QT failure

[fatoldsun]

I picked up 2 Banggii Cardinals from a reffer (not LFS) but he's a dealer more or less (orders livestock and re-sells). I used my smaller 10g QT setup as they were small and don't move much. Same setup I've used for every fish in my system just about (well I've varied the tank size) did regular 2g water changes -every 48 hours or so and saw them eat. Had them for 7 days. Lost one this morning (8th day) and the other before I got home from work. Any guesses? They looked fine. No signs of ich. No heavy gill movement. I hadn't checked ammonia but the water was changed a lot. Just weird b/c they were fine for 7 days and then just like that I lost both. Something must have gone askew. I'm not sure what to test for before I break the QT down.

 

[greybolt03]

We're they wild caught or tank raised. I've heard wild caught have a very poor survival rate?

 

[Hawkeye]

my money is on that they were wild caught.

 

[Hawkeye]

btw - will this dealer help you like divers den 14 day guarantee - or are you out of luck?

 

[mnat]

We're they wild caught or tank raised. I've heard wild caught have a very poor survival rate?

+1

 

[TanksNStuff]

How heavy was the flow in the QT? I lost a set of 3 bangai after only a couple days due to a heavy flow. They seemed to weak to fight the current and just gave up.

 

[fatoldsun]

My guess is wild caught. The tank bred tend to be a lot more expensive. The guy gets mostly coral and has a few fish brought in as well. Guessing he had them about a week or two. Plus a week for me plus some time with the supplier so they made it about a month at least. Not too much flow in the QT. just a small HOB filter with some GAC and an air block for gas exchange. Far less flow than they'd have had they made it into the DT. I think something must have happened to my parameters. I'm going to test everything tomorrow. Maybe I fed too heavy and the partial WCs weren't enough. For them
To both go back to back in such a short time...

 

[falconut]

From what I've read they're just hit or miss in the beginning. More being a miss if wild caught. I'd bet they're wild caught otherwise you would probably have been told. The more I read about them, the luckier I feel, I've had two wild caught one's do really well. Never saw a captive bred locally. My 1st one lived around 3 years and the 2nd is still going strong after 2 years.

Only sugestion I'd have is to look or a fat healthy loking one that's eatting with gusto, not just picking.

 

[mnat]

Even though the captive bred ones are more expensive initially, they wind up being cheaper because they don't die like that and you have to replace them. I know Trop gets in captive bred (which is still a ride for you) and they are generally 25-30 bucks a piece (and with the discount they are running it would be 45 for a pair). I have also seen captive bred ones in Reef 2 reptiles and AO as well. I am sure other stores carry them, but those are the ones I have seen with my own eyes.

Now I am really going to guilt trip you:

http://reefbuilders.com/2012/03/12/banggai-rescue-project/

 

[Hawkeye]

I have seen captive bred sold at OG II. Unfortunately they are slightly higher priced and you do not see a rush of people buying them. I would guess they price them higher because frankly they live a lot longer. The wild caught ones they probably want to get out of their inventory asap before they possibly die...

Not to add to the guilt-trip, we should all encourage each other not to buy wild-caught as mnat noted. We had a meeting once where a speaker came talking about the danger to the wild-population of banggais. I forget his name...james knows.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Yes we really should buy captive bred ones. They are extremely easy to buy and most of the LFS carry them. Phil even got Trop to finally break down and sell the CB ones. They are one fish that Reefers can unfortunately say they are destroying the natural population. They come from a very particular enviroment and are easy to collect. They don't survive well on average though. CB ones are much better.