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Thread: PFK Articles: The right way to buy fish

  1. #1

    Feed Icon PFK Articles: The right way to buy fish

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    Jeremy Gay offers some advice on buying fish, including a list of questions to ask....

    For most of us, buying fish is one of the best parts of the hobby. Buying fish can be great fun and many of us revert to being like kids in a sweet shop! Choosing fish is the hardest part but you must exercise some self-control.

    Keep focused on the species that you initially entered the store to buy, presumably because they suited your set-up size and conditions.

    A good aquatic store will have a high turnover of fish and change their stocks regularly to provide a wide selection. This means lots of tempting species on offer from week to week and maybe some fish that you have never seen before, but would really like to keep.

    If you are tempted, be careful, impulse buying is the cause of many problems in our hobby. High on the list of tropical temptations are Puffers and invertebrates like crabs and crayfish, most if not all of which require specialist care and aren't ideal for the community.


    Catching fish
    Once all your boxes are ticked, the fish can be caught by the assistant.

    Bag water should come from the tank the fish are living in, unless the tank is part of a centralised system.

    I always believe that fish can be caught faster with two nets rather than one, so a shop that employs this policy may be a good sign.

    I also believe that it's your right to select the fish you want from a tank, and a good assistant should be able to catch them for you.

    Exceptions are tanks with hundreds of identical fish like Neon tetras, but I always caught a particular guppy or even sexed Zebra danios.

    After all, if I was selecting fish for my own tank I would want to choose my own, so why can't everyone?

    When the fish are in the bag the assistant should do a quick 'head count' to check the right number have been caught and you should be allowed to check them too.

    Look for split fins, missing gill plates and deformities along with good general health – with no signs of illness.


    Packing
    It's important to you and the retailer that your fish make it home correctly. Always tell them if you have to stop off on the way or are travelling a long distance.

    Fish can be packed for 24 hours or more if need be, so buying fish while passing through somewhere isn't out of the question.

    Large fish should be packed separately for their own safety as they can injure each other if they thrash about. Any cichlid over the size of a Firemouth (5"/12.5cm) including Discus, should be packed separately as their fins are surprising spiky.

    Catfish should be treated similarly as they are even more spiney, and both fish types should be double, or even triple bagged. The corners should be taped up to avoid fish getting trapped, or by placing the tied bag upside down inside another.


    Transporting
    Fish arrive at retailers in rectangular, polystyrene boxes that are perfect items for holding fish. They are shock absorbing and insulating and if you get one they're worth keeping to transport future purchases.

    If it's only one or two bags, they can be packed out with other bags filled with air or, with towels.

    For short journeys bags should be placed into a brown paper bag to reduce light, and therefore stress, and then placed in a plastic carrier bag, which comes in handy if the brown bag gets wet and splits.


    In car travel
    If your fish are travelling in a car, some places are better than others. As above, the best is in a poly box in the boot.

    If in a bag, someone holding it on their lap or by their feet is probably best. When I travel alone I place the carrier bag upright in the foot well behind the passenger seat. I then slide the passenger seat back slightly so that the bag is held securely.

    Don't let the bag roll around on the floor as the fish will get thrown around badly inside; also, don't hang a bag up in the boot as the swinging action and subsequent knocks caused by acceleration and braking may kill your fish.

    Lastly, spare a thought for the fish by not having the car stereo on too loudly or by placing the bag next to a heating vent. An ambient warmth in the car is fine but a hot fan can boil your fish before they get home!


    Acclimatising
    When you get home, turn the aquarium lights off. Marine tanks should be OK with just the blue actinic lighting, and all new purchases should be quarantined for a period in a tank that is separate from the main one.

    A period of two or more weeks is recommended to ensure the fish do not develop signs of disease and to make sure they are feeding.

    There are two ways to acclimatise fish for the aquarium.

    The first is to float the unopened bag on the surface of the water for about twenty minutes - allowing the temperatures between the water in the bag and aquarium to equalise.

    After that period, the bag can be opened and rolled down until it floats on the surface. Aquarium water can then be added slowly over roughly ten minutes or so.

    If the pH and hardness are vastly different between the bag water and your own, the process should be slower and more gradual. When waters are sufficiently mixed, the fish should be netted out and the bag water discarded.

    The second method is to cut the bag open and gently release the fish into a bucket. This will only work if there is sufficient water in the bag to cover the fish in the bucket.

    Next, syphon a small amount of tank water into the bucket every few minutes until sufficiently mixed, or attach an airline to the main tank and use that to micro-syphon water over a long period of time.

    The latter method is best for all situations. Again, catch the fish in a net, place them into the tank and discard the water from the bucket.

    API's Stress Coat and its equivalents can be used to ease fishes' acclimatisation.

    After care
    What happens to the fish over the next week or so may be a bone of contention for some. Fish can become ill after purchase and rightly or wrongly, may have been carrying a disease when they were bought.

    In a perfect world, symptoms of disease would be identified whilst the fish are in quarantine at the shop.

    If the fish appeared healthy when sold but then became ill after purchase, then hopefully that would be identified and remedied by your quarantine process at home, and no major damage would be done.

    The matter could then be addressed more easily by the store by replacing/refunding without having caused any damage to your current livestock.

    The old adage 'if it ain't broke don't fix it,' doesn't really apply to fish health – occasional use of medications can be beneficial in killing off some bad bacteria and parasites.

    With Whitespot it is useful to do this as we can't see the parasite until the fish develops the white, visible cyst that gives Whitespot its name.

    On the subject of Whitespot, it is one of the most common fish diseases and most easily identified.

    Generally, fish only catch it in times of stress and this could mean the period after purchase, especially if your water parameters are vastly different to those in the shop.

    It could also be brought on by sudden temperature changes through poor acclimatisation technique.

    Some stores advise that you treat the tank with a Whitespot medication after purchasing new fish, to prevent an outbreak, and the earlier that you identify it, the easier it is to treat.


    Fish buying myths

    Neon tetras and Cardinals come in green and blue forms – it's just refraction by the light.

    Fish kept on systems with UV's will catch disease when taken away from them – the UV's are there to cut down on pathogens.

    The Guppy you chose isn't as colourful as in the shop – it is, it's just that there are hundreds in shop tanks giving an overall effect and most are lit from the front.

    Fish should be floated for 24 hours – half an hour is fine.

    Ask questions
    If you have made your choices and want to purchase fish, find an assistant who will be able to properly advise you and catch your fish.

    A good store will have friendly, helpful staff who are also knowledgeable, but speaking from personal experience we must also understand that the trade takes on hundreds of new staff every year and not everyone will be as experienced or more experienced than you.


    Questions that you should ask the shop

    Once with an assistant, there are a number of questions that you should ask them, and expect to be asked a few yourself.


    How long have the fish been in the store?

    Have they been quarantined?

    Are they wild caught or tank bred?

    Will they mix with the species that you keep?

    How large do they grow?

    Should they be kept singly or in pairs or groups?

    Can they be sexed?

    Is your tank large enough?

    Is the tank set up correctly for them?

    How much are they?

    What are they feeding on?

    What water conditions are they in?



    Points that you should raise in conversation


    What type of fish you currently keep

    The results of recent water tests

    What filtration you are using


    Tips

    2. Always take fish straight home after purchasing.

    4. Don't add too many fish at once. Even if you have a large, mature tank a dozen fish or less should be a maximum per week. This will enable numbers of beneficial bacteria to catch up with the extra ammonia being produced by the fish.

    5. Remember that weekends will be the worst time to get good, personal service from your favourite staff member as they will be rushed off their feet. Try and arrange a weekday consultation instead.

    Complete article here.

    * This thread is an item from Practical Fishkeeping Magazine website's Articles RSS feed, brought to you by courtesy of AQ's RSS Feed Poster Robot. *
    Last edited by benny; 3rd May 2007 at 09:29.

  2. #2
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    Nice article on how we should treat our fishes right from the start of picking them out of the tank in the LFS to putting them in our tank.

    The low costs of fishes in Singapore is degrading the "value" of how we are treating the fishes.
    ~ Vincent ~ Fishes calm your mind...
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/valice/





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    This is a great article. Can I ask the moderator to make it a sticky?

    It think it will help a number of newbies here.

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    This will be more of a sticky in the fishcare sub-forum.

    I will see what the other mods think.

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    I think it's more for beginners. The information is really basic.

    But then, I'll definitely leave it to you guys.

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    LOL, funny and informative. I like it, thatnks for posting it.

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    Re: PFK Articles: The right way to buy fish

    Many times when I buy fish from the LFS, I buy in bulk so there's not much choice there- but the death rate can be quite high- probably the ones that would have perished when transferred out to the LFS tanks and quarantined....

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    Re: PFK Articles: The right way to buy fish

    nicr and informative! Thanks for sharing!

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