Shipping pupfish.

[Wright Huntley <jwwiii at pacbell_net>]

We lost half of a beautiful pair of *J. floridae* that were entered at WCW 
XII. :-( We lost only a few other fish, but that's inevitable when 
handling many hundreds of pairs. I particularly was disappointed because I 
was judging this class and felt we needed them for more balance in the class.

This seems to be an all-too-common problem, not only with most pupfish, 
but with Otocinclus and other strongly vegetarian fish. A few years ago I 
sent some very healthy flag fish to a show in Europe, but they received 
almost as much fungus as fish.

We all know to starve our fish for a day or two before shipping them, to 
keep the ammonia down and minimize shipping stress. Adding "Amquel" or 
other ammonia scavenger is also mandatory, IMHO. [We weren't doing that a 
few years ago.]

The problem with American-Flag Fish and many other vegetarians is that 
they will go right on grazing on plants and algae, right up to bagging 
time, if we don't take extra precautions. What is worse, they have an 
extremely active metabolism that processes way more food, over a longer 
time period, than many other killifish. [Look at their long gut to see how 
much storage space they have.]

I'd like to suggest that we might have better shipping results if we put 
them in a "bare" tank for the last couple of days, to deny them those 
greens that they would otherwise eat.

Comment?

[Perhaps this can be another thread that Tim can use for one of his 
collaborative articles?]

Wright

--
Wright Huntley -- 209 521-0557 -- 731 Loletta Ave, Modesto CA 95351

When you are in mortal danger, you are supposed to dial 911, so that
the police can arrive on the scene some time later, identify your body,
and file reports in triplicate.  -- Thomas Sowell 4/21/03

                 www.sfbaka.net


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