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I have purchased from Live Aquaria for many years. I understand that almost all fish come in with some parasite whether internal or external in the hobby today and that treatment is almost always needed after acquiring a fish from anywhere - whether LA or some other vendor. With that said, my recent purchase from LA of a spot band butterfly and hippo tang was very disappointing. The hippo tang shows signs of infection near the base of the tail as seen upon inspection through the bag. The infection does not look too bad, so it could have been missed when the person bagging the fish for me processed it. I'm crossing my fingers that it makes it. As many of you know, the Hippo tang is a sensitive fish when shipping and first acclimating. It's in trifecta antibiotic treatment as I write.
When I finished acclimating and released the butterfly fish that was shipped to me bagged in a low stress shaded bag, it clearly exhibited signs of a raging infection all down the one side of its body. It is hard for me to believe that the person bagging this fish did not know it was sick. After treating with copper for many years, I’ve dealt with fish infections before. I know they usually do not kill a fish in a couple of days. I’m happy to say since learning about the trifecta antibiotics here at R2R, I have successfully treated multiple fish showing signs of infection when the infection was caught early and sometimes even when the infection was advanced a bit-several weeks into the infection.
Still, I knew there was no saving the butterfly fish. Checking the water quality, I knew it was good and my quarantine tank is fully cycled, so I started the 1st dose of the trifecta antibiotics as soon as I saw the condition of the fish. It died before the night was over. I'm very disappointed. Is there a slight chance the person bagging the fish didn’t know these fish were sick? I supposed the tang’s infection could have been missed and even the butterfly fish if the infection was caused by one of those rare viral types that kill more quickly. To be fair, there is always that chance, but I’m inclined to think otherwise.
Below is a picture of the dead fish, less than 10 hours after receiving it in overnight shipping. I don’t have a microscope to identify the infection that killed the fish, but I’ve seen infections that look similar. The infection starts out looking like a hematoma spot or spots somewhere on the body of the fish, usually increasing in size over several days to weeks, with the end stage (if not treated quickly) progressing to bleeding ulcers, killing the fish as seen in the picture of the butterfly fish.
BTW, I emailed LA with pics of the dead fish and let them know I was not a happy camper. I did not receive a response back. No surprise.
To be clear, I’m not upset (at this point) with LA. The company to date has always stood by its policies to give credit for fish that die within 14 days. It’s the person that bagged the fish that boils my blood. IMHO, he/she did not inspect these fish well for illness before bagging. I guess purchasing from DD, where the health of fish is more carefully monitored, is the safest bet when ordering. Fish purchased from the California facility that die are credited or reimbursed, but if you’re like me and lose a day’s pay when you take off work to receive in a shipment of fish, the cost of purchasing from the CA facility is just not worth it.
What do the experts think? Vibriosis?
When I finished acclimating and released the butterfly fish that was shipped to me bagged in a low stress shaded bag, it clearly exhibited signs of a raging infection all down the one side of its body. It is hard for me to believe that the person bagging this fish did not know it was sick. After treating with copper for many years, I’ve dealt with fish infections before. I know they usually do not kill a fish in a couple of days. I’m happy to say since learning about the trifecta antibiotics here at R2R, I have successfully treated multiple fish showing signs of infection when the infection was caught early and sometimes even when the infection was advanced a bit-several weeks into the infection.
Still, I knew there was no saving the butterfly fish. Checking the water quality, I knew it was good and my quarantine tank is fully cycled, so I started the 1st dose of the trifecta antibiotics as soon as I saw the condition of the fish. It died before the night was over. I'm very disappointed. Is there a slight chance the person bagging the fish didn’t know these fish were sick? I supposed the tang’s infection could have been missed and even the butterfly fish if the infection was caused by one of those rare viral types that kill more quickly. To be fair, there is always that chance, but I’m inclined to think otherwise.
Below is a picture of the dead fish, less than 10 hours after receiving it in overnight shipping. I don’t have a microscope to identify the infection that killed the fish, but I’ve seen infections that look similar. The infection starts out looking like a hematoma spot or spots somewhere on the body of the fish, usually increasing in size over several days to weeks, with the end stage (if not treated quickly) progressing to bleeding ulcers, killing the fish as seen in the picture of the butterfly fish.
BTW, I emailed LA with pics of the dead fish and let them know I was not a happy camper. I did not receive a response back. No surprise.
To be clear, I’m not upset (at this point) with LA. The company to date has always stood by its policies to give credit for fish that die within 14 days. It’s the person that bagged the fish that boils my blood. IMHO, he/she did not inspect these fish well for illness before bagging. I guess purchasing from DD, where the health of fish is more carefully monitored, is the safest bet when ordering. Fish purchased from the California facility that die are credited or reimbursed, but if you’re like me and lose a day’s pay when you take off work to receive in a shipment of fish, the cost of purchasing from the CA facility is just not worth it.
What do the experts think? Vibriosis?
