Poor walmart bettas :(

[lovleeko]

Just got back from walmart. Went to look at fish stuff. I never buy fish from there but I do look at the fish. I was going to check out their bettas and couldn't find them. Then I seen them. I turned around and all their little cups were stacked at the work station. Stacks of dead bettas. :( It made me so sad. They can't take care of their bettas and then can't have the decency to dispose of them properly. Thank god that in one month exactly they will no longer be carrying fish.

Just wanted to take the time to say RIP to the poor walmart bettas. Hopefully we can all try not and support fish stores or places who carry fish and give them improper care. That's why I never buy from the walmart here.

[Wild Turkey]

Agreed, as far as fish care is concerned F wally world. 99% of the time the conditions are sickening, and i would comment on the help, but there is none. Might as well ask a mop what size tank for a goldfish.

[travie]

Most places that sale bettas use this same method to house the bettas. Not all places use this method, but most do. They don't want to take the risk of a betta being with any other fish.

[Wild Turkey]

Most places that sale bettas use this same method to house the bettas. Not all places use this method, but most do. They don't want to take the risk of a betta being with any other fish.

I agree the conditions (cups) are terrible, but you have to also not change the water to kill all of them....:(

I always give my local petsmart employees crap about housing bettas that way, but usually less than 5% of the bettas are not moving enough to be possibly dead.

[lovleeko]

I wasn't talking about the cups though. As sad as cups are, they could live their whole lives there if given proper care. Granted not very happy ones but the point is they killed them. And then not only that, but they leave them laying there for all to see what they have done. The fish were swollen have fungus and have been rotting in the cups for a while. Sad. It is beyond words.

And not just a few of them, either. I'm talking betta cups stacked up in a few stacks. 15- 20 bettas. They didn't even have one betta that was still alive.




Most places that sale bettas use this same method to house the bettas. Not all places use this method, but most do. They don't want to take the risk of a betta being with any other fish.

[Lady Hobbs]

Betta's natural habitants are in shallow rice paddies and they've been shipped in those cups for years. Can't say as I like it either but they can't donate a tank to each one separately, either, due to their fighting. The cups are in a green medication.

[Wild Turkey]

They just put them in methyl blue over here, or at least thats what i thought. (it is blue, i just assumed cuz of mold)

But shes not upset about the cups (well probably is but thats not what she meant) She meant the fact that they let them all die and then left them there.

I agree 100% im not happy about the cups, but its old news. But not changing the water in the cups is just negligent. Whole nother story there. Freaking wally world.

[Lady Hobbs]

Right. I don't think they maintain those at all. They come in as they are, stacked on a shelf and forgotten. I've never seen a dead one yet to be truthful, I never even look at betta's.

[Wild Turkey]

Right. I don't think they maintain those at all. They come in as they are, stacked on a shelf and forgotten. I've never seen a dead one yet to be truthful, I never even look at betta's.

I try to ignore them when i go by as well.. :( even at petsmart where most of them are alive. They do change the water, or med or whatever, but ive only seen it happen once and im in there all the time.

[betta_Mike]

Oh no!!! Poor lil guys :scry: That is truly horrible. The only fish that should be sold at Walmart should be dead before they get there (the ones we buy to eat).

In regards to cups I stopped by at a local Petsmart today and was happy to see their Betta cups are now twice the original size. Not better by much but still an improvement. I hope this catches on!!!

[lovleeko]

You hit the nail on the head WT. It is ridiculous. I look at bettas everywhere I go. Not to buy them. I just do. I know what you mean WT I go through them and hand them the ones with defects and who are sick dead etc. They take them and the other day I talked to the livestock manager about it. He said he would take them to be medicated or what not. My friend Amber just started working there. One of the bettas I gave to them had a swim bladder prob and Amber said the girl who the cup was given to gave the betta some freeze dried blood worms because she didn't know what to do for it. Can you hear me sighing? :14:



They just put them in methyl blue over here, or at least thats what i thought. (it is blue, i just assumed cuz of mold)

But shes not upset about the cups (well probably is but thats not what she meant) She meant the fact that they let them all die and then left them there.

I agree 100% im not happy about the cups, but its old news. But not changing the water in the cups is just negligent. Whole nother story there. Freaking wally world.

[MCHRKiller]

I dont think its so much the cup conditions as it is customers that try to be nice and feed them. Ive seen so so many customers put large quantities of betta food into the cups which naturally will kill them due to pollution. Customers also think its funny to put 2 males in the same cup and put the other in a random location where it cannot be found. I packed 2 males home from walmart a few weeks ago like that, both were missing alot of fin and one an eye...sadly both died.

[betta_Mike]

I dont think its so much the cup conditions as it is customers that try to be nice and feed them. Ive seen so so many customers put large quantities of betta food into the cups which naturally will kill them due to pollution. Customers also think its funny to put 2 males in the same cup and put the other in a random location where it cannot be found. I packed 2 males home from walmart a few weeks ago like that, both were missing alot of fin and one an eye...sadly both died.


Better than 2 girls one cup...:14:

[lovleeko]

LMAO Never seen it thank god.



Better than 2 girls one cup...:14:

[Wild Turkey]

LMAO Never seen it thank god.

Yea, dont. LOL

[candycane]

Wal Mart is the worst store for taking care of their fish. It makes me sick.
Even though some stores have started keeping Bettas in bigger cups, they
still aren't cared for properly. The pamphlets they give you are full of false
information about Bettas.
What if pet stores started selling hamsters in little tiny boxes that were full of excrement,and left them on the shelves to die a slow miserable death?
I don't think that would go over too well.
Maybe if Bettas cost 20-30$ instead of 2-3$ people would have more respect and stop treating them as "disposable" fish.
It's one of those things that pi**es you off, but you can't fix it yourself.

[Poofaye C.]

Does anyone know if eventually all wal-marts will stop selling live fish are just the ones that don't make a profit off of them? I've recently seen several locations stop selling fish.

[candycane]

The 2 new WalMarts in my area don't have live fish. Their aquarium products section is tiny also. ( but they have 3 isles of dog and cat food, figure that out).
The old WalMart has barely any fish, and the ones they do have are about to die any minute.
But it looks to me like all the stores will eventually stop having fish, thank gosh.

[Colin]

It seems that most of you guys seeing this are in america, I am sooooo glad we dont get this in the UK..

I mean, fish die but it sounds like wholesale slaughter, dont you have animal rights groups? The crazy bunches of activists in the UK would be rioting.

Do they sell Betta in pre-packed cups which come in boxes like sweeties?

[Wild Turkey]

Do they sell Betta in pre-packed cups which come in boxes like sweeties?

Im sure they arrive to the store in this fashion

[lovleeko]

basically they do. My friend who recently got hired on at petsmart said they do come in in pretty bad ways. She said that when the fish (any fish not just bettas) arrive they are almost colorless and extremely stressed out. Of course they loose a lot of them. She said she was shocked when she pulled out the neons and found them almost completely without color.

As for animal rights groups. Yeah, we have them. I'm not sure if how many rules regulations etc. that we have about fish. It seems the U.K is way better about their fish care.

As for walmart, the guy who was in there the other day said all walmarts will stop selling fish. He was doing some sort of inventory on them when I spoke to him about it.

[MCHRKiller]

Better than 2 girls one cup...:14:
:hmm3grin2orange: Ill give you that! I made the mistake of watching that once.:help:

I manage a small LFS a few miles away from walmart...I know for a fact we get our fish the same place they do...and naturally our bettas come in...in those cups just like walmart. But they dont stay that way of course. As for packing and shipping...those cups are a blessing compared to how bettas used to be shipped. In that 2" bag with a couple spoons of water that *might* cover the fish if you rocked all the water into a corner. Bettas hardiness and ability to breath surface air has sadly doomed it by default of its ability to survive in hellish conditions. Their recent populairty due to tiny tank makers and all the fish cube/vase gimics of the last few years has made more people aware of this ability to survive.

[travie]

There should be a law or something similar that says a store that sales bettas cannot have more than 10 bettas shipped to it every 2 weeks or so.

[Wild Turkey]

There should be a law or something similar that says a store that sales bettas cannot have more than 10 bettas shipped to it every 2 weeks or so.

There SHOULD be a lot more fish laws... :( but i agree.

[korith]

It seems that most of you guys seeing this are in america, I am sooooo glad we dont get this in the UK..

I mean, fish die but it sounds like wholesale slaughter, dont you have animal rights groups? The crazy bunches of activists in the UK would be rioting.

Do they sell Betta in pre-packed cups which come in boxes like sweeties?

Walmart up here in Canada is the same as the american one. Same sort of conditions in their fish department.

I wonder what percent of their fish actually get sold and how many just die off.

I don't think anything at walmart will change till some number cruncher notices how much inventory die off they have and then they do something about it, or pull the plug on live fish.

[mac]

Betta's natural habitants are in shallow rice paddies and they've been shipped in those cups for years. Can't say as I like it either but they can't donate a tank to each one separately, either, due to their fighting. The cups are in a green medication.

One of my LFS will separate his Bettas around his 20 FW tanks. And he will only ever order 20 at a time. Each tank is 25 gallons. Also he separates his Female Bettas in the tank he set's aside for them.

But you are right that it is hard for most shops to care for them properly. But why not try to a bit. It would be much better on the fish.

mac

[mac]

:hmm3grin2orange: Ill give you that! I made the mistake of watching that once.:help:

I manage a small LFS a few miles away from walmart...I know for a fact we get our fish the same place they do...and naturally our bettas come in...in those cups just like walmart. But they dont stay that way of course. As for packing and shipping...those cups are a blessing compared to how bettas used to be shipped. In that 2" bag with a couple spoons of water that *might* cover the fish if you rocked all the water into a corner. Bettas hardiness and ability to breath surface air has sadly doomed it by default of its ability to survive in hellish conditions. Their recent populairty due to tiny tank makers and all the fish cube/vase gimics of the last few years has made more people aware of this ability to survive.

You have raised some great points their. I hate the way some breeders ship their fish. I find it just terrible. I like when I went to the LPS in my town. They placed 8 Glass Cat-fish in a bag with 5 Pearl Gouramis. Now I found that offense and said so but they said they are fine. Well what happened well one of the cats got spiked. Amazingly he is still alive and well.

But the main two things that tick me off is the way fish are shipped and some of the shops' staff.

IMO I like it when a shop try to deter you from getting small tanks. Luckily for me I have one. Even after a good lecture, with the manager, and you do decide to get say a 5 gallon tank they will only sell you fish that will fit.


I find it great when you find a shop who employs staff who care about fish. And I wished the main stream shops would take pride in what they do, instead of getting incompetent, uncaring staff. Because what ends up happening is you get people who don't care about fish and this happens.

http://www.aquahobby.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=53809

http://www.aquahobby.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=53876

IMO I think if shops would take their time in training staff then the public would end up being the same up to a point.

mac

[MCHRKiller]

My LFS used to put bettas in those little flute bowl things. I couldnt take that and made a trip to lowes and got some glass cut and transformed 1 of our 20longs into a male betta tank. Now keep in mind this tank still isnt perfect...it houses 10 males in 3" sections. Each section has one of those tiny small world internal filters...it puts a more humanized look at a betta...showing it is a real fish that can live in a real tank. Myths are all around stating bettas cant live in tanks with filters and all this load of crap. Our female bettas are housed in a 20G long beside the males all loose and together...this shows people that females do make nice community tank fish and can live peacefully together. These "improvements" costed our LFS about $40...and within Id say a month fish loss has made it up, its also IMO boosted our female betta sale so its actually been profitable.