Kurt_Nelson
Aquarium Advice Addict
OK... after reading a couple posts here about someones local fish stores not keeping up on "fishless cycling", and another post about cleaner wrasses on tangs with ick, well... I've got to relay something that I ran into at a local fish place that really bothered me.
I went into a shop - that has really good people - and was looking at the stock they'd got in the day before. A blue tang caught my eye because he was doing laps in the tank, flashing himself on the gravel in the bottom on each lap. When I looked at him closer, the thing looked like it was heavily sprinkled with salt. I'm a newbie, have never seen ick, but it sure looked like what I'd heard described before. When it turned sideways, you could see the "salt" granules sticking out from the fish body - it just wasn't discoloration.
Just then an employee came over and asked if I needed help. I asked him how long they'd had the tang. He mentioned they'd had it for several weeks. (They don't quarantine their new arrivals.) I told him that he looked a little "salted" and was flashing the bottom. He looked at it and quickly said, "Yup. I'll go tell [insert owner's name here] and get a cleaner wrasse in there with him. Thanks for pointing that out to us!" and left to go find the owner.
I left shortly after that - vowing that I wouldn't be buying anymore fish from there since they have a common supply system to all their tanks!
So I guess that episode left me with several questions...
1. Seems like most fish stores have common supply lines to all their tanks. How do they deal with disease when it does happen?
2. Am I right in thinking that the store now has ick flowing through every tank there? So what good is a cleaner wrasse going to do? Maybe it'll help that one tang for the moment, but what about long term?
3. Since most fish stores around me don't quarantine for anything over a couple days, do they just do a medicated dip and hope that does the trick? Is this why there are some people out there that say that every single tank has ick and it's just a matter of whether or not your fish is stressed enough for it to take hold?
I'm not trying to point fingers at a particular fish store or anything, but the incident really made me wonder how the business really works when it comes to disease prevention. Any insight folks might have would be appreciated.
I went into a shop - that has really good people - and was looking at the stock they'd got in the day before. A blue tang caught my eye because he was doing laps in the tank, flashing himself on the gravel in the bottom on each lap. When I looked at him closer, the thing looked like it was heavily sprinkled with salt. I'm a newbie, have never seen ick, but it sure looked like what I'd heard described before. When it turned sideways, you could see the "salt" granules sticking out from the fish body - it just wasn't discoloration.
Just then an employee came over and asked if I needed help. I asked him how long they'd had the tang. He mentioned they'd had it for several weeks. (They don't quarantine their new arrivals.) I told him that he looked a little "salted" and was flashing the bottom. He looked at it and quickly said, "Yup. I'll go tell [insert owner's name here] and get a cleaner wrasse in there with him. Thanks for pointing that out to us!" and left to go find the owner.
I left shortly after that - vowing that I wouldn't be buying anymore fish from there since they have a common supply system to all their tanks!
So I guess that episode left me with several questions...
1. Seems like most fish stores have common supply lines to all their tanks. How do they deal with disease when it does happen?
2. Am I right in thinking that the store now has ick flowing through every tank there? So what good is a cleaner wrasse going to do? Maybe it'll help that one tang for the moment, but what about long term?
3. Since most fish stores around me don't quarantine for anything over a couple days, do they just do a medicated dip and hope that does the trick? Is this why there are some people out there that say that every single tank has ick and it's just a matter of whether or not your fish is stressed enough for it to take hold?
I'm not trying to point fingers at a particular fish store or anything, but the incident really made me wonder how the business really works when it comes to disease prevention. Any insight folks might have would be appreciated.