Ugh... problem with new Cardinal!

[Airborneguy]

The larger of the two cardinals I got yesterday was lying on the bottom of the tank this morning, looking at me, breathing heavily, and being tossed around by the current. His buddy was doing fine hanging out in the corner they seemed to have claimed yesterday. The troubled one shows no signs of attack or anything on the outside which would indicate a disease.

I had only a few minutes before I had to leave for work, so I moved him into a bucket with some water and a heater and hopefully he is still going when I get home.

 

[Joe Fish]

It's a good rule of thumb to not buy a fish the first time you see him at the store. Ask the lfs to hold him for a few days. A good lfs should do this for you.

 

[zoalover34]

And make sure you see it eat at the store b/c if you don't see it eat you don't really know how long its been without food..

 

[Lorna]

Was this cardinal a tank/captive bred or wild caught specimen. A concientious marine aquariust should really only purchase captive bred bangaii cardinals as the collection process and pressures has almost wiped them out in the wild. These fish are easy to breed in captivity and are easily found as tank bred stock. Wild caught bangaiis are especially suceptible to cyanide.......are extremely nervous and most die in shipment due to stress. The one you have sounds like it is suffering from possible ammonia or shipment stress....please check your ammonia and all other parameters. Cardinals can die just of fright.....are these a matched pair if bangaiis?

 

[Lotus]

How long did you acclimate him for?

 

[Airborneguy]

Acclimated for one hour.. all tests on my water are perfect. They seemed to be matched, that's why I bought both of them, didn't feel right seperating them.

 

[Joe Fish]

What do you mean by perfect. Is your ammonia and nitrite 0? How did you acclimate the fish?

 

[Airborneguy]

Ammonia and nitrite 0 consistently, and nitrate below 20. I acclimated in the same bucket I am using as a QT by slowly adding my water over and hour. I always ask for extra water from the LFS so I can start eth fish out with only their water.

I'm worried they may have come in yesterday just before I bought them, and all the moving around may have stressed it out.

 

[TRe]

ive had bad luck with bangais..... ive tried a few differnt times , i had one for a few months and got a second and all of a sudden they were both dead a week later (all my other fish were and still r fine)

 

[Lotus]

Thinking about it, I dropped the bag my banggais were in (oops) and one of them looked pretty bad for a few hours. He perked up eventually.

Any news on them?

 

[Airborneguy]

The good one is still good, but the bad one is dead. I'm going to leave him in the QT until tomorrow morning just to be sure, but I'm pretty sure it's over. I'll let you know when I get back from work.

 

[Lorna]

sounds like it died of stress, as stated the wild caught ones are really prone to stress related deaths and can die of fright if you can believe it. Our local lfs refuses to even bring in wild bangaiis as most are doa or die shortly after arrival.

 

[Airborneguy]

I really have to be careful with this store. In my time with SW, this has been the second fish that died from there within a few horus of coming home. And I may not be perfect, but I generally do not lose fish other than to attacks which could not be foreseen. Next time, I am going to take the advice about asking them to isolate my fish and hold it for a few days so I can check on it. I live down the block from them, so its not an inconvience at all.

 

[Lorna]

you also want to ensure that your fish is eating and is healthy before you buy it. some cyanide fish look fine and then just up and die a few days later.....I would think that you should talk to the lfs and see if he won't compensate you for this purchase it was obviously a shipping issue or some disease that caused the problem

 

[Airborneguy]

Well... he's dead. I put him in my snail tank to return him to the cycle of life. I have a tank of local snails and algae going and I figured they would appreciate the snack. Sounds morbid, but I originally got into SW because I liked how everything was a cycle.