spotting healthy fish
- Thread starter oozy
- Start date
lcc
Member
I think it ism better to play it safe. I do not have enough experience to decide if the fish is ill or just beat up a little. With the price of live stck and the chance of possiblely invecting a reef system I think you did the correct thing. After all, there will always be another wrasse to buy somewhere.
pufferlover
Active Member
When looking for good fish look for the following; Clear eyes, clean fins, no spots, inquisitive nature exploring the surroundings. Now a fish that has a fin or two a bit beat up it is not neccessarily a bad buy as it may have been in with the wrong tankmates (most lfs do not have enough tanks and tend to crowd fish into what they have). I have read articles that say nicked fins will heal frayed fins are a nother problem usually. If one has a qt tank then the fish has time to get healed and ready to move into a new tank with friends. Wrasses I have had do get a bit beat up sometimes (even from just burying at night to sleep) but they heal fast. I had a yellow coris wrasse (also called a 4 spot wrasse or banana wrasse) that fish survived anything that happened including 3 tank wipe-outs over the years. I finally gave it to a friend to make room for something else and it still is going strong at last report. From time to time its fins would get beat up and I would add a little nova aqua or poly aqua and within a week or two it was good as new.
tanker newbie
Member
also theres 1 more thing, with saltwater fish you get lots of diffrent nice looking colors, this is another way to pick out a good speicem(but by far should not be the only way) good color is also a good sign as well
pufferlover
Active Member
tanker added a excellent point. Yes good vibrant colors mean a healthy fish more often then not.
sbustobante
Member
I don't know about the vibrant thing...some of the symptoms of cyanide or other not nice methods of catching and keeping the fish alive til they get to your door will make the fish more vibrant.
You definately don't want dull, but TOO vibrant is a red flag.
You definately don't want dull, but TOO vibrant is a red flag.
pufferlover
Active Member
Your point is well taken. What I think we were trying to say was a dull looking drab fish may or may not be healthy, but a fish with true coloration (maybe vibrant was a bad word to use) is better. Yes some methods of collection can give the fish a great coloration to. I think that one has to look for all the right things as stated above and still weigh the fishes actions in the tank before buying. Many stores here will not sell fish that come from those type of collection points (at least that is what they say). No matter how you cut it fish buying is a buyer beware type of purchase at best at most lfs.
R
red lobster
Guest
I always ask to see the fish eat.
I have seen perfectly healthy active fish not eat.
You should hear the stories. "well he ate this morning" , "he must be full" etc.
don't take any chances
I have seen perfectly healthy active fish not eat.
You should hear the stories. "well he ate this morning" , "he must be full" etc.
don't take any chances
fixitdude2001
Member
Just wanted to add this in, we were out saturday for a nice around the lake ride and, found a very nice fish store that carried all kinds of saltwater fish and some corals. We were looking around and they had this clown trigger the size of my open hand, colors were awsume swam around real good , touch the glass and he would slam it . Nice all over fish, but I looked real close when he slowed down, the poor thing was covered with ick, and they wanted 125.00 for him, I called the guy over and mentioned it and, his comment was , he just feed all the fish and didnt notice it, and I said ,come on ,it was very clear it had a problem , his comment was , we will watch it but it should be OK. now this was a nice store but the young inexperienced staff was very depressing 
