Pajama cardinal on the way out?

[Orddie]

I just got 4 Pajama Cardinal fish. This one is staying like this. If something touches the fish, it moves. But then settles back down to what you see in the photo

What should I do?

 

[Tahoe61]

Do you have a treatment tank?
Do you think bullying is going on?
Can you include an image under white lighting for other members.

 

[Uncle99]

If just put in….may be trying to adjust to a change to higher salinity. I’ve had that a few times.

What was the difference from bag to DT in terms of salinity?

 

[Orddie]

Do you have a treatment tank?
Do you think bullying is going on?
Can you include an image under white lighting for other members.

No treatment tank... yet.
They just arrived a few hours ago from Fedex. If bullying happened, it was not in my tank.

 

[Orddie]

If just put in….may be trying to adjust to a change to higher salinity.

If that’s the case, just leave him.

How to tell?
He was like that in the bag and the entire time during accumulation

 

[Tahoe61]

No treatment tank... yet.
They just arrived a few hours ago from Fedex. If bullying happened, it was not in my tank.

Ahhh missed that "just got" part, sorry.

 

[Orddie]

If just put in….may be trying to adjust to a change to higher salinity. I’ve had that a few times.

What was the difference from bag to DT in terms of salinity?

I would have to ask Top Shelf. We did a slow drip and doubled the amount of water after they floated for 15-20 minutes.

 

[Uncle99]

How to tell?
He was like that in the bag and the entire time during accumulation

Leaving and acclimating in a transport bag is not a good thing.

If the difference in bag salinity is low (say 1.020) and you want to go to say 1.026…..that takes me about 6-8 hours.

 

[EricR]

Doesn't look good but I'd leave him alone if it's only been a couple of hours after shipping.
I had a couple of fish go through rough shipping (during heat wave) that I thought were goners, looking lifeless like that, but they bounced back after a day so he "might" end up recovering.

 

[Uncle99]

I would have to ask Top Shelf. We did a slow drip and doubled the amount of water after they floated for 15-20 minutes.

So we measure the salinity of water in each bag.
Then the fish go from bag to a bucket with exactly the same salinity and heat.

Then we move salinity up about .001 every hour or two so it’s not unusual to take 6-8 hours.

Then fish can be moved easily and safely to 1.026 salinity.

Unless you have a bucket of heater saltwater at say 1.020 (going from higher to lower salt can be done on the fly) you can just wait it out to see if he can process the change.

 

[Orddie]

Leaving and acclimating in a transport bag is not a good thing.

If the difference in bag salinity is low (say 1.020) and you want to go to say 1.026…..that takes me about 6-8 hours.

Im not following what your saying but I think sharing how we did it may help here.

Float for 15 - 20 mins in the bag it was shipped in
Opened the bag in a bucket
slow accumulation until the water was doubled. About 2 drips per second.

entire process took about 1.5 hrs.

The other 3 fish are good!

This fish has acted like this since I opened the box.

 

[Orddie]

So we measure the salinity of water in each bag.
Then the fish go from bag to a bucket with exactly the same salinity and heat.

Then we move salinity up about .001 every hour or two so it’s not unusual to take 6-8 hours.

Then fish can be moved easily and safely to 1.026 salinity.

Unless you have a bucket of heater saltwater at say 1.020 (going from higher to lower salt can be done on the fly) you can just wait it out to see if he can process the change.

wow. um. ok. Is that the standard that everyone should be following? LFS and online talking heads did not say this, and now you got me thinking everything's ******.

 

[Uncle99]

Im not following what your saying but I think sharing how we did it may help here.

Float for 15 - 20 mins in the bag it was shipped in
Opened the bag in a bucket
slow accumulation until the water was doubled. About 2 drips per second.

entire process took about 1.5 hrs.

The other 3 fish are good!

This fish has acted like this since I opened the box.

Your that’s what people do.

We just don’t unless the difference in salinity between bag and wherever they are going is within .002, otherwise larger differences take way more time for 100% success.

 

[Uncle99]

wow. um. ok. Is that the standard that everyone should be following? LFS and online talking heads did not say this, and now you got me thinking everything's ******.

Long acclimating time NEVER is a bad thing.
What we noticed with longer time is 100% transfer success, no lethargic behaviour and they swim and eat right as they hit the new water.

 

[Fish Fan]

If the fish were shipped to you, it's not a good idea to do the slow drip acclimation with the bag water. The reason is that in the bag the fish produces CO2, which gets converted to carbonic acid, which lowers the pH of the shipping water. Ammonia, which the fish is also producing in the bag, is far less toxic at a lower pH than higher. When you drip acclimate a fish in the bag like that, you rapidly increase the pH of the water, which in turn makes the ammonia much more toxic. Best practice is a process like what Uncle described above.

Jay's article on acclimation has more:
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/acclimation-methods.903/

Good luck!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just got 4 Pajama Cardinal fish. This one is staying like this. If something touches the fish, it moves. But then settles back down to what you see in the photo

What should I do?

Breathing looks slightly labored. Keep the low light going as you have it . Additionally, if new arrivals, how did you acclimate and for how long?
Overall looks to be stress related and 24hrs will determine the direction for this fish going forward

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I just got 4 Pajama Cardinal fish. This one is staying like this. If something touches the fish, it moves. But then settles back down to what you see in the photo

What should I do?

Can you try retaking the video under white light? I’m trying to judge it’s respiration rate.

The other 3 cardinals all look good?

 

[Orddie]

Can you try retaking the video under white light? I’m trying to judge it’s respiration rate.

The other 3 cardinals all look good?

Just posted a pic under white light.
The other 3 are good.

Working on video now. To me, does not seem high but def want a 2nd set of eyes on it.

 

[Orddie]

Updated OF with pics and video in white light.

Excuse the photobomb from the Mandarin.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Updated OF with pics and video in white light.

Excuse the photobomb from the Mandarin.

Sorry - I can’t find the new video….