Quality of fish.

[Swampman]

Does anyone have this problem. But fish from a mom and pop or ig box pet store. They look good in the store. Bring them home.All the water conditions correct. They die in a day or so. I haven't bought from a big box in a long time. But my brother bought nice guppies from them. Died in a week. He is disgusted. I would be too. This isn't the first time he had this. I bought fish from a mom and pop and had them die in a few days. The other fish in the tank are in good health. They have been in for at least a year. But they came from local breeders. If we want our hobby to thrive we have to get fish that can live. Tell people that are starting out about the cycle. I don't know how many times I had talked with people that have no clue on the subject. I believe fish are just over bred and inbred that they are just shells of the fish they could be. What do you think?

 

[rlederer]

Your tank might have the proper conditions, but are they similar conditions to those in the store? If your pH, temperature, or water quality are significantly different than those in the store, that could be the issue.

 

[Swampman]

I thought of that. But if that is the case the fish stores water parameters are wrong. Most stores do not quarantine there live stock. Just open the bag and throw them in. So the fish are swimming around in bad or different water. You buy them handle them with care. put them in your tank and in a few days they die. The fish had at least 3 different water conditions in maybe just a few hours. Bag,store and your tank. If the ph is different than store or bag than your tank. what do you do? But having a quarantine tank is not the answer. They still have 3 different water conditions.

 

[jake37]

One thing to consider is how long the fish has been at the store. Frequently they get them in and sell most of them the next day so they don't have a chance to die. Then some will die during the week and then those left over are the healthy ones and the ones you should buy

 

[Dallascowboys16]

When I worked at my LFS we wouldn't let people buy new arrivals for a few days so that they could settle in. Most stores do not do that. Many fish can't handle going straight from shipping to a new tank to another new tank in a matter of 10 hours. I would just ask wherever you are buying your fish from when they got their shipment and if it was more recently than 3 or 4 days I would hold off on purchasing. If the store is in your general area their tanks should have similar parameters if they do a decent job of maintaining the tanks since you both are using the same tap source so I wouldn't pin all of this on the parameters being too different.

 

[jake37]

Well you work at a 'better' store. The dedicated 'expert' fish store where i live (we only have one) receives fishes and start selling them 15 minutes later. The chain stores (petco, petsmart, ...) in most places do something similar. I've started to mail order most of my fishes from places that actually do a dedicated qt period before selling.
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The last three local purchases i've had fish die and diseases introduced into my established tanks (in a condo and no room for qt tank).
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Now that i only mail order fishes - of about 10 orders over the past 2 years - only one 'bad' order in which some (2 of 6) orange laser died the next day (not using that shop again). I've had excellent results from wetspot, tangledcichlid and aquaticclarity. Aquahuna has also been ok for 'cheap' fishes but they have some caveat with very young fishes (small on purchase) and deformities - but they are cheap.

When I worked at my LFS we wouldn't let people buy new arrivals for a few days so that they could settle in. Most stores do not do that. Many fish can't handle going straight from shipping to a new tank to another new tank in a matter of 10 hours. I would just ask wherever you are buying your fish from when they got their shipment and if it was more recently than 3 or 4 days I would hold off on purchasing. If the store is in your general area their tanks should have similar parameters if they do a decent job of maintaining the tanks since you both are using the same tap source so I wouldn't pin all of this on the parameters being too different.