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Review content:
DON'T BUY FISH FROM TODD'S - THEY HAVE ICH AND ARE NOT QUARANTINED BEFORE SELLING!
We have a 55 gallon tank that we've had the same healthy fish for 8+ years, (4 rummy nosed tetras, 4 turquoise rainbows, 2 yoyo loaches and some chinese algae eaters). We previously kept Discus in the tank (which is soft water, 6.0ph), but they kept breeding and were so aggressive we decided not to keep them. We keep our planted aquarium clean and healthy.
We decided it was time to add some new fish -- so we went to Todd's Tropical Fish. We purchased a school of 8 additional Rummy Nosed Tetras (we had 4 already), 8 Cardinal Tetras, 2 bristlenose plecos and 2 pearl gouramis. We brought them home, acclimated the fish for an hour (adding a little bit of aquarium water at a time to the bags over this period), then released. The fish seemed ok that evening, but when we woke up the next day, half of the Cardinals had died (and disappeared, we have a planted tank, so the bodies must have been hidden or eaten by the other tankmates after they died). The next day, a few more of the cardinal tetras had died again (we did find one carcass), and then noticed that ALL of our fish had Ich white spots all over their bodies. The next day all of the Cardinal tetras were gone, and nearly all of the original and new Rummy Nosed tetras had also died (except for 2). We also lost a Rainbow - it was a really nightmarish experience losing so many fish and seeing them suffer.
After we noticed the fish had ich, we called Todd's to see if they had suggestions - the guy basically acted like he didn't care, and said our tank likely had ich already -- WHICH IS A COMMON MYTH** -- as Ich does not survive dormant in aquariums! He also said that I stressed the fish by adding them to quickly to the tank (an hour acclimating is not too quickly). Then he asked about my water, which I keep soft, at 6.0ph (I use a water filter for adding water to keep the water soft as our tap water is very hard), so then he blamed my soft water as the problem. Basically, it was not his fault that he sold us fish with Ich, it was entirely our problem. He offered no resolution whatsoever except to ask me to bring in one of our sick fish and a water sample (which I asked how that would help, and he didn't have a response).
For the next two weeks we struggled with daily water changes, and treating for ich (we originally tried an ich treatment, but the fish seemed very sickly when we were adding it, so after a few days we did a large water change and switched to the salt treatment of increasing the salt level over several days to 3 teaspoons per gallon). It took a couple weeks, but finally we were able to cure the ich with the salt treatment (and the fish seemed to like that a lot better than the Ich medication).
I will never purchase fish from Todd's again. He lied and said our tank had ich, and then basically blamed our water quality and acclimation process on why we got ich. Any aquarium store that blames a 8 year old established tank for having ich that infected new fish (but was non-existent before) is a dishonest shop. Don't buy fish here!!
**There is no ""dormant"" independent, long-term encysted life stage separate from a host fish for Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. This is useful to know. You will often hear to the contrary. Dr. Peter Burgess, who took Ichthyophthirius multifiliis as his Ph.D. subject at Plymouth University, mentioned among Ich ""old wives' tales"" that ""It's present in all aquariums."" ""What utter rubbish"" noted Dr. Burgess (in the November 2001 Practical Fishkeeping). Brits don't mince words. This is sourced from the Skeptical Aquarist website.
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