They look unhappy… maybe they need a deeper sand bed….

You would think with such rare fish they would take care of them properly…

they should have nice bloody raw faces at that store.

Nice. There are a few corals in that video I’d love to get my hands on!

We have had great success with the fish from Route 66 and look forward to the arrival of these gems tomorrow morning.

those wrasses look over-stressed since they are clearly unable to bury themselves in the sand. All wholesalers should not only quarantine fish, but provide habitat requirements that do not increase the stress of capture and shipping. Unfortunately, I suspect none of them do. It’s all about moving the product since 90% of it is doomed to a short life anyway.

everybody needs to cool it a bit. These Anampses lennardi are being handled by professionals who made this very short video to demonstrate what had arrived. This video was made soon after the fish were acclimated from their shipping and it was lights out and nite nite for all the wrasses immediately after filming.

By now some of these should be at LiveAquaria and other reputable dealers and I can’t wait to see what they look like after being conditioned for their new homes.

Wow, a lot of people jumping to conclusions. They know what they’re doing. They’ve been distributing some of the nicest, rarest fish and corals to many stores across the nation. You can check out their new arrivals and such on their website(usually updated a little more than once a wekk). They bring in the most incredible corals you will see. Take it easy next time and try not to be so quick accuse people of things, at least think.

Mad props to Eric for bringing in an incredibly nice, rare fish. keep it up!

@Jake people ARE thinking…about what they see, and commenting on it. The sand does look too shallow, and this creates stress for the fish, period. We should probably be impressed by the fact that there is any sand at all. I be most wholesalers would simply go the clear box method as usual.

Reality check: At both wholesalers and retailors, animals are there to be moved asap, period. Don’t forget that the ornamental industry thrives on the assurance that fish live very short lives in captivity. I’d bet that 99.9% of the fish that pass through wholesalers are dead in a year, and the unfortunate truth is, that’s good for business.

Greetings All !

I’m the biologist at Route 66 Marine, and believe it or not, I appreciate what is actually some rather scathing criticism … I’m one of those strange people who find these types of criticisms to be quite useful. Complacency is death in any industry, and if you’re not willing to listen you’re going to miss essential information. It’s ALL about the health of the livestock, be it coral or fish, and marine aquarists who don’t get that should consider alternatives such as stamp collecting, or model railroading.

Regarding the sand bed … you can’t see it in the video, but the bed is actually 1.75 inches deep. When I came in the next morning after receiving them to check on them before the lights came on, they were all completely buried … same thing the last two mornings. When I came across this thread this morning, I went back to double check just in case. Of the nine in the tank, one had a few millimeters (yes, millimeters … I had to look for it and I almost missed it) of its dorsal arch exposed … just got through adding another inch to the sand bed. Good looking out, everyone.

Regarding injury due to captivity: The potential for facial & mouth abrasion are constant issues, and while this hasn’t happened yet, I can see how there might be concerns after watching the video. That ‘head wiping on the sand’ is an indication of stress and transport disorientation. Happily, they stopped doing that the next morning after their arrival. Even so, their compartment is shielded by a black plastic liner to minimize their being spooked by motion outside their compartment.

Regarding the impact of shipping: Stressed? … absolutely. I’ve never seen a fish come out of a box that has been in transit for 18+ hours not be stressed and/or disoriented to some degree. ‘Over-stressed’? … hmmm … not in my experience, although I could see how folks might reach that conclusion from the video of their first few moments in our holding compartment. By the next morning, they didn’t appear stressed at all … by that I mean that their color was back, they were swimming normally and appeared to not have any residual disorientation, and by mid-afternoon they were aggressively feeding on frozen brine and mysis shrimp.

Regarding the holding habitat: They are held by themselves in a 50 gallon compartment of a 450 gallon dedicated, isolated fish system. The compartment had a 1.75 inch sand bed (… which we also provide for Macropharyngodon wrasses, by the way …) when they were introduced (… now a 2.75 inch sandbed). The system’s water parameters are: 74′ F; 168 ppm alkalinity; 410 ppm Ca; 1.021-1.022 specific gravity; 1300 ppm Mg; NH3/NH4, NO2, NO3, and PO4 semi-undetectable (… accomplished through frequent, large water changes using adjusted NSW, live rock, fluidized bed filtration, GAC & GFO in fluidized media reactors, and an ASM-G6 skimmer). On shipping days, these animals are fed once in the afternoon. On non-shipping days, these animals are fed 3 times daily.

Regarding mortality: If we were talking about fish from either the Phillipines or Indonesia … well … res ipsa locquitor. We don’t do Phillipine or Indonesian fish precisely because of the associated mortality issue(s) … much to our great economic disadvantage. We import fish from Australia, Fiji, Hawaii, and Vanuatu (… and regularly probe other potential sources). These sources have entirely different mortality profiles. Indeed, Australia represents the only properly managed, and truly sustainable, marine ornamental chain of custody in the industry.

@Jake Adams: Professionals? … hehe … where? Nothing but obsessive, crazed reef geeks where I work. BTW, I haven’t forgotten your PM about writing up my snorkel stalking of the elusive white mutant yellow tang & Acanthurus hybrids off the Kona coast, but someone has asked me to contribute to an article on bacteria in the reef aquarium & carbon dosing, and I’m working on an article about practical, applied amino acid dosing in reef aquaria … I’ll try to get to it soon (if you’re still interested).

nice to see someone stick up for the industry funny, no more comments after that