Cheap fish live, expensive fish die

[Moe_K]

Just picked up a cheap damsel. Seems these guys are Moe-proof.
Anyone else notice the expensive fish all die on them leaving the cheapies living it up in the tank?

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

All of the expensive fish I've had are swimming in the clouds now. I'm down to a $10 pair of false percs and a Hawaiian sand goby I bought for $6 that was mistakenly called a bullet goby.

 

[JCheung]

Yeah with my freshwater fish the cheap fish lived. But i think it's more like supply and demand factors, the cheap fish are cheap because they are hardy, breed quickly, and are very readily available.

 

[MichaelJ]

Wrasses.. all gone.. no more till tank is at least a yr old

 

[reefsmurf]

It kind of makes sense...

Anything that's cheap is going to be hardy because people buy them and they never die so there's plenty of supply

Non hardy fish will die easily and require many replacements = less supply?

 

[Rays]

So far I am blessed, my Goldflake angel is going on four years. The scary thing is, once he jumped and ended up in the sump, and a second time he jumped and was in the overflow. He's about five inches long.

 

[Salty Dog]

We think the more you pay for ANYTHING in the tank, the less you see of it - fish excluded. Inverts, such as boutique shrimps are a good example...

 

[JayM]

damsels, alive since first tank

wrasses, dead, mimic tang, dead, triggers, dead, CBB's dead.....

 

[JCheung]

We think the more you pay for ANYTHING in the tank, the less you see of it - fish excluded. Inverts, such as boutique shrimps are a good example...

I dunno Live rock at $8 a lb gets pretty expensive but yet we have gobs of that floating around.

Also for freshwater fish the australian arowanas are pretty expensive but every fish store has at least one of those.

 

[JayM]

if you paid 8 bucks for much of your LR, you paid a lot for it....

I have at least 300# between my tanks and sumps, and I doubt my average cost is under 3.00 per pound. Some of it was .85 pound, and it had zoos.....

 

[JCheung]

where did you get LR for .85 a lb, i'm going to need more when i make my sump.

 

[susyq458]

where did you get LR for .85 a lb, i'm going to need more when i make my sump.

Keep an eye out on the boards. People get rid of live rock all the time.

 

[JayM]

where did you get LR for .85 a lb, i'm going to need more when i make my sump.

when you buy 100 lbs at a time, and there are people 'getting out', deals can be made.....you just need to deal with the possibility/probability that there may be unwanted pests (mojano, aiptasia, cyano, etc)

 

[stevenp]

I do all livestock on the cheap... run-o-the-mill fish as well as corals. Green slimers and yellow tangs all the way!

 

[Greg Hiller]

The problem I've had in the past is that if your O2 goes to low (for whatever reason) the big (and usually expensive) fish are the first to die.

 

[jdeb101]

The only fish Ive been able to keep alive are my Maroon Clown, 2 Firefish, and my new neon goby that survived from a few weeks of ick. Lemonpeal Angel, True Perc, Hector Goby, Dottyback, Kole Tang, all dead.