At LFS too long?

Hey everyone! Since I started my tank last summer, an ich outbreak killed one of my 1st 2 fish (PB tang). The coral beauty survived and seems to be doing very well.
Since then I only added turbos, astreas, hermits and 2 emerald crabs.

Today I stopped by a small LFS in my old neighborhood and bought a percula clown, green mandarin, and a brittle star. I have seen the 2 fish and star there for at least 2 months since he caters mostly to his dog, cat, bird business and has very little for SW. Feeling safe that these fish have been there for awhile and were healthy, I brought them home.

I float acclimated the three (in separate bags) for an hour and all seemed well....UNTIL...I checked on them after an hour and:

Brittle stars arms are ripped off....Mandarin is sitting on the bottom not looking too well (color faded and little "hummingbird" fins not moving) and clown is also sitting on the bottom looking distressed!!!

My question is: Could they have been in this small pet store so long that the stress of moving is killing them?

My parameters: Sal: 1.023 Temp: 78 Alk: 2.5 cal: 350
AMM: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: .2
I know I'm long winded in this thread, so thank you all!

 

If they were doing ok in the LFS i don't think that they were there too long. 1 hour seems like a long time to temperature acclimate. When the fish are in those little bags they can build up ammonia and there is obviously not a lot of oxygen exchange. A lot of times I drip acclimate my fish the same way I do corals, but i've heard of people just temp. acclimating and being fine.
I'm not sure what would cause your problems though. What size tank do you have? Your specs seem ok other than SG seeming lower than you normally see. But I know a lot of us keep it higher for corals.

 

You only need to temp acclimate for 15 minutes. I think that was the problem.

 

Your issue was likely that you did no real acclimation. LFSs tend to run their salinity low, in the ballpark of 1.019-1.022, on the low end of that or even lower if they're not focused on saltwater. If they do indeed keep it on the lower end of that spectrum, the fish need a real drip acclimation to transition to your water.

Also, your water may be higher or lower, because unless you're using a refractometer to measure the salinity it's a guess at best.

I saw a butterflyfish hemorrhaging just the other day at the LFS because of the total lack of acclimation beyond temperature, going from the LFSs 1.021 to 1.026.

 

The good news (Thank God) is that they're doing good this morning. Although the brittle star is done, the mandarin's color has returned and he's happily buzzing around the LR snapping at pods. The clown is eating and also moving around the tank.

When I said I float acclimated I meant that I floated in the bag for 15 mins. opened then started adding about a little water every few minutes until the amount of water was doubled then dumped a little out and did it again. Is that a wrong method?

I know these fish were there at least 2 months cuz he just doesn't do any SW business and I'm like one of his only SW customers. Are you saying that using a hydrometer is a guess at best? What is the best drip acclimation method?

 

Glad to hear your fish are doing better!!!

Yes, I agree with Blackraven that a refracto is an educated guess.

It will certainly tell you that you are dealing with saltwater - but you wont be able to tell if it's Dead Sea saltwater - or the salty water you rang off your gym shirt. That may be exaggerating (a lot) but it illustrates the example.

 

Oh, using my gym shirt salt is bad?? The rock salt I used for my driveway is working great though!! Guess I'm buying a refractometer then!

What's about drip acclimation? Any good sources?

 

I just use airline tubing with an airline valve. The little plastic needle valves for airline tubing are super cheap and work real well. I have one of the specimen containers that hangs on the side of the tank. I just run the tube under the edge of my canopy and into the specimen container and set the valve for a drip. Then I take out half the water and toss it out when its almost full. Once its full again I move the corals or fish into the tank and throw out that water from the acclimation.

 

Here is a valve like what I use. I think i bought a pack of several valves and connections when i got mine though. It was a few bucks for a bunch of pieces.
Plastic Valve