What Acclimatization method do you use when you get new fishes.

Hi my fellow fish keepers.

This is also something all the newbies need to know.

Well I have been doing mine this way.

1.) I let the bag float in my tank for 25-30 minutes.
2.) I then open the bag and I scoop half a cup of my tank water into the bag.
3.) Leave it for 10-15 minutes then I add another half a cup.
4) I do this 4 times.
5.) I then put the bag into my water bucket, let the fish out of the bag slowly into the bucket, then I catch them and place them into the tank.



This method has worked great for me so far.

Come on guys lets try and add some posts to this thread for all the newbies.


Cheers.

 

I USE THE DRIP METHOD. bucket with airline tubing make a small knot in the tubing (not tight) so the water drip into the bucket. fish in the bucket obviously.

 

@hviviers75, using the same method as you do although I've been at a lfs more than once when his fish stock has arrived, he opens up the bags into big polystirene boxes lined out with plastic, those that the fish are delivered from the supplier, he then takes normal air tubing from his tanks and let his tank water drip into these boxes for about two hours and he catches them out and place them into his tanks. I've helped him a couple of times with this exercise and it is working for him.Never done it with my own fish but ja, it is another method in doing it.

 

How long do you do the drip method for? do you first float the bag so the water in the bag gets to the same temp as your tank?

 

I too use the drip method, but first I test the PH of my tank and the PH of the water with fish in bag or bucket, for discus 20minutes per each 1.PH difference or part thereof, for smaller fish eg my marine tank or planted tank 10mins each per 1.PH difference or part thereof. Then gently net fish and put into tank.

 

do it for 30min. also use a polystyrene cooler box

 

I use the drip method. It works well and is easy to do. Sometimes when adding one fish I use the bag method.

 

@ Firefly quick question about the drip method. How about getting the water that the fish came in to the same temp as your tank? Does this not make a difference

 

When dripping water from your tank to the fish container or bag, it does make it the same temp as the tank (or almost).

 

okay cool then thanks.

 

Drip method as well, but i have seen a certain lfs in boksburg just chucking the new stock into the tank with no care for the fish...

 

Drip method aswell. I run a tube and run it for about 1 hour. I try to x3 the water volume before I scoop them and place in tank and leave the lights of for 8 hours minimum.

 

Jip, I drip them aswell.
I empty the bag in a bucket and drip 2-3 drops per second untill the bucket is half or the water from the bag has doubled, then throw out half and drip again untill the water has doubled again and then net them out.
Also while doing this, I put the bucket in th dark to minimise stress.
I release the fish after I fed the tank fish, just after lights out, to avoid aggression.

 

The drip method takes a long time. Enough time for the fish to acclimatise to that of the tanks. With water trickling in, it helps to change the temp gradually.

 

I will defininetaly shock all of you is I say that I only leave the bag in the tank for about 20 minuts for the temperature to equalize and then I dump the fish into the tank. Only reason for this is that I only buy my fish from Pet Stop and I stay a block away from them. I don't think that the fish suffer at all as there should not be any differance in the water from them to me. If there is I can't think that the fishes can adapt to a certain ph in a hour or less but whould rather assume that this whould happen over a longer period of time. Until now I haven't had any problems with any fish placed into any of my tanks.

 

You just have to be careful when adding fish to colder water. I'm not saying your tank is colder, I'm just saying be careful.

 

Also ph change in a metter of seconds and temp change like that shock your fish. Over 30min the ph change gradually

 

OK, I'm going to be difficult here and throw in another factor. I always use the drip method, agree that dripping in the water equalises the temperature so no need to float as well. In every case this has been a matter of getting fish from the LFS, freshly packed in bags, and in the car for at most an hour or so. For this situation the drip method is by far the best in my opinion.

However, I have heard/read from some people that this can be a very bad idea when you're receiving fish that have been shipped a long distance, that have been in their bags for days or more. The theory here is that the fish in the bags are producing lots of CO2 and lots of ammonia/ammonium. The CO2 (I think) causes the pH to crash, which means that the nitrogenous wastes stay in the form of ammonium (NH4+). Ammonium isn't the bad one, so the fish are pretty much OK while the bag is sealed. However, the moment you open the bag, the CO2 starts offgassing, which causes the pH to rise, which causes the NH4+ to turn into NH3, ammonia, which IS the bad one. Essentially, according to these people, if you have fish that have been in the bag for too long before you received them, they can get terrible ammonia burn in the short time you're drip-acclimatising them and die of it a little while later.

So here's the controversial bit: some people say that if you have fish that have been shipped in bags over long distances, particularly if they're large and don't have much water volume, your number one priority should be to get them out of that water as fast as possible and forget about all other factors. They call this the "drop-and-plop" method: open the bag -> get fish out of there. I've never had reason to worry about whether I needed to use this method, but if I was receiving a shipment of, say, Altums from overseas :love:, I would be extremely conflicted about whether to drip-acclimatise or not. Perhaps in that situation a quick pH and NH4+ test of the bag water would help one decide? In any case, has anyone here heard of this, or used it?

 

Drip, depending on the species I'm dealing with - Usually run it for 2hrs or until the water parameters match (tank and bucket)

It's important not to rush. The longer, the better.

 

I open the bag and let it float until the temperature is equal to the tank. I then pour out the bag through a net over a seperate container. And then I empty the net with the fish into the new tank. I've read in quite a few books that fish can take a few days, even weeks, to propperly acclimatize.

I've never tried the drip method, because I am a bit unsure about the temperature equalization. Has anyone actually used a thermometer in the conatiner to make sure the temperatures are actually equalizing? Logic tells me that the small container with a small body of water loses temperature much quicker than a large volume of water, which means even though you are adding water from the main tank, the small container will still lose more temperature that the dripping water can make up for. Especially if it's a chilly day outside and the room temp is quite a bit lower than your main tank...