Odd Fish death experiences

[Nilsafeller]

Long read×××××

Its saturday morning where I reside and I'm having my morning coffee looking through MFK.
I just read through a post about a supposed fish death due to PH shock from not acclimating for a long enough period... something I'm sure many of us have done... whether it's due to ph shock or temp shock or maybe dumping the lfs bag of water right into your own tank.
It reminded me of a scenario I had several months ago when I restocked my 210 gallon living room tank.
Nothing to do with acclimation... i barely even got to that point in this case....
I had picked up a 16 inch ornate bichir... makes me sad thinking of the poor thing... what a waste of a beautiful life!

When I had picked the ornate up the lfs had filled a large bag of water and then mentioned they would put the ornate in the bag and then into a large styro container... makes sense altho I think straight into the styro would have made even more sense and the situation would not have occurred.
I looked through the store once more as they packed the ornate up for me to be on my way. I paid and left the store... didnt think anything of it since these people do this every day.... I get home and as I'm bring my new fish in to the house I can hear it roll back and forth in the container... right away I thought "****" has this poor thing been rolling back and forth the entire drive (stop and go) through traffic and lights!
Sure enough I get it inside and pop the lid.... sure the bag had lots of water in it when they filled it up... but places into a larger container the bag spreads out to the size of the container... maybe an inch of water now...
The ornate is upside down.. I quickly start a syphon to fill the container with my own tank water to acclimate in as fast of time I can and get the thing some water and flip him on is belly... hes breathing but is very weak... after about 30 minutes with appropriate water level I figure I'll nab him up and put him in my tank.. hopeing hes recovered atleast enough to survive .... all seems ok... until the morning after when I had an unexpected funeral service...

Did I wait long enough before moving from box to tank? What precautions otherwise should I have taken?

Who else has had scenarios like this or others?

Ps... not a very long read... just felt that way wrighting it lol

 

[esoxlucius]

I've lost a few fish in my time, thankfully nothing of any major expense, or because of anything totally stupid that i'd done to cause it.

I look at it like this. I think we all have "blips" from time to time, it goes with the fish keeping territory. I think learning from mistakes is far more beneficial for the hobbyist than forever beating yourself up about what could have happened if you'd have done things differently. You just have to look forward and in time the "blips" will hopefully become less frequent.

 

[duanes]

I believe large fish are the most difficult to transport safely, and seem to be the most sensitive to even the slightest degradation on water quality.
They put out tons of ammonia quickly, with the stress of moving.
Example
I had a mated pair of Fossorochromis rostratus (male over 12", female @ 10", I brought to a swap meet two hours away, for a prearranged exchange of fish.
Being anal about transport, I brought a couple of extra quarts of tank water, to change half way there, and a battery operated pump that ran constantly during the drive, and any waiting time.
I also separated the pair with egg crate. (I would take this container with me to any place I intended to buy or re-home fish)

We had planned a specific time to meet and exchange fish. But as often happens, he had car trouble, and was a couple hours late, no problem for me as I can easily browse at length at fish swap meets.
When he finally arrived, I suggested he immediately change some water (swap meets often wave water for just that purpose in Chicago), and offered him the battery pump at less than cost, he poo poohed both offers.
A few months later I saw him, and asked how the pair were. He said one of the pair died soon after he got home.

As an aside, my acclimation routine
Because I always bring that same bucket to swap meets, collecting, or even LFSs, everywhere I might pick up fish,
if the LFS won't accommodate my need for enough water, (minimum 2 to 4 gallons depending on the size of fish) I don't buy.
Although I must admit that has never happened. For tiny, or fish under 5" fish bags are almost always fine (although cichlid spine at even 3 " will easily puncture bags, hence my trusty bucket)
At home I have a similarly anal acclimation routine.
As soon as I get there, a tube siphons water gradually into the bucket from the tank they will be put in.
I also gradually remove water from from that bucket as "new" water siphons in, its usually between 20 and 30 minute acclimation time as water goes in and out the bucket.
I figure the new fish has been excreting ammonia into the bucket so that needs to be quickly diluted, and if there is any pH gap, or temp variance, the tank water will gradually mitigate the difference, so when dropped into the new (for it) tank, the shock will be lessened.
I do the same when I collect wild fish, as soon as they are put in a bucket, i start gradually adding tank water I bring along to help acclimate.
If fish are small enough, I remove the egg crate, it is friction fit to the bucket

Sorry if this seems an extensive blather.

 

[Nilsafeller]

I believe large fish are the most difficult to transport safely, and seem to be the most sensitive to even the slightest degradation on water quality.
They put out tons of ammonia quickly, with the stress of moving.
Example
I had a mated pair of Fossorochromis rostratus (male over 12", female @ 10", I brought to a swap meet two hours away, for a prearranged exchange of fish.
Being anal about transport, I brought a couple of extra quarts of tank water, to change half way there, and a battery operated pump that ran constantly during the drive, and any waiting time.
I also separated the pair with egg crate. (I would take this container with me to any place I intended to buy or re-home fish)

We had planned a specific time to meet and exchange fish. But as often happens, he had car trouble, and was a couple hours late, no problem for me as I can easily browse at length at fish swap meets.
When he finally arrived, I suggested he immediately change some water (swap meets often wave water for just that purpose in Chicago), and offered him the battery pump at less than cost, he poo poohed both offers.
A few months later I saw him, and asked how the pair were. He said one of the pair died soon after he got home.

As an aside, my acclimation routine
Because I always bring that same bucket to swap meets, collecting even LFSs, everywhere I might pick up fish,
if the LFS won't accommodate my need for enough water, (minimum 2 to 4 gallons depending on the size of fish) I don't buy.
Although I must admit that has never happened. For tiny, or fish under 5" fish bags are almost always fine (although cichlid spine at even 3 " will easily puncture bags, hence my trusty bucket)
At home I have a similarly anal acclimation routine.
As soon as I get there, a tube siphons water gradually into the bucket from the tank they will be put in.
I also gradually remove water from from that bucket as "new" water siphons in, its usually between 20 and 30 minute acclimation time as water goes in and out the bucket.
I figure the new fish has been excreting ammonia into the bucket so that needs to be quickly diluted, and if there there is any pH gap, or temp variance, the tank water will gradually mitigate the difference, so when dropped into the new (for it) tank, the shock will be lessened.
I do the same when I collect wild fish, as soon as they are put in a bucket, i start gradually adding tank water I bring along to help acclimate.
If fish are small enough, I remove the egg crate, it is friction fit to the bucket
View attachment 1425624
Sorry if this seems an extensive blather.

I'm also anal on my acclimation... I too change out old water as "new" tank water slowly mixes into the existing lfs or hobbiest water for a good 20 plus minutes... this is for larger fish... small fish stay in bag and I float the bag that's all... any fish I purchase nearby will most likely have the exact same ph unless is otherwise altered by the previous hobbiest so it's usually just a matter of matching temps..
In my case with the ornate I didnt have much of a choice in what was happening.. I didnt know the lfs would make that mistake of putting such little water into a large styro container... I'd like to think they were smarter than that... guess I was wrong... but one thing is for sure! I will always keep an eye on what the lfs is doing when they pack up my new fish freinds lol