fish bagging at the LFS

nat72sherman

couple weeks ago i bought fishes from 3 different tanks at the LFS. The guy bagged it all up in one bag. That is bad practice isnt it?

jaysee

Most of the tanks all share the same water, so not really. When I'm buying multiple species, I will have them group the fish by which tanks they will be going in - I quarantine fish that will be going to the same tank together.

Olympia

What kind of fish?
I wouldn't stuff a bunch of fish into a bag naturally, fish produce more ammonia when stressed out (at least cories do..). I'd run it by them if you want them separately bagged. Ever since pet smart dropped one of my fish on the ground after a bag burst, I always ask for double bagging and they have no problem with it.

nat72sherman

I asked for 2 honey gouramis first, so the water came from that tank. Then 2 corys, and then 2 ottos from yet another tank. 1 otto died within 4 hrs i put it in the my tank. So I thought the bagging method might have something to do with it. Right now I remember one of the ottos got the shit pecked out of him by the other fishes, the second I let him into the tank. So that's probably the reason.

One of the cory died 2 weeks later also.

Olympia

Yea, I would not be subjecting another fish to gourami in such a small place.
Go to management and complain about that. Surely a 2 cent bag is cheaper for them than a dollar fish.
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jaysee

Places like petsmart will only bag one kind of fish per bag, but my LFS "fills" a bag before getting another.

All you have to do is ask for what you want :)

Jayy

I've had this done to me a couple times, I never really thought much of it. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Now if I was buying fish for more than one tank, that would be different.

Mikaila31

Depends alto on if they are running central filtration. I would not worry about what species are in the bag, unless they are going in different tanks. Except with some cichlids. A gourami is not gonna bother other fish in a bag as all the fish are gonna be too freaked out to care about each other. If the store runs individual tanks then separate bagging is best. Tanks do not vary a lot but the do vary. One of the shops I visit writes the pH of each tank on the bottom corner of the glass and there is quite a bit of variance through out the store.

nat72sherman

I just thought this defies the point of acclimating new fish to a tank. But if all tanks within a LFS has the same water temp and such, then i guess it's ok.

jaysee

I agree, the fish aren't going to care about each other during transit. However, that doesn't mean that fish can't get injured. Boisterous fish should not be bagged with more sedate fish, or fish with delicate fins.


It's more than just having the same water parameters - many of them use a central filtration system, meaning that all the water in all the tanks pass through the same filtration system, so it's just one huge system.