New fish at LFS - settling in time.

[idris]

I'm hoping a NSLFS (that's a Not So Local Fish Shop) is getting in some Dwarf Gouramis tomorrow.

Is it worse to get fish from a LFS the same day as they arrive, or is it good practice for them to settle in to the LFS for a couple of days and then stress them all over again moving to my tank?

Not something I've thought about before, and obviously there's no perfect solution, but I'm wondering what Best Practice should be.

 

[spyder]

With fresh imported "finicky" species I would leave them in their tanks for a week or so, like Oto's for example.

Gouramis I would consider pretty tough, just use common sense and leave them there if they look bad in anyway. If they look good, active and alert I say go for it.

Would you quarantine these yourself or just add straight to stock?

 

[idris]

It wasn't so much a question about quarantining them, but rather the stress the fish would be subject to fro putting them through two changes of environment in a very short period of time. (I was just struggling with how to explain my concerns.)

 

[spyder]

Your question was understood and I answered it with my thoughts.

The quarantine question was just a curiosity. Talking of which, did you manage to bottle trap the oto's?

 

[idris]

I've not tried the bottle trap yet. I'm waiting for the last of my new plants to arrive first. Hopefully tomorrow, then I'll try to catch them.

 

[John S]

Many stores don't sell the fish on the day of arrival and leave them for 24 hrs before selling.

 

[Tom]

I've found Dwarf Gouramis to be pretty tricky to keep healthy in a shop system. From experience in 3 different shops, they often seem to come in very poor quality in the bag and deteriorate from there :/ I'd wait a couple of weeks. Anything that still looks good after this time should be a good one to get.