Adams Aquatics in Des Moines

I would suggest the drive to Iowa City/Cedar Rapids to Sea of Marvels and Pet Playhouse for fish. That and Pets Playland in IC I hear is pretty good. I have also had great experience with Reefs2go.com

-Justin

 

What kind of fish are you buying that are dying so quick?

Are you using any type of QT, or are you just adding them to the display?

You should goto Spring Fest & listen to Kevin Kohen. He is going to talk about how fish get from the ocean to your tank & the best way to choose & acclimate them.

I hear this alot of times, thread after thread, from every LFS & online company there is.

They get bagged & shipped a dozen times before they even make it to Adams, then bagged & sent home with you. They are probably allready weak & stressed before they are put into a tank that has healthy fish with their own territories marked out.

I have bought a ton of fish from Blue Zoo, Live Aquaria, Pets Playhouse, Sea of Marvels, Petcos, and so on. I try to care for them best I can. Usually half make it a month. It seems if they make it that long they live forever.

 

Have you talked to Pets Playhouse about the problem? Also like xroads said what kind of fish? If it is damsels then I would wonder how they died if it is something like a Copper Banded Butterfly that can be overstressed just by moving it. Shaun

 

Adams has some of the cleanest tanks I have ever seen and his livestock always looks great. Like xroads said theres a lot to getting the fish to the store and they are very stressed once they arrive. I would suggest next time you buy a fish from him ask him to hold it for you for a week so you know its eating and it wasn't just acclimated to his tank earlier in the day. I see fish in there all the time with sold tags on the tank i'm sure he would do this for you. I personally would not blame Adams nor would I blame you, just some bad luck. This can happen no matter what store you buy from. Thanks for supporting our LFS! I hope future purchases work out better for you.

 

You could try Iowa Pet Foods and Sea Scapes. They are great at supporting our club are willing to special order something if they don't have it in stock. I do believe they offer a guarantee on fish for just a couple bucks extra. Ask for Tim when you go in.

 

Ah,

Powders are one of the hardest tangs to acclimate & get established. There is actually a sticky on PBT on RC that talks about trying to keep them alive in your tank. Same with boxfish.

Look at live aquaria, under boxfish it says expert experience only, very delicate.

I am not criticizing you, I am just pointing out that you are buying delicate fish to begin with, so surival rates are going to be much lower anyway.

What size tank do you have? Sump or refugium?

Do you turn off the lights when you add them in? How about feeding the rest of the tank before you add the new fish.

There are a ton of different variables that go into keeping new fish alive. It is very hard on some, almost impossible on others.

GL
Craig

 

You know this is a really good topic. Not saying that fish passing is ever good but this can be used as a good way to get out the ways we aclimate and treat new additions to our tanks. I am seeing a lot of new tanks getting expert level stuff and tanks like this one where it is established with the new stuff dying. Some is our mistakes, some is LFS mistakes and sales pushing and some is just bad luck. I am also a member of the St Louis area club and there is a guy there having the same problems. Maybe some of the vetrans are just to used to things that we forget some basics. Please note I am not saying you did anything wrong so do not think that I am sugesting you are. I just want and think this is a good opertunity to "brush up" on the basics not just for the vetrans but also the new people. I use a drip and temp aclimation, with a 50 watt heater to slowly match the temps and a 1 hour min drip I get the water in both the QT and the water in with the fish to math as far as temp, salinity, and params. I will also add a little Kent Marine Galic Extreme to the alimation water to boost their imune systems to help prevent disease. It is not 100% but I have only lost 1 fish inthe first month. Best of luck with your fish problems and sorry I cannot be more help. Shaun

 

I've personally got fish from Adams and mine is doing really good. I actually aclimate mine alot longer than 45 min. I usually let them warm up for 30-40 min, and then start adding my water from my tank for about 30-1hr. Everything has turned out good for me. I would defintlaly use Garlic extreme i have heard good things about it.

 

Do they run there tanks at a lower salinty?