Justin,

As someone noted earlier, CBB are notorious for parasites. I ordered one from CB Pets yesterday because I know they are the only LFS that treats for parasites and quarantines them properly. They dip them upon arrival and Richard has told me he can see a cloud of flukes falling off them when he does. He later holds them in copper quarantine. Treating CBB with copper is very difficult and the concentration of copper is critical. They have special test equipment to test for copper more accurately than is possible with a test kit.

Unfortunately, you have just experienced what a lot of CBB owners have found. They are a very difficult fish to keep.

As for buying fish on a bag day there are some pros and cons. The only pro is that they only go through one "bag experience" instead of two (shipment to the LFS and then home with you). The main cons are that their stay in the bag is extended and they experience greater stress from being handled. You also don't know if you are getting a fish that would die the next day anyway because of normal shipment stress. Some critters are very sensitive to stress and have high shipment mortality rates.

There is a reason they sell them at a discount on bag day. Mainly that the their loss becomes yours. Some LFS have at least a 10-25% mortality rate on shipments. If they get the money "up front" their loss is pretty much negated. They get a guarantee from the wholesaler but you do not get a guarantee from the LFS. Your loss is their gain.

I admit I have been guilty of bargain shopping on bag day. What I have learned is that its a better investment to buy quality, preferably quarantined, fish than to take a gamble on bag fish. Like any business, an LFS wants to turn over their inventory as fast as possible. They don't make money by holding and feeding fish for weeks after arrival. Some shops build this cost into their price. That's why a shop like CB Pets charges a few dollars more for fish than someplace like Fintique. I liked the system they had at Aquarium Sales and Service. You could buy the fish, but they wouldn't let you take it home until it had come out of quarantine. That was pretty frustrating though, because I could see the fish I wanted, but often it was already sold.

There is another risk associated with bag day fish besides financial. Lets assume you do bring one of them home, and it dies, and you aren't able to get it out of the tank. Besides the disease that you might have brought to the tank, you are also introducing a lot of extra nuturients and other stuff to the system that could have a more long term negative impact on your system.

Of course the obvious answer is to quarantine any new fish. Some of us just don't have the ability to do that. There are a couple of other possibilities. Go ahead and put a deposit on the fish and ask the LFS to hold it for you so that you can observe it. A reputable LFS will do this. If they won't, I would be wary of doing business with them. Even then there are no guarantees. Some stress related diseases may take months to reach a point that results in death.

OK, I'm rambling now (as usual),
Gary