Help! Golden Rhombiod Wrasse Swimming Upside Down in QT

[dodgr31]

Sorry to hear about your Rhomboid, seems like a lot of them have issues. I have a male who started out doing exactly what you described, I put him in QT and noticed a small bubble on his side. The bubble got larger, I removed him and aspirated the bladder with a syringe then began dosing Kanaplex. I also noted while I had him out that his anal gland appeared to be red. Things got worse for a while then one day he moved his bowels and began swimming halfway normal. Its been over 3 weeks and he still swims strange but I think is healing. Still eats

 

[Elgringodiablo]

Mine died after I tried venting the swim bladder. Pretty sure he was a goner regardless. Swam upside down in QT for about 2 weeks with no signs of improvement after treating with Furan-2 + Metroplex + Kanaplex for 12 days... Got sick of watching it starve and figured I should take drastic measures.

 

[KMench]

Sorry I got a second one shipped from LA and this one is acting much more normally.

 

[HotRocks]

Mine died after I tried venting the swim bladder. Pretty sure he was a goner regardless. Swam upside down in QT for about 2 weeks with no signs of improvement after treating with Furan-2 + Metroplex + Kanaplex for 12 days... Got sick of watching it starve and figured I should take drastic measures.

Sorry for the loss. You did everything you could.

Sorry I got a second one shipped from LA and this one is acting much more normally.

As soon as my current batch of QT is finished I will try another one as well.

 

[KMench]

I’ve had my second one now since Wednesday. No strange swimming or anything of the like. My other fish had only been in QT for a week, so I figured I might as well just restart the clock for them.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

New one seems great so far. Slowly bringing copper up to 1.6 (after I managed to get velvet in my DT), figure I am better off prophylactically treating than going through the ordeal again. Eats well and swims right side up. Perhaps the supply chain issue has been resolved.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

So, to add to the insanity. LiveAquaria refunded me for the first Rhomboid, even though it died past the warranty. Very cool of them. I decided to try again, thinking maybe the issue would be resolved by now or I'd get lucky... Nope, same thing happened again with the third Rhomboid in a row. LA is refunding me again... So no skin off my back, but it's pretty insane that this keeps happening and they keep eating the costs. Whoever is supplying these to Quality Marine (and probably most of the other wholesalers) is really not doing their job right.

 

[KMench]

So, to add to the insanity. LiveAquaria refunded me for the first Rhomboid, even though it died past the warranty. Very cool of them. I decided to try again, thinking maybe the issue would be resolved by now or I'd get lucky... Nope, same thing happened again with the third Rhomboid in a row. LA is refunding me again... So no skin off my back, but it's pretty insane that this keeps happening and they keep eating the costs. Whoever is supplying these to Quality Marine (and probably most of the other wholesalers) is really not doing their job right.

Wow. I'm sorry. I'm on my second from LA, and this one is acting completely normal. It's been 2 1/2 weeks now. I've dosed prazi 2x now and plan on just observing for another few weeks before putting it in the DT.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

Wow. I'm sorry. I'm on my second from LA, and this one is acting completely normal. It's been 2 1/2 weeks now. I've dosed prazi 2x now and plan on just observing for another few weeks before putting it in the DT.

My third one looked great for almost two weeks then suddenly started swimming messed up. Hope yours makes it! I will probably wait a while before I try again. I've got a Lineatus and a Bandit Angel in QT right now to worry about.

 

[Humblefish]

So, to add to the insanity. LiveAquaria refunded me for the first Rhomboid, even though it died past the warranty. Very cool of them. I decided to try again, thinking maybe the issue would be resolved by now or I'd get lucky... Nope, same thing happened again with the third Rhomboid in a row. LA is refunding me again... So no skin off my back, but it's pretty insane that this keeps happening and they keep eating the costs. Whoever is supplying these to Quality Marine (and probably most of the other wholesalers) is really not doing their job right.

I normally refrain from commenting about other vendors, but it makes me sick how LA treats fish like disposable commodities. Your fish died within two weeks?? No problem, we'll just send you another! This may be good for hobbyists' pocketbooks, but we are being watched (more than ever) by a lot of activists who would love to shut this hobby down. And stuff like this gives them the ammunition they need to help accomplish just that. So, short-term "benefit" with long-term consequences.

P.S. I'm not lashing out at you. I'm just disgusted with how fish are being treated, like they are "lesser" than a pet dog or cat. If puppies were dying left & right, and just being replaced by a two week guarantee, people would be outraged...

 

[Elgringodiablo]

I normally refrain from commenting about other vendors, but it makes me sick how LA treats fish like disposable commodities. Your fish died within two weeks?? No problem, we'll just send you another! This may be good for hobbyists' pocketbooks, but we are being watched (more than ever) by a lot of activists who would love to shut this hobby down. And stuff like this gives them the ammunition they need to help accomplish just that. So, short-term "benefit" with long-term consequences.

P.S. I'm not lashing out at you. I'm just disgusted with how fish are being treated, like they are "lesser" than a pet dog or cat. If puppies were dying left & right, and just being replaced by a two week guarantee, people would be outraged...

I agree, but I also appreciate their policy. The sad fact is that fish are a lot more delicate than cats and dogs, especially considering how they are caught, transported and exposed to diseases and parasites that your average hobbiest is ill equipped to deal with.

I have bought plenty of fish straight from wholesale and had similar casualties with no financial recourse and flat out denial of responsibility when I pointed out they sold me a dozen captive bred clowns that had some how (poor biosecurity is my best guess) ended up with brook.

In this specific scenario, I am ticked with the divers collecting them being lazy, resulting in swim bladder maladies.

I totally get where you are coming from, but I think the guarantee gives them some skin in the game to make sure they are selling healthy fish.

Anecdotally, one of my buddies clients paid $25k for a albino yellow tang... said tang turned yellow a couple weeks later and he had 0 recourse, since he paid the guy PayPal friends and family. Having some manner of guarantee keeps the business a little more honest.

 

[Humblefish]

In this specific scenario, I am ****** with the divers collecting them being lazy, resulting in swim bladder maladies.

To be fair, most swim bladder maladies are probably the fault of collectors not taking the time to properly decompress fish they catch in deep water.

Being most wholesalers all buy from the same collectors, I cannot fault any one wholesaler for that.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

To be fair, most swim bladder maladies are probably the fault of collectors not taking the time to properly decompress fish they catch in deep water.

Being most wholesalers all buy from the same collectors, I cannot fault any one wholesaler for that.

Yeah, I had the exact same issue with that species from 2 different sources. Two from LiveAquaria and one directly from a very large wholesaler down the street from QM. Same exact issue, only difference is I paid more at LA and they refunded me for my dead fish.

I really hope that the wholesalers are in touch with the trans-shippers about this, so they can inform their suppliers and get the divers to fix the problem.

 

[KMench]

I've had no problems with my second golden rhomboid as of yet. I've had it for about 4 weeks now, so I hope I'm closing in on being out of the woods with it. I guess it's just luck of the draw sometimes. I do agree with @Humblefish about how many retailers treat fish like disposable commodities. Look at many LFS, the vast majority are all the same and make their revenue by hoping the typical hobbiest has turnover in their livestock so they can then sell more fish and make more money. I on the other hand like my fish who make it to the DT to live long happy lives (not only because I like my fish and want to maintain a healthy tank, but also because I'm cheap and don't want to buy fish forever ). I hope this recent order from LA wraps up my fish purchases for about the next five years unless I upgrade tanks.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

Going to get another Rhomboid, but I want to wait a few months in hopes the collection practices have improved. I've got a collector/hoarder mentality about my livestock and keep a list of the fish I want. Three of my systems are totally stocked and won't get any new fish unless something meets a premature demise (which I consider pretty unlikely at this point).

I had almost 40 fish in my Red Sea Reefer 450. Nutrients were through the roof and it got to where a couple fish that were realistically too large for the tank started killing some of the smaller ones. I tore that system down about 6 months ago, kept about 9 of the original inhabitants and sold or gave away the rest. Since the reset, I made a new list limiting myself only to smaller fish that won't have a major impact on my bioload so I can go SPS crazy. Assuming I can get everything on my list I will cap out 20 this time.