Just bought some tetras, got them home and one is clearly not healthy (is likely to dies very soon).

[Marne]

Just bought 3 rummy nose tetras to add to my tank (we already had 2), got them home, kept the bag in the tank for half and hour, let them out and one is not very lively at all and his tail is realy pale compared to the others, he doesn't look healthy at all , the shop was half an hours drive away so they were not in the bag for long. I'm not happy as i now have to watch the poor fish die or get bitten/eaten by the others. I don't really want to make the trip back to get my money back as the petrol to get there will cost me more than the fish but i will eventually have to replace him with another as now i only have 4 healthy tetra's. What would you do? I wont be buying from this shop again .

What do i do with the poorly fish? seems mean watching him suffer but i don't have another tank to put him in

do you have a plastic tub or something? even an old ice cream tub?

far from ideal, but better than being tormented to death.
you'll need to keep changing the water as it'll probably cool quickly.

poor wee fish :(

I'm not happy at all, now one of the others look poorly, can only see 3 tetrea's swimming around, the other 2 are hiding and looking very poorly. Wish i went to pets at home instead (where we got the other 2 from), so far the other fish are not nipping them, they are hiden in the plants, will keep a close eye and remove them if i have too, i hope they dont infect my other fish with anything .

My Dad has tropicals, not me, but I know he would isolate ill ones in jars and float them in the tank to keep warm/safe

I took the worst one out and he has died . the other one is at the bottom of the tank looking sorry for himself.

Crikey, that's not good. You need to isolate them from the other fish, even just in an ice cream tub floating in the main tank (punch some holes in it so that the water flows through), then get them back to the shop ASAP tomorrow so that they don't transmit anything to your existing fish. It is very important to quarantine any new fish for 2-3 weeks to prevent them bringing in anything nasty and wiping out your whole tank.

When you are buying fish, it's a good idea to have a good look at them in the bag and don't be afraid to ask them to change a fish if it looks a bit ropey.

The other fish has perked up (is now swimming with the others), the one that died deffently did not look healthy (much paler than the others), i asked for 3 small tetras as the 2 i already had were small, maybe i should have gone for the bigger ones?), they looked ok in the shop (in the tank), i was shown them in the bag but because they were so tiny and the way the light was on them they were hard to see . I realy should have got them from the same place i got the original 2 as they seem to be really healthy.

Was also going to ask you EauRouge- my geppies seem to be acting oddly (they seem perfecty healthy) but seem to be going mad around the heater and filter, they seem more active and very close together (they seem to swim into each other like they are playing but are not nipping), is this normal?

I have learnt a lesson or 2 today, i wont be buying fish from that shop ever again and i will deffently check the fish are healthy before bringing them home. I always thought a Aquatic shop would be the best place to buy fish but i am wrong, i saw a man buying a large marine fish (maybe a parrot fish) and they didn't ask him any questions before selling it to him, i was not questioned at all before buying the tetras, anyone could go in there and buy fish.

My tank is now fully stocked (although i'm one tetra down), the man in the shop did say i needed 5+ when i asked but will 4 be ok for now? i really dont want to risk adding anything else to the tank, i really wish i hadn't bought any today but was worried that my 2 tetras would die without a few friends .

There are some really good aquatic shops and there are a lot of really shit ones- the good ones can have a dodgy sales assistant and vice versa- it's a bloody minefield, you have to really know your stuff to not get ripped off :(

4 tetras will be fine for now, they won't die. The shoal numbers are to make them feel more secure, so it's more of a long-term concern than something that needs to be addressed immediately.

Have you got a mix of male and female guppies or just males? Shoaling fish will often squabble to establish a pecking order, it's not a problem unless there are injuries or if one fish is getting ganged up on. If you've got a mixture of male and female then they are probably definitely shagging

The guppies are all male, i watched them for a while last night to see if it was on guppy causing the problems but they look like they are playing rather than fighting, one of the guppies has been a bit of a loner but seems to have joined in with the others now. I was worried about getting females as i didn't want to end up with babbies (but then again they would probably get eaten).

Definitely isolate all the new ones right away (this shoudl be standard practice whwne you buy any new fish). Hope they're ok.

The remaining fish are ok today, i couldn't remove the new ones from the tank as they look the same as my original 2 so no idea which is which. Luckily we only lost the one and the other one that looked poorly is now fine, have done a 10% water change today and the guppies seem to have calmed down.