# My LFS has BBA- should still buy fish there?



## Gilly (Dec 18, 2010)

My LFS has really good fish stock but all their tanks have BBA. I've dealt with BBA before and had to trash my whole setup and I reallllly don't want to deal with that again. Is there a way to still get fish from my BBA-infested LFS without transferring any BBA into my tank? 

I wouldn't pour any of the water from the bag in my tank but in the process of netting the fish some water drops might get in. I have a quarantine tank, is that enough? Or should I try to find an aquarium shop that doesn't have BBA?

Or- what's the general procedure to prevent algae from getting in your tank when adding new fish? I know how to quarantine fish for disease but not algae.


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## Dejlig (Jan 20, 2013)

Well, I wouldn't buy plants they, but the fish should be fine and shouldn't transfer BBA especially since you are netting them when placing them into your tank.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

BBA is caused by two things - organics in the water + plants not growing well. Your LFS has dirty water for sure. Do you? Your LFS has plants that look really bad. If they have any at all. How do your plants look and how do they grow?

Bottom line is - you cannot escape infecting your tank with what not. But it is the conditions in your tank that determine what will happen. As far as BBA is concerned there are tanks that literally kill it within a few hours. So it is possible to create such a tank because it does exist. Problem is most people are impatient and shallow about what is what in this hobby.


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## Gilly (Dec 18, 2010)

My tank in question has no algae at this point, or at least no algae I can see. When I had BBA it was long before I got into planted aquariums. My plants are doing great, growing like crazy. I just don't want to introduce BBA to my tank when I get new fish. 

The LFS does have plants for sale which look good but they keep them in a separate tank from the BBA infested fish tanks. The plant tank does not seem to have algae in it but if I bought any plants there I'd dip them for sure.

If I net the fish, there's still like drips of water on the net that could contain algae spores. So is it just impossible to avoid?


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## cah925 (Jun 23, 2007)

If you use a QT tank, then I don't see any problems with the fish bringing BBA home. Once home, hold a net over the sink and carefully pour the water and fish into the net. Any BBA would be poured down the sink. Transfer to QT tank. If any BBA remains, it should be sucked into the filter. Wait appropriate amount of time and catch the fish with a clean net and make the transfer to their new home.
Honestly, I don't think the fish would be carrying any BBA with them anyways.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Most algae spreads by the air. Spores float around and land everywhere. It doesn't matter what algae you add it's probably already in your tank now but it doesn't grow until conditions are right.


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## Adam C (Feb 7, 2013)

Zapins said:


> Most algae spreads by the air. Spores float around and land everywhere. It doesn't matter what algae you add it's probably already in your tank now but it doesn't grow until conditions are right.


+1

Sometimes with wild caught blue rams at our LFS, they come in with lymphocystis. You'll hear people talking about them like they're doomed fishies. I've picked up plenty, plopped them into healthy tanks and watched the cysts just disappear. When you take care of things, its a lot less likely you run into issues.

Its weird hearing people say they bought this or they bought that and sure enough, it killed all their fish or caused an outbreak of algae:

You bought one fish that gave all your other fish ick? Oh, you had goldfish and neon tetras.....

A plant? Really? A plant introduced something into your tank and killed everything? Oh, you bought one of those packaged tubes from Petsmart?

What are your nitrate, ammonia, and nitrite readings? Oh, you're not sure what those are....

When was the last water change? Oh, you only top it off......

Now I understand what you mean by the plant/fish/ornament killed all of your fish......


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## Gilly (Dec 18, 2010)

Thanks for your advice with the quarantine idea. I don't have algae in my tank currently, it's low tech, no filter, crystal clear, heavily planted, it looks awesome, it's been algae free for two years. 

I just want to keep it that way and remembering my past horrors with BBA makes me hesitate before buying from that particular BBA infested store (which I don't want to mention by name but is independently owned.) 

Also, how many koi can I put in my 2 gallon Spongebob aquarium? (Just kidding.)


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Tell me about it... I hate BBA. I tried everything to get rid of it until I found that flourish excel kills it on contact. It turns red and dies over night, then decays away within a week or so. 

If you get BBA just spot treat it with excel as soon as you see it and it kills it off.

Haha, you got me with the koi comment  I was about to jump in with ZERO!


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## SBS (Feb 26, 2013)

I had BBA in one tank. Then I moved a heavily infested anubias to another tank for other reasons, didn't bother cleaning it. The BBA was gone withing a week, just disappeared leaving nice green leaves behind. I don't know if the fish/pleco/ottos helped polishing it but that tank didn't get "infested" with BBA.
As others already said, with the "right"(wrong) conditions, the tank will "magically get infested" with any algae.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Few weeks ago I setup CO2 in a tank. There was only Cladophora on the bottom of that tank.

3 weeks later, with the CO2 gushing out at 2 bubbles per second (into a small pump so the CO2 gets pulverized) the BBA showed up. So much for "not enough CO2 causes BBA".

Now, after three 30% water changes the BBA has started to change color. I do believe water cleanliness has to do with BBA.


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

Had this discussion before with Niko and although I admit I was skeptical at first I do start believing the organics=BBA theory. Last two weeks I did some experiment and tried to induce BBA loading the tank with organics, in this case chinchilla pellets as food for my shrimp in the tank. They loved the pellets but lots of organics remained in the tank. I didn't cleaned for a week and BBA popped up. Than I did 80% water changes for every other day and they are changing color and not expanding anymore. CO2 and all other ferts remained the same during the whole experiment. Considering trying it in my 100G but it is doing almost (some green hair algae) perfect right now so I might test on another tank or do it later on before rescaping.

About buying fish there, as long as they look healthy you can, but I would drip acclimate them to your tank and won't put the water from the lfs in my tank.


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## maxwellag (Jun 1, 2012)

Their fish are probably fine... BBA can be caused simply by a nutrient imbalance (such as lack of nitrate). I wouldn't buy plants from them, but I don't see a problem with the fish.


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