The Puffer Forum

They had 3 baby puffer's and one was brown and dying, the other two were better off but their fins were shredded.
I had to rescue them, but I am mad that I PAID Walmart because I'm just supporting that! It's disgusting; no substrate, less than 10 gallons, and all of them are crammed in there together!! I wouldn't be surprised if there was no salt in the water or if the water temp. was too low!

Something should be done!!!

EDIT

So I called the walmart that was selling them and explained how fragile the fish are, the manager said that he would talk to the suppliers and stop ordering the puffers. So hopefully he'll do what he says.

The little guys already look so much better!!

i sent them a nasty email... i know it wont help... honestly i was just bored... but nothing will change. especially if they keep selling. honestly, will they sell as well if they treat them better? NO. because pepole look at them, feel bad for them and buy them... its sad and cruel, but its better to not buy them because if they see that "hey our puffers sell better when we treat them like sh*t, why would we ever change the conditions??" its just life...

i dont mean to be harsh... but i only feel that way now because i had an experience just like that a while back... there was a dogfaced puffer that was so small, discolored, wasting away, and had teeth so long its mouth was completely stretched open to its max.... i watched over him for a long time, every time i was in the area, id go there, tell them what they needed to do for the little guy, and nothing happened.... eventually the little 2" dogface died... a week later they had another one to replace it... places dont care what happens to their fish, as long as someone buys it, they dont care.

PS- its just as cruel to get them unless you are prepared to set up a 90 gal tank, or 3-30gal tanks... if you dont, theyll just die anyway... just slower, which is even more sad in my opinion.

What are you going to do with 3 GSPs? Do you have a cycled tank for them?

Rescuing all those puffers only gives them the message that no matter how they neglect their fish, they are still good sellers. Then they go buy 20 more... Best way is to boycott Walmart all together.

i saw some real bad fish in directtropicals

and posted about it on here - as a result i didnt buy any from there and spent more money at other shops that treated the fish better

The providers should also be held accountable! But they also dont care because they are making money, and they are the one's catching them in the wild.
Because we all know gsp are are not tank bread. My ? is this what impact are we having on the native species.I also have done the same thing as you buying fish that are neglected. Thats how I got my two gsp.Like pp said people will never change as long as they make money.

But with Wal-Mart being a big corporation, isn't there some way we can all do something to hit them and MAYBE make some changes happen? I signed that petition that was posted a few months back. And I'd write an email every day if I thought it would help.
It just seems silly that they keep ordering these puffers and letting them die. They are definitely losing money and surely they are losing more than they are making on the few sales, even from people who feel sorry for them. So I don't understand why they keep doing it?

Honestly I do not think Walmart is entirely to blame. I truly feel that it is the fish "whole sellers" that are most at fault. They are the ones that bring them in...but up descriptions that misidentify and mislead..and they are the ones who tell Walmart staff how to "care" for the fish.

Some where..along some river that empties into an ocean...some 3rd world poor people scoop up these GSPs...sell them to the wholesalers for a penny a piece and then the whole sellers having an abundance of these puffers..then sell them to Walmart as an "easy" fish.

However, Walmart is totally to blame when they have dirty tanks and sick fish...and when they look the other way when there are obvious problems.

You said it! If some corporate jack --s thinks they will make money. Then its ok to let a few die (many) die.

I still feel it's up to Wal-Mart to know what they are selling, and to give the customer correct information about what they are selling. Seems a bit stupid to sell something they have no idea about! I think it's any companies responsibility to educate themselves about their stock so they can present it to the customer as correctly as possible. But then again, I'm thinking logically and obviously Wal-Mart is not logical, otherwise they would not have dirty disgusting tanks with dying fish in them.

If I could contact corporate. I might then Again ive had few to drink to night.

m-bertelson wrote:If I could contact corporate. I might then Again ive had few to drink to night.

Night?! It's 11.25am in the morning here! A new day with 5-inches of snow!!!

+1 to PP's comments. The only way to get the attention of a major corporation is to not spend any money there. When you "rescue" a fish from there -or anywhere, you are giving exactly the opposite message. Walk out and do not go back, period.

pufferpuggirl wrote:But with Wal-Mart being a big corporation, isn't there some way we can all do something to hit them and MAYBE make some changes happen? I signed that petition that was posted a few months back. And I'd write an email every day if I thought it would help.
It just seems silly that they keep ordering these puffers and letting them die. They are definitely losing money and surely they are losing more than they are making on the few sales, even from people who feel sorry for them. So I don't understand why they keep doing it?

True but they probably make more sales than you think when you consider how big the US population is and how few of them visit this forum. I just hope they never start trying to sell fish over here.

I should have added, when I made that comment about Wal-Mart losing money, that I meant specifically losing money on fish sales, not overall sales.

I refuse all purchasing from Walmart, not just fish. I still want to know what the OP is going to do with 3 GSPs? Moving then from certain death into an uncycled tank possibly too small for them to a slow death, isn't much better... (if this is the case).