how should a Wal-Mart employee (me) care for bettas?

[DanielleB]

There are several problems with Wal-Mart. First unless there are some employees who actually care or have fish of their own, then I’m sure they don’t actively go out to hire or train people to take care of their fish section properly. In that case the task of maintaining that section is probably assigned to a random worker who is given basic instructions on maintaining that department.
Secondly, they probably don’t care about the Bettas (or their other fish) because the markup on Bettas for them is probably huge. They must get them for pennies wholesale, which means that if they sell one Betta for, let’s say $6, then probably could cover the cost of 20 or more dead bettas they would have to dispose of and still make a profit (think of all they extras a person would buying one fish there (Bowl, fish food, decorations, etc.)
The third problem is they don’t advertise their fish section. Most people don’t even realize they have fish unless they already have fish and are looking at the supplies they have. Until I got my Betta , I never even wandered in that section in all the years I went Wal-Mart. Maybe if they pushed their fish section in their flyers more, then more people would buy them there and get them to properly maintain the section, (if they did it right, they could conceivably compete with Petsmart & Petco) as more people would be aware of the conditions there. Right now it’s only us hobbyists who see the bad conditions and even if we complain to Wal-mart, to them it;s only a small handful of people who are not going to affect their overall sales.
It’s really commendable to this person who is at least trying to do some good at his store. The best that could happen here is that the customers in his or her store would keeping praising his customer service to his managers so they would take notice.

[LadyVictorian]

I warn you, you might get bit by the betta bug and want to take a few home with you xD. These fish are addicting.

I wish you could set up like a heater pad on the display shelves that allowed the cups to be heated at least to 78 degrees at night time when the temp drops. That would save so many betta. But perhaps keeping their cups clean and changing water daily will help them survive even in the cold of the night.

I woke up this morning surprised to see my heater was heating the tank in my room. I live in Texas so normally my tank is at 80 without the heater but the temp dropped last night and the tank is now at 78 thanks to the heater being in there and kicking on to warm the water once it drops too low.

[babystarz]

Daily 100% water changes won't harm the fish - when they're in containers that small it's standard procedure because the ammonia builds up so fast. Breeders do the same thing for jarred juvenile males :) If it's at all possible, you could keep little clippings of floating plants in the jars too. I don't actually know much about Walmart, or if you sell aquarium plants. But that would go a long ways toward helping A) keep the water clean in between changes and B) making the bettas feel happier.

As far as heating goes, if there's any way to convince management that it would be a good investment to put down heated reptile tape under the betta cups, that's a really cost-effective way to heat the individual containers. You can just line them up in a row on the tape. It would definitely help keep them alive longer.

If you can keep the water quality high with daily changes and keep the temp up, the bettas will stay healthy for a long time. Daily feedings are essential too - 4-5 pellets per betta is perfect.

[bettababe89]

I cannot have a bucket,they really restrict us with what we can and cant do, the water is a little cool in the cups, not much i have been able to do about that but i did a 80% last night and today a 70% because they looked a little bewildered after the 80% and tetras' sun dried blood worms ( a jar "accidentally" broke falling to the floor lol waste not want not eh?) and mini betta pellets. I did this around 11 a.m. my time and half my 6 bettas where off to new homes by 6pm. I think that blue water scares people off!

( p.s. at first i was scared i had killed them until the man in pets said he had personally seen them picked out and also that one person had bought a live plant, hope they are being treated well)

[bettababe89]

would reptile tape require a plug in? they are so strict about liability and stuff :/
no extension chords allowed because of trip hazard and the water in the fish section. all the other fish are healthy in our store with live plants and the crabs have a weird air bubbler thing so they can be "above land" under the water. I never really gave these fish a second thought until recently when I started working there. would Walmart even do anything if a stranger walked in and changed the water? It is so new to me, until my newly adopted betta I have only had gold fish....my (probably a feeder 5 cent) goldie is 5 YEARS OLD next month. I won him at a Halloween fair in 2007)

[DoctorWhoLuver]

You're so nice to be helping them! :)

[Shadyr]

The biggest thing will be clean water, and it sounds like you are on that! Clean water = happier brighter fish, who will hopefully find a decent home faster.

[Basement Bettas]

Originally Posted by Bettanewbie60

This is exactly the point I have been trying to make here...they are losing money by letting the fish just die anyway. We can only keep trying to make a difference...especially if we can just get them to buy less of them at one time...it' would be easier to care for them, and the company would save money by not killing so many fish. sigh

The problem is those fish probably do not cost them a dime imported. And how long does it take someone making $7/hr to change the water. It is more cost effective to let the fish die than take care of them. If you clean them every day, and feed them you may cost the company say .60 for 5 minutes per fish. Then they have $3.10/per fish in 5 days. They lose money when you take care of them. The ones that die in the store are shrinkage.. they write it off like they do the candy bars and what not that get stolen. Just business. They want to lose ten cents not 3.10. You can see from a business stand point they do not care nor will they ever. The best thing would be for Wal-Mart to stop selling bettas. But as long as they are bought.. they will be sold.

A little salt or copper in the water will help ward off velvet.. but they probably will get it anyway because of the temps. No way you can keep them at 80*. And you have to be careful and work the healthier ones first so you don't risk getting them sick. Those fish do not come in healthy.. a lot of stuff comes in from over seas.

Good luck.. will not be an easy job.