Are we in a bubble thinking fish are caught correctly?

[Coigula]

I am going to venture a few things...

1- a great deal of fish are still caught with cyanide. 2- They are doped with non technical people to sedate them for trans ocean trip.3 - A will bet >80% fish are trans shipped from Philippines with other origins to a secondary questionable holding pen in LA. 4 - Fish that are doped or anesthetized are shipped >50 per 20KG box.

All this banter on here about what did I do wrong is often what did I buy wrong!!! If you carefully track where you buy from and assuming you have a few legit options then you will know. They bane of this hobby is the cheap skates giving these shady importers an outlet.

I think many hobbyist are naive to what still goes on out there. I have two local sources and only use them. Once I learned this my losses have gone to almost none.

 

[sde1500]

Went to my LFS the other day and they now include the date they got the fish, makes it nice because then I can really see if the fish is brand new, or if it has had time to settle in and recover from what it went through getting there. I've lost a few fish within a day or two of getting them. It sucked, I blamed myself, but later thought similar to what you put here. Maybe not as much about how they are caught, but the stress they went through in transit. We're talking a fish maybe 2-3 inches long getting caught out of the ocean, flown halfway around the world to a holding tank probably in LA, then packaged again and flown across the country to my LFS or some online place. I then buy it and it is packaged again and flown, or driven home. Thats a lot for a little fish to deal with.

 

[Triggerfish]

i experience way less fish deaths over the past couple years than when i started back in mid 90's.
could be other factors involved on why that is , but that has been my experience.

 

[TheRegion83]

I've had pretty good luck with my LFS. They run copper in their tanks and FW dip all new arrivals, so it seems to help a lot.

 

[snorvich]

I've had pretty good luck with my LFS. They run copper in their tanks and FW dip all new arrivals, so it seems to help a lot.

fw dip will accomplish little or nothing. Copper at a nontherapeutic dose accomplishes nothing except to mask some parasites.. Your LFS is providing little if any value.

 

[kmbyrnes]

I buy 90%+ of my livestock from one LFS.
They post the date of arrival for all fish on the tanks.
I've been there on arrival day and I can see that the fish are stressed from shipping.
And I notice that the next few days are when most of the die off occurs.
If a fish has been there less than a week, I don't buy it.
I've missed out on some fish I wanted, but I am sure I have also avoided buying a fish that would eventually have perished despite my best efforts.

 

[Triggerfish]

I've had pretty good luck with my LFS. They run copper in their tanks , so it seems to help a lot.

Copper at a nontherapeutic dose accomplishes nothing except to mask some parasites.. Your LFS is providing little if any value.

from your statement you appear to be assuming the copper level at that particular LFS is nontherapeutic?

 

[albano]

from your statement you appear to be assuming the copper level at that particular LFS is nontherapeutic?

I would 'assume' that with the amount of water removed daily with each fish sale, it would be near impossible to maintain any particular level in anything other than a dedicated QT system

 

[crawlerman]

There used to be a store in Irmo, SC called Fins. He would quarantine all of the fish in the back for 30 days before they went in the display. Paid about 40% more, but when I bought from the other local store there was about a 50-50 chance of the fish living a month. Unfortunately most people preferred the lower price and he went under. He would quiz you before your purchase and wouldn't sell you fish if he didn't think you could support it. I wanted a Naso in a 75g and he talked me out of it, I respected him for that.

 

[125mph]

There used to be a store in Irmo, SC called Fins. He would quarantine all of the fish in the back for 30 days before they went in the display. Paid about 40% more, but when I bought from the other local store there was about a 50-50 chance of the fish living a month. Unfortunately most people preferred the lower price and he went under. He would quiz you before your purchase and wouldn't sell you fish if he didn't think you could support it. I wanted a Naso in a 75g and he talked me out of it, I respected him for that.

That's why he went out of business. He was a hobbyist instead of a profit maximizer.

 

[Triggerfish]

I would 'assume' that with the amount of water removed daily with each fish sale, it would be near impossible to maintain any particular level in anything other than a dedicated QT system

perhaps..
there is one place i have been going to for about 7 years. i cant ever remember seeing ich on anything there. they run copper.

and.

another place my kid works at. one side is run with copper the other side not.
you guessed it, ich on the non copper side (always). No ich on copper side (never).

weird huh....

 

[ThRoewer]

There used to be a store in Irmo, SC called Fins. He would quarantine all of the fish in the back for 30 days before they went in the display. Paid about 40% more, but when I bought from the other local store there was about a 50-50 chance of the fish living a month. Unfortunately most people preferred the lower price and he went under. He would quiz you before your purchase and wouldn't sell you fish if he didn't think you could support it. I wanted a Naso in a 75g and he talked me out of it, I respected him for that.

This should be the standard, but unfortunately most stores rather go for the quick buck.
The only way this could be changed would be through government regulations that require a minimum level of expertise and minimum quarantine period.
Though I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Also, I don't think it would do much good for the more experienced hobbyists.
A better solution would probably be some form of qualification test and license on the store and end-user/hobbyists side. Too many start with with little to no knowledge.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[SBV]

There used to be a store in Irmo, SC called Fins. He would quarantine all of the fish in the back for 30 days before they went in the display. Paid about 40% more, but when I bought from the other local store there was about a 50-50 chance of the fish living a month. Unfortunately most people preferred the lower price and he went under. He would quiz you before your purchase and wouldn't sell you fish if he didn't think you could support it. I wanted a Naso in a 75g and he talked me out of it, I respected him for that.

Been there. Awesome store. Swung by one day on the way to a ballgame 10 years ago. Was just a few miles off I-26. Great guy to chew the fat with.

 

[Coigula]

Really glad to see my questions made people think. I saw a local store have 10 year anniversary sale yesterday. It honestly made me cringe. The fish are wild caught right to the tank and then for sale. I would guess over packed 50 fish per box. Prices are cheap and I do not have one fish that live from that store.

I mentally look at the price and triple it knowing 50/50 but diseased and qt time and money.

I was hoping some former importers would give some insight but none have. I think I am right until any mainstream importer, not well run specialty shops chimes in.

 

[Tanthaitrung]

Steve, ThRoewer, what do you think about Formalin MS dip and Seachem ParaGuard dip?

Thanks so much

 

[ThRoewer]

All my new fish get a Formalin MS dip before they go into the QT.

Never tried ParaGuard.

 

[Tanthaitrung]

All my new fish get a Formalin MS dip before they go into the QT.

Never tried ParaGuard.

Thanks for your sharing :thumbsup: