Moral dilemma

fishscale if I wasn't so sure I would be arrested and put behind bars for arson, that might not be a bad idea.

volatile I really hope mine does too! Stores that can't properly train employees to take care of something probably shouldn't have it in the first place.

JasonHornbuckle I think I will pay twice as much some where else and then give myself a pat on the back for supporting the small specialty stores that actually still care about product knowledge and customer service.

barfly I am not trying to bring down wallmarts fish departments nation wide, I am simply having my own personnel boycott, because I do not believe anything liveing should be kept in such horrible conditions. Sure me not buying fish their isn't going to force their operation to a grinding halt, but it gives me piece of mind.

And petitions would probably not work, as the common joe could care less about the quality of life some fish are living in a pet store somewhere. Look at betta cups, nobody cares!

The tanks at my store are bare bones, not even any gravel. I went there yesterday and they had 24 5" striped rapheal catfish crammed in a bare ten gallon tank with 6 clown loaches.... :icon_eek:

Honestly, people like us not buying fish from walmart is not a big deal. It is people who know nothing about fish and don't care and are unwilling to learn who are the problem. Several cases:

A woman who wanted to put a percula clown in a goldfish bowl, then proceeded to get angry when the LFS owner tried to explain that it is a saltwater fish which needs saltwater mix, not table salt, and the great amount of equipment and filtration that is needed for them.

The guy who bought 30 danios and put them in an uncycled, unfiltered 10 gallon tank.

The guy who works at Petco who put a betta in a cup, and then filled it with water straight from the tap (that had chloramines in it).

The people who buy feeder goldfish and put them in containers that look more like tupperware than fish tanks.

People who buy fish from wal-mart are usually uninformed, or complete idiots who get angry when people give them info they don't want to hear. Occasionally, hobbyists take advantage of wal-mart because wal-mart itself does not know the value of the things it carries (like selling SAE for 99 cents).

I always grief when i see painted fish or the ones injected with phosporous colours, but I realized that they keep producing those fish because lots of stupid people keep buying them. There are even altered genetics of fish here, i don't know how they do these but we even have pink zebra danio here.


(credit for the photo goes to the owner from another forums.)

It seems their are two definite sides to this discussion, however my personnel opinion will not be swayed. I basically hate Walmart about as much as one can hate a big box store. But I guess I just hate big box stores for the most part anyway. Weather I am at walmart, HD, etc... I find the customer service and product knowledge absolutely terrible. Unless you know exactly what your getting and have no questions, they are ok... Maybe it is just my Walmart that is ridiculous...

This is a funny topic though. I wonder what the general consensus would be if we were discussing fuzzy puppy dogs and kitties? The price is not an issue to me, because my LFS isn't that much more than Walmart, or online stores for that matter and at least I am supporting a quality fish store. So what if you spend a few extra bucks, it's not hard to see where the extra money you spend is going. I would rather buy my stuff from somewhere that knows their products, has the time to help a customer and run's a quality store. I am apposed to buying my fish somewhere for half the price, from someone who knows nothing about the products they carry and could care less if you leave happy or not. Again, this has been my experience and again this is NOT a boycott, just my choice.

Saraja87 I can't stop the train of of fish dying in my local walmart by boycotting it, anymore than I can save them all by buying them. I could go up there now and buy every single fish they had and by next week their would be 48 striped rapheal catfish and 12 clown loaches dying in the same 10 gallon tank. Then what? Not to sound cold, but this isn't really an issue of fish dying for me, as most fish in the hobby probably meet that fate anyway. It's more about supporting a quality store over a poor quality store. It would be a sad day for me when my LFS closed it's door's and I had to go and select my fish from the congested hordes of diseased and dying fish...