Wal*Mart Fish Care Tips

[daniodude]

The wal*mart around me should not be allowed to keep fish......They are a great place to buy dry goods......filters and thermometers ect., but every time I go there there is at LEAST 2 dead fish in every tank. also, the PetLand (I think its just and Illinois chain) around me, last time I went in, within the first 10 min. of looking at their fish, I saw 2 dead angels, 3 dead Cories, 4-6 Dead Tetras, and MANY others. We brought this to theirattention and they said they would take care of it, but there were a lot of dead fish, so I don't see how they could not have noticed

DanioDude

 

[littlefishie]

Griz -- where are you in Ontario? I live a street away from the FE Wal*Mart lol

Daniodude -- the Petland here in Ontario is pretty awesome.. in fact, they're hiring and 2 of the employees put a word in for me. I spent almost 2 hours in the fishroom today there and didn't find that many dead fish.. one platy that had been attacked by a blue lobster, and a tank of some kind of tetra.. they'd just been shipped poorly from Thailand and didn't make it. Eric [guy who works there] was really pissed and immediately called the company to inform them of what had happened. ..They're really good at this one though, especially with medicating fish. They have a sick porcupine puffer right now -- NO idea what's wrong with him, but he's got his own 30 gallon tank and a daily dose of meds, among other things. They actually carry a lot of hard-to-find species too, like L-number plecos and royal plecos, among other things. ..I like this one.

 

[fishdudein]

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...

As a Wal-Mart associate (7 1/2 years), let me relate this story. I used to work as an ICS associate, one of my main areas was pets. The dept. manager and I got along real well, and I helped him out as much as possible. One day he was really swamped with fish customers, there was one couple in particular who needed a lot of help, just setting up their first tank. I jumped in and helped these people pick out their tank (after talking to them for a while and finding out what kind of fish they wanted to keep, etc), filters, heater, etc, the whole magilla, everything they would need to set the tank up except for the fish.

With their nearly full shopping cart of fish tank and supplies, their next stop was the fish. They kept pointing to this fish and that fish and I would always try to steer them towards the more hardier "beginner" fish, and explained that they should start with just a few small fish and gradually add a few at a time, but that before they added any fish at all they should make sure their tank is cycled. In the process of giving the simplified version of the cycling process, I was interrupted by another customer, when I returned the couple was gone. Their shopping cart was still in the department.

The department manager said he gets this all the time. I had spent 30 to 45 minutes with this couple. People just don't get that fish keeping is not an instant thing. I think that by trying to explain it to them, they think that you are the one who doesn't get it. So, yeah, in certain instances, educating people about the proper way to keep fish can be bad for business. Unfortunately. Not the way it should be, agreed. These are probably the same people who would get a puppy because it was cute, then take it out and dump it somewhere once it stops being cute. I only hope they don't get fish somewhere else and end up flushing them once they get bored with them.

OK, I'm off my soapbox now.....thanks for listening.


edit: for what it's worth, I am now a fish addict (500 posts)! WOOHOO!

 

[littlefishie]

..It drives me insane when people do that. I really hope that, if I get the job at my LFS, I don't get customers like that.. though I know I will. I can only hope that my manager [once again provided I get the job] would understand that the life of the fish is important, and that they'll have to learn about cycling anyway.

 

[Synirr]

These are probably the same people who would get a puppy because it was cute, then take it out and dump it somewhere once it stops being cute.

At the risk of getting off-topic, there are people who do that all the time on my road. I live about 5 miles out of town, and people take their dogs out in the country and dump them in front of areas with a few houses...
I guess they're hoping us country folk will take them in, which is what usually happens.