I've never had fish die on the way home before. Could it be that this species is more sensitive than most?

Here's what happened. I bought 4 Pimelodus angelicus from Meijer this afternoon. Granted, they are not the best LFS, since they are more of a grocery store, and they have downsized all their pets to just fish in recent years. But I have gotten lots of fish from there, and most of them have done very well.

I had the man put them in bags of two, so they wouldn't be too crowded. Well, he filled the bags almost to the top with water, and very little air, which I knew wasn't right. But he was trying to convince me that the water was more important. I knew I should have argued, and insisted on more air, but it looked like there should have been enough. I just figured I would try to hurry home and get the bag open.

Well, that didn't work. One of the fish was dead before I got home, and the other didn't last long enough to float the bag. In the other bag, which had more air, those two are both still alive, but one looks like it won't live long.

So I returned the bag with the two dead fish to Meijer, and had a discussion with the man. He felt really bad. He only works in the fish dept part time, and he was under the impression that more water was best. (Apparently he also blows his breath into the bags before he closes them- I saw that when he was bagging up my replacements.)

Replacements. Yeah. I figured that since the man would put enough air in this time, that I would go ahead and buy new ones. I got three this time, since I think the one at home might still die. When the man blew air into the bag, I mentioned that what they need is oxygen, not carbon dioxide, so he squished the air back out of the bag and filled the top half with regular air.

There was a very short line at the checkout, and I figured everything would go well this time. But half way home at a stop light, I looked in the bag, and was dismayed to see them all laying there kind of sideways!! Sure enough, two dead fish when I got home, and one sort of gasping. I floated the bag for a bit, but as even the gasper died, there was nothing to release into the tank. The whole thing went back into a Meijer sack, and will go back to the store tomorrow.

Could there be some logical explanation for why these fish are dying on the way home? It's a 15 minute drive, but I've never seen fish die that quickly. I've had the odd fish die after a day or two, but this is almost as if there were something in the bag killing them.

Or is it this species, and I am just lucky that I got one good one out of seven purchased? Or maybe Meijer got a bad shipment of fish? I know these weren't there on Tuesday, so they must have gotten a recent shipment. (This is Saturday.)

I wanted to build up a school of these fish, but I obviously won't be getting any more from Meijer. :(