LFS oscars keel over

[Qattarra]

My friend has a couple small oscars. after she had the first one for a few months and it was doing well , she wanted a second one. She purchased one and took it home. he seemed ok but later started staying on the aquarium floor ,leaning on his side. later he died. The next day she exchanged him and brought in a water sample. The employee claimed the water paramiters were over the scale and everything in the tank would die. Her water is fine , ammonia, nitrites are at 0. Nitrates are negligeable.( her test kits , and mine confirm this). Other oscar is doing very well. The third oscar, from this store, died the same way. She then bought an oscar from a different store and so now has 2 healthy/active/responsive critters.

My question comes after the store employee's response to the previous store's dying fish. He said "I know exactly why they died like that , they had been exposed to chlorinated water". Could this be right? I've never had this happen to me so I had no idea what to tell her. My guess would have been shock, either a violent disturbance , or chill. What do you guys think? Sue

[Fishy]

My friend has a couple small oscars. after she had the first one for a few months and it was doing well , she wanted a second one. She purchased one and took it home. he seemed ok but later started staying on the aquarium floor ,leaning on his side. later he died. The next day she exchanged him and brought in a water sample. The employee claimed the water paramiters were over the scale and everything in the tank would die. Her water is fine , ammonia, nitrites are at 0. Nitrates are negligeable.( her test kits , and mine confirm this). Other oscar is doing very well. The third oscar, from this store, died the same way. She then bought an oscar from a different store and so now has 2 healthy/active/responsive critters.

My question comes after the store employee's response to the previous store's dying fish. He said "I know exactly why they died like that , they had been exposed to chlorinated water". Could this be right? I've never had this happen to me so I had no idea what to tell her. My guess would have been shock, either a violent disturbance , or chill. What do you guys think? Sue

Sounds like they weren't healthy coming from this store. I don't think they died from chlorinated water if she already had the other oscar in the tank already. Could have been a combination of things, were they new oscars in the store and sold right away without being quarantined. If the other oscars she bought from a different store are doing well, it would certainly raise questions about the other stores fish and their health. I would ask them to do the water test in front of me, if they do not I probally wouldn't go back to the store.

I personally do not buy or rarely buy any livestock from stores for personal reasons that I will not get into here.

Allan

Edited October 7, 2007 by Fishy

[Qattarra]

I absolutely agree. I have issues with the handling and health of some lfs stock. My friend is new and as a new to this hobby person , she has been supporting these stores. I have printed a list of things to look for as the health and appearance goes. I've suggested some more quality places to go also.

As for the store doing the tests, I don't know , wasn't there. The fish had to be ill before she brought it home. She has come a long way in fishkeeping as far as keeping her water quality ideal. She knows how to prepare a fish for tank transfer and her tests are less than 3 months old. Whatever happened to these poor things , had to have happened before she got them home.

[darkangel]

This would'nt be the store with a couple of loud mouth know it all kids that could'nt give you the answer to a question if you told them what it was.

[dunl]

This wouldn't be turning into a venor review, would it?

Keep it on track, please.

[Qattarra]

I don't even know which store other than it was one of the chain stores, I didn't ask.

I know chlorine and chlorimines kill the good bacterias, I'm just questioning if it could do this to the fish. I'd like to go back to her and tell her to take the advice from this fella with a few grains of salt, because if he's "making it up as he goes along", the rest of his info might be questionable too.

[snaggle]

I have used tap water in Fort Saskatchewan to fill my tanks with out a problem for about 10 years. I only ever dechlorinated my water for my reef tank out there.

[Vallisneria]

I killed a few fish by not using dechlor before hand. After A few minutes of the fish being in the tank they started having clamped fins, hid and didn't move much. After a few hours the first one died and then by the next day they all were. I checked all the water tests and everything was fine, as was temp. Then I remembered I forgot to add prime to the water. So I definately think its possible to kill a fish becuase you didn't dechlor, especially if your city is using chloramines as they wont' off gas.

But since her other fish are fine I dont' think thats the problem. If it was all fish would be showing signs. Its probably that she just bought sick fish.

[snaggle]

I for got to say that I used dechlorinated water some of the time and I always used it when I set up the tank.

[RD.]

Yes, both chlorine and chloramine can kill fish, with chloramine being much more deadly to fish.

Chlorine dissipates as it runs through the water mains, and depending on where you are situated from the source in your town/city, the strength of chlorine that they use, and how much water you remove at each water change, you might be able to go without adding a water conditioner.

If you have chloramine in your local water supply (such as in Edmonton) there's really no getting around using a water conditioner. Chloramine can retain it's full strength for several weeks.

Having said that, it doesn't sound like this was the problem, it sounds like she simply bought weak unhealthy fish.

[fairdeal]

Small oscars are susceptible to the water conditions just like any other fish, but as they get larger they are virtually indestructible. I have seen them living in water that would probably kill other fish pretty quickly. I had 1 that did the "carpet crawl" at least a half a dozen times hitting the floor from @ 4 1/2' and every time I scooped him up and put him back in the tank it took him just minutes and he was ready to eat again. Once he laid on the carpet for quite a while as when I found him he was pretty dried out on the carpet side, but the next day you couldn't tell which one had been in the rough shape.

As long as they are healthy to start with and fed good quality food once they get to 6" they are extremely hardy fish.

With all the line and inbreeding going on with oscars it is very likely your friend got a substandard fish with a weakened immune system.

[Qattarra]

I will pass along all your comments. I agree, I think fish wasn't in optimal shape to start with. BTW the oscar she bought through the second lfs is still doing great. Thanks everyone.