The Puffer Forum

omplmpa3 wrote:I needed to get a new digital thermometer for my turtle tank and made the mistake of going into one of the Walmarts that sells fish. I didn't look at the tanks at all because I knew what I would see. Then I overheard another customer pointing out the puffers to their friends. And I had to look. I wanted to cry, throw up and yell at someone all at the same time. It just broke my heart. I wanted to buy bottles of clove oil and send them to the big aquarium in the sky.

I know what you mean. It makes me wonder how anyone with a brain can look at those fish and feel good about how they are keeping them. I mean, if I was just a regular Wal-Mart employee, I would at least do my best to make those fish more comfortable while they are there, but maybe that's too much effort for them! I once emailed the head office of a LFS because the fish didn't seem to be very well taken care of and I'm very happy to say that now when I go there, the atmosphere is much different and the tanks are nice and the fish seem better off now. If everyone just made a little bit of effort, those poor fish would not suffer so badly!

The Wal-Mart I go to has what we call "The Fish Lady." She knows cycling and aggression but definately not over stocking or care for puffers. Now they're building a Super Wal-Mart down the road and I bet they'll have a ton of fish! *Sigh*

Yea i hate walmarts fish section! i will never buy another fish from them again! I bought my two puffers from them and they are doing really good thank god! That must mean im doing pretty good lol. Everyttime i go in there, there is algae covering the tanks all over! its disqusting.

I actually boycotted ALL Walmarts because of their treatment of fish for over 10 years. When I found certain ones had their fish depts closed down, I started shopping in those stores.

Walmart scares me..Theres uber strange people in there.
I saw a guy with boots and he was creepy..Had like colored hair and ahh..I got scared

I saw a 70 year-old woman there with hot pink hair and goth clothes. I haven't bought fish from there for a little under a year and I never will any more. Mine have about a 100 platies in one 5 gallon or less tank, its saddening. When they had the GSP's they were actually quite white, but that was the first week or so and then they got black and died by the end of the month, hence the "Fish of the Month" again.

The Super Walmart close to me, thankfully, do not sell any fish. =)

I'm hoping mine doesn't either, its opening in November.

how many freaking walmarts do we need in america!!!? I have like 4 surrounding me. and I think they're building another one 15 miles away. SHEESH

I know! They'er right down the road from each other and the old ones just going to be vacent. What a waste of beautiful farmland.

My friend who's puffer I'm keepin now said she stole him from Wally world....he just kept him in the cart, cahsed her other items and walked out LOL!

Funny!!

Thankfully my Walmart doesn't even sell fish anymore. And when they did sell fish, they had no puffers/hermit crabs whatsoever! Long Beach is great.

Pufferpunk wrote:I will not shop at a Walmart that sells fish & I cerntainly wouldn't support them by buying one! All you are doing is telling them they are good sellers, so they will continue to stock them. I prefer to support a store that takes good care of their fish/puffers & buy a nice, fat, healthy one.

Sadly their are no good puffer stores here. I reported one store already.

We found our puffers at wal mart. Thankfully we found the puffer forum too. I have 2 healthy puffers that are now close to two years old. No thanks to the wal marts advice. They sent the babies home with us with a 2.5g tank, fish flakes and FW. I did let the clerk know what I learned. Don't know if she started giving good advice. I hope the rumor is true that they quit selling fish all together. Yes,I too feel bad looking at the puffers at WM. It should be against the law to sell a pet w/ completely wrong information.

No, they're still selling fish. At least, they are at mine.