JeffreyRichard
10-19-2006, 04:02 PM
OK, I read the recent thread on the quest to keep Cardinals alive. I will relay some info a knowledgable and successful importer friend has pasted on to me ... and a bit of my own experience.
My buddy imports a lot (thousands) of cardinals annually that he sells to pet shops. I've purchased several dozen from him. He has high success with the fish he sells to LFS.
One of the biggest problems with cardinals bought at a LFS is that they die soon after the purchase. This is also a problem with the LFS ... they loose many cardinals from each purchase from the wholesaler. The cause? Usually it's that the cardinals are way too stressed and not feed properly once they are shipped to the US. Over the course of several days to several weeks, cardinals are collected, brought to a transhipper in SA, shipped to an importer in the US, sold to a wholesaler, sold to a retail LFS, then finally sold to the customer. RARELY are cardinals acclimated and given a chance to recover ... clean water and food. So, once the customer gets the fish, they are extremely stressed ... and the results are predicatable.
What my friend does is simple ... he imports them from the transhipper and the holds them for several weeks, giving them lots of clean water and FOOD, in the form of live baby brine shrimp. He swears by the BBS as the key ingrediant to getting the cardinals back to health.
Obviously, this is not a cheap and quick process. However, given that cardinals are extremely inexpensive to import, 50% losses are not devistating for the wholesaler if they can offer healthy fish to their customer.
So ... what this means is that the consumer needs to know how the seller is acclimating and prepairing the fish. You should ask the LFS if they are doing anything special and if they know if the wholesaler is holding the fish and preping them at all. Otherwise expect losses when you buy them.
My advice would be to QT your new cardinals using BBS to get them healthy.
Incidently, I have cardinals that are over 3 years old ... addressing a point that someone posted about the fish being short-lived.
Jeff
My buddy imports a lot (thousands) of cardinals annually that he sells to pet shops. I've purchased several dozen from him. He has high success with the fish he sells to LFS.
One of the biggest problems with cardinals bought at a LFS is that they die soon after the purchase. This is also a problem with the LFS ... they loose many cardinals from each purchase from the wholesaler. The cause? Usually it's that the cardinals are way too stressed and not feed properly once they are shipped to the US. Over the course of several days to several weeks, cardinals are collected, brought to a transhipper in SA, shipped to an importer in the US, sold to a wholesaler, sold to a retail LFS, then finally sold to the customer. RARELY are cardinals acclimated and given a chance to recover ... clean water and food. So, once the customer gets the fish, they are extremely stressed ... and the results are predicatable.
What my friend does is simple ... he imports them from the transhipper and the holds them for several weeks, giving them lots of clean water and FOOD, in the form of live baby brine shrimp. He swears by the BBS as the key ingrediant to getting the cardinals back to health.
Obviously, this is not a cheap and quick process. However, given that cardinals are extremely inexpensive to import, 50% losses are not devistating for the wholesaler if they can offer healthy fish to their customer.
So ... what this means is that the consumer needs to know how the seller is acclimating and prepairing the fish. You should ask the LFS if they are doing anything special and if they know if the wholesaler is holding the fish and preping them at all. Otherwise expect losses when you buy them.
My advice would be to QT your new cardinals using BBS to get them healthy.
Incidently, I have cardinals that are over 3 years old ... addressing a point that someone posted about the fish being short-lived.
Jeff