furry plant grower
I notice some LFS here have a habit of keeping a barrel of water for packing fish. Each time a customer want to buy some fish, a scoop of that water will be taken from this barrel, regardless of the type of water in the tank where the fish is taken from.
I find this to work against our habit of carefully acclimatising our store bought fishes by dripping tank water into the bag to prevent osmotic shock, and to adjust the temperature.
Often I'd ask for permission to use the water from the tank where the fish are caught from. However, that is not always possible due to the small tank sizes, and tht small amount of water collected gets topped up with a large scoop of water from the barrel again when it is handed over to be packed.
In a recent case I've experienced, the LFS owner took a scoop of water from the barrel, went over to this very tainted blackwater shrimp tank and begin scooping shrimps, and then packing them. On arrival home, I rigged up the drip tube and after 2 hours of acclimatisation to mix in an equivalent amount of tank water to the bag, 2 of the 10 shrimps have expired
IMO, this is harsh treatment for the creatures we bought.
Warm regards,
Lawrence Lee
brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Philippians 4:8
Hi,
I want to share with you, my tactic.
Whenever, I buy fishes of shrimps from LFS, I always use the water from the same tank that housed them.
If the shop do not allow you to do this, you have a choice of NOT buying. Remember, you always have choices.
MS
well, next time when u buy any fish, just scoope more water from the tank which hold the fish with the bucket provided. Thay way, during packing, they dont add in more water
some LFS the bucket bigger than the tanks
... always look at the bright side of life
I think fishes are not that bad... But shrimps would probably suffer more from the osmotic shock...
Hiya,Originally Posted by GaspingGurami
I notice some LFS here have a habit of keeping a barrel of water for packing fish. Each time a customer want to buy some fish, a scoop of that water will be taken from this barrel, regardless of the type of water in the tank where the fish is taken from.
I find this to work against our habit of carefully acclimatising our store bought fishes by dripping tank water into the bag to prevent osmotic shock, and to adjust the temperature.
Often I'd ask for permission to use the water from the tank where the fish are caught from. However, that is not always possible due to the small tank sizes, and tht small amount of water collected gets topped up with a large scoop of water from the barrel again when it is handed over to be packed.
In a recent case I've experienced, the LFS owner took a scoop of water from the barrel, went over to this very tainted blackwater shrimp tank and begin scooping shrimps, and then packing them. On arrival home, I rigged up the drip tube and after 2 hours of acclimatisation to mix in an equivalent amount of tank water to the bag, 2 of the 10 shrimps have expired
IMO, this is harsh treatment for the creatures we bought.
That did cross my mind too, but i came to comprehend that when buying a few fishes, meaning catching them in the small tanks and getting them bag. I would assump these fishes are more hardy and more tolerate, and the water added would be almost the same.
But for shrimps, not only is the water change vital for their survival, what if i catch them using the net and they jump out into dry land, then how? esp if its a good grade CRS. So it was rather concluded, for shrimps i would rather buy them already bagged with their water. I dont have tiny gentle fingers to pick stranded shrimps from the LFS floor.
furry plant grower
OTOH, there are some exceptionally caring shop owners who will remember to drop a leaf in the bag for the shrimp to cling onto; these same shops will also take the trouble to pack your fish in individual bags if they came from different tanks even if you have bought only One fifty-cent fish from each tank.
And their bags... they'd use rounded corner bags or at least they'd tape off the corners so tiny fishes don't get caught and crushed in the corner after they leave the shop. One LFS lady once asked me why I asked for a bit of tape to tape the corners. I explained and she was surprised as she has been selling bags of tiny boraras without taping the corners.
Warm regards,
Lawrence Lee
brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Philippians 4:8
Thats an excellent insight, thanks for sharing.
.:: Novice Moss Farmer ::.
Yeah, is it possible to reveal the shops with exceptional caring owners here? IMO, i think Biotope is quite nice...
Anyway, yea agree with the "pail of water for packing fish" problem...
recently bought some otos, had to scope from the pail of water...
after I bought the otos, noticed that they turned very pale in the plastic bag... quite transparent near the head... guess it's due to shock from the sudden change in water parameters... i think otos are quite fragile...
Lucky for me, they survived, seems much better now in the tank
furry plant grower
Yea, give credit when it is due. Maybe I start another thread on Shops With Exceptionally Caring Attitude for Packing Critters, and we can all add our recommendations there.
Warm regards,
Lawrence Lee
brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Philippians 4:8
In regards, to packing the fish to bring home, the lack colouration was probably due to stress and not water condition.Yeah, is it possible to reveal the shops with exceptional caring owners here? IMO, i think Biotope is quite nice...
Anyway, yea agree with the "pail of water for packing fish" problem...
recently bought some otos, had to scope from the pail of water...
after I bought the otos, noticed that they turned very pale in the plastic bag... quite transparent near the head... guess it's due to shock from the sudden change in water parameters... i think otos are quite fragile...
Lucky for me, they survived, seems much better now in the tank
Even a small jerk or movement, in a little bag like that, would be magnified to a 7.0 earthquake for the little creatures. Best to buy the little guys and have them back home ASAP.
its understandable for the shop owners not to want us to take water from the tank as it might get depleted.. so what i do is i take the bucket of water, pour half of it into the tank i'm taking the fish from, and fill it again with some of the tank's water.. so at least the difference in the water is not so great
The use of individual tanks' water when taking out the fishes is very important and cannot be underestimated - I used the "common tap water pail" method (lazy) to catch a couple of gouramis, which were then immeidately poured into the packing bag. By the time i got home (10-15mins), one of the duo was already gasping and turning very pale. He was perfectly fine in the tank before i took him out... poor guy... i couldn't save him. he breathed his last gasp about 5mins after i reached home, in the darned plastic bag. his companion was also quite lethargic until i got him safely into my nanocube - then he turned into SuperGourami and started chasing all the tetras
moral of story: ALWAYS take some water from the individual tanks even if the shopowner tries to blockade u with a machine gun. or else u'll suffer the dire consequences.
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