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Post by jess on Mar 5, 2014 17:21:12 GMT -5
This is the last time i buy a fish from there. Just got a green mandarins, he was already floating so i was like yea less stress! I've spent the last 1.5 hours drip acclimating him, nevertheless he looks not very well. Probably didn't help the associate just banged the bag around like it was nothing. I'll be surprised if he lives thru the night. The damsel I got a couple weeks ago didn't survive more than a few hours. I've lost more fish from that place than I've been able to keep. And their no guarantee on saltwater sucks. At least 24 hours would be nice. One time I bought 4 fish, they all died in the bag before even getting home. That was in the Augusta store but nothing different here. I'll be getting my next fish elsewhere.
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Post by ryansweatt2004 on Mar 5, 2014 17:38:56 GMT -5
The drip acclimation can actually stress fish out as well. I've always had good luck with fish from the Portland petco. I never acclimate fish more than 15-30 minutes
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Post by ryansweatt2004 on Mar 5, 2014 17:39:40 GMT -5
Especially when they are coming out of the wholesalers bags.
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Post by Matt in Lewiston on Mar 5, 2014 17:43:25 GMT -5
I got a coral beauty from So Po Petco today, also was floating in a bag when I got there...no problems so far.
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Post by ryansweatt2004 on Mar 5, 2014 17:45:09 GMT -5
I almost bought the magnificent fox face that was there today but the $109 price tag was a major turn off.
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Post by oceangirl2009 on Mar 5, 2014 17:56:58 GMT -5
I refuse to buy livestock from PetCo, the fish always have ich or are struggling to breathe (or are already dead!), the corals never look that good either (not to mentioned horribly over priced, unless mislabeled). I would rather pay extra for fish that are taken care of by the LFS, or even better gone through QT as Rick does at NEAS. *Disclaimer: this is my personal opinion and will probably never change  |
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Post by jess on Mar 5, 2014 18:07:28 GMT -5
He has Ich. In the bag I couldn't tell that tho. I only dropped him for about 40 minutes, the rest he was just floating in the bag. He's very lethargic, his slime coat is stringy. The emerald just politely pushed him out his way lol. But he's looking pretty sad
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Post by ryansweatt2004 on Mar 5, 2014 18:18:53 GMT -5
I will say, when I went back most of their scooter dragonets were pretty lethargic as well. It was probably a bad shipment. Most everything else there looked perfect. No ick or anything on all their fish that I could see.
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Post by maineultraclassic on Mar 5, 2014 19:00:41 GMT -5
Buying fish at Petco is like playing a scratch ticket..........sometimes you win, most of the time you loose.
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Post by Matt in Lewiston on Mar 5, 2014 19:06:35 GMT -5
When receiving fish that has come directly from a wholesaler it is absolutely critical that you dose some Amquel+ or similar to the bag. There is usually a buildup of ammonia that is sitting latent in the bag, once it has exposure to fresh air, it will start to spike the ammonia levels in the bag. Amquel is needed to level this out. Thats why if anyone has ever purchased fish from some of the online stores (I know BlueZoo still does, and maybe Dr Fosters does, they used to include a little pipette of "stuff" to add to the bag water when you open it. While a slow drip acclimation is excellent from LFS to home, more of a triage maneuver is needed when receiving fish from a wholesaler. Good point, because as you add tank water to the bag water, the ph gets raised which increases the toxicity of the ammonia. And Drs Foster & Smith do not provide anything like that, and they still recommend a drip acclimation. I bet that's why I have lost a bunch of fish from them during acclimation. |
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Post by jess on Mar 5, 2014 19:09:07 GMT -5
He's not looking well unfortunately.
I did add a little water conditioner to the bag, not thinking about the ammonia thing, but because his slime coat was stringy. Good to know about the ammonia tip tho
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Post by maineultraclassic on Mar 5, 2014 19:09:13 GMT -5
You have to be careful with Amquel too.......if too much is used, it can deplete the oxygen in the water.
I have 3 fish I picked up at Petco last week in my QT right now, showed a little ich over the weekend, hypo seems to be working well on them. Another week or 2 and they should be ready to make the move upstairs.
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Post by gotareef on Mar 6, 2014 9:54:49 GMT -5
I almost bought the magnificent fox face that was there today but the $109 price tag was a major turn off. he has been there a couple weeks last weekend he was in the "observation" tank $109 is a good price!! jess- the mandarin had ich? last I knew mandarins cant get ich |
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Post by BriMc on Mar 6, 2014 11:24:14 GMT -5
Mandarins can host ich, absolutely. I commented about the fish at so po Petco being covered in ich, if a couple of fish in the system have ich the chances of most of the fish having the parasite are pretty good. I went to purchase a shark nose goby on the Saturday morning of the sale and walked away because they looked like they were rolled in sugar.
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Post by gotareef on Mar 6, 2014 11:51:41 GMT -5
a good article on mandarins www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_care.html"These fish don't get Ich as they secrete an oily substance on their bodies. Their skin type and the oils secreted make them extremely sensitive to many medications. What may heal one species will more than likely kill a mandarin. So if your other fish develop ich, the mandarin is not to be put in to quarantine. Which is fortunate because it would starve to death if you did, assuming the medication didn't kill it first." |
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