Advice needed before I rescue fish

GwenInNM

Ugh. I just saw a post on Craigslist, a person saying he is giving two fish away before he "flushes" them because they are picking on other fish. One is a orange Neon Tetra, the other looks like a Bleeding Heart Tetra. I text him, to not flush, if no one takes them I will, but I'm worried about ich. He claims they're healthy, just bullies. I write back about schooling fish needing 5-6 in number to be happy, that could be problem - how long has he had them? He responds with crazy stuff about some of the fish he has had been stolen, some he has killed (he adds "LOL") so that's why he has less - doesn't tell me how long he has had these fish

Obviously, he's a wack job. He tells me to text him in the morning, he'll probably still have them.

Any suggestions? Should I see if a pet store will just take them? I don't know if I want to introduce them to my 5 danios and 3 rainbow dwarf fish. He sounds crazy, and the fish will probably have some disease, but I hate to think of them being killed.

Help!

Gwen

Blabomb

If he says they are just being bullies it is because they are schooling fish and are not being kept in schools. If you are going to take them you either need to buy more of them or try and give them to your LFS

Lupin

Gwen, as with ALL new fish, QUARANTINE. Quarantine them for four weeks. If you don't have a spare tank, find a spare tub and get a new filter. A portion of your own tank's established filter media may be "borrowed" and stuff in the new filter of the hospital tank/tub to keep nitrogen cycle stable.

From there, you may treat the fish assuming these are sick. If you are able to rescue them, let us know their health condition.

GwenInNM

I only have a 10 gal that I am now keeping my snail and GS in because I'm still treating for ich, and I have to do daily water changes, because I don't have a filter on it, and need to wait to get some $ before I make a QT tank.

If he still has them this morning, and no one else took the 2 fish last eve, I will get them and take them to a LFS - hopefully they will take them.

I agree, they do need to be a schooling fish, and I'm not getting any more fish at this time.

Truthfully, after getting ich, 2 weeks after buying my 3 Dwarf rainbows, and being sure that's how I got ICH, I'm going to be afraid to ever introduce new fish - at least until I have a QT tank, because this daily water change thing is a drag, keeping my snail alive - I guess I now know the GS can manage the salt, but I already have them out - also with all my live plants.

Thanks for feedback!

gwen

Lupin

The ghost shrimp is pretty tolerant to salt.

Byron

I'd be less concerned about sickness than I would about how you are going to manage the fish long-term even if they are healthy. They may be nothing but trouble for you. If you have a suitably-sized tank for these, and have others of the same species, they may settle down--I say may. They may be utter terrors and stress out your other fish causing their sickness and eventual death, depending upon how "bad" these are.

I have had fish that were like this and had no option but to remove and destroy them. But if I hadn't, I would be pulling out dead fish from the tanks due to this one fish's behaviour. You do not want to acquire trouble and risk all your other fish. At least I wouldn't. Be careful Gwen.

[By the way,this topic doesn't relate to anabantids so I'm moving this thread to the general section.]

Byron.