I understood that fish like cardinals are bred in ponds in Asia and not actually bred in tanks. This guy is in America and I didn't think the same thing happened there.
Cardinal Tetra Mortality
- Thread starter dasaltemelosguy
- Start date
Tetras are normally bred as single prs in a small tank. The eggs are either moved to a hatching tank or hatched in the breeding tank. When the fry are a few weeks old they get put into ponds.
Livebearers are regularly bred in ponds in Indonesia. A group of gravid females will be put in a pond and left until the pond is full of fish. Some breeders will keep the females in tanks and transfer the babies into rearing ponds.
Most tetras sold in the USA are from Indonesia.
Livebearers are regularly bred in ponds in Indonesia. A group of gravid females will be put in a pond and left until the pond is full of fish. Some breeders will keep the females in tanks and transfer the babies into rearing ponds.
Most tetras sold in the USA are from Indonesia.
I thought because Cardinal and Neon Fry are light sensitive that method wasn't successful and therefore they went to ponds
Myraan
Fishaholic
The spawn at exactly midnight and base that on moonlight or something I vaguely remember reading. Commercial breeders use an atrificial pheremone and lights to trick a whole pond into getting jiggy unless I'm totally misinformed. I also vaguely remember reading there are huge farms with indoor ponds in the Czhech Rep. where they do this.
dasaltemelosguy
New Member
Yes, indeed it is starting to look like it was my acclimation. I did attempt to protect them from ammonia with Prime and zeolite but I'm sure there's a limitation to the protection that would afford them. Especially for sensitive or stressed fishes.
I've done the 'mixing water acclimation' before with shipped fish and they always exhibited obvious distress, suggestive of what you've sited and it proved to be more successful to quickly get them in good water asap vs the drip acclimation, but temperature matched. Probably due to what you speak of.
The discus dealer's recommended acclimation for their discus is to "Pour 2 ounces of tank water in the bag every 15 minutes for 1 hour, then introduce the discus into the tank".
In all candor, on some ineffable level, no doubt due to my ignorance with these fishes, it still made me uncomfortable in that both times I've previously attempted such acclimation, the fish in the bags/buckets dart and try to escape frenetically such that their distress is quite obvious but it proved successful to immediately put them in the tank with the same temperature.
I did not witness that distress occur here, but that's hardly a comprehensive observation and no doubt something akin to the toxicity you mentioned took place. As you've said, it seems to be less risky to simply match the temperatures and get them into clean water asap.
We have no LFS's aside from the big chains out here so mail order is my only option for population. The PH values vary wildly across the country too. On occasion, when I can find a dealer in Southern California, the fish are largely acclimated to my water and I've yet to encounter a problem. Or perhaps I've just been lucky up to now!
This is my first sojourn into a planted environment and fishes native to such as most of my tanks are full of large cichlids which are probably a bit hardier as this is the first time I've ever had losses when ordering fish.
I've done the 'mixing water acclimation' before with shipped fish and they always exhibited obvious distress, suggestive of what you've sited and it proved to be more successful to quickly get them in good water asap vs the drip acclimation, but temperature matched. Probably due to what you speak of.
The discus dealer's recommended acclimation for their discus is to "Pour 2 ounces of tank water in the bag every 15 minutes for 1 hour, then introduce the discus into the tank".
In all candor, on some ineffable level, no doubt due to my ignorance with these fishes, it still made me uncomfortable in that both times I've previously attempted such acclimation, the fish in the bags/buckets dart and try to escape frenetically such that their distress is quite obvious but it proved successful to immediately put them in the tank with the same temperature.
I did not witness that distress occur here, but that's hardly a comprehensive observation and no doubt something akin to the toxicity you mentioned took place. As you've said, it seems to be less risky to simply match the temperatures and get them into clean water asap.
We have no LFS's aside from the big chains out here so mail order is my only option for population. The PH values vary wildly across the country too. On occasion, when I can find a dealer in Southern California, the fish are largely acclimated to my water and I've yet to encounter a problem. Or perhaps I've just been lucky up to now!
This is my first sojourn into a planted environment and fishes native to such as most of my tanks are full of large cichlids which are probably a bit hardier as this is the first time I've ever had losses when ordering fish.
Myraan
Fishaholic
Big chains are not necessarily bad. Try different ones, speak to staff. Pets at Home for example once refused to sell me shrimp because I answered the question are you driving straight home with "pretty much" as I don't like to lie. I mean, my stopping to visit my nephew for an hour is nothing compared to the days the fish were in bags during delivery to the shop... but it still shows they are doing their best to make rules that prioritise welfare above money.
Either way, as a user of this site you will be using your own brain in fishkeeping rather than relying on shop staff advice anyway.
Either way, as a user of this site you will be using your own brain in fishkeeping rather than relying on shop staff advice anyway.
I thought I would post these photos
Cardinals live like this
Silver Dollars live like this:
And there lies the problem. Apart from the pH difference with these two species
Cardinals live like this
Silver Dollars live like this:
And there lies the problem. Apart from the pH difference with these two species
Found a much better photo of the Silver Dollars
How a LPS/LFS can prioritise animal wellfare above money ?? Commendable but I think it impossible. If they prioritise wellfare they sell too little and it ends by a closing down.
It's enough to check topics here or on any other forum to note the number of problem aquariums/fishes....
My little shop went out of business in the end because, I cared to much about the fish. I did no add on sales and I sold no fish to people that didn't have the right setup for them.
This is sad, sorry to hear this. But confirms what I said above....
Myraan
Fishaholic
ok i see your point, but a chain store is not necessarily more guilty of this than any other business.... and if you disapprove of this the answer is not to go to an online retailer as they also need to make money.
My point was simply to judge each store whether you like it individually and not on the basis that they are a chain. If anything a chain store has more reason to be seen to follow good practice than a small business LFS because they have an interest in looking good to the aquarist community as a whole.
I have a pets at home near me but also a very nice LFS. I prefer to spend money at the LFS because i figure they need it more, (pets at home have their in store vet and massive bags of dry dog food to keep them open)
I never needed to rely on advice from either store, as luckily I found this website first..... but sometimes i overhear staff at either place advise other customers - and I have yet to hear any bad advice; sometimes they give me good advice I do not ask for and it is usually what I already knew.
Yes, I will always take all their advice with a pinch of salt because ofc it is their their job to try to make me spend money on crap I do not need. I just feel the aquarist community gives pet store advice a bad press.... because at the end of the day at least some of them got their jobs because they are fish enthusiasts and are probably members here.
I also wonder - when people who kill their new fish and come on here to complain about the pet store..... at least some of them, probably not most, killed their fish precisely because they thought they knew better than the pet store staff advising them.
In the Aquarium they just chew through the plant, I used to feed them all my excess growth from my other tanks. These photos are of Mum, Dad and the kids they would spawn and the fry would just grow up with them.
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