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

1K views 17 replies 12 participants last post by  Basement Bettas 
#1 ·
Tell a real life Wal-Mart employee (me) how you would care for bettas’
I was just hired last week for the section next to pets at a local Wal-Mart and have volunteered to care for them on my break
Please leave me comments on what you think I should do, OBVIOUSLY giving them a larger home would be ideal but It was a no go Within my power how can I make these creatures have a betta’ (ha a joke) life. I was thinking A.) Partial water changes every other day B.) Cardboard bowl separators C.) Treats?
What’s your input. Let me know here or at mcshizzlestien@gmail.com <3 ya’ll
 
#3 ·
do you think a 100% change will harm them? If not then I def can do this! im using water treatment drops and tap water. So far nobody (at the store) has even answered me on what they are currently being fed so i brought my own worms+pellets and i made a sign against stacking cups. I wish i could just save them all but I know that will just make them order more :(
 
#5 ·
If you are able to do 100% changes every day in their cups, then by all means do it. I am so pleased to see this question and give you huge kudos for doing this, and on your break time. I'm glad about the sign about stacking cups..I go in my Wal-Mart constantly and unstack the cups. I wish I could hug you...thanks for helping them. I am still working with the managers at my local store trying to make changes.:yourock:
 
#6 ·
I am hoping if they see that keeping them alive as long as possible it is not only the right thing to do but saves the store money and other stores will follow suit because 90% of them die in their cups never getting a home. every three to four weeks they all vanish and another supply shows up. makes me so sad. I will try a 80% water change daily and see how they hold up.
 
#7 ·
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
 
#9 ·
bettababe89 Wow that is so awesome of you! This would make a HUGE difference in the lives of the bettas. (((HUGS)))
 
#10 ·
what's the typical temperature of a walmart betta's water...? I wiuld recommend feeding them one pellet a day until they find a new home...
mainly to keep the ammonia levels down. Also in thw cup and cold qater, their metabolism works slower, so they would not need that much food
 
#11 · (Edited)
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.
 
#12 ·
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.
 
#13 ·
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.
 
#14 ·
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)
 
#15 ·
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)
 
#17 ·
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.
 
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