of fish, he was not working at the time. They brought the fish in, just let them sit in a cart in their bags for 8 hours. All the fish died.
-The water reeks of ammonia and fish are often kept at the wrong temps.
-The managers told him not feed the betta (!!)
I was very upset by this and I think Walmart and other non-pet stores selling pets just does not make sense. They need people trained about fish care (and other pet care). Have you experienced stores/companies selling fish that are not pet stores? What was your experience?
Walmart is not a specialized pet store. They do not have the expertise to take care of the fish nor they are willing to take good care of their fish. They treat their fish like any other merchandise on their shelves. Most of fish tanks at walmart are quite dirty with plenty of dead fish at the bottom. It is quite a normal scene at any walmart that sells fish. One of the stories I heard was that walmart employees are not allowed to stay in front of their fish tanks for more than a certain period of time each day. Not sure if it was true, but it was a quote from an employee who used to be in charge of the fish there. The time limit put on him did not allow him to properly take care of the fish.
Several years ago there was the rumor that Walmart would be stop selling fish, but I guess it was false.
I don't even know if my local Walmarts carry fish anymore. I never go back into that area to look. I don't think of Walmart as being a good, reputable pet store. I think it would cost them more to maintain the fish tanks and supplies than what they actually sell. They probably lose a ton of money and fish if they still have this section in any store. Do people even go there for fish? How sad! Poor little fishies! That is not fair.
I remember seeing fish at Walmart, but that was a long time ago;and I think that none of the Walmart stores here sell live fish anymore.
They have all kinds of fish supplies, and maybe even the tanks for fish, but no actual fish. I think this is something that is trending away from non-pet stores, and probably that is because of the extreme loss of fish, and the lack of care for them.
It used to be that a lot of the stores sold goldfish, at least; even if they didn't have any other kind of tropical fish. Since the goldfish were always cheap (I remember buying them for about 29 cents apiece), it was not a big loss when the store had some of them die due to lack of care. Once they started carrying the more expensive tropical fish; then every dead or sick fish was a bigger financial loss, and I think that is why many of them are no longer selling fish.
I used to work at walmart near the pets department and sometimes I would have to help customers get fish. I really hated having to help people because the fish the store here sold were sickly and their takes always smelled rancid.
The tanks are hardly ever properly taken care of from what I have seen. It really is a shame that walmart gets to keep their fish the way they do, it makes me sick.
Try explaining to little children why there was dead fish in the tank. Not Fun.
I feel so bad for the fish, when ever I walk past the small tanks at Walmart. My store here on Maui still sells fish. Most of them are dead or dying when I see them. I did buy a Betta, that ended up living for a decent amount of time. I don't think I would bother with buying any of the other types of fish they sell. I have also seen some plants in the tanks, for sale. But again none of them look healthy. I wonder if there is anything someone can do to help revive these fish, before they completely die. If you were to buy a fish from walmart, that was obviously sick, would there be anyway to bring it back to a healthier state? Would it be worth the hassle?
I would never in a million years buy fish at Walmart, because you're right: their only objective is to sell as much as they can and make profit. It's a large company that doesn't have time to care for much such as fish. I mean, they don't even care for their employees that work there, so why would they care for fish, right? *burn*
In the past, I did buy a fish at Walmart. I was probably about 8 years old and I had wanted a fish to take care of after my first cat had passed away. My mother thought it would be a good idea and to be honest, fish weren't that hard to take care of. I looked at all the fish that Walmart had to offer and I chose one. It was an Angel Fish and I thought it to be the most beautiful fish that I've ever seen. We took it home with our brand new fish tank set and within hours, the fish had died because it was sick. The hours before, it would cause discoloring to the water and often had a weird string come out of it from behind. We never knew what it was, but we knew that the fish wasn't going to make it and my mother was disappointed.
So now, when I go to Walmart, it is only for their pet products (because they are significantly cheaper), but never will I buy another fish or any animal from them. If Walmart ever did sell animals such as dogs, cats, and more, I would probably fight against that and make sure that they are taken to a better and well-trained corporation.
Speaking as someone who used to work at Walmart, I know that the pet section does not get as much attention as it should. I constantly said that the fish department needed work, but there was nothing that I could do about it. I felt sorry for the fish. We were also told to tell the customers about how to take care of the fish, but a lot of people didn't really know any real information. Walmart is definitely not a pet store, so it could not be looked at as such. This is not the place to look for a pet that will last.
The Walmart I shop at stopped carrying live fresh water fish a few years ago. They do sell supplies for hobby fish enthusiasts, but no more fish. When they did sell fish, they all looked in very poor condition, so I'm happy they stopped. I'm not aware of the current status of other Walmart stores in my state.
Pet fish should not be sold in a retail store such as Walmart. The employees are not trained in the proper care and feeding -- they are just there to stock items and maybe answer a few simple questions.
I haven't seen a Walmart actually carry fish for years, but I know of another competitor store that does sell fish. The situation there is precisely the same as that of Walmart, with people who have never dealt with fish not even bothering to figure out how to keep them alive until they sell. They crowd 500 goldfish into one 20 gallon tank, and then starve them half to death, so what the customer gets to see are a bunch of sluggish, scrawny, pathetic looking fish, most of which have the stressed look, with clenched fins and nearly no movement at all. You also get to see 5 or 6 (or more) dead fish in each tank, which is extremely unhealthy for the living fish -- not that anyone cares. The situation is just as bad for the tropical fish, which are pretty much kept in the same temperature water as the goldfish, which stresses out those fish as well, until the entire population of the fish section of the store is in dire straits. It is bad enough that the people who actually do appear beside the tanks, (you have to place a call to get someone to show up to help you) have no idea what you're talking about when you ask for a certain number of male and female guppies. I thought everyone could easily tell the difference between a male and female guppy. These people readily admit they have no idea what they're doing, and also admit that there is no specified person who works in the pet department. They just shuttle the closest available associate over to that section when someone asks for help. I have seen people standing in front of the fish tanks for an hour or longer, hopelessly waiting for someone to help them and I even saw a guy go for a little baggy and a net, and scoop out his own fish once because he was tired of waiting. It's just an all-around ridiculous situation.
