Waking up to devistation...

[mikev]

Out of the 200 Sewellia in the shipment 200 died. Almost all of them within a six hour period. The issue is clearly how they were shipped from Vietnam.

And the importer, after seeing that the fish is dying, still went ahead and shipped them to the customers?
Wow!

Did he warn you at least about the likely problem?
Is he refunding the money?

[chefkeith]

Sorry. I thought you were looking for help. I was just trying help. Once again Sorry about your loss. I've been there.

[helen nightingale]

Chris i think i read that you are waiting for a post mortem on the fish. is this something that is very easy for you to have done where you live and with your contacts?

it sounds like you know what you are doing and that you care. there should be more people around like you. at least some of them find their way here.

[chris1932]

First

Let me say I am sorry for being a little sh*%$^ in my last reply. The loss of the Sewellia really took me off guard. I am not used to just having mass die off. The last time it happened it was also with hillstreams and I was so dissapointed I almost converted the tank to an apisto breeder. It is also around the time i started posting on here.
My supplier had not lost any of the shipment up to the evening I met him in person at the midway point between our homes and picked them up. It was after I had them in my posession that we both noticed a problem. I also at that time picked up 2 cory grissius 2 cory seussi 2 cory loxozonus 20 pygmy hastatus and 6 marbled hatchets. All of the other fish are doing fine and have acclimated well. I have been refunded for the Sewellia.
I am fortunate to have a relationship with a man who owns Hanover Koi farms. He is my parents neighbor. He breeds some very expensive fish and is capable of disection gram staining and owns one of the nicest photo electric microscopes I have ever seen. He has 7 ponds in excess of 500,000 gallons and over 10,000 in inside tank space. It is an impressive set up to say the least.
The human hand carries quite a bit of germs so I never handle fish. There are quite a few things our hands come in contact with on a daily basis that dont just wash off. Quatinary Amonnium chloride and Isothiazolon are used in almost all soap as a biocide and preservative. these things bone to oils in the skin and stay there for longer than you think. Transfering these things to the fish can damage the slime coat. If i have to put my hands in any aquarium I scrub my hands with Bon Ami cleanser. I use high quality nets, net soak, and I have nets for all of my tanks.

Lastly Martin and most of the people on here I respect you and your knowledge of these fish more than you will ever know. Before I purchased my first little shuffle butt I read your posts and Life in the fast lane until I could almost recite it word for word. It is only due to the knowledge available here that I endevor to keep these highly evloved little fish. There are times when I do a mild acclimation, but it is only if I think there is a problem, and after some testing has shown that there could be adverse side effects to direct addition.

I am sorry if I offended anyone Bitey, chefkeith, curtis. Your information is valid, and I appreciate your advice.

Christian Moscarell

[wasserscheu]

Hi Chris,

Thank you for the interessting facts about hands in the tank. Even though I am a baby-soap user (yes I am I startet thinking more about my hands-hygenic, amongst others (as per your describtion) the sweat may be actually agressiv to the fish-skin. I will look for good quality nets, many off them are having pretty rough textile, I was worried about rubbing off too much slime of the fishskin.

... do you allready have info. regarding new Sewellia shipments? It will work next time.

Wolfram
P.S: my dealer did not even appologize for or refund the infected cat´s

[Martin Thoene]

Hey Chris, I'm not sure that you did offend anyone. I don't see anything in your posts to suggest that. I'm with Helen on this. You obviously care deeply about what goes on in your tanks, plus you have the technical ability to do more parameter tests than the average person can.

All bodes well. Even the best fishkeepers have the odd disaster. You can only do so much. Like I said.....these fish come to us on a knife's edge of survival during the import process. Any one stress in excess can tip the balance and it doesn't matter WHAT you do because the damage is already done.

Persevere mate. You'll get there eventually.

Martin.

[wasserscheu]

I appreciate Martin pointing that out.

... I was also scratching my head, reading your last post and even scrolling back looking for any offences that I may have missed, could not see any neither... (I started to worry whom I already may have offset with my "German charme" in an international forum)

Chris, it was a great move though. I think many have respected just the thought. Some other forum may take that as guideline...

[helen nightingale]

Chris thanks for the usefull information you gave us. i am normally really careful about washing my hands before i go near my tanks. i will have to have a re-think.

it sounds like you are very fortunate with your contacts regarding fish post mortem. its bad enough when a fish dies, and even worse to not know exactly why. would it be possible to show us the picture? i hope by asking this i am not upsetting you. i really dont want to add to any hurt you are probably feeling. i just thinhk that this is something quite a lot of people wouldnt see, and it can goo useful to see the damage that can be inflicted, often through ignorance.

its good to hear all your other fish are fine. i hope you do better next time. Jim probably knows how you feel. he was excited to get his.

All the best Chris

[Jim Powers]

Yes, I do know how he feels.
I also suspect that he will end up feeling better soon, just as I did when the next, healthy batch of sewellias showed up.
Lets hope that happens soon for Chris.