High fin goby upside down

[Alfredo77]

Hi folks,

I received a high fin goby from an online store this morning It came nicely packed in a box with some thermal pads(?) Once I took out the bag I could see the fish lethargic
upside down. I proceeded to float it and then do drip acclimated. I could see still, that the fish was at the bottom, upside down and lethargic. I have put it
in my quarantine tank that has some plastic pipe fittings to reduce the stress. My questions are:

1) What could this be: shock or a pathogen and what can I do in addition to nurse it back to health.

2) In the unfortunate case that it does it make it how should I deal with the online store for a refund, I have read that you have
to send a picture of the dead fish within 48 hrs - given that it is still alive then, do I just send a pic of the fish having difficulties i.e. on its back on the bottom?

Thanks for you advise.

Kind regards

Alfredo

 

[P-Dub]

Hi folks,

I received a high fin goby from an online store this morning It came nicely packed in a box with some thermal pads(?) Once I took out the bag I could see the fish lethargic
upside down. I proceeded to float it and then do drip acclimated. I could see still, that the fish was at the bottom, upside down and lethargic. I have put it
in my quarantine tank that has some plastic pipe fittings to reduce the stress. My questions are:

1) What could this be: shock or a pathogen and what can I do in addition to nurse it back to health.

2) In the unfortunate case that it does it make it how should I deal with the online store for a refund, I have read that you have
to send a picture of the dead fish within 48 hrs - given that it is still alive then, do I just send a pic of the fish having difficulties i.e. on its back on the bottom?

Thanks for you advise.

Kind regards

Alfredo

Sorry to hear about your predicament. Unfortunately, you should have taken a photo while still in the bag. I doubt, without that photo evidence, they will give you anything for your loss. Do what you can and document, with photos as well, everything as best you can and hope. Get in touch with them right away via email and then a follow-up call right away.

 

[Alfredo77]

Sorry to hear about your predicament. Unfortunately, you should have taken a photo while still in the bag. I doubt, without that photo evidence, they will give you anything for your loss. Do what you can and document, with photos as well, everything as best you can and hope. Get in touch with them right away via email and then a follow-up call right away.

Thank you for the advise, I did take some pics on the bag. Hopefully it bounces back.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Do you know how long the transport time was for this fish? Always check the salinity in the shipping bag before acclimating a fish - you have to worry about a large rise in SG going to a new tank, it can cause the fish to dehydrate.

That said, shipping is stressful to fish and the expectation is that 3-5% mortality is "normal".

As mentioned, the guarantee offered varies between vendors. Most will only offer credit on your next order and won't cover shipping costs.

Jay

 

[Alfredo77]

Hi Jay,

Thank you for your comments. I think they are flown from Indonesia, and shipped locally in France. Before local shipping I think they do some sort of transition conditioning. Not sure how long the flight is from Indonesia but the local shipping was probably over 16 hours. The fish was already in bad shape in the bag it came.

Had not thought about testing the SG of the water, its good advise. Are you suggesting that if that for example if you had an empty small QT tank would you try to match properly the salinity of the QT to the bag the fish came prior to acclimation? Or just do an extremely slow acclimation?

The costumer support was quite nice/helpful, she offer to replace the fish and they pay shipping if what did not make was over 50% the value of the shipment.

Being new in the hobby this was definitely been an eye opener to the kind of stress some fishes go through to get to their final owners.

Alfredo

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi Jay,

Thank you for your comments. I think they are flown from Indonesia, and shipped locally in France. Before local shipping I think they do some sort of transition conditioning. Not sure how long the flight is from Indonesia but the local shipping was probably over 16 hours. The fish was already in bad shape in the bag it came.

Had not thought about testing the SG of the water, its good advise. Are you suggesting that if that for example if you had an empty small QT tank would you try to match properly the salinity of the QT to the bag the fish came prior to acclimation? Or just do an extremely slow acclimation?

The costumer support was quite nice/helpful, she offer to replace the fish and they pay shipping if what did not make was over 50% the value of the shipment.

Being new in the hobby this was definitely been an eye opener to the kind of stress some fishes go through to get to their final owners.

Alfredo

Yes - whenever you can, match the salinity of the "bag water" to the receiving aquarium, and then acclimate for pH and temperature.

Flights from Indo to Europe, with packing time, probably are around 24 hours. It is best to let those fish "rest" for a few days before reshipping them, sounds like your dealer did that though.

Jay