Dean

YAY!!! One of my LFS was finally able to order some polkadot Loaches!!! They'll be coming in next Thursday. That leads me to two questions. 1) how long should i let them stay in the LFS before I take them to their new home? The LFS store says they'll sell them right away; 1st come, 1st serve but should i wait for them to settle in? 2) how rough will they be to my plants? I just added several plants to my tank and would be very very sad if they ruin them. Thanks for you help!

Kayin1470

hmmm I don't know about your plants, but as far as getting them first, it's best if you show up while there still unloading fish, and buy them before they get out of the bag they were shipped in, that way they don't go into the nasty tanks at the fish store, AND they only have to acclimate once.


Personally I would try and get them to put a hold on them, for about 3 days or more because some fish just die sometimes, and it's important to get the hardy ones if you don't want to waste your money, if they refuse to hold them, then ask them about there return policies, my LFS is very gracious, and if the fish dies for any reason in the first 7 days after you buy it, you get a full credit for the store, which is pretty awesome.


If they have no return policy and you don't want to risk losing your money, than I would recommend looking online for some with a return or health guarantee, SOMETHING.


good luck.

Dean

They wont hold any fish but they do have a 7 day credit/return policy. I probably wouldn't be able to get them right as they come in but I could that same day. Should I let them settle in and then take my chances that they don’t sell all of them to quickly or get them right away and hope they do ok. If I do get them right away they probably won’t be very active so it might be hard to determine the est of the crop. What to do…?

Kayin1470

I'd go on the day of shipment when there stacking the boxes getting ready to unload and just look at them, although it will be difficult to tell which will do best, you will still have first pick, and if they really do sell as quickly as they make it seem, who knows there might be a line when there unloading them to get them lol, whatever you choose to do, good luck, and I hope you get the good ones.

Butterfly

I would suggest waiting until they are in the tank for a bit to choose which ones you want because you will be able to see them better. Polkadot Loaches( Botia kubotai) are very active and social loaches and love the company of their own kind. I would suggest at least three.As you can see at the bottom of this article young PDL's don't have spots, their stripes have to grow together to make spots as adults.http://www.loaches.com/species-index/botia-kubotai/?searchterm=polkadot%20loaches Might help you differentiate between young loaches and adult loaches. I've never had them eat/tear up my plants but if their not rooted well in the substrate they may make them float while playing or hunting for snails. I usually put small rocks/pebbles around the base of my plants in the loach tank until their well rooted.
They will definitely need a good acclimation time and preferably a time in a quarantine tank if you have one. Even if you get them straight from the shipping bag they could have still been exposed to some illness.
Let us know when you get them and we will need pictures also
Carol

Dean

when you say "in the tank for a bit" do you mean hours or days?

Dean

I'm sooo bummed. My fish didn't come in the order. My LFS was shorted most of thier order due to the pending HR669 bill. If you haven't heard of it yet, look it up. Not a good thing.

BulldogWrestler

Shouldn't have had an effect on your LFS. The bill is supposed to have little to no effect on the fish tank trade.

Dean

They told be that it has a huge affect and that their distributor is keeping a much smaller stock of fish until this gets sorted out.