Fire dart fish not doing good

[Abzdot]

My tank is around around 10 months with a clownfish being in there for the same amount of time, I decided to get a fire dart fish today from lfs, I put his bag in the tank for 30ish mins for temp acclimation then drip acclimated for another 20. I left the drip unsupervised for that time and came back when my 20 min timer went off, I came back to see the fish laying upside down in the bucket. My Parameters are fine, further proving it, my clown is doing well.

what should I do? Should I try getting my money back

[Firefish15]

Don’t give up yet, leave him in there for a bit.

Were there any chemicals in the bucket you drip acclimated in?

That depends on your store’s refund policy. If they have one, you’ll probably have to bring in your dead fish, receipt, and a water sample to get anything back. 

[Abzdot]

1 hour ago, Firefish15 said:

Don’t give up yet, leave him in there for a bit.

Were there any chemicals in the bucket you drip acclimated in?

That depends on your store’s refund policy. If they have one, you’ll probably have to bring in your dead fish, receipt, and a water sample to get anything back. 

Luckily he’s recovering!!

 

[Firefish15]

Oh good! Hopefully the clown doesn’t pick on him too much.

[Tamberav]

Dripping fish is stressful... if salinity matches I just float and add them. Glad he is coming around. 

[ajmckay]

Agree if the salinity (and maybe pH) match then don't bother with drip - usually I'll do some water exchanges though.  I've even gone as far as preferring one LFS over another because they mixed their salt closer to my levels.  Though honestly this ended up being dumb because of their employee rotation I found that over time they weren't really that consistent.

 

If the fish went belly up after 30 minutes still in the bag that seems like it would be either an injury (firefish are super skittish and can freak out during handling) or shock.

 

Just because your water parameters are fine doesn't mean they can't kill a new fish.  For example if the LFS keeps their tanks at 1.023SG and you're at 1.025 that's a pretty big difference that can kill if not acclimated properly.  Another example is temperature.  Depending on where you live and the volume of water, the temperature of the water in the bag could go from 75 to 65 pretty quickly.  Then if you heat it back up to 78 in 10 or 15 minutes that's a big shock.  To mitigate this, I always bring a lunch cooler with me and carry livestock home in in.  Keeps the temps much more stable. 

 

This is why most LFS don't offer guarantees on saltwater fish - your water can test fine but you may have acclimated wrong and they wouldn't really know. 

 

[Abzdot]

Hi all! He’s doing better than before, however, he’s really shy at the moment and doesn’t seem interested in eating yet, should I give him few more days to acclimate or should I be concerned? First pic was when I put him in the tank and second was around 30 mins after himself being in he tank

[Firefish15]

Fire fish can be quite timid. Don’t be surprised if you don’t see a lot of him for the first week. He’ll probably find a burrow or hole in the rocks. 
What are you feeding?

[Abzdot]

11 minutes ago, Firefish15 said:

Fire fish can be quite timid. Don’t be surprised if you don’t see a lot of him for the first week. He’ll probably find a burrow or hole in the rocks. 
What are you feeding?

Currently I’m feeding vitalis platinum marine flakes some days and other days I’ll feed some frozen brine shrimp, however, I haven’t actual had a chance to feed him but I did plop some near his hidy hole

[Firefish15]

I’d recommend getting some really nice frozen food. If your LFS carries LRS Reef Frenzy Nano, that’s a great one. Blend of a bunch of different sea animals. Feeds corals as well.

[Abzdot]

3 minutes ago, Firefish15 said:

I’d recommend getting some really nice frozen food. If your LFS carries LRS Reef Frenzy Nano, that’s a great one. Blend of a bunch of different sea animals. Feeds corals as well.

I’ll have a look when I go there again, the only downside of my lfs is it’s around 10 miles one way

[Firefish15]

Probably not worth it for one pack of frozen food! You could always call and see if they carry it.

[ajmckay]

I think it's fine to let the fish acclimate for the first day, but I would start offering appropriate food as soon as possible.  And if it doesn't take to what you're currently offering then I would try to find something else quickly.  If it doesn't eat in the first few days then I think that could be a sign of a problem and you will need to try to observe what the problem is. 

[Xj reefing]

In my experience using brine shrimp with garlic helps a lot.

[Abzdot]

3 hours ago, Xj reefing said:

In my experience using brine shrimp with garlic helps a lot.

 

6 hours ago, ajmckay said:

I think it's fine to let the fish acclimate for the first day, but I would start offering appropriate food as soon as possible.  And if it doesn't take to what you're currently offering then I would try to find something else quickly.  If it doesn't eat in the first few days then I think that could be a sign of a problem and you will need to try to observe what the problem is. 

Thank you for the advice guys! I have been trying to squirt some food (frozen brine shrimp, frozen mysis and flakes) into his little den hoping that he'll nibble on it, however, I have lost his location which is surprising as there aren't many hiding spots for him. I will give him some more time to acclimate but I do hope he becomes more joyful!

[ajmckay]

10 minutes ago, Abzdot said:

 

Thank you for the advice guys! I have been trying to squirt some food (frozen brine shrimp, frozen mysis and flakes) into his little den hoping that he'll nibble on it, however, I have lost his location which is surprising as there aren't many hiding spots for him. I will give him some more time to acclimate but I do hope he becomes more joyful!

If possible add more hiding spots.  These fish in particular like lots of nooks & crannies to hide in.  It may seem counter intuitive but often more hiding places encourages fish to be out more.  Maybe it's because they are always close to a hiding spot that they can dart back into?  

[Abzdot]

53 minutes ago, ajmckay said:

If possible add more hiding spots.  These fish in particular like lots of nooks & crannies to hide in.  It may seem counter intuitive but often more hiding places encourages fish to be out more.  Maybe it's because they are always close to a hiding spot that they can dart back into?  

That sounds like a great idea however my tank isn't that big (just a fluval evo 13.5Gal) with limitations