Best time to buy fish from LFS

[Lotocus]

In my area I have only one LFS - well, unless you count WalMart, but I would rather go fishless than buy from them. I have a 20g now, but we will be upgrading to a 75 over the next month or so. At that time I'm looking to get a number of new fish (16 danios, 6 Tiger barbs, maybe 2-3 Mollies and a handful of different types of Cory Cats). So with that in mind, I was wondering if there is an "ideal" time to purchase from the LFS. I know they get new stock in on Thursdays. I have two thoughts.

1- If I go on Thursday they will have the best selection of fish to choose from. And they will already be stressed from the transfer into the LFS tanks- maybe it's better to continue to transfer them again as opposed to waiting until they recover a bit then hit them with another stressful transfer?

2- If I were to go on Wednesday, the fish would be "picked through" but they would have at least 6 days on them in those tanks (for any disease to start showing within that time) and they have had a little time to recover from the stress of being transferred on the truck and into the LFS tanks...

Opinions?

 

[jetajockey]

I'd get them on their shipment day and QT them for a week or two to make sure they are good to go.

 

[dalto]

If you have a qt tank and don't mind taking a risk then you could go right away.

I usually do you second suggestion which is to wait a week and make sure that the fish are still thriving.

 

[Lotocus]

Yeah - no QT tank right now. Still going back and forth on that. I'm thinking I'd like to migrate the old fish into the new tank at the same time I introduce the new fish to help blend the two groups of fish.

I'd do one type of fish at a time and give them a week or two to settle before moving/introducing the next type.

I suppose I could move all my current fish to the new tank at once and use my current tank as a QT. I'm concerned my current fish won't school well with the new ones if they have already gotten comfortable in the new environment.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[PB_Smith]

go in after they get the new fish, check them out, then return the following wed to see if they survived and then make your purchases.
I have worked on the other side of the counter and trust me, you really want to let the store suffer any losses, especially with the type of fish you are interested in, they are not rare or hard to come by, so patience is the best option.
If they were rare or hard to acquire fish then I would say take the gamble and buy them same day.

Recently I was very tempted to get a dozen cardinal tetras when I saw the store just got a lot in. Went in two days later, every single one had died and I was glad I didn't buy any.

BUT I did roll the dice when they got some marble hatchets in because they are not super common or always available.
Out of the 9 I purchased total, 4 remain, a little more losses than I anticipated, but not surprising.
Sadly that is just the way it goes sometimes.

 

[Lotocus]

Well, one thing going for me is this store has a 14 day guarantee. So if they've been at the store 6 days already they'd have another 14 days that I could get then replaced if they die. It won't protect my current fish though.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[ScotJudd]

If you have a choice then I would strongly advise setting up the new tank with your existing fish. Use your existing tank as a QT and quarantine your new fish. Only add the new fish to the new tank when you are happy that it's stable. I buy a shoal of a new species and QT them together then add them to the main tank together. They always find each other quickly and shoal for a week or two. Then they get more confident and mix with the other fish - no problem.
I would be more concerned with introducing disease into the main tank than shoaling issues. I keep tetras/Cory's/RCS and they all get on but they do have loads of plants to hide in if they want to. At feeding time I don't think even one fish isn't at the glass. Happy days!


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[Lotocus]

Scot, that's exactly what I'm ending up doing. Well, except to cycle the tank I went out and got a new school of danios. I figured the new tank could do double duty as a qt tank for the new guys until it cycled. Then I'd move the rest of the old guys in and use the old tank to qt the rest of the new ones I'm going to get.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[ScotJudd]

Sounds like a plan. Good luck and enjoy!



Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[Andy Sager]

go in after they get the new fish, check them out, then return the following wed to see if they survived and then make your purchases.
I have worked on the other side of the counter and trust me, you really want to let the store suffer any losses, especially with the type of fish you are interested in, they are not rare or hard to come by, so patience is the best option.
If they were rare or hard to acquire fish then I would say take the gamble and buy them same day.

+1 100%
Being from the other side of the counter myself, I know that what looks good on Monday may be dead on Wednesday. My only other suggestion is that if you have little self control, don;t go in until Wednesday. You can't miss what you don;t see Yes, the pickings will be slimmer on Wednesday but the fish should be healthier as well. Let the store take the hits.

 

[MonkeyMonk86]

Relative to the new tank, you could install a tank divider. (It's a handy thing to have around in case a fish gets picked on and you want to give it a rest. ). Then let the old fish have only 50% until the new fish pass the QT and you add them.

I got my tank divider at Amazon.


(Friend of Bill W., One day at a time)