LFS sent fish home in fresh water...

[Princess Hockey]

I bought a six line wrasse from a store (that I’d told myself I wouldn’t buy fish from, but he was so cheap) and the employee was slammed and didn’t know saltwater fish. I went in just to pick up a few snails since my LFS was out completely.

My husband commented in the car ride home that he thought the guy used the wrong water, since it came from a bin, and the fish definitely looked super stressed out. I thought surely he must have been mistaken, but didn’t notice myself that he didn’t get water from the display. Hubs said he got the water from a big trash bin with a power head in it, but that the next customer who got a freshwater fish also got water from the same bucket. I tested the water when I got home and it was not saltwater in either bag!!! I panicked and dropped the fish immediately into my qt tank, didn’t know if it would be worse to leave it in fresh water and try and acclimate it or just get it back into salt as soon as possible. He spent about 25 minutes in fresh water. He is currently still alive, but obviously having some problems. He was sideways when he went into QT but now is upright 95% of the time, breathing heavy but just started moving around again. Is there any hope he might make it? He is a very small one, 1.5”

As for the snails, 4 seem definitely toast, 1 might survive. Margarita snails, dumped them into a different container of salt as soon as I figured out what happened. Feelers moving around on the one but veeeerrryyyy slow.

I have a receipt and kept the water so I can go back and have them refund or replace.



Anything more I can do at this point for the fish and snails? Did I screw up by not acclimating them or was that the right move? Or does it not matter, the stress will kill everyone anyways?

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Dang, I would complain either way, and hopefully the LFS would train their dang employees to know salt vs not salt. slammed or not, take your time and do a good job.

 

[Princess Hockey]

Dang, I would complain either way, and hopefully the LFS would train their dang employees to know salt vs not salt. slammed or not, take your time and do a good job.

Oh definitely going back tonight with water and dead snails! (2 more actually appear to be alive, maybe I misjudged their dead-ness, but I almost want to exchange them for snails that didn’t have a near death experience, heh)

The kicker, the guy told me he didn’t know one snail from another so I sent him to get his manager who was too busy and told him to “do the best he could”.

Manager is going to get some words about that too...

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I dont get how they ended up in FW to begin with. Every LFS I have been to fills the bag with water from the tank they were pulled from, as they are being netted

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

The fish is probably okay. People do freshwater dips on fishes often for disease treatment purposes. Generally, therapeutic freshwater exposure shouldn't last longer than 5 minutes. But, if the fish is swimming around okay and acting normally now, it's probably fine.

Inverts can almost never tolerate anything freshwater. So it's pretty remarkable that even a few snails survived.

 

[Princess Hockey]

Inverts can almost never tolerate anything freshwater. So it's pretty remarkable that even a few snails survived.

I hear those stories of people finding snails on their living room floors going for a walk but I don’t think those are the same kind that I got! 3/5 still suctioned onto the side of my container!

Wrasse hugging the heater, but at least swam a lap before going there.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

A day will inevitably come where you will wish that fish had died in the bag

 

[JumboShrimp]

You didn’t give the interval of time from bagging, to check-out, through your drive home, but I’m sure it was significant. My gut tells me I would have done what you did—skip what would have normally constituted an acclimation period, and gotten the fish back into saltwater a.s.a.p. Then pray.

 

[Rakie]

I dont get how they ended up in FW to begin with. Every LFS I have been to fills the bag with water from the tank they were pulled from, as they are being netted

Just food for thought -- None of mine do, and I have more LFS in my county than most states do (2/3 of all fish come through LAX).

Most of them use some water from that tank, but since they're all plumbed together as one system they fill up the rest with water from any other tank nearby as it's all basically one tank.

 

[Princess Hockey]

You didn’t give the interval of time from bagging, to check-out, through your drive home, but I’m sure it was significant. My gut tells me I would have done what you did—skip what would have normally constituted an acclimation period, and gotten the fish back into saltwater a.s.a.p. Then pray.

I’m estimating 20-25 minutes. It’s 15 from my house, easily spent 5 where we were bagging the fish and wondering why it was acting so crazy. Another 5 checking out. Ugh. Happy to share that he appears to be swimming normally currently!



I returned to the store before closing, explained what happened to the manager, who apologized and said she would re train the person to use the display water. Got my replacement margarita snail (only 1 died in the end).

Saw that one of the barrels of water that my hubs said he used was labeled salt, but the girl said all of them were RODI, none were salt.

 

[Princess Hockey]

A day will inevitably come where you will wish that fish had died in the bag

Why do you say that?

 

[Stanzo13]

A day will inevitably come where you will wish that fish had died in the bag

Yup. I do believe mine prevented some outbreaks though

 

[Stanzo13]

Why do you say that?

Fish of the devil, got Xenia? Or feather dusters? Kiss them goodbye

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Fish of the devil, got Xenia? Or feather dusters? Kiss them goodbye

Or any other small fish that you might want

 

[Tallison]

Why do you say that?

6 line Wrasses are notorious bullies and hard to catch. Most people who put them in eventually regret doing so

 

[Rcpilot]

A day will inevitably come where you will wish that fish had died in the bag

Why do you say that?

Because 6 lines are evil little buggers. In my experience, they kill inverts. They're also extremely hard to catch.

 

[Princess Hockey]

Because 6 lines are evil little buggers. In my experience, they kill inverts. They're also extremely hard to catch.

Well he's got 29 days left in quarantine so I guess I have plenty of time to decide what to do with him!!

 

[Stanzo13]

Well he's got 29 days left in quarantine so I guess I have plenty of time to decide what to do with him!!

I'd like to mention in a new tank and depending on how "fresh" any wet live rock could be a 6 line could help a LOT with pests that might even be completely unknown to you

 

[jd371]

Well he's got 29 days left in quarantine so I guess I have plenty of time to decide what to do with him!!

I never had a Six Line but know of their reputation. If you plan on adding more fish after the Six line is in your tank, most likely you'll have harassment issues. They are best added as the last fish in the tank. With that being said there is always the exceptions so it might work out for you.

 

[Captain Quint]

The fish is probably okay. People do freshwater dips on fishes often for disease treatment purposes. Generally, therapeutic freshwater exposure shouldn't last longer than 5 minutes. But, if the fish is swimming around okay and acting normally now, it's probably fine.

Inverts can almost never tolerate anything freshwater. So it's pretty remarkable that even a few snails survived.

I agree about the wrasse probably will be okay. The longest I've ever done a freshwater dip is 15 minutes and to encourage the movement of the fish when they become lethargic. Any FWD should be done with a decent pH which I'd bet was not buffered at the LFS. That pretty much ticks me off at them.