Wal*Mart Fish Care Tips

[littlefishie]

So Monday when I went to the mall with my grandma to pick up another Christmas present for my mom, I decided to wander the Wal*Mart pet section, intending on pointing out the 10 gallon kit to my nana, as a 'wonderful Christmas present' for me. [She just reminded me that the same kit is $20 cheaper at SuperPet] As I was browsing their fish section, looking at the tanks and such, I noticed two things.
1. This Wal*Mart does not carry live fish. Yay!
2. Wal*Mart has designed a lovely little sheet that is entitled:

Wal-Mart Fish Care Tips

A SAFE TRANSITION
Here are a few tips to help ensure our fish has a safe transition from the Wal-mart tank to your home tank.

• Make sure the fish is the last purchase you make before going home. The less time the fish spends in the bag the less stressed it will be.
  Find a shaded spot in your car to place the fish for the ride home. Avoid placing it in the trunk.
  Upon arriving at home, place the fish bag in the aquarium water and allow the water to acclimatize [matching the temperature of the bag water to the tank water] for 20 minutes.
  After acclimatizing, gently use a net to scoop the fish from the bag and place it in the aquarium.
  Do not add the fish bag water to your aquarium.

ITEMS FOR SETTING UP YOUR AQUARIUM
Here is a list of the necessary items as well as decorative items you will need to set up a brand new aquarium. A Wal-Mart associate will be happy to go over the importance and function of these items with you.
Necessary Items

• Aquarium
  Filter and filter media
  Fish food
  Chlorine/Ammonia remover
  Thermometer
  Canopy with light
  Heater [for tropical fish]
  Nitrification Accelerator
  Net
  Decorative Items
  Gravel
  Tank Ornaments
  Plants
  Aquarium Background
  Aquarium Stand

STEPS TO SETTING UP YOUR AQUARIUM
1. Place your aquarium in a safe and secure area. Ensure the aquarium is level. Do not place an aquarium in direct sunlight [sunlight causes algae] or near doors that lead outside [drafts can cause the water temperature to fluctuate].
2. Place your aquarium background, filter and heater in their designated areas of the aquarium but do not plug them in.
3. Fill your aquarium so that it's 2/3 full with tap water. Rinse and place your gravel, tank ornaments, and plants in the aquarium. Place your thermometer in the aquarium or on the outside glass [depending on which thermometer type you choose].
4. Fill the rest of the tank so that there is no visible water line. Plug your filter and heater in. Add your chlorine/ammonia remover as well as your nitrification accelerator to the water.
5. Place your canopy with light on the top of the aquarium and allow the aquarium to settle for 48 hours. This will allow the water temperature to acclimatize to the desired temperature by the heater as well as allow the chemicals to mix completely thorugh the aquarium.

After 48 hours you are now ready to place fish in the aquarium.

WAL*MART WE SELL FOR LESS every day!

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Do I even need to comment on this? Okay, so some of it may be correct, but still. It was the first time I'd ever found a care sheet in Wal*Mart. ..Although, it was randomly tossed on top of an aquarium kit, but.. I still thought other people would like to see it. I was so amazed by the fact that it existed that I immediately called my grandmother over to show her. Now Nana, knowing nothing about fish, just looked at me and was like 'Well, it's to show silly old people like me how to set it up!' Silly Nana.. she's only ever had one betta in my lifetime, and that was when I was 10 years old and insisted on having a pet at her house.
But yes.. Wal*Mart Fish Care.. thoughts?

 

[balloon molly]

i have also seen this sign at a petsmart.
at least some ppls are trying

 

[littlefishie]

..but after 48 hours? no cycling or anything? That's what bothered me. I was in Wal*Mart on the weekend with my mom and saw this guy selling a lady two common plecos for her 10 gallon tank. He told her they were at their maximum size [they were about 2.5 inches long] and they wouldn't get any bigger..
Sorry, Wal*Mart bothers me.. I know they're trying, but how many Wal*Mart associates are knowledgable enough to go over why you need each item? [Besides the fact that you're spending money there, of course]

 

[Phantom Thief]

It's a start, definitely a good one. But before walmart start teaching people how to keep fish, maybe they should keep their own better (in certain places, not all). At least something is being done...

P.T.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I personally consider walmart a usually decent place to buy fish if you know what you're doing. I hate seeing people who don't know a thing about fish go there and suddenly decide to get one. I usually end up in the aisle telling people that the ACF will eat their small community fish, oscars need a bigger tank and won't get along so great with others, no, don't stick that goldfish in such a small tank, twenty gallons for fancy blah blah....

I just like the cheaper prices, even though the conditions aren't always the greatest, which they need to fix I'm not saying they don't, but if you know what to look for and are on a budget...

At least their not like superpetz *overpriced craphole with lame selection....*


Six in one hand, half dozen in the other

 

[k2snowboards88]

The wal mart by me is disgusting. Every tank has a dead fish in it all the time. Theres always tons of different colored algea. At least one tank has ich. Its a damn shame, and it seems like animal cruelty. I am glad that that walmart is different however and doesn't sell live fish. They shouldn't sell animals if they're just goign to be taken care of by a highschool dropout that doesn't give a #### about any living thing but themself.

 

[Talleyrand]

I think several stores in my area purposely dont tell people about fish care just to sell more fish. The bad thing is if they gave people all the info up front I think in the long run they would sell even more fish.
When I first got into the hobby about 3 years ago I purchased a 10 gallon tank kit from the local Grange Co-Op PetCountry, who failed to even mention in passing cycling the tank. They sold me a gourami, 4 guppys, and 2 bala sharks with a brand new tank. A week later when everythink but a single guppy had died and I returned to the store with questions, I was told it was likely a bacterial infection and they sold me $20 worth of chemicals.
I bought the Aquariums for Dummies book from Barnes and Noble on the way home and found out about new tank syndrome.
Now I have three tanks and frequent the PetCountry and the local Pet Smart I see the workers, who know better as some are fishkeepers themselves, do the same thing that happened to me.
A mom and her two kids buy a 10 gallon tank kit and the Pet Smart guy sells em a slew of fish,"Oh yeah, these 6 mollys will get along fine with the 8 guppies"
I confronted an employee once after a customer had left, his response,"the fish have a 10 day guarantee so whats the big deal"
How many people actually freeze the remains and a water sample to take back 5 $1.50 fish I know I never have.

Sorry for ranting
I agree that WalMart is a major offender. At my local Walmart there are no pet dept employee's, to buy fish at WalMart you have to get a checker to page one of the women from the health and beauty dept. to help you. After the 17 year old girl chases the fish around the tank for 10 minutes just to get it into the net the damn thing is as good as dead anyways. Great for buying cycling fish though

 

[Ben]

1. This Wal*Mart does not carry live fish. Yay!

what does that mean?

all the fish are dead in the tanks or they dont carry live fish at all?

theres a store that opened up called City Farmers where i live which is basicaly a lps and one week i was there the bettas were in tanks with compatible fish the next week i went there they were in the tiny cups i read so much about.

so i took the bettas out the cups(about 8 of them) and put them in different tanks(i.e the platy tank) and i found the plant tank and put one in there...but now im banned from that store for ever lol

IVE HAD ENOUGH OF THEM!

 

[SailfinGirl]

theres a store that opened up called City Farmers where i live which is basicaly a lps and one week i was there the bettas were in tanks with compatible fish the next week i went there they were in the tiny cups i read so much about.

so i took the bettas out the cups(about 8 of them) and put them in different tanks(i.e the platy tank) and i found the plant tank and put one in there...but now im banned from that store for ever lol

OMG!

The only thing I didn't see was right was the cycling thing. However, I haven't "properly" cycled either of my tanks, and my sis didn't cycle hers either and none of oour fish died through the cycling process.

Although, I did to begin with, for about 6 months have 4 mollies and a betta in my 5 gal! Wo, I've had one fish for a year and he's not dead yet. He lived through both cyclings.

 

[jacblades]

..but after 48 hours? no cycling or anything? That's what bothered me. I was in Wal*Mart on the weekend with my mom and saw this guy selling a lady two common plecos for her 10 gallon tank. He told her they were at their maximum size [they were about 2.5 inches long] and they wouldn't get any bigger..
Sorry, Wal*Mart bothers me.. I know they're trying, but how many Wal*Mart associates are knowledgable enough to go over why you need each item? [Besides the fact that you're spending money there, of course]

if everyone that buys fish knew they had to cyclle their tank, 1/2 of them would not buy the fish.

educating about cycling is not a smart business move...

my manager sometimes gets annoyed with me going into detail about the cycling process to customers...

sigh...

 

[littlefishie]

dwarf_dude -- they had absolutely NO fish whatsoever. no tanks, no fish, nada. just the supplies for them. like pet valu. i can't believe they banned you from the store, though! ..you were just doing what the bettas wanted everyone else to do! lol

I just get really worried with the things Wal*Mart gets away with.. when my friend Jess set up a tank, her only option for fish was Wal*Mart, because we live in a teeny town where WalMart is the only place with fish. We have a Pet Valu, but that's it. ..Jess went in with me, and started to pick up what she needed to start the tank, and a Wal*Mart associate waltzed right over and started to butt in on the conversation I was having with her about setting up her tank, telling her there was no need to cycle, she could buy everything that day! ..I just glared at the girl and told her that, if we bought one fish that day [which she had to pick] and it lived through the cycling process, I would admit that I was wrong about all Wal*Marts and their fishkeeping ways. She smiled, pointed at a little otocinclus, and said 'They're cute, and they cycle really well.' I rolled my eyes, told Jess that the oto would be dead within a week, and then the girl was like 'Okay, here, I'll give you the $2 for the fish. If he's dead in a week and you can show me the body, you can keep the $2. If you have no body to show me, you owe me the $2.' ..Odd, given she was an employee and fighting with me over such a thing but I figured we'd take the chance to prove her wrong. As much as I felt bad for the poor little oto that was going to die, I decided that if I could teach her some sort of lesson it may be worth it.
Needless to say we returned with a dead oto, a mere 5 days later. She admitted that she was wrong, she knew nothing about fish, and said she'd read up on them to learn how to take care of them properly. ..I doubted she'd do this but when I saw her a month later I quizzed her on a few things about their tanks, and was proud that she'd put 'not for sale' on a tank infested with ich. It's sad what it takes to make Wal*Mart employees realize they shouldn't be selling live fish..

 

[Synirr]

My Wal-Mart doesn't even have employees that take care of the fish... the people from the home and garden center get stuck with the task, and they, of course, know nothing about fish. It takes at least 15 minutes to get someone to help you if you want to buy a fish out of the tanks.

 

[Griz]

I don't understand why Wal-Mart is being singled out this way. (and not just in this thread) There are plenty of big chains out there that are irresponsible, and plenty of small shops too. My local W-M sells a decent selection of supplies at reasonable prices and has about a dozen well-kept tanks of common tropical fish. I haven't bought fish there myself and probably wouldn't, but their fish seem healthy to me and many have been there for several weeks. W-M seems to be the target of overgeneralization, there are plenty of other culprits out there and they are not always the big department stores that sell fish and tanks over in the corner. My 2 cents.

 

[littlefishie]

I have yet to see a Wal*Mart in Southern Ontario that takes care of fish, with the exception of the one in Fort Erie. My friend's mom runs it, and she has a couple tanks at home, so she knows what she's doing.
Yes, there are other stores out there who take terrible care of their fish, like PetCo and Petsmart for example. ..I just happen to notice a lot more at Wal*Mart. Like when they put plecos and dojo loaches with goldfish.

 

[Griz]

I have yet to see a Wal*Mart in Southern Ontario that takes care of fish, with the exception of the one in Fort Erie. My friend's mom runs it, and she has a couple tanks at home, so she knows what she's doing.

That's the one I was referring to!