Also remember that all the big commercial wholesale breeders/collectors have horribly diseased conditions. They turn over tens of thousands of fish to worldwide markets. The ones in the orient are especially bad. All wholesalers cost each species by the expected mortality rates during shipping. Some more sensitive ones are costed and 50-60% mortality. Terrible, but that's the world we live in. The buck rules. So the chain stores are getting diseased fish from the start. You HAVE to assume every fish you buy is diseased. QT tanks are a must. OS.
I was gonna let this one go but I just couldn't
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For starters, Have you actually seen, with your own eyes, all or even ANY big commercial wholesale breeding facilities to say that the fish are all diseased from the start? I have ( not all, but some.
) Plus, I WAS ONE
Disease was not a common occurance in my facility as a breeder. Some of my former customers are still in business and can verify that.
Second, When fish are shipped, the amount of fish placed in a bag is dependant upon how long the fish will be in a bag. Fish numbers/ bag would be higher if they were going locally or in the bag under 24 hours. Less fish / bag for longer periods.
Something you may not be considering is that sometimes fish are handled improperly by the airlines or improperly acclimated by the wholesaler or pet shop with the end result being fish getting sick AFTER they arrived not while they were in the bag. But let's take this a step further, with all the "new" variations of fish on the market today, these come from generation after generation of selective inbreeding which is known to cause weakened immune systems in livestock. So a perfect fish leaving a breeding facility might get sick on the way because it cannot withstand "normal" water variations or disease exposure leading them to get sick. The shipper or breeder would not know that the fish was unable to handle the shipping prior to it actually being shipped.
As for the Far East, most of the fish you all are buying today originated in the Far East. Not that they were found in the Far East but it was the Asians who first were capable of breeding fish , selectively, to create all these different color morphs. By doing so tho, there are now new diseases that never existed say, 40 years ago. One, for example, is the Dwarf Gourami disease. There was no dwarf gourami disease when there was only the regular colored dwarf. Now with neons and flames and whatnot, there is a dwarf gourami virus. How did that happen? I'd be willing to say that there would be a lot less diseases if we only stocked wild fish in our tanks. There's a catch tho, all Swordtails would be green, All Guppies would just be Endler "style", Berry tetras would cease to exist, Neon Glow fish and Balloon fish would be gone, All Angelfish would be Silvers, None of the "fancy" Discus would be available, etc. You get my drift?
There probably wouldn't be as many people enjoying fish tanks if that was to happen either. So there's a price you pay for the variety you have available. (Which in my eyes is an unfortunate byproduct.)
As for mortality, I can't say what it is today but back when I was importing and shipping, the expected mortality rate was only 10%. (You are dealing with live animals and not all of them can handle the stress of shipping. Another unfortunate byproduct of transporting them.) If today's shipping is producing 50%-60% mortality as you stated, my opinion is that either the shipping methods should be changed or those fish shouldn't be bought as they are OBVIOUSLY a high risk fish to own. I've shipped wild fish around the world where they arrived to their final destination alive and in good health. If today's fish can't do that, maybe today's fish aren't worth buying?
I said this back in the 1970s and 1980s and I'll say it again, "If you don't want crap, stop buying crap!" If you don't buy the crap, the stores will stop selling it. (That's just good biz sense as nobody wants to pay for the upkeep of an animal noone wants. THAT costs too much money.) My preference is to buy from old time Mom & Pop shops ( a dying breed and another unfortunate byproduct from the discount chain stores). These shops HAVE to know how to keep the fish they keep alive or else they can't afford to stay in business. The bigger chain stores do not make a living from selling fish. It's all about the merchadise. You all see it in the people they hire to sell their wares. Most, not all but MOST, are not even qualified to change the water in my tanks. That's another sad truth. And yet you go to them for advice on keeping your fish. What's wrong with this picture?
You do make one VERY STRONG and IMPORTANT point and that is that ALL FISH today should be properly quarantined prior to being put into the main display tanks.
You have to assume that any fish you get these days, no matter where you get them from, is carrying a potential disease organism within their system. Maybe they aren't sick themselves but they might be carrying spores or germs from some other fish that was in the same system or tank with them. ( Another unfortunate byproduct of the 1 system for all fish world THEY want us to shop in. BTW, I don't buy any freshwater fish from stores with centralized systems for exactly this reason. I will take them from the tanks that are self contained
)
Listen, I understand the frustration many feel in the hobby today. ( Especially us old timers
) Where do you get fish from when you only have a limited number of places to go? In my case, I have to travel almost 40 miles to get my "local" Mom & Pop shop but the trip is worth it. In my recent travels, I saw some excellent Mom & Pop shops in other states that I bought fish from and transported them, for a week in my car, and they arrived in FL just fine. Good stores are still out there if you are willing to find them. Chain stores and diseases are always going to go together but YOU don't have to buy their fish until they get better fish. That IS the power the customer has. The store doesn't take your money, you give it to them. If you stop, they either get better or go away.
Sorry if this sounded negative but it was just to inform, from an insider's viewpoint. Thanks for reading.
