pick up in nice sohol tang from Petco in CR

Wow you are lucky.

The Petco in Wloo & most other places are usually considered death tanks full of ich. I would never buy anything from the wloo store.

I guess the excuse the managers give that it is all corporates fault is BS.

 

Wow you are lucky.

The Petco in Wloo & most other places are usually considered death tanks full of ich. I would never buy anything from the wloo store.

I guess the excuse the managers give that it is all corporates fault is BS.

 

I don't usually go in there anymore because every time I had in the past, I always saw sickly looking fish and dead fish. Maybe they are starting to turn things around. It will be interesting to hear about how the fish does long term. Keep us posted!

--AJ

 

OYou would have to do the month long hypo salinity QT treatment on fish like that. it is the only surefire way to kill ich by waiting out it's cycle.

There is a local store here in the QC that is excellent (i still QT) and one that if I buy anything from them, it will get the hypo salinity treatment, even if I don't see any ich on that fish... so sad

 

"overcome just about anything... "
yes and no...
in many cases, a healthy tank can bring back a fish on the brink of death... I am all in favor of good, stable, well watchedover tanks "playing hospital" but not from disease and other pathogens. catchable disease like Ich, redbugs, acro eating flatworms, montipora nudis, some bacterial infections, etc. .are as infectious as a STD that will pollute the tank substrate, and the other fish... and ruin the healthy balance you have...
ich is not something you can overcome by just having healthy fish... it will bring your healthy fish to a low level, as it gets in their gills and causes breathing problems even when you can't see it.... It's can really only be eradicated by killing it as every "immune" stage of it's life cycle becomes vulnerable to hypo-salinity ( you have to wait for the cyst stage to hatch and die) which means a wait game in hypo-salinity.
copper helps, but does not kill every part of it... and the same thing goes for several other treatments.
Really, the best husbantry is preventative.. Research .. if people don't buy fish because they know that particular fish will fail and die. (tangs in nanos for example) This hobby would be different.  Every tank has it's limits.  once you know yours.. then you can do a lot in those limits.

 

Also, just a thought. it is very tempting to see sick fish at the petstore (that they can't keep alive or healthy ) and feel like you are doing a service by rescuing it.. many times you are actually telling them they have a market for that fish, and it results in more fish being ordered and brought into situations that encourages a quick demise.

 

Why take the chance of having the fish die or passing some disease along to other inhabitants of your "healthy tank"?  I'm an advocate of a more cautious approach, no matter how healthy your tank is.
--AJ

 

Marc, I am taking it from your "healthy tank" comments that you do not quarantine whether with copper or hypo salinity. With a system your size you obviously have thousands invested. Unfortunately your philosophy of putting sick fish in your healthy tank to cure them will bite you in the end.
I am assuming if you have kids you would never follow this same philosophy. Bring one sick kid into a room of otherwise healthy kids and this doesn't make the sick kid healthy. It makes other kids sick.
Do your tank and pocketbook a big favor and QT from now on. There are many many many of us that have tried to avoid QTing in the past only to be bit by bad things. This all goes for coral as well. Not many of us QT coral but most will dip them before introduction to kill what we can. It won't matter how healthy your tank is if you get coral with red bugs or something similar.
I am just trying to help. Over the years many people have said "Oh I don't worry about QTing", I was one of them. Then at some point you see a post in the forum 'HELP!!" Everything is sick what do I do? I was one of the ones who couldn't bring myself to post. I didn't lose much myself but I had to tear down my reef and use Hypo salinity for 9 weeks. It really sucked!

 

well, if you are able to QT them- that is probably worth it.... get a tank, and watch the fish for a while there....

If not, there is an awful lot of damage a "free" fish can do.



take a read here... great learning! We want you to have a healthy tank for years!!!

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php

 

One of my favorite reef quotes...

""Not using a quarantine tank is like playing Russian roulette. Nobody wins the game, some people just get to play longer than others." - Anthony Calfo"

 

Marc,
It's good that you have in "in" with PetCo and can get the fish for a very low cost or free. For me, that would be the only reason why I would want to spend time trying to nurse a sick fish to health.

And our "HELP" is offered with the best intentions. Obviously we're all grown up and we all make our own decisions (and either reap the rewards or pay the price for the decisions we make). Hopefully it just gives you some food for thought.

--AJ

 

yep, we want nothing other than you to have a sucessful tank.


we all have had crashes and deaths and less than perfect choices with our tanks. they are no fun (read my story) we are trying to save you from learning the lessons that some of us have had to learn the hard, $$, and painful way!