Fish arrived barely alive

ReeferMadness1313 · Mar 9, 2022

I just recieved my royal gramma from saltwaterfish.com and it is barely alive. I thought it was dead at first but when i looked closely, it's still breathing. It was upside down and now it's kinda just lying on its side. I have the QT ready and I'm floating the bag right now. What do I do? Do I just acclimate it like I normally would? Or is there anything else I can do to help it survive? Thanks in advance!

vetteguy53081 · Mar 9, 2022

ReeferMadness1313 said:
I just recieved my royal gramma from saltwaterfish.com and it is barely alive. I thought it was dead at first but when i looked closely, it's still breathing. It was upside down and now it's kinda just lying on its side. I have the QT ready and I'm floating the bag right now. What do I do? Do I just acclimate it like I normally would? Or is there anything else I can do to help it survive? Thanks in advance!

This is where acclimation will be very important
Float for 20-30 minutes
Transfer fish and water into a clean bucket. Add aeration if possible

Then . . . .

Add a cup of tank water to bucket every 15 mins 6-8 times (almost 2 hours)
Then check salinity in bucket and compare to tank. If no match or very close, add a cup of water every few mins until youve reached salinity and trap fish in same cup and pour off water and release into display. Release under LOW light before lights out.

ReeferMadness1313 · Mar 9, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
This is where acclimation will be very important
Float for 20-30 minutes
Transfer fish and water into a clean bucket. Add aeration if possible

Then . . . .

Add a cup of tank water to bucket every 15 mins 6-8 times (almost 2 hours)
Then check salinity in bucket and compare to tank. If no match or very close, add a cup of water every few mins until youve reached salinity and trap fish in same cup and pour off water and release into display. Release under LOW light before lights out.

I will do that. Thank you very much!

TheReefPA · Mar 9, 2022

Royal grammas have a habit of “playing dead” initially. They’ll even float upside down. I’d be careful about a prolonged drip acclimation. If that bag is full of ammonia you’re just prolonging suffering.

ReeferMadness1313 · Mar 9, 2022

PA717 said:
Royal grammas have a habit of “playing dead” initially. They’ll even float upside down. I’d be careful about a prolonged drip acclimation. If that bag is full of ammonia you’re just prolonging suffering.

Wow I didn't know they did that! That's good to know. Thanks for the advice! It helps a lot. I won't be doing too long of an acclimation. The water will get too cold here if it's sitting outside of the tank.

TheReefPA · Mar 9, 2022

No problem. The guys at WWC warned me about it when I bought mine. Sure enough my guy “Purple” initially floated upside down until he settled in. Now he runs my tank, or thinks he does.

Jedi1199 · Mar 9, 2022

ReeferMadness1313 said:
Wow I didn't know they did that! That's good to know. Thanks for the advice! It helps a lot. I won't be doing too long of an acclimation. The water will get too cold here if it's sitting outside of the tank.

Thats why I do it in the bag, in the tank. I use a small clamp, like an oversized plastic clothespin and clip it to the rim of the tank, and then squeeze in a turkey baster full of tank water every few minutes. once the water in the bag is almost double, I pour half down the sink and continue as before.

Lavey29 · Mar 9, 2022

Somebody also mentioned awhile back the some LFS add a mild solution sedative to the water to keep fish calm during shipping. I have not verified this myself though.

ReeferMadness1313 · Mar 9, 2022

Lavey29 said:
Somebody also mentioned awhile back the some LFS add a mild solution sedative to the water to keep fish calm during shipping. I have not verified this myself though.

That's interesting! I have never heard that before. I'm not sure, I have ordered from this place twice before. The first time I ordered a coral banded shrimp and some cleaner clams. The shrimp and a few clams died the same day. So I used my store credit from that to buy the Royal gramma. I'm not going to order from them again. It could just be bad luck, but I'm done with it.

Lavey29 · Mar 9, 2022

ReeferMadness1313 said:
That's interesting! I have never heard that before. I'm not sure, I have ordered from this place twice before. The first time I ordered a coral banded shrimp and some cleaner clams. The shrimp and a few clams died the same day. So I used my store credit from that to buy the Royal gramma. I'm not going to order from them again. It could just be bad luck, but I'm done with it.

If I remember correctly it made the bag water slightly blue tinted.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 9, 2022

ReeferMadness1313 said:
Wow I didn't know they did that! That's good to know. Thanks for the advice! It helps a lot. I won't be doing too long of an acclimation. The water will get too cold here if it's sitting outside of the tank.

As youre adding cup of tank water per instructions, the tank water will continue to warm it up

ReeferMadness1313 · Mar 9, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
As youre adding cup of tank water per instructions, the tank water will continue to warm it up

Yes you're right. I was thinking about drip acclimation! Every time I do a drip acclimation (I have a bunch of FW shrimp that I drip acclimate) the water doesn't stay warm for very long. I just got them mixed up in my rush to help the fish lol.

ReeferMadness1313 · Mar 9, 2022

Lavey29 said:
If I remember correctly it made the bag water slightly blue tinted.

This water was definitely not blue

ReeferMadness1313 · Mar 9, 2022

The fish is in QT now. It's only been a couple hours, but he is doing pretty well so far. I think maybe he was just "playing dead". Thank you everyone for the help! I truly appreciate you all taking the time to give me advice.

ReeferMadness1313 · Mar 9, 2022

PA717 said:
No problem. The guys at WWC warned me about it when I bought mine. Sure enough my guy “Purple” initially floated upside down until he settled in. Now he runs my tank, or thinks he does.

Yeah I think that's exactly what was going on! He is upright and swimming around in the QT now. I have a feeling this is going to be a fun fish with a lot of personality lol.

JumboShrimp · Mar 9, 2022

As soon as I open a bag an air stone goes in there. Then time is on my side.

Jedi1199 · Mar 9, 2022

ReeferMadness1313 said:
Yeah I think that's exactly what was going on! He is upright and swimming around in the QT now. I have a feeling this is going to be a fun fish with a lot of personality lol.

I love mine. He hides a lot, but is a stunningly beautiful fish when he decides to show himself.

Lavey29 · Mar 9, 2022

ReeferMadness1313 said:
This water was definitely not blue

Found this on the internet just for future knowledge...

Sedatives, mild and uncontaminated, are really useful. They slow fish respiration, and slow panic if the box is thrown, etc. A lot of shippers swear by a mild sedative, the famous blue tint in commercial shipments.
I find they work well with species that need higher oxygen levels, or if the shipper is concerned about possible delays. I always used the bag buddy version when I used to ship swordtails

USArmyReefer · Mar 9, 2022

PA717 said:
Royal grammas have a habit of “playing dead” initially. They’ll even float upside down. I’d be careful about a prolonged drip acclimation. If that bag is full of ammonia you’re just prolonging suffering.

Had the same issue and reached out to the seller to let them know and then a day later he was chill lol

bruno3047 · Mar 10, 2022

The blue tinted stuff they add to the water is called methylene blue. It calms the fish down and is used to counter-act any possible cyanide poisoning from its capture. Also it’s not a good idea to use an air stone in the bag water because it raises the pH and ammonia is much more lethal at higher pH.