Bl*sted cardinals! Grrrr.

[Alien Anna]

Hi Everyone,
along with my order from Tri-mar I thought I might as well get some cardinals. I don't have a lot of luck with cardinals - in every batch I've ever got, only 1 out of 3 ever survive

When they arrived this a.m., one of them was dead in the bag. I wasn't too upset because of my history with them and I know they can be fragile in transport. I acclimatised the remaining three over a period of 2 hours to their new tank water. I went slowly but one of the fish appeared to get a bit stressed. An hour later, he was dead. Now another one is missing, presumed dead. That's a worse failure rate than usual - 3 out of 4!

I am so careful. You couldn't be more careful. I matched the water of their bag to my tank, I gradually acclimated them, I turned off the tank lights... Why can't I keep cardinals alive for more than an hour when my own original 5 cardinals are tough as old boots?

Thankfully Tri-mars cardinals are cheap but my local fish shop is neither local nor cheap (they're £3.50 each). I'm a little worried about my chain botias but Tri-Mars assure me they're just shocked after transport and a little rest will see them right (I can't actually see them at all at the moment). My new male cherry barb is right as rain and already chasing after the females. So what's with the cardinal tetras?

 

[Moe]

I had the same problem with cardinal tetras. LFS told me if you want to have a school of 6 to get 12. He also said to wait a few weeks after the cardinals come into the shop. He said to ask how long they have been there as they do not transition well so if they just came in they are trying to get used to LFS water and another transition will do them in. I originally bought 10, 6 lived but a weird fungus killed 5 now the remaining one schools with the female guppies it's really pathetic, but I'm scared to get more. It's so sad trying to pick their tiny corpses off the filter intake. Good luck and if you find the trick to keeping cardinals alive let me know, they really look beautiful in a school.

 

[kev]

i Bought 12 and and they all died over a 2 weeks. (some were eaten by crabs - possibly 3 or 4) but the rest appear to be natural !?! I decided against getting more and went for neons instead.

 

[George Farmer]

I have 9 Cardinals, I originally bought 12 but 3 died, I checked my nitrite and it was 0.3 ml/l. I think the nitrite peak was responsible.

My LFS had water at pH 6.5 and very low hardness. They use Waterlife's 6.5 buffer. My water was pH 7.5 and failrly hard. I acclimatised them very slowly, over 4 hours, adding one egg cup full of my tank water to the bag every 10 minutes until the bag was full. They all seemed fine until the 3 kicked the bucket.

The 9 are still going strong 6 months on and have grown really well, much bigger and fatter than neons, more colourful too. I've gradually softened and lowered pH of my water using RO. They love a planted tank too.

I bought mine from The Water Zoo in Peterborough. They're £2.50 each but you can get 7 for price of 6. They can package them for transport too in polystyrene boxes. I strongly recommend them.

 

[Alien Anna]

I bought mine from The Water Zoo in Peterborough. They're £2.50 each but you can get 7 for price of 6. They can package them for transport too in polystyrene boxes. I strongly recommend them.

I had a really bad experience with the Water Zoo as a newbie - they sold me two "Golden sucking loaches" for my algae problem (yes, you've guessed it, CAEs - in a heavily stocked 30 gal tank! ). They also sold me four pearl gouramis (two males and two females) for the same tank. They asked me about my set-up and they asked me what fish I already had, and yet they gave me such terrible advice.

Had the clown loaches not had ich that day, I'm pretty sure they would have sold me clowns as well.

 

[Lateral Line]

At Peterborough, (can't swear it was the same shop - but was the same town), I got my first batch of Epiplatys annulatus, (Rocket Panchax?), incredibly rare in the UK at that time.

It is, in my experience, some of the shops that get the rare/unusual fish are really not suited to beginners. What there should be is some kind of identification that says, "this is not a beginners shop". One could, of course, argue that the staff should be a little more vigilent, but then, one could also argue, that people buying in that kind of shop "know what they are doing" and would be cheesed off by stupid questions.

Difficult.

edited by CFC

 

[George Farmer]

Sorry to hear of your bad experience Alien Anna. When was that? I think they've improved, I've had only good advice from the staff. Being a relative newbie myself I bought my first tank 6 months ago from their and stocked it from their too and managed to get Tank of the Month (always modest ).

 

[Alien Anna]

At Peterborough, (can't swear it was the same shop - but was the same town), I got my first batch of Epiplatys annulatus, (Rocket Panchax?), incredibly rare in the UK at that time.

It is, in my experience, some of the shops that get the rare/unusual fish are really not suited to beginners. What there should be is some kind of identification that says, "this is not a beginners shop". One could, of course, argue that the staff should be a little more vigilent, but then, one could also argue, that people buying in that kind of shop "know what they are doing" and would be cheesed off by stupid questions.

Difficult.

edited by CFC

It was the shop in Peterborough. I live 50 minutes drive from Peterborough so I had telephoned them before I left the house to make sure they could help me. I had explained that I was a newbie and that I was looking for some more fish for my community tank and that I needed advice. I also checked they were Juwel stockists.

They said to come on over. When I turned up (parking being a total nightmare, incidently, despite being told on the phone, after I'd explained about the autistic son, that parking would be easy) I was greeted by the most lacadaisical and disinterest staff (very young - student looking). I had to queue for ages to ask my questions and when I did, the guy didn't even bother looking my direction. He couldn't have looked less interested if he'd tried.

He vaguely waved me in the direction of the fresh water tanks and asked me what I wanted. I asked him what he recommended and after a conversation that was more remiscient of pulling teeth than a sales consultation, he palmed me off with two CAEs (that he couldn't even remember the scientific name for) and four pearl gouramis (he said he didn't know what sex they were but it wouldn't matter as pearl gouramis were "easy community fish". Yeah, right! ).

I also bought some bogwood (for which I was given no instruction), some slate and a Juwel heater (which at £26 was not exactly a bargain). My total bill was something like £55. I was annoyed at how I'd been treated but I could have forgiven that if the advice had been sound, instead of utterly crap.

When I found out how I'd been mis-sold completely incompatible species for my tank (I had a red tailed shark in there at the time, btw, as well as a betta) and had to make several trips to different LFS's (long trips from here) to get rid of the CAEs and then two of the gouramis, I was considerably less forgiving. I now warn people off Peterborough Water Zoo - and I don't care how rare their fish are! I see no excuse for poor service and that service was excessively poor.

Compare that to the service I've received from Tri-Mar, even though it was all over the phone and Internet and they couldn't even see me! I'd recommend them again in a heartbeat. If I need to actually see what I'm buying I'd go over to Bedford and Mr Fish who has always been more than helpful on the phone and I've never had a bad fish from him. He is also polite and helpful even though there is often only him in the shop and I wouldn't say he gives the image of a "people person" (he prefers fish, I believe).

 

[burn808]

Hi,

Alien Anna, Lateral Line - While I am sorry you had problems, I am glad I am not alone in thinking it is just me!!

A few months ago I went to the Water Zoo to get a new stand for my tank. Nothing fancy and they had several 'universal' stands (a couple of wooden and some iron). Took a while to find someone who worked there, explained what I wanted only for him to just turn round and say that they don't sell stands for my size of tank (even though I was stood next to what I wanted) and he just walked off No other word. Just sorry, we don't sell stands for that tank. (vanishes into thin air) Grrr

I was a little surprised to say the least - a shop that does not want to sell things!! I then went 'out back' to get some new fish. Had a look about. Eyed up what I wanted. Spotted an assistant not busy, asked the said, 'sales' person for what I wanted and he said ok, I will just get me net. He then spent the next 10 mins feeding the fish on the other side of the shop!!!!! I got so angry with being p£$%ed about waiting I just left and have never been back since.

To really cap it all off, the day after the nightmare above I bought a copy of a fishkeeping magazine as it had an article on complete aquarium kits ( as I am looking to upgrade to a larger setup) - imagine my anger when the tanks I am interested in were tested @ the said same shop!!! Not only that the Mr No Tank Sale is the equipment expert staring at me on page 43.

ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Good job I could look at my tank and fish and calm down

Its a good job I don't have a persecution complex!!

Anyway on a positive note I felt sure that not all fish people were not misery's so I went to Maidenhead Aquatics @ Crowland and they have been the complete opposite. Very friendly and helpful. Its more expensive but I can accept that as they are not rude and know how to treat a paying customer Highly recommended.

 

[David]

I've only had bad experiences with cardinals as well. My first and only (and definitely my last for a while) batch of 6 cardinals all died within 2 days. The smallest one died within a day, 4 more were dead the next morning and the 6th one was dead when I got home from school. I don't know what it is about them. The stress of transport must be incredibly traumatizing to them.

 

[Erised]

I got cardinals twice ... 7 for in our 75 Gallon and 5 for our 38 Gallon ... all survived. And I cant even say I'm as careful as you! Them getting used to the water only took 15 minutes for me

 

[kev]

Err - I thought I hadn't heard from Alien anna for a while

And it also seemed to be a similar post to one I have posted in before

A few scrolls down and there I am having my say on the 16th September 2003!!! Thats more than 13 Months ago

This must be the mother of all Dead topic revivals

Anyway - Since my experiance I've steered well clear of cardinals - Went to get a few Neons a couple of months ago and ended up with Zebra Danios instead - There tough as old boots

 

[sakaspuds]

0n the other hand i got ten nearly 3 weeks ago, i wasnt planing on buying them, i went into the shop for some bloodworms,
but this was the first time i went to the shop and they had some, so i had too, they seem very hard to get hold of around here

the problem was i was on my bike, so i had to put the fish on the handlebars, to cut a long story short i must have pricked a hole in the bag at some point cos on the way home i noticed water dripping out of the bottom of the bag anyway i managed to get home with a bit of water still in there, so i had to plonk the fish in the tank right away, they are all still very much alive and happy to this day!!
i guess either i was very lucky, or my local pet shop had a very hardy/healthy bunch of cardinals,
he also told me they were not farmed, but wild caught fish, is this normal for cardinals?

 

[CathyG]

I bought my first batch of Cardinals (6) I lost two in transit, and two about a week or so later. A month or so after, I bought six more, from the same LFS and seemingly of the same batch (considering the size). One went missing in action, and I am left with the 7 (for the last two months or so) very happy and very beautiful fish

I can't believe those prices quoted in this thread though! Though they are more expensive than Neons, I still only paid £9 for six...

 

[sakaspuds]

mine were £1.50 each, but if you buy 5 you get one free, buy 10 get 2 free