Ugh...LFS! really?!

[i cant think]

Greetings fish lovers.

So this afternoon I had some time to kill so I figured I'd go visit one of the live fish stores in the area, I've heard through other hobbyist friends in the area that this particular store receives a very large shipment every Friday.

So I'm at the store and sure enough boxes and boxes of aquatic life and bags and bags and bags floating in the holding tanks. I think to myself this can't be the acclamation process... Can it?

Well sure enough, I'm in the store for about 20 minutes wandering around and too much of my surprise they just start cutting open bags and pouring them in the holding tanks!

I've been in the hobby for a long time I've never seen this practice. This can't be how it's done? I know the store I normally buy at has a strict quarantine process for all aquatic life and will not sell anything that he doesn't feel is ready for consumer purchase. I've actually watched him take fish out of the for sale tanks and put them right back in quarantine if he didn't like the way it looked.

So what are your thoughts am I being too critical? I've always thought drip acclamation to match salinity, pH, temperature and never ever pour them in.

Sound off.

After working in an LFS for a few years I can tell you;
This is exactly how it’s done!
We don’t deal with any long potentially stressful acclimation, we simply sit them in the tanks for 20-30 minutes and let them in. I’ve also done this exact practice on my own tank for 4-5 years now and not once have I lost a fish to it. The only reason I don’t do this process is if it’s a fish in a huge bag (like how I got my Regal Angel).

 

[jdpiii3]

Thanks guys Open my eyes to some new practices always learning something new in this hobby. I'll definitely look into the newer acclamation process. I've always just dripped and then added to quarantine.

Definitely makes sense!

 

[Tamberav]

Thanks guys Open my eyes to some new practices always learning something new in this hobby. I'll definitely look into the newer acclamation process. I've always just dripped and then added to quarantine.

Definitely makes sense!

Since you have a QT, you can just match the salinity. Float then test the bag then add some rodi water to being down QT if needed.

One user here pokes a needle in the bag to get a water sample then just seals the hole of the bag right after till the tank is ready. This is to keep ph low.

 

[mike550]

@jdpiii3 this doesn’t surprise me at all. For the store, running an actual quarantine process is expensive — not just chemicals, but the amount of time used in holding onto fish that they’d rather be selling to make up their cost. Add that some fish will die in QT and that just adds to their costs.

 

[exnisstech]

I bought some anthias still in the bags from the wholesaler. Water was 1.019 from the wholesaler. This store keeps their tanks at 1.025 (I love getting my fish there) They temp and drop them in even with the difference in salinity and it doesn't seem to harm them at all.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Honestly most stores get shipments in less than 24 hours tank to tank from US wholesalers. In many cases much less than 12 hours in transit. This is one reason why the store loss rates are less than those of you who buy via the internet and get shipped FedEx or UPS. Both those options extend the shipping time in smaller boxes over 24 to 36 hours and beyond. It is no wonder R2R is littered with help request for sick fish. Transportation matters and the faster the better to reduce stress, disease and finally loss.

Stores process many more fish both fresh and salt with much lower loss rates than the average hobbiest. What you do not see in some stores is professional level UV sterilizers, mechanical, biological filtration and protein skimmers with ozone. Until you have used this level of filtration you have no idea of the benefits to the fish in a central system that is properly equipped and designed. Literally a night and day difference in lower mortality rates and improved fish health.

Tranships are a different protocol all together and are often handled by matching the Ph in the system to the water in the shipping bags using Co2 injection or chemical products to reduce Ph. Then over night or over a 24 hour period you allow the Ph to rise to normal levels before moving the fish to the sale system.

Unless you have the experience of having to quickly move the fish safely to the holding systems it is easy to make many assumptions about local fish stores that are not true. Lets face it dead fish don't sell and sick fish become a long term problem to the razor thin margins in aquarium stores. Mitigating loss and loss prevention is the only way to survive in a tough business.

 

[KrisReef]

I bought some anthias still in the bags from the wholesaler. Water was 1.019 from the wholesaler. This store keeps their tanks at 1.025 (I love getting my fish there) They temp and drop them in even with the difference in salinity and it doesn't seem to harm them at all.

I like getting fish in the bag before they get dumped. I take the bag home and acclimate for temp and dump. The fewer tanks they have swum in the fewer pathogens they have been exposed to.

I'm sorry to tell you, but this is the norm as I know it. Most LFS are in the business of quantity, over quality of fish. That's a spectrum. If they keep their water at 1.019, you know why and it's not too save on salt.

Some just reach in with a hand and scoop the fish out and into the acrylic cube or tank, others just cut the bag and dump.

I’m a big fan of hand contact when moving a fish about. When the lfs lets me, and when releasing it into my tank I want to hold the fish in my hand and speak to them. Welcome to your new place, I hope you will live here and enjoy the space. I’m not going to eat you and I wanted to rescue you from the fish store and watch you grow in my system

Handling fish is the best way to introduce them to your tank and reassure them they are ok.

Not scientifically validated but I think it is better than copper to start.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Thanks guys Open my eyes to some new practices always learning something new in this hobby. I'll definitely look into the newer acclamation process. I've always just dripped and then added to quarantine.

Definitely makes sense!

Yeah, provided temp and salinity isn’t to far of you can just dump em. No point in dripping. It’s especially a bad idea if the fish has been shipped.

My lfs keeps their SG at 1.021 as it’s generally what fish come in at from the major European wholesalers and exporters in Asia/Africa.
I do the same in my QT so I can just temp acclimate and dump.

What my lfs does that I like is that he has multiple systems and always adds all the fish from one shipment to a specific system and doesn’t sell any from that system for a week.

 

[radiata]

Ammonia, in a bag that has been shipped with fish, builds up quite rapidly. Some of the current thinking is that you should get the fish out of that bag ASAP, especially when that bag has been shipped from overseas. Often times an acclimation that we hobbyists think is mandatory, is bypassed by a wholesaler or a retailer recipient.