Fish died within a day

[elmo]

Hey guys,

Im looking for some advice on what is the 'done' or expected thing.

I bought 2 pictus cats recently from a big fish store, got the fish home, put them in the tank and within two days they were dead. I did all my water tests and everything is fine and all of my other fish are fine. Now this was 100bucks worth of fish.

They died yesterday and I have since flushed the poor guys, no sign of damage or illness.

Any ideas where I stand or what I should do??

[Moya]

Hey Elmo

LFS are generally have a 24hour guarantee on their livestock. But you MUST keep the fish in future (This is so that you can prove that your not just having them on and the fish are happy back home). You also take a sample of tank water for testing, and if It comes back all clear than they should gladly replace your fish. Still worth a shot letting them know that they died, and that you flushed them though, just in case they are feeling nice.

How big is your tank as well? What fish do you keep?

[livingart]

They died yesterday and I have since flushed the poor guys, no sign of damage or illness.

keeping the fish and freezing them may have been better

you could ring the store and talk to them about it

there are many variables to take into account

how were they behaving before their death

were they acclimatised properly

thin when you purchased them

stress from other fish in tank

to mention a few

talking to the store in a friendly manner is your best option

[phoenix44]

hmm. It's a grey area as far as I know.

I mean there are so many things that could have happened wrong at your end. And I don't necessarily mean wrong but the conditions that you are keeping them in could be very different to what the store has them in, and therein lies the problem.

In the same way, you may have just got duds from the store, but on the other hand the fish could have been healthy at the store and just stressed with the move etc., and decided to give in with the added stress of new water etc.

Who knows really. When I get a new fish I put it in a bucket and add water from my tank into the bucket that has the water the fish came with. Acclimatise over the next 30 mins or so.

With some of my more expensive fish I have done this over a week!

[FishBen]

Always acclimatise new fish and never flush dead fish

Sorry 'bout your dead pictus cats

[David R]

Who knows really. When I get a new fish I put it in a bucket and add water from my tank into the bucket that has the water the fish came with. Acclimatise over the next 30 mins or so.

Thats what I do, and I use a length of thin air hose to slowly trickle the water into the bucket. can't say I've ever done it over a week, even when moving big clown loaches!

You said you tested your tank water, did you test the stuff in the bag also?

[elmo]

Thanks for the advise guys. I spoke with the LFS and there is nothing they can do which is fair enough, just a little pissed about it!

I acclimatise them with the 'floating bag' method just to match the temperature but there must have been some issue once they hit my water in terms of stress etc. Either way, nothing I can do now!

[phoenix44]

That floating bag method is not acclimatisation.

The most important part of the process is the gradual acclimatisation of the fish into the new water; so that relates to the water conditions and not necessarily the temp.

At least you know now; I have lost many hundreds of dollars worth of fish even after long periods of acclimatisation.

[David R]

That floating bag method is not acclimatisation.

+1

The temperature is the last of the problems IMO, unless its been sitting around for hours and gone cold, a few degrees change won't make much difference for most fish. The difference in water parameters is a bigger concern IMO, could easily have stressed them with a big change in pH by letting them straight out of the bag.

[Ira]

I used to lose probably half of the fish within a couple days when I got small fish if I only acclimatised them for an hour or so. Now I do it for about 4-5 hours and haven't lost any of them. I just float the bag in the tank and add a cup of water fr the tank every half hour or so.

[fishplants]

I acclimatise my fish over an hour. Adding quarter cup of tank water at minute zero and then every 15 minutes until the hour is up. The only loss I had recently was one of two Angelicus loaches from Animates, the store person slightly squashed this one against the glass when trying to catch it and it died the next day. They happily replaced it.

[Kipper]

Hi there

I acclimatise fish based on the drip method (http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... ethod.html) using a length of air-tubing plus a couple of pegs to slow the syphon flow to a couple of drips per second and another peg at the tank end to keep tubing in the water. It's really easy. I put the plastic bag holding the fish in another container (I use a 5 L jug) and put a dark tea towel or similar over the whole lot to lower light levels and 'relax' ( ) the fish. Also put in a little bit of food (dried blood worms) as the competition in the main tank can be a bit of a challenge for shy fish getting used to new surroundings.

Process usually takes a minimum of 45 mins to add the same volume of water that was originally in the bag - and you can go and do other things rather than remembering to race back and add dollops of water - just keep cats out of the room :lol: !!). I also turn off lights in tank for an hour or so after I've added the fish (but keep room lights on) as part of the settling-in process. Might be a bit over the top, but a bit of TLC can't do any harm and anything that decreases stress must be good!

I haven't worried about temperature (although you could wrap a warmed 'wheatie bag' around the container holding the plastic bag the fish are in), as it is likely (as P44 and others mentioned) that water parameters are the bigger shock to new fish.

Touch wood, haven't lost any fish (certainly not within a couple of months after introduction)....won't mention the nicely settled then sadly departed Sparkling Gouramis (Excel being main suspect :evil: ).