When Buying Fish from LFS

[southeastfishaddict]

Good evening all, I’m new to this salt water fish hobby. I had a fish tank installed right before Christmas and I went fish crazy like your typical newbie. During the process I had many fish die including a few tangs and a powder blue today. My mind has been clobbering me on what went wrong. When I spoke with one of my fish suppliers from my LFS and who installed my Red Sea reef tank he said it’s not very practical to install a quarantine tank and that it requires a lot of effort to do.. so he kind of steered me away from doing that. The other LFS owner told me the same thing, but he said that if I want to maintain the fish, that I should reduce the salt because there is more of a chance of getting ich on the fish. Everything was going well and I felt like if I was on cruise control, but then a few fish started dying and then, I noticed ich on some of the fish. As you can imagine, i became stressed and frustrated since I’ve been investing a lot of time, money and effort into this new hobby of mind. Also, accompanied with some fights with the wife. So a few things are going through my head right now.. should I get divorce or should I keep going with this? jk. What caused these deaths .. is it that the fish store had very low salt and it was to drastic of a change for the fish that I bought and it made them get ich? Also, keep in mind that I live in Chicago so it gets extremely cold, so I’m sure there was a fluctuation in the temperature. The LFS is about half an hour from my home, but I drive straight home and kept them in a styrofoam container..

 

[Spare time]

A QT is simple. It just needs t be a tank or container with pvc pipes and biosponges in a hob filter.

As for why they got ich, its because they were never quarentined and the fish trade exposes these fish to lots of parasites and diseases. An LFS will never tell you how many fish actually die from disease/parasites there, especially if they don't run copper

 

[paragrouper]

I will make a couple of recommendations

1. stop adding fish for the near term
2. do some quick research. once your a newbie, a good place to start is here:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-supreme-guide-to-setting-up-a-saltwater-reef-aquarium.138750/

I won’t comment on the advice your LFS gave you, but this hobby has a bit of a learning curve and its best to take this slow.

 

[southeastfishaddict]

Thank you for your reply spare time! Well they did tell me to make sure not to include any of the fish store water, because they use to copper to treat the fish. He also fed it and it ate a lot and he said that he would keep ir for a few days or weeks if I would like..

 

[southeastfishaddict]

Thank you Paragrouper, that’s exactly what one of the employees from the fish store told me one time on my way out of the store. I was addicted and going to the shop every few days with my son looking for fish and buying them. Then he told me to take it slow. I was kind of puzzled and didn’t know what he met by that. I kind of got offended actually. I was like what, they don’t want me going there too much or what’s going on..

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

agree with just slow down. Stop wasting money by killing fish and fighting with the wife, it’s not good, she’s probably right. This is a hobby of snail speed and patience and research.

 

[paragrouper]

Thank you Paragrouper, that’s exactly what one of the employees from the fish store told me one time on my way out of the store. I was addicted and going to the shop every few days with my son looking for fish and buying them. Then he told me to take it slow. I was kind of puzzled and didn’t know what he met by that. I kind of got offended actually. I was like what, they don’t want me going there too much or what’s going on..

No worries, you’ll find that many of us have been in your position.

 

[littlefoxx]

You will need to go fallow (fishless) for the time being (search for how long to fallow depending on what you had in the tank, I would go 90 days with no fish to be safe) and let the parasite die out. How big is this tank? Adding fish way too fast will also overload your system with the added bioload, which is why its recommended to go slow. Also would set up a QT unless youre lucky like me and have two LFS stores that QT with meds a full month before letting them be sold, even then that can be risky. My first tank crashed because I added a lot of fish too fast and went to one store that was outside of my two usual ones and got a fish that brought velvet. Lost my whole tank except Squirt, my engineer goby. I was able to save her but thats due to the advice and direction of the amazing #fishmedics on this site

 

[Bj’s Reef]

Nothing good happens fast in this hobby. Are you testing your ammonia etc. You have to add fish slowly. Giving your systems bacteria levels time to adjust.

 

[ronsonb]

My tank is almost 1yr old and I too started out hot but in my case with a bunch of expensive coral I was more refrained with fish.

There are so many things now that seem so obvious that I was just completely unaware of early on… the most costly being nutrients bottoming out in fishless coral QT tank and losing coral.

This hobby can be frustrating when you’re new but when things are going right it is very rewarding to have watch the dynamic of the tank play out and watch corals grow.

As people have said go slow… way slower than you think!

 

[southeastfishaddict]

No worries, you’ll find that many of us have been in your position

I will make a couple of recommendations

1. stop adding fish for the near term
2. do some quick research. once your a newbie, a good place to start is here:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-supreme-guide-to-setting-up-a-saltwater-reef-aquarium.138750/

I won’t comment on the advice your LFS gave you, but this hobby has a bit of a learning curve and its best to take this slow.

thanks again Paragrouper, I just too a look at the link that you sent me & it was extremely helpful I will use it again and again !

 

[southeastfishaddict]

Nothing good happens fast in this hobby. Are you testing your ammonia etc. You have to add fish slowly. Giving your systems bacteria levels time to adjust.

Yes Sir, I was going to the LFS twice a week to get the testing done and duo riding my amonia was at zero despite having twenty plus fisn

 

[southeastfishaddict]

My tank is almost 1yr old and I too started out hot but in my case with a bunch of expensive coral I was more refrained with fish.

There are so many things now that seem so obvious that I was just completely unaware of early on… the most costly being nutrients bottoming out in fishless coral QT tank and losing coral.

This hobby can be frustrating when you’re new but when things are going right it is very rewarding to have watch the dynamic of the tank play out and watch corals grow.

As people have said go slow… way slower than you think!

Yes Sir, I’m starting to see the light now. & I agree with you 100% that it is a rewarding experience, but like anything that’s good in life it takes a lot of time, effort and a few heartbreaks here and there to accomplish the best things in life

 

[littlefoxx]

How big is your tank?

 

[southeastfishaddict]

Nothing good happens fast in this hobby. Are you testing your ammonia etc. You have to add fish slowly. Giving your systems bacteria levels time to adjust.

You will need to go fallow (fishless) for the time being (search for how long to fallow depending on what you had in the tank, I would go 90 days with no fish to be safe) and let the parasite die out. How big is this tank? Adding fish way too fast will also overload your system with the added bioload, which is why its recommended to go slow. Also would set up a QT unless youre lucky like me and have two LFS stores that QT with meds a full month before letting them be sold, even then that can be risky. My first tank crashed because I added a lot of fish too fast and went to one store that was outside of my two usual ones and got a fish that brought velvet. Lost my whole tank except Squirt, my engineer goby. I was able to save her but thats due to the advice and direction of the amazing #fishmedics on this site

thank you for your reply little fox, so you think that more than likely I will lose all of my fish? I have about twenty of them now and it looks like they are all doing a lot better now. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to quarantine them, since they are super fast and I have a lot of rock work in my tank, so it would be impossible for me to catch them. This is my tank setup here. I purchased some ick polyp lab, but not sure how effective it will be at this stage.

 

[littlefoxx]

How many gallons?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Good evening all, I’m new to this salt water fish hobby. I had a fish tank installed right before Christmas and I went fish crazy like your typical newbie. During the process I had many fish die including a few tangs and a powder blue today. My mind has been clobbering me on what went wrong. When I spoke with one of my fish suppliers from my LFS and who installed my Red Sea reef tank he said it’s not very practical to install a quarantine tank and that it requires a lot of effort to do.. so he kind of steered me away from doing that. The other LFS owner told me the same thing, but he said that if I want to maintain the fish, that I should reduce the salt because there is more of a chance of getting ich on the fish. Everything was going well and I felt like if I was on cruise control, but then a few fish started dying and then, I noticed ich on some of the fish. As you can imagine, i became stressed and frustrated since I’ve been investing a lot of time, money and effort into this new hobby of mind. Also, accompanied with some fights with the wife. So a few things are going through my head right now.. should I get divorce or should I keep going with this? jk. What caused these deaths .. is it that the fish store had very low salt and it was to drastic of a change for the fish that I bought and it made them get ich? Also, keep in mind that I live in Chicago so it gets extremely cold, so I’m sure there was a fluctuation in the temperature. The LFS is about half an hour from my home, but I drive straight home and kept them in a styrofoam container..

A quarantine tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.
At LFS, observe fish's breathing, look at skin for imperfections, fins for signs of victim to aggression, Ask to see fish eat- dont take their word that it does and observe netting that they dont haunt this fish in efforts to catch it and Acclimate fish well.

 

[southeastfishaddict]

How big is your tank?

It’s this one here :

 

[southeastfishaddict]

How many gallons?

It’s this one here

 

[vetteguy53081]

Good evening all, I’m new to this salt water fish hobby. I had a fish tank installed right before Christmas and I went fish crazy like your typical newbie. During the process I had many fish die including a few tangs and a powder blue today. My mind has been clobbering me on what went wrong. When I spoke with one of my fish suppliers from my LFS and who installed my Red Sea reef tank he said it’s not very practical to install a quarantine tank and that it requires a lot of effort to do.. so he kind of steered me away from doing that. The other LFS owner told me the same thing, but he said that if I want to maintain the fish, that I should reduce the salt because there is more of a chance of getting ich on the fish. Everything was going well and I felt like if I was on cruise control, but then a few fish started dying and then, I noticed ich on some of the fish. As you can imagine, i became stressed and frustrated since I’ve been investing a lot of time, money and effort into this new hobby of mind. Also, accompanied with some fights with the wife. So a few things are going through my head right now.. should I get divorce or should I keep going with this? jk. What caused these deaths .. is it that the fish store had very low salt and it was to drastic of a change for the fish that I bought and it made them get ich? Also, keep in mind that I live in Chicago so it gets extremely cold, so I’m sure there was a fluctuation in the temperature. The LFS is about half an hour from my home, but I drive straight home and kept them in a styrofoam container..

Also The display tank will have to be kept fishless (FALLOW) for 6-8 weeks to assure the existing parasites go through their life cycle without a host fish and die off. No need at all for 90 days