What Should I Do?

[FishGuest5123]

Most of you know that I got 4 new panda cories shipped to me today and only one little guy survived. He’s doing fine. They had shipped them in a tiny little bag with some methylene blue in it. They basically suffocated. Anyway I have a 20G long QT tank set up for the pandas and 6 bronze cories coming in tomorrow. Will the one panda be OK in with the bronze cories or do I need to set him up a smaller tank by himself? I hate to move him again unless I have to. Advice? PS- One other option would be to move him to main tank with other pandas and skip QT with him.

 

[Back in the fold]

I would put him with the other Pandas and not worry since he was swimming in Methylene blue. Maybe only an internal parasite would've escaped the meth blue. Roll the dice catfish are tough. My question is : is shipping them in meth blue standard practice ? I've never heard of that.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Me either. Seems odd, unless the seller was aware they had a problem

 

[FishGuest5123]

I would put him with the other Pandas and not worry since he was swimming in Methylene blue. Maybe only an internal parasite would've escaped the meth blue. Roll the dice catfish are tough. My question is : is shipping them in meth blue standard practice ? I've never heard of that.

. Sadly, a lot of shippers do it. These were in a very tiny bag too. Never have I seen such a small shipping bag. Cories need a large bag with room oxygen filled to top. On top of this, it was warm outside which helped deplete Oxygen. Recently, it has been discovered that cories have a defense mechanism where they can put off poisons when under stress. This could also have poisoned them in a closed bag.

 

[ChefAlex]

Deanasue,

Shipping with methylene blue is sometimes done because, purportedly, it can help with ammonia poisoning and or/ anti-bacterial properties . A lot of old timers used to do this but it seems to have fallen out of favor.

The University of Florida Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory did some testing on various additives to ornamental fish shipping bags, you can read the full article here. It wasn’t an in-depth study but does yield some interesting tidbits.

In a nutshell, methylene blue didn’t have any positive anti-bacterial properties, but fish “appearance and behavior” had been graded higher with methylene blue than all other (except salt, equally) methods after transport.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Deanasue,

Shipping with methylene blue is sometimes done because, purportedly, it can help with ammonia poisoning and or/ anti-bacterial properties . A lot of old timers used to do this but it seems to have fallen out of favor.

The University of Florida Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory did some testing on various additives to ornamental fish shipping bags, you can read the full article here. It wasn’t an in-depth study but does yield some interesting tidbits.

In a nutshell, methylene blue didn’t have any positive anti-bacterial properties, but fish “appearance and behavior” had been graded higher with methylene blue than all other (except salt, equally) methods after transport.

Thanks for sharing. I actually keep MB in my fish first aid kit. I read it shouldn’t be used in sealed containers though.

 

[ChefAlex]

What does it say about sealed containers?

 

[utahfish]

I worked at PETSmart years ago and the bags from fish shipment were mostly in methylene blue.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Corydoras are schooling fish.
Since you don't have any other Panda left, it's better that you keep it with your Bronze Corydoras.
Schooling fish will often join other similar species when they don't have their same species around.
Having other Corydoras around is better than for the Panda to be alone.

As most have mentioned, Methylene Blue is useful for ammonia, nitrite poisoning and it will kill some bacteria and mild parasites.
I will always give all my fish a "Methylene blue dip" whenever I bring them home from the LFS.

But the shipper is wrong in giving too little air in the bag. It's horrible.
They should give something like 1/3 of water and 2/3 of air in the bag.(if I can remember correctly).
One of the worst bag/packing that I had seen are for Apistogramma fish.
They are packed in extremely small bag with very little air.

You can read here for more info of Methylene blue:

Aquarium Medications Part 3 | Parasite & Chemical treatments

How aquarium and pond treatments work. Part 3 deals with parasite and chemical such as Malachite Green, Methylene Blue, Copper, Praziquantel, & more. Chemical Treatment information from fish disease guru Carl Strohmeyer

www.americanaquariumproducts.com

 

[Colin_T]

Leave the new fish in the quarantine tank and put the new fish with it.

Do not put it in the main display tank because it could die due to the stress it has gone through. Leave it in the quarantine tank for a month so it can recover.

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A lot of shops add Methylene Blue to bags with catfish to help reduce the chance of infection when the Corydoras stab each other (accidentally) while they are in the bags.

Methylene Blue can also apparently increase the oxygen levels in the blood but I'm not 100% on that.

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I would have a go at the couriers, and if you get more fish by courier, make sure the box has "LIVE FISH" "URGENT" "OVERNIGHT DELIVERY" "DO NOT LEAVE IN HOLDING AREA" written on the box. Then make sure the courier company can deliver it overnight. If they can't guarantee overnight delivery, don't get the fish or make the courier company pay for the dead fish.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Leave the new fish in the quarantine tank and put the new fish with it.

Do not put it in the main display tank because it could die due to the stress it has gone through. Leave it in the quarantine tank for a month so it can recover.

--------------
A lot of shops add Methylene Blue to bags with catfish to help reduce the chance of infection when the Corydoras stab each other (accidentally) while they are in the bags.

Methylene Blue can also apparently increase the oxygen levels in the blood but I'm not 100% on that.

--------------
I would have a go at the couriers, and if you get more fish by courier, make sure the box has "LIVE FISH" "URGENT" "OVERNIGHT DELIVERY" "DO NOT LEAVE IN HOLDING AREA" written on the box. Then make sure the courier company can deliver it overnight. If they can't guarantee overnight delivery, don't get the fish or make the courier company pay for the dead fish.

They have a policy of not writing “Live Fish” for some stupid reason that made no sense. Said they tend to get pushed back at postal service. They will reshape but at buyers expense. I just want my money back and be done with them.

 

[Back in the fold]

A lot to chew on here. Was sure @Colin_T would say something about meth blue being bad, so I was surprised at what he said. You learn something new everyday. I'm just leery of chemicals. I don't even use dechlorinator anymore. Went totally old school and age my water for two weeks. I'm of the opinion that shipping fish ain't so great. I'm going to support my local yokel LFS and buy whatever they have and be happy. Good for them and restores the fun I had years ago when you'd pop into the shop and find something you had never seen before.

 

[Kamdavid]

They have a policy of not writing “Live Fish” for some stupid reason that made no sense. Said they tend to get pushed back at postal service. They will reshape but at buyers expense. I just want my money back and be done with them.

Same
With mine. They would replace my dead fish but I have to pay the shipping for it. I said I wouldn’t pay shipping for one fish , ridiculous. No refund , so they said next time I place an order , they will ship the fish to me with that order no charge. . . So I guess I have no choice but to place another order soon ... which I didn’t want to do.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Never knew that blue stuff was bad. My old betta was shipped in it.

Sorry for your loss @Deanasue...

 

[FishGuest5123]

Same
With mine. They would replace my dead fish but I have to pay the shipping for it. I said I wouldn’t pay shipping for one fish , ridiculous. No refund , so they said next time I place an order , they will ship the fish to me with that order no charge. . . So I guess I have no choice but to place another order soon ... which I didn’t want to do.

They have us over a barrel. . I opened a dispute with PayPal.