Walmart - Auburn

Shop Address: 1425 Supermall Way
 
Reviewed By: Chrissy
August 2005
Overall: Poor
 
Times Visited: Two to Four Times
Freshwater Selection: Poor
Saltwater Selection: No Saltwater Section
Stock Selection: Fair
Staff: Poor
Prices: Good
 
Comments: I've been to this Walmart several times and even to someone not in the hobby, its obvious that theres something very, very wrong here.
 
They carry the usual Walmart selection of freshwater fish; small Oscars, Livebearers, Cories, Plecos, Bettas, and other common fish. They also have the standard Walmart array of supplies which doesn't offer a lot of choices but covers the basics. I haven't seen this Walmart sell any live plants except for pre-packaged dry Lily and Aponogeton bulbs which I have about a 50% sprout rate with. Their prices are very reasonable like other Walmarts.
 
The problem is you're getting a low price on your fish but not a good one. Each and every time I have been to this store the Goldfish feeder tank had more dead fish than live. Some of the fish have been sucked into the filtration system completely blocking it off while others are in advance stages of decompensation. Its quite amazing to look into the feeder tank and have all the gravel covered by fish with only 20 or so left swimming. The other tanks usually have a lower number of dead fish but nearly every tank has fish with some sort of bacterial problem. Many have fin rot, pop-eye, and 'fungas' on their bodies. The remaining live fish can be seen eatting the infected dead ones. There was also a serious outbreak of ick durring one of my visits which was severe enough to start clogging the gills in some of the tanks.
 
The Bettas are kept in larger cups than some other petstores but are also in very poor condition. For some reason this store usually keeps their Bettas in only an inch or two of water which counteracts the benefits of keeping them in larger cups. On one visit there was a veiltail in less than an inch of water. His body was barely covered and when I tried to alert an employee he moved the fish to their counter and said he would tell someone to add some water. Not very reassuring.
 
Its obvious that no one at this store has any sort of interest in the department. I felt bad leaving the fish there but I do not want to risk spreading their diseases and parasites to my healthy fish. I also do not have much faith that those fish will live long, even if transfered to proper conditions and medicated.
 
If someone could be held accountable for this department it would be easy to make some major improvements. For now, its just really sad to see.