Respected sir/madam,
As an aquarium hobbyist, I am appalled at the fish conditions at my local Wal-mart in Clinton, MO. First, they do not actually have a position for someone to work solely in the fish department, which is ridiculous because the guys in HARDWARE are the ones that take care of getting people fish and they know NOTHING about the subject!! It is unfair to customers to be sold a fish while being unaware of the care the fish needs, and the fact that the tanks had ICH in them!\r\n\r\nI ended up purchasing a ton of ghost shrimp and a plecostamus approximately 2 weeks ago and it was the first time I have purchased fish from my local walmart. When the assistant from the hardware department got the fish, first he nearly killed them by whacking the net against the sides of the fish bag knocking them senseless, then most importantly - he did not know the tanks were being treated for ICH. There were no SIGNS ON THE TANKS saying they were carrying a highly contagious fish disease.\r\n\r\nI brought them home to add them to my tanks and they brought the ich with them. I was told the tanks were being treated for ich when I went back to walmart two days later and was about to purchase another fish when the lady helping me from PHARMACY said they were being treated for a bad ich infestation.\r\n\r\nIn less than two weeks, the shrimp I had purchased and placed in 3 tanks have now killed off over $200 worth of fish I had purchased from high-end pet stores previously in those tanks. So thanks to walmart, I PAID Walmart about $15 to kill almost every fish I had, and I was NOT MADE AWARE there was a problem with the fish at the time of purchase and I believe walmart owes me about $200. I WILL NEVER buy fish from walmart again due to this, and will highly encourage everyone I know not to buy fish at walmart.