The Wet Spot Tropical Fish

[anewbie]

Its a lot like any other online fish store that way

No; most stores i use will show the in stock fish first. The old wetspot site was great. It just show the fishes they had in stock. It was also very efficient because you didn't have to scroll threw pages after pages of out of stock fishes to see what is in stock. It seemed they copy some other website that had a similar inefficient layout (i can't recall because i stopped using them for the same reason) but i've seen small one man shops with far better website than this store. My dislike for the new website is great enough that they are now a last resort store for me. It just ruined the whole experience. Also when i provided a list of possible improvements they said their programmer told them it wasn't possible. Well they obviously hired someone who is clueless because i've seen high-school kids do a better job sorting and manipulating data for presentation than what they are doing. I mean it is just really poorly conceived. He is spitting out everything in a database verbatim without any sane sorting or filtering.
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Ok as an update they did recently update their website (sometime in the past 2 weeks) to list in stock fishes first so there is that improvement. Still prefer the old single page layout. there is a nifty store that has a similar single page layout but they allowed you to click on the fish name for the more info if you needed more info - instead of the space wasting layout wetspot now uses.

 

[Rocky998]

@Slaphppy7, I was browsing the site and when I was looking at a few fish the origin selector only had one option which was "wild" does this mean they are all wild caught? If so, I dont know if I can use their site. I need tank bred so that way they are hardier than wild fish.

 

[anewbie]

@Slaphppy7, I was browsing the site and when I was looking at a few fish the origin selector only had one option which was "wild" does this mean they are all wild caught? If so, I dont know if I can use their site. I need tank bred so that way they are hardier than wild fish.

wild are wild and tr are tank raised. Tank bred are not always hardier and many species will only be available wild from shops though you can find private breeders. The reason is that there are certain species that are hard to 'mass produce'; and are readily available in the wild so it is more cost effective for distributors to obtain wild caught fishes. Also some of the nano fishes like dario dario will only take live food (or with some effort frozen) but not dry foods.
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Also wildspot natively has soft acidic water so most fishes you buy from there you will have to slowly adjust to your water conditions if they differ.

 

[Rocky998]

wild are wild and tr are tank raised. Tank bred are not always hardier and many species will only be available wild from shops though you can find private breeders. The reason is that there are certain species that are hard to 'mass produce'; and are readily available in the wild so it is more cost effective for distributors to obtain wild caught fishes. Also some of the nano fishes like dario dario will only take live food (or with some effort frozen) but not dry foods.
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Also wildspot natively has soft acidic water so most fishes you buy from there you will have to slowly adjust to your water conditions if they differ.

Wild caught specimens do tend to be more fragile, right?... Like, lets say their natural PH is around 7-7.2 and then I moved them into a PH of 7.9... Wouldnt that be deadly? Or should I find a say to "slowly" acclimate them?

 

[Byron]

Generally speaking, wild caught fish will be genetically healthier, with brighter colouration, and less prone to disease problems. The inbreeding of many species is clear proof of this when the fish are compared to wild caught. And for those of us who do care about the environment, wild caught benefits that too, at least In South America (SE Asia I admit is something else). Someone posted videos on the Project Priaba a couple months back. Indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest understand the environment and fish well enough to be able to make a decent living from collecting fish but never taking this to the point of threatening the sustainability of the species; if no one buys their fish, they will be forced into agriculture to make a living, and that destroys the rainforest and species will become extinct.

In my own limited experience of 30+ years, there is no doubt at all but that my problems with fish disease coming in with new fish has always been confined to tank-raised fish. This is just too widespread to be coincidental.

 

[anewbie]

Wild caught specimens do tend to be more fragile, right?... Like, lets say their natural PH is around 7-7.2 and then I moved them into a PH of 7.9... Wouldnt that be deadly? Or should I find a say to "slowly" acclimate them?

depends on the species; for example i would buy wild neon tetra any day of the week over tank raised neon.... some wild species are more difficult to adapt to captive life (such as diet, water and light but it depends on the species). Wild fishes are more likely to have parasites but wetspot treat their fishes for parasites...

 

[Rocky998]

depends on the species; for example i would buy wild neon tetra any day of the week over tank raised neon.... some wild species are more difficult to adapt to captive life (such as diet, water and light but it depends on the species). Wild fishes are more likely to have parasites but wetspot treat their fishes for parasites...

This is good to hear and makes me feel comfortable. Would you say fire ring danios or lambchop rasboras are hardy enough to go from wild water to tank water?

 

[Rocky998]

Generally speaking, wild caught fish will be genetically healthier, with brighter colouration, and less prone to disease problems. The inbreeding of many species is clear proof of this when the fish are compared to wild caught. And for those of us who do care about the environment, wild caught benefits that too, at least In South America (SE Asia I admit is something else). Someone posted videos on the Project Priaba a couple months back. Indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest understand the environment and fish well enough to be able to make a decent living from collecting fish but never taking this to the point of threatening the sustainability of the species; if no one buys their fish, they will be forced into agriculture to make a living, and that destroys the rainforest and species will become extinct.

In my own limited experience of 30+ years, there is no doubt at all but that my problems with fish disease coming in with new fish has always been confined to tank-raised fish. This is just too widespread to be coincidental.

Iinteresting. Thank you for the insight! Why is it different in Asia?

 

[anewbie]

This is good to hear and makes me feel comfortable. Would you say fire ring danios or lambchop rasboras are hardy enough to go from wild water to tank water?

Probably - but you will still want to take it slow - adding a little tank water to their bag over time also pour the old water down the drain not in your tank. Last but least if you want common fishes like lambchop you can save some money buy them from aquahuna (who has cheap shipping); but i doubt they sell fire ring danio as those are less common. Some wild apisto are very difficult to adapt to captive life - well more difficult than tetra for example.

 

[Rocky998]

Probably - but you will still want to take it slow - adding a little tank water to their bag over time also pour the old water down the drain not in your tank. Last but least if you want common fishes like lambchop you can save some money buy them from aquahuna (who has cheap shipping); but i doubt they sell fire ring danio as those are less common. Some wild apisto are very difficult to adapt to captive life - well more difficult than tetra for example.

Thank you! I will definitely look into this

 

[Fishmanic]

whitespot does have good customer service
I once ordered a dozen or so assorted small fish from them...they made a big error and sent me someone elses order....a Blue Phantom pleco...they told me to keep it and then shipped out my proper order and refunded my shipping cost... the guy that got my original order also got to keep the fish. Someone at Wetspot messed up bigtime.

 

[Byron]

Iinteresting. Thank you for the insight! Why is it different in Asia?

Some countries in SA at least have laws governing the time of year that ornamental fish can be collected. To my knowledge, Asian countries do not, though admittedly that may have changed, but I doubt it. Asia is also where the bulk of fish sold in the USA and Canada come from, and some of the sources are not reliable. Others are. Most of the disease problems originate their, as Colin I believe has often mentioned.

 

[Rocky998]

Some countries in SA at least have laws governing the time of year that ornamental fish can be collected. To my knowledge, Asian countries do not, though admittedly that may have changed, but I doubt it. Asia is also where the bulk of fish sold in the USA and Canada come from, and some of the sources are not reliable. Others are. Most of the disease problems originate their, as Colin I believe has often mentioned.

So, I just looked up where Lamb chop cashless come from and they come from South East Asia... What should I do if their wild caught then?

 

[Colin_T]

whitespot does have good customer service
I once ordered a dozen or so assorted small fish from them...they made a big error and sent me someone elses order....a Blue Phantom pleco...they told me to keep it and then shipped out my proper order and refunded my shipping cost... the guy that got my original order also got to keep the fish. Someone at Wetspot messed up bigtime.

LOL

 

[Colin_T]

So, I just looked up where Lamb chop cashless come from and they come from South East Asia... What should I do if their wild caught then?

Provide them with a tank that has the same type of water as their natural habitat.

Harlequin rasboras (lamb chop rasboras) are not normally wild caught.