Just got Live Fish Shipped...

Hi Guys,

I just received some inverts from liveaquaria.com and received a sea cucumber but, it is really white... I think it is stressed but, how can I tell it is not dead?

I do not want to introduce this to the tank if it is dead as it is toxic...

Thoughts?

 

I would start to aclimate it Via water drip.. or a cup of your tank water at a time... and look for signs of life... By all means do not add it's water or the cucumber to the tank... I am sure you know that..

And call live aquaria to see what there returns or exchanges are..


Good Luck....

 

Thanks...

It actually is moving around... But I think it is super stressed out.


The other one looks OK too... At least it's color.

I had ordered a feather duster but, it does not look alive at all.

part of its tube is broken and it is all closed up. I am not a doctor but, I think this thing is dead...

 

Feater Dusters are wierd .. id still aclimate and keep a eye out for signs of life, they take a lil bit to open up...

As far as the cucumbers.. aclimate them and leave them in a QT for a few Hours if you can to make sure there lively and movin around...

 

It's funny...

The one cucumber I thought was a goner is moving around and the one I thought was a live has not moved...

I'll keep ya posted

 

I wouldn't use the drip method on anything shipped. I would float them for 10 minutes then dump them in.

During shipping ammonia is mostly in the form of NH4, which is not toxic to fish, due to the decreased oxygen. Once you start doing the drip method you are going to introduce oxygen into the system and the pH will go back up and the nontoxic NH4 will turn into the extremely toxic NH3.

You need to have a quarantine tank and everything needs to go into it first. If it survives the time spent in QT (a month for fish), you can then use the drip method because the live stock will not have spent as much time sealed in a container as they would during shipping. Ammonia will not be an issue transferring from QT to display.

 

I usually time this with a WC and start moving the changed out DT water into the QT approximately 10%/hour for how ever many hours the fish need to be drip acclimated (on the move from the QT to the DT)
Since any change in parameters is going to cause shock, it's best to do it in a larger environment than a bag if possible.

 

I have to agree with the feather dusters being weird. Let me tell ya, I've had my tank running for about 8 weeks now and just today I saw a NEW feather duster coming out of one of my pieces of LR. I don't know how it survived....I don't know how it hasn't come out before.....This hobby is soooooo weird sometimes!!!

 

You reason seems researched however i find it hard to believe that the method perscribed by the seller (with a guarentee) would be harmful to the livestock.

 

Well if they guarantee the fish will stay alive, best to do it by their method. When in rome do as the romans do, I suppose..

However I have seen a lot of threads of fish dying during the drip method. My sister-in-law is a marine biologist, and when she was in school their fish were shipped between two pieces of wet newspaper. They opened the bag and tossed the fish in the water.