Tropical Fish Keeping banner

WARNING when buying fish from Walmart

43K views 21 replies 12 participants last post by  LasColinasCichlids 
#1 ·
Hello.

You guys are probably thinking that I am going to talk about how TERRIBLE walmart's fish dept. is, and to check fish VERY throgholy for any signs of ich, fungus, and finrot, which are all common fish diesases found on fish that are at walmart. Although those things are highly important, and I never recomend buying a fish at walmart unless you have to (have to?), that is not what this warning is about.

I can't prove this is true because it is something I heard from an employee, but better safe than sorry! It sounds logical so I will report it...

The checker said passively as I was walking away,"oh, when you get to the sensor gates on either side of the door, lift the shrimp over the electronic gate or they will die." She explained that the electronic field between the gates would send an electric charge throught the water and kill the fish!

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE EXPLAIN THAT EARLIER!?

She said that it wasn't likely to kill fish (I was buying shrimp, that appearently would have been killed), so nobody really says anything.

WHAT KIND OF RESPONSIBILTY IS THAT?

Way Walmart sees it, if the fish dies, chances are you will come back to the walmart to get more fish. That is a shame. Why does walmart have to be that way...so selfish.:-(
 
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: Navthrfez Platy
#3 ·
Well, supposedly the "elecrtic charge" will show no noticeable signs of shock. It sorta makes since with water, but with flamables, it is the vapor that is flamable, not the liquid. Without a spark to agnite the vapor, there will be no effect, perhaps even if the liquid was electrically charged.

Anyone had any negative effects walking through the gates w/ live fish/inverts?
 
#5 ·
I forgot they had a policy.:|. Maybe they can't help being bad.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I hate to tell you this but the sensors at the door are magnetic based not electric based, the chances of them killing anything living even if it sat inside the sensor bars for a day would be less then one half of one percent. It sounds like this lady is just very misinformed or she was yanking your chain.

So lets go theoretical here for a moment and say they were electrical, and were pumping enough energy out to harm some water creature. Well first of all the charge would be so great you would feel the static electricity in that area as the hair on your arm would stand up. And electrical devices such as phones and pacemakers would short out.

In short there pretty much no danger from the magnetic tag sensors, in fact you probably have a better chance of dead fish from getting ran over while walking to your car in the walmart parking lot.

Edit: Heres a wiki link about these magnetic strips http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_article_surveillance#Acousto-magnetic_systems
 
#7 ·
I hate to tell you this but...
No, that is good news.:-D. That means walmart is 1/2 of 1% better at fish keeping than I thought they were.
 
#9 ·
ok, i work at walmart in the pets department. AND i have a tropical fish tank (45gal) all fish of wich i have bought from my store. i have never had a fish die from taking threw the securitie gate however i have been told that the fish should not be taken over the scanner at the register. i have no proof that this is true BUT i do mention to every person i bag fish for that they should not let the casheer take the bad over the scanner.
 
#12 · (Edited)
BUT i do mention to every person i bag fish for that they should not let the cashier take the bag over the scanner.
The laser light from the barcode scanners is potentially bad for fish eyesight!

Original post RE:security sensor=fish death? Absolute nonsense, and not scientifically factual.

However, considering the kids of some folks who are regular Wal-mart shopper's has me reconsidering the validity of my statement above about sensors being non-harmful...:lol:
 
#10 ·
Walmart here doesn't have much in the way of fish or fish supplies anymore. Admittedly, I am a little sad about the supplies. A few years ago, I was able to purchase a 29 gallon tank with the heater, filter, lights for less then $100. at Walmart. It was a pretty nice set up for the money. If I try to get that same set up here now, it would be close to twice that.

I hate the idea of them selling fish though. Many years ago before I knew better I bought fish there. The pet area person wasn't around so someone from pharmacy came to dish up the fish. She had no clue and put a dozen largish fish in one bag. Her catching skills were not good and most were injured. All of them died within a very short time. I gave up on Walmart fish after that.
 
#14 ·
Wow, this is kind of an old thread. Interesting that there seems to be at least some supposed truths to this theory in most accounts. At least that the magnetic scanners can be harmful in some way.



Yeah, thank goodness my Walmart only has bettas. Here in this half of Texas (the East half), there aren't alot of Walmarts with fish in them (other than bettas). At least not in the 20 or so I have been in over the last year or 2 (I travel abit through parts of Texas sometimes).

I do not appreciate the level of care (or lack of it in this case) that Walmart provides for their fish. They hardly seem to care wheater or not they have 5 or 6 dead, decaying fish in a tank. They don't seem to care (or even know) that they have multiple tanks infested with Ich and other terrible parasites and fungi. I think that their needs to be something done about Walmart's fish abusing tendencies. They should leave fish to the chains and indepenant pet stores who (mostly) know how to take care of fish.:-?
 
#16 ·
Meh its walmart. I guess I don't expect much of them to start with. Though I do get bait worms from there and a month ago their bait fridge had froze all the bait... more of an inconvenience then anything. At least they were all doomed to die one way or another:lol:. Last time all they had were green dyed worms...

As far as their fish selection goes its quite poor IMO. However if you ever need female Dwarf gouramis its like the only place to find them. My local one has gotten in at least two shipments of bamboo shrimps, for $7.50 each. As much as I dislike the store I can't pay $20 each for those at the nicer fish stores. Though the one shrimp I bought last time did not really need the half gallon or more of water in the bag:roll:. Shrimp are all I get from walmart fish-wise. Inverts don't carry many fish diseases, but the water can. I usually resort to giving them a short copper dip(I know). Never had any diseases introduced and the shrimp become quite happy and healthy once settled in.

Petsmart pricematches most anything for me at my local one. I rarely buy from stores though, unless I get a giftcard. Though I enacted the no petsmart/petco giftcard rule, they don't honestly carry much stuff I need and its expensive. I usually just wipe out their food supply. I've got a ton of fish food now though... Most everything I need I get from auctions and craigslist or from trading fish for store credit with private shops. Then you get the odd tank every year or too. You know the one off the curbside or some friend or relative dumps on you...
 
#19 ·
Yeah most shops around here both chains and private stores don't carry female dwarf gouramis. They are not as colorful which is the selling point of those fish. Its not just gouramis, same with things like boesemani rainbows they are often gender specific in stores. Stores that order better quality ones get lots of colorful males. Walmart buys cheap fish so they get poor quality males and quite a few females IMO. Its not unusual actually. Some fish are only imported as a particular sex. Anyone who as tried to find female scarlet badis knows its quite a difficult task...
 
#20 ·
i dont know where you are located at but i am in missouri and my store has everywhere from goldfish bowls up to 55gallon fish tank that is I THINK no more than $150 it comes with everything needed to start a tank. we have lots of diff filters, heaters, decor, food. we have 9 goldfish tanks filled with common goldfish (feeders) large and small black moors, large and small gold and calico faintails. large and small shebunchkins (spelled wrong lol) and large commets and sasersass. on the tropical side we have 18 tanks with oscers, assorted cichlids, kissers, blues and gourmes, blood parets black fin and bala sharks, small daineos, large dainios, dragonfish, glo fish, algea eaters, asst. platties, corys, tiger barbs, ghost shrimp hifin/red eye/ neon tetras (also 2 other tetras that i cant think of) puffers, mollies, male guppies (walmart wont let us carrie female guppies) also large and smal plecos..... oh yea and betas male, crowntail and female.

i take care of the fish like they were my own. the dead get dipped out at least once a day but usualy twice a day. and tanks get hardcore cleaned (algea scrubbed and sifined) twice a week and sifined every other day.
 
#22 ·
Being trained to catch fish and KNOWING about fish are two totally different things. Walmarts tanks are FULL of illness, and incorrectly labled fish (which works for someone like myself who could get a very expensive fish for a walmart price if I decided to risk it and actually buy a fish there).

Most employees that work for Petsmart's aquatic section dont even know anything about fish other than how to catch them (and that usually isnt even right) and they know they are told to gravel vac and water change...they arent explained why or anything about a cycle. And this is also why so many of these chain stores stick aquarium salt in their fish tanks to mask the illness and try to prevent it as much as possible.

Personally, Walmart should not be allowed to carry fish. The walmart you work for might be one of the better ones. However, I have a few family members who have and currently work for walmart...and it isnt anyway near what you describe. (and the family members I am talking about have worked for walmarts in FL & IN as well as TX).

The kinds of fish walmart carries is the scariest part.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top