Proper Aclimation of fish

I prefer to use the method proposed by Rachel O'Leary.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDq7IRwcASQ

I used to just float the bag in main tank for 30 min and then slowly add fish and water to the tank, but after heavy losses, I switched to Rachel's method with much higher survival rates.

Toy

 

I couldn't open your link. But I searched on YouTube. Are you referring to the plop and drop. I honestly never quarantined a fish. I let it float then drop it in.

Rachel's theory is really interesting to me. Cos all my lfs are between 10/15 minutes away. During that drive how much will the water change?

 

Very true, for those short periods the LFS water should be fine, but I recently lost nearly half my fish due to a nasty bug/virus that accompanied some new Guppies. It was a very sad week as I watched helplessly.

I have Multiple Tank Syndrome and all my quarantine tanks ends up with permanent occupants xD.

Using a temporary plastic bin as a quarantine tank helps to control my addiction and keeps the wife happy, well, most of the time anyway...

 

I agree that the water in the bag might not change much in very short periods however, the water from the LFS's tanks and yours might not be the same and that's where you can pick up a problem

I feel her video is very generalized and may apply to hardier species however there are many fish and exotics which will not withstand her method and even more so if they have been subject to anything up to 36 hours of shipping stress in bags

The safest method i have found is
Have two buckets next to the tank and a cup or small jug
Open the bag and immediately pour out half the water into one bucket, pour the fish and just less than half the water into the clean bucket
Add two or three cups tank water straight away and a few more over a ..10 min period ( depending on species)
Then net them into your tank

 

In the long forgotten past we would buy the fish we wanted from our LFS, rush home in our excitement, and dump the contents of the bag into our tank.
There would be a few deaths, or an outbreak of some strange disease, but we learned to live with that.
As time went on, we learnt a lot of cool things, including to how to properly care for your fish, to the best of our ability, or at least to the limit of our laziness.

The method I have been using successfully for a number of years, is as follows:
Buy the livestock I want from any LFS.
Rush home in my excitement, and get the bag ready for my tank by opening the bag, rolling down the top a bit, and adding some water from the tank to the bag.
Float the bag in the tank, securing it with a plastic clothes peg.
Add some tank water to the bag gradually over about half an hour, until I have doubled the water content of the bag.
Remove the bag from the tank, and pour the water and livestock into a bucket through a net.
Transfer the contents (usually livestock) to the tank.
Pour the LFS water down the drain, or water plants.

 

Yeah - no matter what the recipe - I avoid dumping LFS water in my tanks ...
100% @Pezulu - mine is very similar ....

I use spring loaded clamps and not pegs ;-)

Later Ferdie

 

@Pezulu its so funny that this old thread came up and that you mentioned your method, I did exactly this yesterday as a new method to acclimate the new fish. I got a couple of syringes and use them to add the water to the bag. Never trust LFS water. P.S builders has a special on the plastic clamps, I think a paid around 40 bucks for a pack of 6.

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I do the same as @Pezulu. Admittedly i don't buy many fish, but none have kicked the bucket due to rushed acclimation

 

@Pezulu,

You 100% spot on and basically same as i do except I am more often than not handling big fish or rays with stingers that can perforate the plastic bags
therefor doing it in the bag itself is not always an option with me unless its a few small fish

In fact if we transporting anything bigger than about 10cm we usually always have our own bucket or polystyrene box and battery air pump.
So instead of pouring the water out, i use a small jug

 

although I do find this very interesting in one of Joey's latest Videos. Makes a lot of sense as well and I have now resorted to this method for future.

 

Brilliant except don't pour the water down the drain people! PLANTS LOVE FISH POO!

 

So true!!!

All my tan water goes into watering my plants

 

We got a beautiful pot with Roses in for my daughters birth (Essentially hers). They were so reluctant to grow at first but since I have been adding some of my water changed water to them they have truly flourished. Wifey thinks it's the newfound affection they've been given since my daughter has gotten older but I know it is our little swimmers inside that have done the hard work.

 

Absolutely

You can see the difference in the flower beds where the water from the various tanks is channeled to
My roses on those flower beds are still in bloom

 

Same with orchids.
I "rescued" some Epidendrum keiki's from a neglected plant is my sons' garden, and they didn't do much apart from just being there.
Since I started giving them warm tank water, they have started sprouting new roots, and at least 2 new canes.

This is one of the new plants.

 

@Pezulu ,

Think I am going to do just that to one that I have in a pot and has never bloomed again since the last season...

 

And you will even more amazed at what the so called dirty water from cleaning canisters and filter media will do for house plants. Its like liquid gold fertilizer for pot plants.

I always try to use the spent water from after I have cleaned all the filter media and give it to the plants and as @Pezulu mentioned amazing stuff to feed Orchids.

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I always use for the garden but didnt thin of the orchids but am certainly going to try

 

Works even better that the expensive orchid food stuff from Woolworths and the best thing is its for free... just dont over water.

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