Bag Water From Lfs

[dane261]

see my post and see what happens when you get an out break



cheers Dane

 

[chr15_8]

i never add fish shop water. don't know why but never will

 

[poopsydrew]

All manner of parasitic nasties have free swimming zoo spore stages, ICH, velvet, anchor worms, gill flukes and NTD are all commonly encountered in the aquarium hobby and can infect your fish just from dipping a net in one tank and then another, i once lost 99% of the fish from 11 tanks from a velvet outbreak when i had introduced new fish to just one tank. Viruses and bacteria can also be introduced via water.

Adding the water might introduce a larger number, but since everything is wet- the fish, the net, the outside of the bag even, you're still going to introduce plenty to infect fish even without adding the water.

Im with Oohfeeshy, if you "trust" the fish enough to not quarantine and add it to your tank then I dont see why you dont "trust" the water, like said, anything wet could carry anything in.

Drew

 

[angelmouse]

never, not worth the risk. I always pour mine into bucket and slowly add tank water then net it into tank too.
regards Angel

 

[rdd1952]

see my post and see what happens when you get an out break

I'm sorry you had the problem you did and wish you luck with getting things sorted out. I can't imagine losing that many fish at once. You did say though on the thread that it was because of the discus. You even quarantined them so the water from the LFS had no bearing on the issue. It was simply a matter of the fish bringing a disease into the tank.

I would just like to hear from someone that can totally attribute a major problem with their tanks to the water from the LFS. Usually, the amount of water we are talking about here is hardly even 1% of the total tank volume (a pint in 25 gallons is only one-half percent). Obviously, this seems to be a personal preference but there doesn't seem to be any cases where the water was clearly the cause of a major problem.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed and voted.

 

[Luketendo]

I have always done I assumed it was fine.

I might not anymore then.

 

[OohFeeshy]

To be on the safe side, I've even stopped floating bags in my tanks. I pour the fish into a small container to adjust the water temperature, then net them out into a quarantine tank.

If you're quarantining then it doesn't matter, there are no other fish to affect so you may as well still take the route of least stress.

 

[Inchworm]

To be on the safe side, I've even stopped floating bags in my tanks. I pour the fish into a small container to adjust the water temperature, then net them out into a quarantine tank.

If you're quarantining then it doesn't matter, there are no other fish to affect so you may as well still take the route of least stress.

That's not true at all. There is every other fish I own to consider. Once a bacteria comes into my home, it could be spread in a variety of ways, least of all my hands. Now, just because some fish come in with the water, it doesn't mean they're infected already. I'd just as soon not take the chance that once that water is in the tank, bacteria might multiply and make it sick.

The fish I buy at the lfs are just about all wild caught corydoras. When they arrive, they are put into an existing tank. I don't know what fish was in there last, or if they were well or sick, or carrying infection. The tank might also have been cross contaminated from being on a central filtration system, or by nets that went from one tank to the next.

What I'm saying is that while the fish I'm buying might look well, and might really be well, the water might not be free from contamination. Without doing scientific tests on the water there is probably no way to "prove" it's safe to introduce to my tanks, quarantine or not.

I understand that thought but if the tanks in the LFS are not riddled with dead fish and are clean, then what issues could there possibly be? Most of us are probably very familiar with the LFS we buy from and should know whether to trust them or not.

Your favorite restaurant might look clean and not have the last patron's food laying around, but would you eat off their table without a clean plate that had been washed according to Board of Health specifications? We're talking germs here, right? How are things very different?

 

[rdd1952]

I understand that thought but if the tanks in the LFS are not riddled with dead fish and are clean, then what issues could there possibly be? Most of us are probably very familiar with the LFS we buy from and should know whether to trust them or not.

Your favorite restaurant might look clean and not have the last patron's food laying around, but would you eat off their table without a clean plate that had been washed according to Board of Health specifications? We're talking germs here, right? How are things very different?

I don't quite understand the comparison. Obviously, I wouldn't eat off a dirty plate (although I'm sure I have before) but I also wouldn't buy fish from a store that had dirty tanks with dead fish in them. Even though I don't buy many fish any more (once you're fully stocked, all you can do is look) I'm generally in the fish stores on a regular basis just to look around. When I was stocking my tanks, I visited the stores regularly to see what they had and knew how clean their tank were so I could buy with confidence.

As far as germs are concerned, they can and do get into the tank in an infinite number of ways. We can't prevent that. It's just my personal belief that the chance of getting a harmful germ into the tank via the bag water and not the fish itself is very minute. Is the risk there? Yes. But as Andy stated earlier, I trust my fish stores and don't really concern myself with it. We're probably just about as likely to get something in the water from our hands when we are working in the tank as from the bag or bag water.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't think there is a right or wrong way. Obviously, what all of us are doing has worked for us in the past or we wouldn't be doing it any more. I'm just trying to get one verified example of someone who actually had a problem directly related to the water and not the fish and why they believe that is the case.

 

[businesslamb]

I add the water but I always quarantine (never had any disease but you can never be too careful). My quarantine set up is in a separate room with seperate equipment (nets siphon etc) to prevent any cross contamination. I even wear gloves so I don't contaminate them and they don't give me anything.
That sounds really over the top

Cheers Businesslamb

 

[kribensis12]

Depends. If i have the time to do it the "long" way ( not putting the water in), i will. But if no time at the moment, i acclimate for like 10 mintues, taking a syringe and squirting water in the bag and then i dump it in. I might be paying the prive for the Depend's issue, as im having a SEVERE outbreak of a unidentifiable drug resistant disease, and i ahve no idea where it came from. Look it up in the Emergencies, threa. It is labled Death and Destruction.

 

[Tolak]

As far as germs are concerned, they can and do get into the tank in an infinite number of ways. We can't prevent that. It's just my personal belief that the chance of getting a harmful germ into the tank via the bag water and not the fish itself is very minute. Is the risk there? Yes. But as Andy stated earlier, I trust my fish stores and don't really concern myself with it. We're probably just about as likely to get something in the water from our hands when we are working in the tank as from the bag or bag water.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't think there is a right or wrong way. Obviously, what all of us are doing has worked for us in the past or we wouldn't be doing it any more. I'm just trying to get one verified example of someone who actually had a problem directly related to the water and not the fish and why they believe that is the case.

You certainly can minimize it to the extent that it is for all practical purposes prevented. I try to squeeze every idea and trick I can out of professional breeders, the folks who do pay the mortgage breeding & selling. Separate quar rooms, or even buildings are used, obviously not for fear of fish jumping from room to room, but of bacterial transfer via water. Centralized filter systems used in the main setup employ huge uv sterilizers, to minimize any water borne diseases transferring from tank to tank. One discus breeder goes so far as to have people remove their shoes before entering his fishroom. All because of water borne bacteria, and its effect on fish.

While I don't go so far as to have people removing shoes, I do quar fish in a separate room, eliminate water transfer from that tank to any others, and keep separate filtration, and equipment grouped by tanks in my working tanks. These folks don't have problems with disease coming into their setup, and so far neither do I. I have upset other breeders by quaring their fish, too bad.

The only way I can see to discriminate between fish borne disease & water borne disease would be to set up 3 identical cycled & stocked tanks, and purchase a fish from a shop with poorly maintained tanks & stock. Put the fish only in one tank, the water only in a second, and use the third as a control.

 

[rdd1952]

I'd never thought much about the UV sterilizer but I guess that if you ran one all the time as I believe CFC used to do, the the risk of picking up a water borne disease would be almost (maybe totally) eliminated as the sterilizer should kill any living things in the water as they passed through it.

The voting results have been a little surprising to me. If you split the "Depends" group (and actually most of them probably should be on the "Yes" side as they apparently do add the water at times), it's about 60-40 that don't add the water. I would have thought it would have been in the other direction. But from the comments, it does also appear that the lines aren't drawn between experienced and beginner members. Some experienced members do add the water without concern.

 

[hollyp0p]

I used to, but never again, since my last fish purchase I've had a vrey bad strain of bacterial infections, 2 months down the line I am still fighting some.....so definately never ever again....and I will always quarantine new fish now I have a tank for it too!

 

[WILDER]

Interesting article wash the bag and dont add the water to the tank.
http/www.fishinthe.net/html/section-viewarticle-14.html