WalMart blows....

[wuvmybetta]

Well, the only problem with it is that I will be that little old woman who dies, and when I do they'll come in to get my body and find 1000 bettas that need a home.

I'll be that old lady. 

That's so funny. I made an extremely similar joke on here a couple years ago that I'd be the old lady with a million bettas who runs along my property line flaring at the little children as they pass

Nobody probably gives a rat's behind that one of my female bettas loves her little tankbuddy the snail.  lol

I disagree. Rarely,if ever have you had a "failed thread". Your posts like that are welcoming to people who pay such close attention to their fish's every movements Everybody loves to talk about the funny things their fish do, but sometimes it's easier for them to just join in on a conversation rather than construct a post of their own.

Yeevia~ I think I'll be getting on this quicker than I had intended. Luckily I'll have Jim Sonnier here this coming weekend so I'll chew his ear a bit. It's so much easier for me to be convincing in person He would be one of the final people it has to be approved by anyway

 

[BettaMomma]

Well, the only problem with it is that I will be that little old woman who dies, and when I do they'll come in to get my body and find 1000 bettas that need a home.

I'll be that old lady.

That's so funny. I made an extremely similar joke on here a couple years ago that I'd be the old lady with a million bettas who runs along my property line flaring at the little children as they pass

LOL!
I can see you having cosmetic surgery to get some gill implants.

I kinda thought I had come to the realization the other night that I was making this place sort of a diary of my fishes' lives and I thought that other people would see that I posted another story and roll their eyes, but maybe it is a place for other ppl to start telling their stories too. So I guess I won't quit what I'm doing. I guess if people don't want to hear it, I now know that they'll not have ANY issues telling me.

Sign me up for your group - sign me up!!!

 

[yeeviabetta]

Yeevia~ I think I'll be getting on this quicker than I had intended. Luckily I'll have Jim Sonnier here this coming weekend so I'll chew his ear a bit. It's so much easier for me to be convincing in person
Great. We need people like that and who is the next target? Phil the old dragon??? LOL

 

[jols]

BettaMomma-I'll be the lil' old lady with a LOT of fish and a LOT of kitties

 

[Synirr]

Nobody probably gives a rat's behind that one of my female bettas loves her little tankbuddy the snail.  lol

I disagree.

Me too! I love reading other people's fish stories, even though I don't always post in threads like that... it reassures me I'm not the only one completely fascinated by their every move

Anyway, I'm not ashamed to say that most of my bettas are from Walmart... they're the only one nearby that has a fresh supply for me to pick through every week, and being as obsessive as I am, there's no way I could pass that up! I mean hey, sometimes they hide little treasures in the bunch, like a DT female or a couple of CTs. They WILL be hearing from me a lot more often though, now that I know I can light a fire under their butts by contacting the home office... and I suppose I would be willing to give up my weekly betta buffet if it meant keeping them from mistreating any more fish . Either they clean up their live fish section in two weeks or the home office is getting a recommendation that that store no longer carry live fish.

 

[daudy_dojo]

this is a popular thread...

Me too! I love reading other people's fish stories, even though I don't always post in threads like that... it reassures me I'm not the only one completely fascinated by their every move

Anyway, I'm not ashamed to say that most of my bettas are from Walmart... they're the only one nearby that has a fresh supply for me to pick through every week, and being as obsessive as I am, there's no way I could pass that up! I mean hey, sometimes they hide little treasures in the bunch, like a DT female or a couple of CTs. They WILL be hearing from me a lot more often though, now that I know I can light a fire under their butts by contacting the home office... and I suppose I would be willing to give up my weekly betta buffet if it meant keeping them from mistreating any more fish . Either they clean up their live fish section in two weeks or the home office is getting a recommendation that that store no longer carry live fish.

DITTO!!!

 

[OohFeeshy]

Nack to the 'if you don't complain to the manager/whoever then its not worth it' point. It takes a lot of courage to confront people like that. Especially when you realise how much they lie just to save their necks. Every day I'm emailing Ebay sellers and other companies who sell those tiney betta tanks and goldfish tanks. With the Ebay sellers, most don't give a damn. Generally they'll tell you a load of BS when you first complain to them, then when you tell them that you know better, they just laugh, insult you, whaddever. With the larger companies, you'll always get a load of BS. I've emailed Hagen several times about their tiny goldfish tanks. They tell me that its only intended as a starter kit and that you are meant to move the goldfish later. Yeah, right. I've scanned the leaflet oveer again, and it says nothing about that.

Anyway, back to the original topic. If you get that amount of BS just through emails, you can get an awful lot more in person. Such as being arrested, escorted out, banned from the shop...... etc.

 

[BettaMomma]

OF - I completely agree.

I was terrified when I first confronted someone in WM. I was sweating, my heart was pounding, I couldn't get my words out and I almost cried. I didn't say half the things I wanted to say because I was afraid I would cry. BUT... the more I have done it, the more I realize why I'm there and what i'm doing shouldn't be a sad thing. I have gotten pretty comfortable with doing it.

Saying that, however - not every person will ever be comfortable with doing it - that's why I say that I'd be more than happy to make a phone call for anyone who wants to get a point made. I have unlimited minutes on my cell, and I will use them.

 

[MegTheFish]

Saying that, however - not every person will ever be comfortable with doing it

*puts up hand* that would include me. Heck, I can't even get up and say a speech in my classroom, when I know all the people! I'd probably end up babbling and crying if I ever did confront somebody at Walmart...which would probebly make it worse, LoL. Who wants to listen to a whiney kid?

 

[BettaMomma]

PM me when you have something you need complained about.
Seriously.

 

[SPLiSH]

Yeah, I've complained several times to my local Pet's Paradise about the numerous dead/dying bettas they have. BTW, Pet's Paradise is the Australian equivalent of Walmart etc. in the way they treat their fish.

Here's a bit of advice, everyone: never play dumb, it doesn't work. Instead, be upfront and stern. I learnt the hard way.

I went to the movies with one of my friends several weeks ago, and while we were waiting around for the movie to start we popped into Pet's Paradise so I could check their bettas. One was lying with his head on the gravel, surrounded by poo. I played dumb and pretended to know nothing about bettas. The conversation with the staff member went like this:

Me: Excuse me, are you sure that fish is alright?
Her: Yes, he's just trying to get that little worm there. (Points to poo)
Me: Oh. What kind of worm is it? I have a betta and he only gets little pellets. I want to give more variety, you know?
Her: Erm, yes, it's a... umm... worm that naturally occurs in the water.
Me: It kind of looks like poo to me.
Her: It's a special feeding worm. We've run out of them, sorry sweetie! (Walks away)
My 'friend': Ha, and you thought it was sick!

So the result of this visit:

~My friend sucked in by the lying staff member, thinking I'm an idiot for thinking the fish was sick.

~Me feeling guilty, because since I'd used all my cash on shopping and my movie ticket, I couldn't buy this poor betta.

From now I never use the 'innocent little girl who knows zero about fish' approach. The 'evil, scary little girl' method is much more effective.

 

[Styx]

*Howls with laughter* OMG! That is one creative employee! That is something else...

 

[Synirr]

HAHA, what a story!!
I would have said "Oh! I've seen them before. I think they call them 'poo worms'"

 

[Ember]

I can't believe your friend bought that line. Even when I didn't know anything about bettas, I knew those soiled cups were a bad thing.

Personally, I've had real good luck with the guilt tactic. In fact, I've guilted so good that I've gotten free fish....twice! I was in Petco very late, close to closing, and a betta was dead. Picked the cup up to show the guy that was closing the fish area and the poor betta started thrashing around with whatever strength he had left. I held the cup up to the guy and told him this betta was about to die. He said "Oh" and started to take the cup from me. I asked what he was going to do with it and he said throw it away. I yelled "NO!!!, how could you do that?" and proceeded with ultimate guilt adding that I could probably save him but it really sucks that I would have to spend money on a fish they were going to throw out anyway. He just looked around and waved me on. He let me have the fish! Either he felt guilty or he was too lazy to ring up just a fish. Probably the latter.
The second time was similar. I actually took the sick fish to the counter (along with cat food). I showed the checker the fish and started in on how he was almost dead and I couldn't just leave him like that in such disgusting water. I said that even if the fish died he at least deserved to be in some fresh water so I was going to take him home. I went on to say that I cared about the fish even if they didn't. I put on the ROYAL guilt trip! The checker just rang me up for the cat food. I even asked "what about the fish?". His answer was "Don't worry about it".

One place I've gone to and guilted them for the disgraceful conditions of their bettas seemed to have cleaned up their act. I'm not sure if it has something to do with my comments or if the new guy working there is just a more responsible employee. The last few times I stopped in, the bettas were in clear water and more of it. They used to put hardly enough water to even cover them. Their excuse to me was that the bettas needed lots of air room in the cup. I argued that point but the manager at the time didn't seem to care.

 

[SRC]

The thing most people are failing to realize is...the other fish are being treated just as poorly...it's just harder to recognize because they aren't in individual little cups that "show" just how bad they are being treated.

The other fish are on a filtered system, sure..but they rarely get water changes and the filters are rarely changed..so their water is full of ammonia, nitrates and nitrites (which is why 6 out of 10 die soon after arriving at your house).

I know we are in a Betta Forum, and people like to rant about the treatment of Bettas...but the rest of the fish deserve better treatment too...are you going to start rescuing all of them as well? No, well the same can be said for bettas. You can't stop it all. There is no reason to put yourself in the poor house (because treating sick fish is not cheap by any means..and is even more expensive for someone who doesn't have a clue what they are doing..because they are going to buy all kinds of stuff they don't need) trying to stop something that has no end (or at least not one in the distant future).

Complaining can and will work alot better then buying all their sick fish..that really does nothing more then have you buying fish, buying medicines, buying tanks, buying food, buying water conditioner...and such (and it doesn't matter if you buy all that stuff at the store you bought the fish..you STILL bought it) and do you know what the store cares about...nothing. They'll give you your $4 back when the fish dies..and that's it.

So really IMO there is no need for everyone to sit here and argue about it. It doesn't matter if you stop buying the bettas or if you buy them all or if you call and complain every single day. There is no law governing the treatment of fish, so you need to do whatever makes YOUR heart and mind feel better/at ease and go with that.....don't look to others for self-proclamation (which is technically what I feel this thread is about. People watching others getting praised for rescuing a sick fish, and they want in on the sympathy/attention train too..so they either go buy a sick fish , or say they did, and start a thread (sorry, I'm not implying any one of you have lied about saving a sick fish..but I know lots of people who make up stories to fit in during a conversation when they don't have anything real to add, and they don't want to sit there like a bump on a log not being able to "fit-in")..so I think that sentence applies here as well). If you are going to rescue a sick fish, don't make the emphasis of your thread on the fact that you bought a sick fish...make the thread about the sick fish and how to help IT. If you do that...I doubt anyone will have any ill thoughts or replies to your efforts).



and just for "arguments" sake....