UK Members...a request to suss out disease prevalence.

[Ichthys]

I was joking.

I know.

 

[Wills]

Interesting thread to read through - a simple observation from me though. I've not bought fish from shops for a number of years, I had moved to fish houes but now touring shops looking for stock after some of the dealers had closed. And simply put fish stocks are in a much worse state than they were even 5 years ago.

I heard about them all being kept in lightly salted, anti-biotic water year and years ago and I think this has just become so normal now. I think the problem is that if you think about how unethical this side of the hobby is you wouldnt keep fish...

 

[Hassan 2021]

I don't buy fish from the stores due to a variety of reasons, mainly mobility issues

I buy online and have all fish delivered. Doing it this way, I feel, carries a bigger risk since you do not actually see where the fish come from unlike the store where you can see their living conditions and pick up any potential issues visually before making your purchase.

I am not going to name the company concerned but my first online purchase went terribly wrong. The fish arrived either DOA or struggling. All of the fish were undersize, thus obvious to me they were far too young to be travelling anywhere let alone overnight in courier vans. They were poorly packed, leaking bags, too little oxygen, no heat packs (this was mid winter on a frosty night/early morning). They have a DOA policy of 7 days with refund/replacement upon receipt of photos of dead/dying fish. That actually in reality meant nothing since they shifted the blame to everyone including myself and the van driver and the refund/replacement was infact a credit note.

Lesson firmly learnt. Company's local authority notified.

My supplier now has been magnificent. They do not import fish. They have their own breeding facilities and will not put a fish up for sale until they are as sure as they can be that its healthy and of a high enough standard to cope with transit. They double bag all fish in oversized bags, in the 5 years or so that I have used them I have not had a single fish death either after transport or once arrived. The fish are packed with utmost care, very healthy and active right from the time they arrive and I open the box. If the company has any disease issues, which is inevitable when handling large numbers of fish, or fish born deformed...they do not sell the fish. Deformed are euthanised, any disease outbreak and that particular fish type is removed from sale immediately and they are either treated or euthanised. They have a 14 day DOA policy that carries an actual refund or replacement, not a credit note. They take diseases very seriously. They took their entire stock of DG's off and as I was thinking about having one, I asked why and they said that a fish brought in from another UK breeder was showing symptoms of DGV after quarantine, so they decided to withdraw all DGs as a precaution.

After the first company let the fish and myself down I made sure that whoever I chose next to supply me with fish had all the right paperwork, could provide date stamped photos of their facilities (since I am unable to visit in person) and that they husbandry was of a high standard.

Whether you buy from a store or online, you can never be 100% sure of disease status in fish that you buy, but there are ways and means that you can lessen the risk, even if that means paying more for a fish online than you would in a chainstore. Actual tracing and back tracing disease is also alot harder for the big chains by virtue that they buy in bulk at bulk prices, whereas some online suppliers have their own farms/facilities and can therefore be far more careful in checking for deformity or disease and thus which stock will make it to point of sale and which will not.

Hi can I ask where you get your fish from as I am interested in purchasing a dwarf gourami again but want to make sure its healthy and not carrying DGD. Thank you

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Hi can I ask where you get your fish from as I am interested in purchasing a dwarf gourami again but want to make sure its healthy and not carrying DGD. Thank you

I buy 90% of my fish from Aquatics To Your Door and have not had any issues with the health and welfare of the fish from there in all the years that I have used the company. They are based near Gatwick Airport but not open to the public currently, its order online and courier delivery only. They are a very reputable company and easy to speak to for advice etc.

Tropical Aquarium Fish For Sale Online- Aquatics To Your Door

Tropical aquarium fish available to buy online delivered direct to your door. As well as over 200 species available we also specialise in Malawi Cichlids.

www.aquaticstoyourdoor.co.uk

 

[GaryE]

Sorry to stick an overseas snout into a UK thread, but years ago, in Canada, dwarf gouramis were only imported with veterinary health certificates. The Iridovirus problem was recognized as a serious issue - there were very few species on that list of fish needing inspection.
This seemed to hit soon after the massive modifications gouramis underwent. I would say the gene splicing, but the farms would say linebreeding given the legality of selling GMO animals in many large markets. I am not blaming the petrie dish work, but the blue, sunset and other oddities that all arrived at once were super popular and mass produced, and things tend to go wrong for fish raised in massive numbers.
About 5 years ago, I started seeing real dwarf gouramis in shops again - unmodified fish in all their complex patterned glory. I hadn't seen them for about 10 years before that, and I felt it signaled a change in the approach probably caused by the closing down of badly affected breeding lines. We still get the hybrids sold as honey gouramis, and I haven't seen the real honey in a store locally for a long time. But I also hear less and less about the gourami virus, and the frankenfish dwarf gouramis are appearing again (alas)...
The 'neon tetra" disease virus is around, but less than before.
We tend to look at the strain of columnaris around, and the ever prevalent Mycobacter infections in farmed fish and label it as neon disease in North America. The longer I keep fish and look at diseases, the more I learn how little I know just from eyeballing them. It's easy to spot a seriously ill fish, but to diagnose it?
I know from my limited wanders through UK stores that the species on offer can be different from North America stores, and certainly far better and more varied than the US chain stores. I have gone into chain stores in the northern US and seen disease in every single tank. That has to be driving a lot of people out of the hobby, as it must be discouraging to buy fish like that. No local store could survive with fish like unhealthy but the large chains have fish as after thoughts and devote most of their space to the lucrative dog food market. The aquarium section is usually jammed into a back corner.
I know of one store locally, and one I saw in London, that survive on fish alone without pet food. Our best local store in my new region is moving to larger quarters not to sell more fish (they are excellent) but in order to move into the dog food market.