Local Petco Fish & other LFS VS buying online

[Dan06]

wow bronze/emerald cories are usally very very hardy. How do you acclimate your new fish? Do you qt? what are your water param. and whats in the tank?

I quarentine in a 10gal for 5-7 days depending on how quick the fish color & behavior seems to improve. The cory's looked to be doing fine. Every morning after the first 48 hours, one would be dead. The 2 remaining have been moved to their permanent tank and they have great color and are always scanning for food. I forgot to mention that the LFS refused to warranty the Cory's, they claimed they aren't hardy at all. They sold me the Cory's for 1.25 each. Very cheap.

I also had 6 False Cory's in the QT tank about a month ago, 3 died within 48 hours. The other 3 are now in their permanent tank and they appear as healthy as could be. There is a few schools of small Tetra in the tank, that's it. Water Parameters are always ideal.

My acclimation process - I have a 2.5 gallon bucket that I fill with the bag water and fish. Every 10 minutes for an hour I add a half cup of tank water from whichever tank I'm going to move them to. I have a small submersible heater that I heat the water to match the tank. Whenever I add fish, I leave the lights off for 24 hours.

I have a few friends who all suffer from fish loss when buying new, but they don't acclimate so I can't really compare to them.

 

[excuzzzeme]

I never buy fish that have "just came in". I wait a week or more as the fish are already stressed severely by the time they make it to the LFS. I will pay in advance to make sure I get them. Since I started doing things in this manner, I have cut my fish loss to almost zero. I have let orders set at the LFS store for as long as a month to help ensure healthy fish.

 

[lovejonesx]

While I agree that many fish purchased from a lfs DO die on you, I can also say that SOME OF THE fish that I have kept the longest, (more than 15 years) are frontosas that I bought back when PET DEPOT was thriving.

I've only orderd online once & out of the 8 frontosas that I purchased, 7 lived & seemed to be in good condition almost immediately.

I DO however agree that the best tenet is to try to buy from people who CARE.

 

[Dan06]

Hm, I wouldn't have a problem with buying & asking the stores to hold the fish for a week or so, but there is a solid week of dying fish & diseases that could be introduced.

I guess I'll have to try the online route, atleast that will cut down on 1 transition...

 

[Rbishop]

I have never lost a fish that I bought online in the first year that I had them.

I primarily buy on line, greater than 90% of the time.