mjordan

anyone had trouble with these little guys. GBR... i got 4 at the local pet store... (this place is amazing so much better than petmarts; im friends with the manager) anyways i brought these 1 male and 3 females (atleast i think they were) and 2 died the 2nd day (both were females). then the third day i lost another female. i thought the male which was bigger than the females would have the best chance in survival but all of a sudden on the 5 or 6 day he died to.
i reseached a little and it look like the mall (not shure bout the females) had a sore from a parisite. is this common? was it a bad batch? is it contagous to rest of fish? this was 3 weeks ago so its just alittle follow up.

is still plan on getting more when the store gets a new shipment.

note that fish had been in store over a week and not 1 had died there.

if iwere to guess i would say that they died from stress making these sores come. raise in water temp compared to LFS mines @ 80 or pH ajustment 7.2 to 6.8 or 6.7


thanxs fishlore buddies

capekate

GBRs are very sensitive fish and need a long time to acclimate to the tank. Its a good idea to adjust them slowly over a few hours with slowly adding tank water to the bag. GBRs are also sensitive to any new tank problems such as ammonia and nitrites. And really should be introduced to an established tank.
They are a hard fish to introduce to a tank at any time and with any problems going on the success rate with them falls drastically.
Im sorry to hear that you lost these wonderful little fish and hope that you have better success with the new batch. I would first try to find out why this batch died off before introducing any more tho.

mjordan

this tank is cleaner than my dogs food bowl after dinner i mean there are almost no nitrate like so little they dont even read on the test kit.

capekate

Even in pristine water conditions GBRs have a hard time acclimating. I know a number of small LFS's that do not even sell them anymore due to the loss of these little guys.They just do not adjust well to being moved from tank to tank. Bolivian rams on the other hand are much more hardier. How long did you acclimate your little ones before releasing them into the tank?

mjordan

i aclimated them 30 minutes in a bag that they came in from the store.

my LFS got these guys in for the first time in 4 months and they were fine in the store but died when i brought them home.

i know these little dudes arnt speed fast all race u round the tank to see who wins but they just kind of sat there. to me i noticed somthing wrong after first day that the didnt really like to eat much and sat on gravel. wat a couch potatoe fish. hahaha

it wasnt very injoyable to watch....

blueovalgal

My fish guy told me to acclimate my GBRs by slowly adding my tank water into their fish bag (as capekate suggested above). I used an air hose (is that what it's called?), and my tank's water slowly dripped into the fish bag. I think he told me to do that for a minimum of two hours, and I think I did it for three just to be on the safe side... I had four fish and ended up losing one. I later discovered I had two males and a female... Good Luck to you and hope this helps! Barb

capekate

30 minutes is not enough time to acclimate these guys. Plus your PH level was much different than the pet store was and that short acclimation may have caused the problems.

mjordan

thanks so much im going to try again but buy from i guy on aquabid.(in the spring) this guy is suposivly reputable. he sold 500 items and only had one negative on his feedback.
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/aucti...sto&1231108527

wat shipping should i get
free priority
25$ live arival priority
live arival express $45

i was thinking the free priority because shipping is a dollar more than the fish.
almost like getting first year $800 insurace on a $750 computer

Drew04

I guess I got lucky somehow. We saw them at TFP and thought they looked great (didn't know a thing about them other than what the card stated) We bought 2 blue rams (male and female) brought them home, floated the bag for about an hour then released them. While the bag was floating I researched them on the internet (I know, I know should have done that first)

To my dismay, I found that they ARE NOT for beginners since they require old water with pristine conditions. The articles that I read stated most aquarists lose these fish within days or hours of bringing them home. I also read they are very difficult to feed in a new enviornment and will frequently die because they refuse to eat.

Ours have had no issues at all (knock on wood) and have been in the tank long enough for me to stop worrying about that initial introduction high death rate.

In fact, after only 2 weeks it appears that the pair have scoped out a spot for eggs. They both are exhibiting behaviors that I read as preparing for breeding. I doubt it would be successful though, since I am not in any way set up for that, but eggs would provide some quality nutrients to the diet of all my fish, including the rams.

cerianthus

GBR was such common and well adpted fish before. Maybe too much differences b/n your water and lfs as someone pointed out.
LFS near me has them pretty much all the time in 15 Ga display tank. Pretty much able pick out mated pair w/o any difficulties.
Test your water and lfs water for pH to determine how long the acclimation time should be. Either way, should acclimate new arrivals in bucket using airline tubing (tie knot at one end to control flow) or use IV tubing.