Put 3 of the retards down.

[wandj]

Well, I finally put 3 of those retarded Blue Jack Dempseys down. I still have 3 left that are not so buggered up, but their days are numbered too.

The 3 victims had chronic popeye that would not go away. One fish had the centre orbital a cream color...possibly went blind. And the other 2 had such bad eye problems they were bleeding in the eyes.

And yes, I tried EXTENSIVELY to try to cure them, but I'm convinced it is not a disease and mostly very poor genetics.

My method of destruction? I put them in a marg container and put them in the freezer. Just pulled them out a few minutes ago and flushed them.

It was really hard for me. :cry:

[Moogled]

You know, it's probably easier if you put them in a plastic bag and smash them on a hard surface. Well, for me anyway. Some people have problems with doing it hands-on, haha.

At least you can look forward to getting new fish.

[wandj]

I only put down one other fish before these....a checkered barb that had mouth fungus (bacteria actually) so bad it lost most of the top part of its mouth. I used a bunch of paper towel and hammered it with my meat tenderizer hammer. The whole fish was smooshed.

My only concern using this method......if you miss the head/upper thoracic region, then you may cause more pain and suffering before it dies. Plus, it's hard to hit a fish if it's flapping around.

But, the baggie is a good idea, it would prevent that no?

Strange thing about my Blues, I had moved them to a small tank on our fireplace mantle. I was going to put them down earlier but chickened out and dumped them in this tank as a last chance. Amazingly, today my beau asked me why there was only one fish in this tank. (Actually, 2 left as one was at the top and I have one more in a bigger tank). I was shocked thay my fish-hater beau even noticed! So I told him what I did to the others. He asked me why I didnt just flush them. (I did after they were dead)

Ahhh, now that's cruel. Good thing I didn't ask him to do the deed for me.

[RD.]

Sorry to hear that, but better for the fish in the long run.

[Pop Eye]

That sucks!!! :cry:

I know how much you liked them!!!

Im sure you will have more luck with a different kind of fish!!!

[Vallisneria]

Sorry to hear they had to be put down, but it was for the best if they weren't getting better.

[Moogled]

The baggy idea is the best way for me to go about performing a mercy kill. I had to kill my Betta that way.

You just put the fish in a clear plastic bag, make sure there is little water to no water or the impact will not kill the fish. Just hold the bag with the fish at the other end and whip the fish against a hard surface. BOOYEAH.

It sounds horrible, but it's like dying instantaneously in a car crash, there is no pain unless you survive the crash with missing limbs and horrific scars. It's best to just double bag the fish and throw it out. I'm not really a big fan of flushing fish, especially if they die due to bacterial/parasitic infections.

[wandj]

Good method, but it's a bit violent. With my luck, the bag will break and I'll be scraping scales of the wall. OR, I'll miss the wall, etc entirely.

I had these Blues for 3 or more months, and they didn't just suffer from poor eyes. Most of them did not grow! And they could find the food, so that wasn't it. Even the worst one, I could tell he couldn't see, it would still swim to the bottom and smell where the pellets landed and eat them. And they were eating the small NLS pellets, so the food was good. They were not starving, that's for sure. And they still wouldn't grow. And they weren't skinny. I do have pics, I'll try to post them.

[wandj]

These 2 fish are still alive. The one in the second pic on the left is the best one and is in a tank by itself now. The one on the right of it is much smaller and you can see it has google eyes. The fish in the top pic is the same as the one on the right of the fish in the lower pic. (The 3 I put down were smaller than this one)

You can see how small these guys are as that is a normal sized piece of blue gravel in the pic. These fish will not grow. They were this size when I bought them.

[Moogled]

This begs the question, and pardon my brutal language:

Why did you buy such disfigured fish? Did you know what you were getting into when you bought these fish from the store?

Or did these symptoms manifest after you got them? I'm confused because I'm not sure if you knew they were going to stay that small.

Edited December 15, 2005 by Moogled

[wandj]

I was at Big Als and I saw these fish for the first time. I asked the staff about them, and they told me as much as they knew. At the time, they didn't look bad. (There were about 100 in there and they were all sold when I visited the store a few months after, so I guess I was not the only one that missed it!) I did not notice the google eyes in the store, but when I got them home, some did have a slight case. I put them all in a 45 gal bare bottom tank by THEMSELVES. (It was the same tank that had 8 adult L260's in it because I traded the Queens for these) This should have been heaven for them. They had frequent water changes. But water quality is not the problem. 7 fish no bigger than 1.5 inches each in a 45 gal? I noticed that the eyes started getting worse, so I moved them to a 20 gal as a hospital tank. If you followed my past posts, you will know that I properly treated them with mild meds first, and when they didn't work, they big ones. I started with Melafix. No result. Then Erythromycin. No result. I was not shot gunning, but I kept going with meds and saw no result. Remember I lost the best one to Dropsy? Thought it was Bloat, but it's dead anyway. They were getting the BEST food ever. Mixed frozen meaty foods with Cichlid NLS. Through the whole thing, they ALL had enormous appetites. (The best one stopped eating after he got sick though).

I'm not going to repeat all my posts here. Like I said, feel free to read the past ones.

Fact is, though they ate a lot, none grew. The eyes refused to look normal and did get worse.

ANd if you want to probe into my husbandry, I would be happy to show you my 5 regular Jacks that have grown like crazy since I got them AND they are GORGEOUS! You can come over any time. Majestic has seen them.

And I treat all my fish the same and these Blues are the only ones acting like this.

[fatpuffer]

overdose them in clove oil. clove oil is used to anesthetize the fish. I use it before trimming my puffers beak. Too much oil will put them in an eternal sleep.

Jonah

[Kevin]

Sorry to hear about your luck with these. I would appreciate any additional information you have on keeping these healthy.

I just picked up a 2 inch long one from Riverfront for $6.50. I know that they are generally much more expensive, so I thought for that price I would try one. He is going in a fry grow out tank with Blue Acara fry (which I will have for sale soon if anyone is interested - awesome fish). Where he will get 20% water change every second day. Is there anything else you have learned that might help with these genetically weak retards?

Kevin

[dunl]

I've heard that the best thing to do is place a bucket of water outside until the top is frozen.

Break the crust and drop them in straight from the tank. The shock instantaneously shuts down the nervous system, supposedly.

[wandj]

DD, you sure got an awesome price. The ones I got were worth $40 each at the time. Funny they went on sale later on...

I think that not all of them are crap. Before my best and biggest died of "dropsy", he was gorgeous and he was growing! The second best, the bigger one in the pic with a little fin damage, is doing ok. I see a little cloudiness of the eyes a little bit that comes and goes. I really think it depends on the fish. There were various fin shapes with these too. You can see that in the pics. One has a long, high fin and the bigger one has shorter fins. These are not only being line-bred for their color, but long fins as well.

I am still interested in these fish and am looking into some from B.C. My associate there has instructions to find VERY HEALTHY ones for me.

My 300 gal is waiting.....