Oh Dear ...

[Akasha72]

So, as some of you will know I lost 2 fish this weekend. A platy that choked on a bloodworm on Friday evening and an Oto last night. I've spent this morning watching my remaining Oto swim up and down franticly in one spot and my male guppies stressing my remaining sunset platy. I knew I had to act. So I drove to my usual lfs and this is a little of how it went ....

Me: Hi, will the tuxedo platy be okay with my sunset male and female?

LFS: Don't see why not they're all platies just different colours. We have some sunsets though if you want sunset

Me: no, there's none I like the look of (thinking, their all fully grown, 2 look suspiciously like they have white spot, one is laying on the gravel looking sick, 2 have nibbled tails ... I ain't going there)
Me: I'll take the tuxedo's they look very young

LFS: They're all young, we only stock young fish

Methinks, hmm yeah right) I think I'll take 2 and make sure they're female please. I'll just have a look at your Oto's while I'm here I lost one yesterday and my other one is showing signs of stress.

LFS: Have you tested your water?

Me: yes, last night and this morning. PH is around 7, Ammonia and nitrite are both zero and nitrate is around 5ish ... bit low but I blame the live plants.

LFS: No your nitrate is way too high. It shouldn't be higher than point 3

At which point I knew I was dealing with a numb skull, refused to argue, paid for the fish and left vowing never to go back again on a weekend.

With staff like that there's no wonder people end up here asking why their fish are dying

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Indeed.it is always frustrating to hear of bad LFS knowledge and advice.. thank god for The TFF

I hope everything else goes your way.

Terry.

 

[soybean]

platys are definitely ok together regardless of colour as for the nitrate comment - I've heard worse, at least they'd heard of it even if they might be mixing it up with nitrite or something.

 

[Akasha72]

Thanks Terry. I'm at a real loss as to why the Oto died but fingers crossed there won't be anymore deaths or I'm going to have to investigate further.

Forgot to say, I got 2 baby Oto's (they're tiny!) so I'm hoping they will be around for a while .... gives me time to save up for a bigger tank

It will certainly be interesting to see what the fry look like if I get any ... with a red and black male and white and blue female they could easily be union jack colours ... very patriotic

 

[The Taffy Apple]

platys are definitely ok together regardless of colour as for the nitrate comment - I've heard worse, at least they'd heard of it even if they might be mixing it up with nitrite or something.

Which is, unfortunately, more common than we think.

I was blatantly refused my first stock of fish at a LFS (after a full fishless cycle) becuase the woman said, and i will quote, "i'm not happy to sell you ANY fish with any NitrAtes in your tank " (they were 40-60ppm) and "why are you putting ammonia into your tank?"

I sent the store manager a covering letter and a printed article on what a fishless cycle is.. stil waiting for the reply

Terry.

 

[Gytas]

ahh you just have to hate the lfs that employ people that do not know anything about fish keeping... they can just kill fish by talking if you know what i mean...

 

[Dieses Madchen]

At least he knew that color of fish in the same species has no bearing on compatibility lol. If it did, I am in trouble! I have 1 Velvet Wag male sword, 2 Solar Flare twinbar males, 1 bumble bee platy fem, 1 panda platy fem, 1 solar flar twinbar sword fem, one sunset twinbar platy fem, 2 velvet wag platy fems. The only thing that mixing platys or sword of different colors does is make some rather interesting looking fry

 

[Akasha72]

I thought this lfs was a really good one - the usual weekday staff are good and have appeared to be knowledgable. Maybe it's just the weekend staff ... I really hope so. But having said that, those sunset platies didn't look so good - and to claim that they're 'young' when they were definitely fully grown is just not on. If they are fully grown admit they are so the customer know's that they could only last a short while (I don't actually know how long platies live, guessing about 18 months maybe?)

I have one wag tail platy that's now a lot bigger than my others (I'd say about 7cm), she's definitely fully grown but the female sunset is only about 3cm and the new ones are about 1.5cm


I have a whole new worry now though ... I'm overstocked and I know it. 3ft tank is on the 2012 wishlist

 

[The Taffy Apple]

I thought this lfs was a really good one - the usual weekday staff are good and have appeared to be knowledgable. Maybe it's just the weekend staff ... I really hope so. But having said that, those sunset platies didn't look so good - and to claim that they're 'young' when they were definitely fully grown is just not on. If they are fully grown admit they are so the customer know's that they could only last a short while (I don't actually know how long platies live, guessing about 18 months maybe?)

I have one wag tail platy that's now a lot bigger than my others (I'd say about 7cm), she's definitely fully grown but the female sunset is only about 3cm and the new ones are about 1.5cm


I have a whole new worry now though ... I'm overstocked and I know it. 3ft tank is on the 2012 wishlist

Alot of LFS's work on a 'rotation' system, especially the vast majority of the chain stores... i have found some sales-people have no idea about tropical fish, yet know LOADS about guinea pigs and cockatoo's

It's all about finding a local store with knowledgeable staff, clean tanks and healthy fish.. they are out there, i promise !!!

Terry.

 

[Akasha72]

hahaha that made me laugh Terry

 

[The Taffy Apple]

hahaha that made me laugh Terry

I'm here all week

Seriously though, it took me weeks to work this out, constantly going back and forth to listen to some bloke tell me and sell me EVERY product he had on the shelves... oh how i needed someone to wander past and whisper "water changes mate, if in doubt get it out"

Terry.

 

[Akasha72]

You'd think though that a designated fish store/aquarium centre not a general pet store selling everything from puppies to budgie's would know a bit more. If I'd gone down the road to 'that other large chain pet store' I'd expect bad advice. I go to this lfs (which is a good 10 miles away) because it's a proper aquarium centre with a really really good reputation. I hope todays visit was a one off

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Akasha,

Do you have natural algae in your tank? Otos are extremely sensitive, and one of the things that they are sensitive to is starving. They actually will starve rather than eat algae wafers sometimes. They need a natural source of algae in the tank to eat. As far as stress, they are also a shoaling species, so they like to be in numbers... generally 3 or more.




As far as the nitrates goes with the LFS. Ask them to show you where they keep their fertilizers for a planted tank. Then ask them to explain why the fertilizers which are perfectly safe (according to them and the manufacturer of the product) for fish to be in the tank, yet the fertilizers all have a fairly sizable amount of ....wait for it ..... NITRATES! Specifically, look for Seachem's Flourish Nitrogen. (Active ingredient: Potassium NITRATE)


The reason these folks don't know about nitrates, is generally because they use a product like Seachem's Purigen in their filtration system (which makes sense since they have SO many fish, and if they experienced any type of issue with nitrates, some of the more sensitive species would be in trouble. Also, folks prefer to see crystal clear water when they are buying fish. And if when they test the nitrates, if it comes up at 0.3 or higher, its a sign that they need to replace/recharge the Purigen.

 

[Akasha72]

Hi again Eagles,

regarding the algae - yes there was loads of algae over the weekend, so much of it that I got in with my sponge to clean the worst of it off ... I have wondered if this is what killed the Oto. There still should have been enough on plants, ornaments and stones to feed them both.
I had noticed that they didn't touch the algae wafers. I tried some cucumber for them but they ignored that too. They just spend the day eating the stuff on the glass, stones and ornaments.
There now three so stress should no longer be an issue. I knew my remaining one was really stressed this morning which was why I went and got him 2 friends asap.

I'll have to try and remember the thing about fertilizers ... sounds like a good come back

 

[karawr]

I went to my LFS as they had some ember tetras (really surprising, there's never any variety here).

Anyways they always take an hur to catch the fish so I went to wander, came back and she had 8 dead fish lying on the top of the tank, out in the air!!

I was incredibly shocked when she told me, "they just dropped dead."

I told her fish don't really do that and she should put them back in the water... sure enough they "revived" after a couple minutes of being left alone... but 3 of them still died because of this incompetent girl.

I swear the owner of my LFS is a pig because he only hires young, pretty, clueless girls who wear tight spandex pants. He's the only male working there.