My Petsmart has a wide vary in fish and equipment however I'd say over 1/2 of the fish have parastites.There employees are pretty knowledgeable (the fish ones at least) and their return policy is great.But they do usually have some dead ones when I walk in.They also have huge fish tanks on custom stands that look amazing,and have fish tanks them self.

My Petco has a smaller variety of FW fish than PetSmart but PetCo carries SW fish so I think thats the case.And I think there equipment department is way smaller than PetSmart.However I would say their fish are way healthier and have better displays they have one tank with a Betta in it with other sales fish but they change the betta often.Theyre employees are about the same,however I did get a weird look from one when I mentioned cycling a tank.The look was like (How in the world does this 15y/o know what cycling means!?I was about to rip him off on fish!)But still i think their fish are healthir than Petsmart.And have good live plants too.I can also find tanks small as 2.5gallon here maybe for shrimp/snails/betta.They also have a turtle tank wit a dock that looks cool.

And heres Walmart for giggles,first of all they are way overstocked.Their fish our very discolored their black moor goldfish our white for instance.They dont even have gravel in their tanks,not one tank does.Their tanks are covered in brown algae and sometimes can barely see through.They have betta fish right above a sink where they put their dead fish and thats just a horrible placement and drives customers away from bettas (Not that they're living anyway).But theyre fish have ick,parasites,I saw a skirt tetra without a tail and was bleeding from it.They rarely clean up fish corpses,ill see the same ones decaying every time I walk in.Id love to clean that department up.And also they do have many fish tank kits up to 55gallon.

what a wonderful analysis haha. well i'd have to say, that takes walmart off my list. not that i've ever bought fish/supplies from there, I certainly wont plan on it in the furutre.

and for the other two stores, i have had the EXACT same experience. while the petsmart employees seem knowledgeable about pets/animals, i'd say 40% of the fish i've bought from their have died within 2 months. i see many dead fish, and their tanks aren't as pretty or nice.

petco on the other hand; the only time i have prematurely lost a fish from that store was during the Great Ice Storm of New England a few years ago. of course, I lost power for a week and my tank froze. i miss those fish. they were my favorite.

but cheers to you, now i know i'm not the only one who thinks that.

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20G tank
2 gold fish
1 small java fern (R.I.P. my huge java fern)
air pump
biobag whisper filter
heater
74-76F

Wall Mart is good for filters and standard stuff.

Gashog it sounds like you went to my Wallmart in Virginia. I stop in there every couple of weeks wanting to rescue all the Violet Gobies cause they look miserable.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

One of the local PS here has a huge live fish department. It was either 120 or 140 tanks, I don't remember for sure. Their tanks are well maintained and very rarely do I see a dead fish. Two of the employees I have delt with questioned my current stock and tank size when I purchased fish. These two seem somewhat knowledgeable and seemed to care.

The Petco down the road has maybe twenty tanks for freshwater. You could stand there for 20 minutes and no one will approach you to see if you need anything. One time their were so many dead fish in a goldfish display it was sickening.

The Walmart is disgusting, period. I will not buy any fish related items there ever again.
I did pick up a very pretty Yellow Lab there early on in the hobby who is doing great still.

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Do fish get thirsty?
How to fishless cycle your aquarium http://www.aquariumforum.com/f66/fis...cle-15036.html

Information on API FW test kit http://www.aquariumforum.com/f2/api-...ion-15347.html

Product brands don't change from place to place. But the price does. Filter media if they have it is generally a lot cheaper then LPS or LFS. And they do at times have great deals on tank supplies. Buying a fish from there, never unless it's the only fish going into the tank cause they will need to be sterilized in every sense of the meaning.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

Heres the problem with Wal-Mart. People who work there get paid crap. They get forced to work 4-5 different departments. Very little training when it comes to animals. I'm sure some departments would love to to specialize in fish and take care of them but until People complain to corporate enough ALL walmarts will contine to have crappy fish. call the walmart corp line, let them know about your experience, get your $25 gift card for inconvience and buy your filters. Othere then that just walk by and tell the fish your sorry you cant save them.

If I could get rid of my daughter's turtle and reclaim the 40G Breeder it's in I'd buy all the violet gobies they had and get them fixed up.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

My walmarts in sherwood arkansas thats the one i saw 2 bettas in one cup killed each other,I also VERY often see other fish being eaten dead or alive sometimes.I wish i had a lfs near me,my PS used to be good it has about 50-75 tanks but not as good now i guess it got new management.I prolly will get a 55g from petco with a black canopy stand!But i will never ever buy fish from Walmart again.Mine doesnt have gobies it has danios tetras,all goldfish IT EVEN HAS PLECOS IN THE GOLDFISH TANKS btw,theyre algae eaters are getting to big and latching to other living fish.

in my experience petco has more quality fish that are harder to get, but much less quanity, petsmart has better quanity but much less quality, but they are both gr8 cuz if u go through alot then even iff u get 1 fish every now and then once in a whileull find a jew e,x, i found a nice threadfin rainbow at petco for $4 WHICH I NEVER SEE AROUND HERE

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Bruins rule!

I agree that Wal-mart is terrible for the details, like fish. But when looking for a cheap, quality heater, I would say Wal-mart is a safe bet.

Unfortunately the only places around here with fish that are less than 45 or so minutes away are two Petsmarts, a Pet's Supplies Plus and a Meijer as far as I know. There is one tropical pet store but the people in there are rude, their prices are very high, and their conditions don't look much better than one of the supermarkets...I've been there twice and on both occasions I'd say the averaged about one dead fish for every 1.5 tanks they had set up and some were ridiculous overstocked and rampant with algae.

Out of all of them, the Pet's Supplies and the larger (and farther away) Petsmart seem to be the best bets. Both have very reasonable amount of fish per tank, have many plants in the aquariums, and have minimal dead fish from my experience. They also have nice setups solely for plants which is cool. Either this Petsmart sells a lot of fish, doesn't order a lot of fish, or they go out of their way to ensure their tanks aren't overstocked, as many fish had their own setups and even tanks with Danios, Guppies, etc probably only had 1.5-2x what would be recommended at a home aquarium. This is understandable given that it's twice the size of the other one (at least) and has 3x the amount of tanks.

The other Petsmart isn't terrible but none of their aquariums have much shelter or plants and I usually see a few dead fish. They also have 2-3 tanks linked together which lets fish freely swim between tanks which I think is cool, but it also increases the chance of disease and such. I recently purchased 5 Cherry Barbs from here and one of the males died within a day with what I believe to be Neon Tetra Disease, although I could be off base. There is a chance that the male was the one I purchased the day before from the larger Petsmart, but the odds are it was from the smaller one.

As for Meijer...well it's comparable to Wal-Mart most likely. Too many fish, no decorations at all, and the fish section seems neglected. Their male Betas are also in small cups besides the sink they use for everything, great way to contaminate those fish. I really believe these places should not keep live animals of any sort unless they hire people with specific knowledge about their care at an elevated pay rate, which they don't as far as I know.

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30G planted aquarium with Aquaclear 50 and two Aquaclear 20s. 7 Cherry Barbs, 12 Cardinal Tetras, 1 Albino Bristlenose Pleco, 1 Golden Honey Gourami, and a handful of Ghost Shrimp.