Don't
ever buy a skinny fish, (unless you are looking for a rescue
project) look to the belly and the flesh behind the eyes,
both should be full and meaty. That combined with actually
seeing the fish eat, will help ensure a healthy transition
to your tank.
--
Laura D
Proud
sponsor of this column
When
buying anemones, look for specimens that are not translucent,
have a tight orifaces, sticky tentacles, and securely adhered
to the substrate/glass.
--
Len
One
of the more important things to look at when purchasing
any livestock is the condition, care, and appearance of
the store's tanks/systems, as well as the knowledge level
of the employees/salepeople you're dealing with. Chances
are that if a system isn't well kept, neither are the animals
in it, and if the salesperson doesn't know his stuff, you
may end up w/ problems of compatability/suitability.
ALWAYS
research BEFORE you buy.
--
Vitz
Watch
for heavy "breathing"; rapid movement of the gills.
In some cases, this can just be some stress-related issue
that the fish can often bounce back from fairly quickly.
But if you see fish in a dealer tank that are all breathing
hard or just trying to stay afloat in the stream of a powerhead
or filter outlet, then be advised that such fish are suffering
from poor water parameters or even internal diseases.
Color,
obviously, can be a good indicator of health and nutrition.
Ask to see a fish eat, and if it doesnt, and its colors
look "washed out" or faint, and/or it has cavities
or "depressions" in its body, then just plain
dont buy, unless youre a long-long-long time aquarist and
you have patience and spare time on your hands...
Lastly,
corals and sessile inverts that look scraggely are scraggely.
But, let it be said that corals are a lot like plants; you
can cut them, bash them, make them suffer poor conditions,
and even forget about them (Note: Do NOT let any of these
things happen if you can help it or youre fragging a coral),
and often times they will grow back, much in the same way
a plant or fungus/simple plant-form/flora will. So, make
a good decision and buy something that looks like it has
life in it yet if you have the perfect conditions in which
to nurse it back to health.
--
DewrGleision
Research,
research, research, research. It cant be stressed enough,
the internet is a wonderous thing. If you see a critter
in a petstore, online, or wherever and you just have to
have it. Remember, it can wait. Be patient. Get the name
of the critter and spend a few hours reading about him (or
her) on the internet. Ive actually seen nudibranchs for
sale in a petstore in a reeftank with corals and all for
sale. But wait! there is are species of nudibranch that
doesnt eat corals like the rest of them, this is exactly
why you have to research. Dont take anyones word on anything.
As the old tv commercial used to say... "look it up
dear."
--
Tackett
When
purchasing a tridacnid clam, it should be open but not gaping.
It should react when you pass your hand over it to block
the light. Its mantle should extend over the edge of the
shell. It should not have tiny rice sized snails on the
underside of the shell--look closely. If it's attached to
a rock, leave it on. If it must be removed, clip the threads
with scissors as close to the rock as possible.
A
lot of fish selection for me comes down to the behavior
of the fish. The fish shouldn't have any signs of disease,
and it should be thick and not skinny, but besides that
it should be behaving normally. It should be able to keep
its position in the water, not be constantly hiding, hopefully
(but not necessarily) eating prepared food, not darting
around the tank, not trying to jump out of the tank, not
swimming upside down (this is normal for some though!),
etc.
--
Matt_Wandell
Proud
sponsor of this column
Plan
additions to your tank before getting to the store with
cash in hand. Or even better, plan out the tank (with options)
before adding anything.
Get
some books, read online magazines/forums, ask advice, invite
criticism, and develop a plan for the tank. First thing
to figure out is what kind of tank you're hoping to build.
Do you want a predator tank? A biotope tank? A peaceful
community tank? An SPS tank? Something else entirely? There
are a lot of good reasons why you might not have an answer
to this first question, but you should come to some decision
before making any other decision as it will dictate just
about everything else about your tank.
If
all you want is a "reef tank" and you really can't
be more precise than that, then you want a community tank
and the only question that remains is how much excitement
(predation) you want going on in your tank. Me, I'm for
peaceful cohabitation, but other reefers don't seem to mind
the possibility of having some excitement in their tanks.
That excitement will almost certainly be measured in the
loss of a few fish, so if that's what you want, be aware
of what you're getting.
Once
you've got a top-level goal for your system, other decisions
become a lot easier. Presumably you've already got the tank
running, so the size is fixed. Start asking and reading.
What you're looking for are ways to fit animals into your
tank, much like putting pieces into a puzzle. You can't
put too many fish, or fish that require too much space in
the small volume of a tank. You also probably don't want
to put fish that will agressively compete for the same territory
or the same foods.
For
my community tank, I wanted a few commensal relationships,
so I decided on an anemone/clownfish pairand a shrimp goby/pistol
shrimp pair. Both of these pairs tend to stay close to one
location and close to the bottom of the tank, so if I put
one on each end of the tank, they wouldn't bother each other.
This leaves the mid/high water region of the tank pretty
much open. A small school of smaller chromis would be fairly
peaceful, active, and tend to stay higher in the tank, out
of the way of the clownfish and the goby. For a moderate
tank size (up to 80 gallons), this is probably it (rule
of thumb: 1" fish/5gal water). For something bigger,
maybe a royal gramma to live in the rocks or attempt to
create some mating opportunities for the goby or the clownfish...
Now,
note something about my plan. It isn't too precise. My plan
is not to pair a Stonogobiops yasha (whiteray goby) with
a Alpheus randalli (pistol shrimp) and then to pair a Amphiprion
ocellaris (false percula clownfish) with a Stichodactyla
mertensii (carpet anemone) and then to add a school of Chromis
vanderbilti (Vanderbilt's chromis). That may be the most
exotic and beautiful combination I could possibly go for,
but it's unlikely that I'm going to find exactly what I
need in the timeframe that I need it. Patience is indeed
the primary virtue of the aquarist, but I'm not waiting
around six months for someone to get around to catching
a few hard-to-catch chromis when other varieties are so
commonly available.
You'll
still need to read up on all of the features of the animals
you're planning, otherwise you might not know to add the
goby/shrimp pair first, followed by the anenome/clownfish
pair, and then later, the school of chromis (in increasing
order of activity so that each fish has the best chance
of settling in). Also, you may find out other facts like
mixing oceans (the royal gramma is Atlantic/Carribean, the
others are Indo-Pacific) can increase the risk of disease
in your tank...
So
once you've got a stocking plan (the fish you want with
the best timing to get each new arrival), the last piece
of advice is to take your money in hand and go into the
store with as much information as possible. Know exactly
what the fish you want looks like (stores are rather famous
for confidently attaching wildly inaccurate names to the
fish they're selling), if there are any similar-looking
fish (and how to tell them apart), how this fish looks when
healthy (usually meatier is better, though a bulging belly
is almost always bad), and don't accept last minute substitutes
unless you're sure the substitute is acceptable (I would
accept a school of cyan chromis if someone had just bought
all of the green chromis, but I would not be okay with a
few blue damselfish, no matter how closely related they
were to a chromis (LFS actually said this )).
Above
all, be patient. If they don't have what you want this week,
someone will have it soon enough. Keep your money and spend
it on your terms.
--
Ross (aka "rabagley")
Sometimes
you see a critter you've just got to have, but the store
just got it in that day or the day before. This happens
to all of us now and then. Do you take it and hope it makes
it? Do you wait and come back in a few days just hoping
it will still be there after it has had a chance to acclimate?
Decisions, decisions right? Maybe not.
Since
it's fairly common practice to have a quarantine tank, you
can always take something home right away, but you run the
risk of it dying on your dime, especially if it was a wild
specimin and made a long trip before arriving.
Chances
are if you have an established system, you are probably
an established customer with your LFS. Most of the time,
any good store wouldn't sell something so new to their stock
unless it came from a reliable or local source like a wholesaler
they have dealt with for some time. If you are a fairly
regular customer, most owners and managers will be happy
to hold the animal for a while for a fair deposit. If you're
a frequent customer, its possible they may even hold it
for free.
This
arrangement allows you to "visit" your new critter
to see if it's maintaining a healthy appearance. It also
gives the LFS the chance to get it on a regular feeding
regimin with foods they use and sell ensuring greater chances
for success in your system. For inverts, they will have
a chance to adjust to a quality lighting set-up especially
if collected in the wild.
If,
on the chance the animal does not survive acclimation, or
becomes ill, you can generally put your deposit towards
other animals or items.
--
J. Howard
Knowledge,
patience and observation are the three commandments IMO...in
other words: read, wait, and watch your critters!
