I'm just wondering how many people have had horrible experiences with Walmart and not just their fish, but their employees who will lie shamelessly to make a sale.

My boyfriend bought me a 1 gallon tank for our 7 month anniversary (yes, we celebrated monthly for the first year, don't judge us. lol) and Walmart actually thought they would be justified in telling him that 2 ADFs and a Platy would be perfectly fine in that tank. Of course, he didn't know any better, and neither did I at the time, but looking back I can't believe they would lie like that. They also neglected to sell him the right kind of water treatment. It was just for odors and cloudiness and didn't improve water quality (remove chlorine or chloramine) at all. They really don't care about the fish, only the money. Needless to say the frogs and fish died after about a month. I'm surprised I kept them alive that long in those conditions! 1 gallon and no water treatment!!

Any stories for you?

Yep, can I tell it here? No, why? cause I cant do it in appropiate manner that is suitable for most peoples stomachs.

Lets just say Wal-Barf, nope, not getting ANY of my money.

Its got nothing to do with the fish just the way they handled a situation that should have never happened.
Coporate called and still almost a year later , no nothing. Empty promises, bad service.

Oh yeah, sorry, I didn't say why I boycott their fish. Every fish we have ever had from there died, even now that we are a little more educated on the matter. My guess is they are not cared for properly. There are always dead fish in their sale tanks.

Well I see the same thing at petco and petsmart and petlands, I just dont think they should carry livestock in a grocery/general/department store setting, its almost as bad as meijer's with their fish, beautiful dwarf blues and flames, cept half are beat to snot and the other half are dead.

Really? I've always been pretty impressed with Petsmart. I've never looked at fish at Petco (except for their beautiful female Bettas. I have never seen females that colorful) and I've never even heard of Petlands. I will admit that I have seen better (of course) but Petsmart seems pretty good, except for their ADFs. Have you ever looked at them? They are really pale at Petsmart. One of my ADFs is from there and then my other is from this small family owned type Aquarium store near my college and they are completely different. One is dark in coloring and very active, while the other is pale and sort of lazy. Or at least he was last I saw him. I haven't seen him in a week cuz I'm off at college and my sister is caring for him. :(

who doesnt have a horror story from walmart fish

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My Tinker bell chalice

Oh dont get me wrong, petsmart is by far the best chain store to go to for fish.

I have never had to use the 14 day thing for dead fish. I have fish that are now almost 3 from petsmart yet petco's doesnt last for a week.

Its hit and miss with chain stores.

However waldomart should not carry livestock. Im half tempted to call the county on the walmart by us. water is so clear it doesnt even have bacteria, they do full water changes atleast once a week to keep it looking healthy yet the intake tubes are covered with wasted life.

My local Wal-mart had an "aggressive bacteria" in their tanks. There was a sign hanging on the tanks stating this. I returned a week later and inquired about the bacteria and the employee whispered to me that she doesn't think Wal-mart ever treated the tanks but instead just took the signs down.

I can honestly say that I do not have one. Before the Walmart Superstore quit handling fish here, they had a man who knew how to handle fish. They cleaned the tanks every day and the fish were kept in tanks that the fish were all compatible with each other. There were never dead or dying fish in the tanks and they were never overcrowded. The store had a unique area where the bettas that the store had were kept and it was fairly decent actually. Each was kept in a larger version of the cup but they were clean and each was on a lighted shelf not stacked on top of each other. They were cleaned every day and not kept in drafty areas, while they were not in heated and filtered tanks, I felt that since the water was changed daily in those cups they were fairly healthy. The man did the best he could and they were all given food appropriate to the species they were feeding not just flake food for all.

But unfortunately This Walmart store decided that the attention spent on the fish was too expensive and decided to discontinue the fish department other than fish supplies. So no more live fish. I have seen PetSmarts and Petcos and many many local fish stores that do a worse job so you will not get a horror story about my local Walmart. I think they did a good job for as long as they did it. I was almost sorry to see it go.

Rose

My worst experience was at Petland. They had a row of dead, rotting betta cups sitting behind a row of barely alive ones. Like seven or eight of them. They never bother to change the water; just shove the dead ones back and put new ones on the shelf. It was sickening. I complained to the president of the company in writing and he allegedly sent a memo to all his stores to make sure to take proper care of their bettas. Like it will make any difference.

I don't even go near the fish section in Walmart. Too afraid of what I will find. But then again, I live in New York. Everything's evil in New York. The Petland I refer to above was in the Bronx.

i can comment on this from the inside. i work at Petland, we got no such memo....correction, i have herd of no such thing but there was one point where my manager was very uptight about the betta's, and i have the same problems at my location, it seams like no one else knows are even cares how to take care of the fish, so needless to say every time i go to work i am playing catch up doing water changes and such, i do my best to keep it lookign good but its hard to manage 2 or so thousand gallons of fish when i dont have the final decision on everything, if it was up to me i would have UV filters and sumps for each tank, instead of no UV and one sump per wall but im not the one who pays the bills

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My Tinker bell chalice

Here's what Neil Padron emailed to me on Feb. 27th, in response to a rather lengthy complaint letter that I not only emailed and faxed to him and about six of his employees, but also sent to several employess at an organization that had recently honored him with some award. I also sent the complaint letter to PETA and the ASPCA.

I have received your letter and want to thank you for your caring and concern regarding the Bettas in my store. The following memo has gone out to all of my stores.

TO: ALL STORE MANAGERS & ASSISTANTS
DATE: 2/27/09
RE: BETTA CARE
FROM: NEIL PADRON


*URGENT*

I would like to remind all employees that during your daily routine of checking, cleaning, feeding and caring for all of the fish, birds and animals that you do not forget to check all of the Bettas in your store. It is required that all of the bowls remain clean with clear water, and that the fish are well fed. Make sure you check them at least twice daily.

I am confident that this procedure is currently being followed. However, please review the above with all store personnel. Please sign and fax back to 631-273-8975 by Monday, March 2nd.

P.S. I would include my original complaint letter, but is extremely lengthy. PM me if you want to see it!

I have visited most of the Walmarts in my city and all of them have disgusting, filthy tanks. Every tank has at least a few dead fish. One employee made some off comment, can't remember what it was, but it sounded like he didn't really care about the fish at all. I have never bought any fish there.

I have noticed lately there are no fish in the tanks and it makes me wonder if they are shutting down fish sales. I hope so. If your going to sell fish look after them!

Eek, a walmart near me had and ENTIRE TANKFUL of 100% DEAD Pantodon bucholzi. It was extremely sad to see :(