Very occasionally Inland Reef in Cross Lanes has fish. My eels, trigger and koran angel came from there.
How many of you take the risk?
- Thread starter TxReefer21
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Rp8
Valuable Member
I have mixed feelings. For years, I lived dangerously. Recently, I have almost lost all fish due to velvet/ich. Although this wasn’t the only outbreak, it was the first that almost killed them. So for the future, it depends where I get them. If I get them from Petco, bc they have the lowest price, I will qt. If I pay the money for a qt fish, bc that vendor will charge a higher price, then obviously I have to have THAT fish.
luckily tho, I didn’t have any loss bc I had the stuff available #alwaysready
luckily tho, I didn’t have any loss bc I had the stuff available #alwaysready
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TxReefer21
Well-Known Member
I have a couple petco near me that do saltwater. 1 is total poo and the other is prestige I’ve got a snowflake eel from a petco and a snowstorm clown that was being sold for 29.99 lol
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TxReefer21
Well-Known Member
Right on.
Gtinnel
10K Club member
Yep thats the only one I knew about, and for the last year or so it rare that they have much. I live in Charleston so just right down the road from you.
jfoahs04
Well-Known Member
Mine too, but we have a dozen within about a half hour and they vary. I think it depends on the staff. If they have someone who actually knows SW and is interested in keeping it healthy, then they can be OK. But I think most stores don't have that. Over the past several months, my closest Petco's SW section went from depressing home for terminally ill fish (I mean skeletal, ich-covered, half dead fish. Hard to look at) - to empty tanks for about a month - to "cured live rock" which are just covered with dinos. No thanks.
Yeah seems to be hit or miss. I agree some of the prices are ridiculously cheap. If you do QT it's worth taking a shot..
They Petco in Barboursville is the best, The one on corridor G second and the one 5 minutes from my house in Hurricane sucks.
But they never have fish large enough for my tanks anymore. Everything they have would just be snacks.
Big Smelly fish
If it ain't broke, fix it till it is.
To be honest, I have never have, I’ve had my share of issue by not doing so. But from years of working in a LFS and just acclimating water temp and putting them in , kind of what I’ve stuck with. For the most part good success.
Arabyps
Well-Known Member
I try to purchase fish on-line from vendors who perform a strict prophylactic quarantine process (i.e. TSM Aquatics, Dr. Reefs, etc.). When I purchase "conditioned" fish (i.e. Divers Den) I treat with Safety Stop before adding to the DT. When in doubt I use the Hybrid TTM method. Links on these below.
humble.fish
Hybrid TTM to treat all parasites!
Important: Tank Transfer Method is most effective when water temperature and salinity are kept within this range... Temp: 24C/76F - 28C/82F Salinity: 27ppt / 1.020 SG - 35ppt / 1.026 SG Tank Transfer Method is an effective (non-chemical) treatment for Marine Ich. However, it's weakness has...
humble.fish
ying yang
2500 Club Member
Just to add,at first i did think i would find a lfs and make sure all fish healthy and never buy a fish when another sick fish in same water etc etc.
I just found a newly opened lfs near me that got 3 tanks stacked on top of each other and just 3 tanks linked but most other lfs its the whole wall of 20 plus tanks all connected plus cross contamination of lfs workers in each tank and they dont wash hands after each time and dont have one net for each system etc etc but then watched a video on tracking a fish caught from sea and ends up in our tanks and quickly realised its similar to humans of within 6 people we mainly all know each other in one way or another.
By that i mean fish caught in say Indonesia then goes to wholesalers then exporter then inporter in our country then to lfs then to our so my fish i bought could been in same tank that in Indonesia as a fish that now resides in a tank in america so then thought with amount of fish that gone through each exporter/importers and even through each lfs that chances are every lfs tanks will have dieseses/parasites in them ( yeah i get some keep tanks cleaner and do more wc but these dont eradicate dieseses/parasites so then boils down to buying 100% qt fish and corals/all livestock or doing it yourself or just buy a healthy looking/acting/eating fish and do best we can for our fishy friends, sorry for long post i get carried away but just thought i give my opinion on only " buying from a trusted lfs"
Also didn't add in some lfs may do 100% qt fish so clean systems but even then they still got to buy a none qt fish /possibly diesesed fish so then risk of cross contamination so very hard ^_^
I just found a newly opened lfs near me that got 3 tanks stacked on top of each other and just 3 tanks linked but most other lfs its the whole wall of 20 plus tanks all connected plus cross contamination of lfs workers in each tank and they dont wash hands after each time and dont have one net for each system etc etc but then watched a video on tracking a fish caught from sea and ends up in our tanks and quickly realised its similar to humans of within 6 people we mainly all know each other in one way or another.
By that i mean fish caught in say Indonesia then goes to wholesalers then exporter then inporter in our country then to lfs then to our so my fish i bought could been in same tank that in Indonesia as a fish that now resides in a tank in america so then thought with amount of fish that gone through each exporter/importers and even through each lfs that chances are every lfs tanks will have dieseses/parasites in them ( yeah i get some keep tanks cleaner and do more wc but these dont eradicate dieseses/parasites so then boils down to buying 100% qt fish and corals/all livestock or doing it yourself or just buy a healthy looking/acting/eating fish and do best we can for our fishy friends, sorry for long post i get carried away but just thought i give my opinion on only " buying from a trusted lfs"
Also didn't add in some lfs may do 100% qt fish so clean systems but even then they still got to buy a none qt fish /possibly diesesed fish so then risk of cross contamination so very hard ^_^
Gtinnel
10K Club member
I agree with that completely. It's amazing how nice the one in Barboursville is, and I attribute that to the guy that runs the fish department is a reefer and cares. It's a shame it's limited to such a small amount of tanks.
The last several times I've been to the one in Charleston, I've seen several fish that have ich so I try to avoid it now. Recently it seems like it is starting to go downhill.
The one by Teays Valley never seems to have anything when I stop, so I've quit even looking there.
Sadly once every month or two I drive down to Charlotte to go to a reef shop that I love.
Goaway
10K Club member
I have only needed to treat my wild clownfish for brooks. I didn't like the whole idea of just adding treatment to fish with no illness. It's like going to the doctor and they throw you a ton of antibiotics, just in case you get maleria. If an illness shows up. Yes, I would rather at that moment, begin treatment.
Deworming is very easy. Prazipro has been very safe on my reef. I hardly have any sps, I never seen my feather dusters die. They are always there after treatments of flukes and internal worms.
Maybe I am just crazy.
I didn’t QT for 10 years and never had a velvet wipe out but lost a random fish now and again or saw ich during very high times of stress like long power outages during winter blizzards.
My reason for not QT is I didn’t like the idea of copper and we didn’t even have a Hannah high range test kit that I know of. Just the slightly pink vs slightly darker pink. Not a way I wanted to test something toxic.
With the hybrid TTM method being a new method…I do QT everything now and my fish seem better for it. Beautiful perfect fish and my radiant wrasses started spawning!
I think the main thing to remember is that no two person experiences will be the same. You will have those that will never have a problem and those that will lose everything vs those that only have mild issues. It likely has to do with source of fish, a bit of luck, and the maturity or set up of their tanks.
My reason for not QT is I didn’t like the idea of copper and we didn’t even have a Hannah high range test kit that I know of. Just the slightly pink vs slightly darker pink. Not a way I wanted to test something toxic.
With the hybrid TTM method being a new method…I do QT everything now and my fish seem better for it. Beautiful perfect fish and my radiant wrasses started spawning!
I think the main thing to remember is that no two person experiences will be the same. You will have those that will never have a problem and those that will lose everything vs those that only have mild issues. It likely has to do with source of fish, a bit of luck, and the maturity or set up of their tanks.
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I'm glad your Petco is not like my Petco! I went in one day and was looking at the SW fish. The fish department person came over and said softly, "never buy fish from us".
+1 for honesty!
I didn’t QT for 10 years and never had a velvet wipe out but lost a random fish now and again or saw ich during very high times of stress like long power outages during winter blizzards.
I agree 100%. Copper is rough on fish and I felt I read about more fish dying going through copper than not. For me, Hybrid TTM allows me to proactively introduce healthy fish to my DT without as much stress on the fish. I've yet to have a fish die that goes through hybrid TTM. I also feel that it is actually easier than with copper. Yes, there is the switching back and forth between tanks every couple days, but not having to test for copper levels and less adverse effects that copper can introduce is still a better option IMO.
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