Lost an invert acclimating it

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TangoTank

Aquarium Advice FINatic
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May 4, 2012
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I floated then was drip-acclimating a Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp from the LFS & he died before I even got him in the tank. I've never lost an animal acclimating it!! Heck, I've only ever lost 2 Bengaii Cardinals weeks apart. The 1st I had had a few weeks, then 1 I had had a few months, died a few weeks later. I still have 1. Haven't lost any other SW animals. I know inverts can be sensitive but I've added hermit crabs, an emerald crab, several snails & a horseshoe crab. So I'm not new to this. So disappointing... I already have a SS Cleaner Shrimp in the tank so I doubt it's a water quality issue. Anybody have any thoughts before I get a replacement shrimp?

I have FW tanks also. I probably have purchased 30+ FW fish & have only ever lost 2, a Neon Tetra (after 1wk) & a Cory (around 1mo, I still have the other 1s I bought w/ it). That's it. I think I've got a pretty good track record. I'm really reluctant to try to add anything expensive to the tank b/c right now I'm out about $65 worth of fish lately. Probably minor compared to what others have lost... Plus quite frankly, every lil creature who passes breaks my heart.
 
During the shipping process/ride from the store or however they were purchased, ammonia levels in the shipping bags build, while the ph level goes down. As the ph goes down the toxicity of ammonia also goes down. However, when your tank water with normal ph is introduced to the shipping bags, and the ph rises, so does the toxicity of the ammonia, and you will be poisoning the livestock. If the tanks they came from were already below the standards of clean saltwater such as high nitrates, ammonia, phosphates etc etc then when your tank water "Spiked" or raised the P.H. Then all of that suddenly became more toxic and the added ammonia from the shrimp being in a closed bag with little water could have caused it.
That being said......I drip aclimate everything but i start out very very slowly at about 1-2 drips a second. Before the water added adds up to 1/3 of what the fish came in i dump almost all of it (90%ish) and speed it up to about 3-5 drips per second. when the water level doubles, I dump 90% again then once i drip enough to get a full back and im confortable that the water is as close as possible i put the fish/invert ONLY in the tank and never put store water in my tank. With fish some use copper in their systems and it will definitely kill your inverts if introduced. So if you LFS keeps all fish on one system and inverts on another then be sure to dip the new fish in clean tank water after acclimation to keep any copper from entering your system. More info than you needed im sure but i figured id cover as much as i could lol. Good luck and keep your head up,.... it happens. I added a fish without checking on it and it ate $200 worth of shrimp out of my tank before i could catch it. It doesn't pertain to this situation but ...... research research research before making a purchase
 
During the shipping process/ride from the store or however they were purchased, ammonia levels in the shipping bags build, while the ph level goes down. As the ph goes down the toxicity of ammonia also goes down. However, when your tank water with normal ph is introduced to the shipping bags, and the ph rises, so does the toxicity of the ammonia, and you will be poisoning the livestock. If the tanks they came from were already below the standards of clean saltwater such as high nitrates, ammonia, phosphates etc etc then when your tank water "Spiked" or raised the P.H. Then all of that suddenly became more toxic and the added ammonia from the shrimp being in a closed bag with little water could have caused it.
That being said......I drip aclimate everything but i start out very very slowly at about 1-2 drips a second. Before the water added adds up to 1/3 of what the fish came in i dump almost all of it (90%ish) and speed it up to about 3-5 drips per second. when the water level doubles, I dump 90% again then once i drip enough to get a full back and im confortable that the water is as close as possible i put the fish/invert ONLY in the tank and never put store water in my tank. With fish some use copper in their systems and it will definitely kill your inverts if introduced. So if you LFS keeps all fish on one system and inverts on another then be sure to dip the new fish in clean tank water after acclimation to keep any copper from entering your system. More info than you needed im sure but i figured id cover as much as i could lol. Good luck and keep your head up,.... it happens. I added a fish without checking on it and it ate $200 worth of shrimp out of my tank before i could catch it. It doesn't pertain to this situation but ...... research research research before making a purchase

That's all great info, thank you! Ya know... they may have their inverts on a separate system. IDK. They have very few fish in the invert tanks. I started him a 1x 1sec drip. The only real explanation is the toxicity rose from the differences in the water. I'm not sure how dumping 90% out, adding 90% of my tank water wouldn't be pretty close to just throwing him in the tank! I will definitely follow these directions if I get a new shrimp today. And yes. I research the crap outta compatible tank mates. I already have 1 SS Cleaner Shrimp & wanted another. I'm sti debating on some active mid-column fish... Small breed of Anthias... Or??
 
Just throwing it in will shock the invert with a instant swing in PH due to the bag it was in will have a lower PH. Also if their salinity is different that will be an instant swing as well. The key is to acclimate them as slow as possible without making any sudden shifts in any parameters.
 
Just throwing it in will shock the invert with a instant swing in PH due to the bag it was in will have a lower PH. Also if their salinity is different that will be an instant swing as well. The key is to acclimate them as slow as possible without making any sudden shifts in any parameters.

I'm saying after the 1/3 add of slow-drip DT water to the bag, then dump 90% out... I think I thought you meant put the 90% from DT back in the bag. But you're saying drip into the 10% w/ the shrimp. Got it now ;) Thks!
 
Correct the lower the water in the bag when you start the fast the ammonia will dilute therefore making it less lethal. I just barely cover the fish or shrimp when I'm acclimating. Just keep it deep enough in the bag so it doesn't get exposed to air and stress it any farther.
 
Tkey3425:

Is this just your invert way or any new fish? I'm surprised I haven't lost more animals!!! I haven't gotten any new animals in quite awhile. I guess I've just been lucky & maybe have stressed quite a few out. I just feel terrible. Again, frustrated that you don't hear these things til an animal suffers or your spend way too much money figuring it out.
 
Tkey3425: Is this just your invert way or any new fish? I'm surprised I haven't lost more animals!!! I haven't gotten any new animals in quite awhile. I guess I've just been lucky & maybe have stressed quite a few out. I just feel terrible. Again, frustrated that you don't hear these things til an animal suffers or your spend way too much money figuring it out.
I spend anywhere from 2-3 hours minimum acclimating anything new to my tanks. Stress leads to thinner slime coats and opens the animal up to be more likely to get ich or another disease it might have otherwise fought off. If you aren't QT then I definitely recommend a slow slow slow drip to keep them from stressing and causing major issues in your DT.
 
I spend anywhere from 2-3 hours minimum acclimating anything new to my tanks. Stress leads to thinner slime coats and opens the animal up to be more likely to get ich or another disease it might have otherwise fought off. If you aren't QT then I definitely recommend a slow slow slow drip to keep them from stressing and causing major issues in your DT.

I do usually QT. wasn't planning on it w/ this guy b/c I don't have a QT set up at the moment. I usually take a few hours to drip too but just remove a small scoop of water every 15 mins or so after probably 1/3 initially of the amount of the bag dripping in. But I've never done that big dump of the bag water which makes sense to me. Thank you for all the info!!
 
I'm acclimating a new shrimp now! So far so good. Any signs to look for that I should pull the drip & let him settle or rush & pour water out??
 
I'm acclimating a new shrimp now! So far so good. Any signs to look for that I should pull the drip & let him settle or rush & pour water out??
Not really the shrimp will do its own thing. If you follow those steps you should be fine. I've never lost an invert during acclimation using that method
 
THANK YOU Tkey3425!!! The shrimp survived acclimation & is doing well!!
 
Just throwing it in will shock the invert with a instant swing in PH due to the bag it was in will have a lower PH. Also if their salinity is different that will be an instant swing as well. The key is to acclimate them as slow as possible without making any sudden shifts in any parameters.

Most of the time (probably almost all of the time). But I did want to point out something that I just learned. I recently bought a CUC package from ReefCleaners and they want you to through their inverts into your system after only acclimating the water temp. Apparently they raise their livestock under tidal conditions thus getting the animals used to swings in temperature, salinity, PH, etc. makes the trip a little hit easier. just thought I'd throw that out there. Seems pretty ingenious to me. Might be worth asking our LFS in the near future if this is how livestock is being raised.
 
Most of the time (probably almost all of the time). But I did want to point out something that I just learned. I recently bought a CUC package from ReefCleaners and they want you to through their inverts into your system after only acclimating the water temp. Apparently they raise their livestock under tidal conditions thus getting the animals used to swings in temperature, salinity, PH, etc. makes the trip a little hit easier. just thought I'd throw that out there. Seems pretty ingenious to me. Might be worth asking our LFS in the near future if this is how livestock is being raised.
That's not entirely true. The reasoning for the immediate drop into the tank if for the same reason I described above. The bag water drops in PH while rising in toxic ammonia. Because ammonia is less toxic at lower ph levels, the animals survive higher levels. BUT as soon as your 8-8.5 ph tank water hits the water in the bag the toxicity levels jump drastically and therefore shocks/poisons the animal. This isn't always looked at as to the cause because the fish won't die instantly but the damage will be done and they normally perish shortly after being put into the tank where the deaths are later diagnosed to illness, disease, etc.
 
I understand the correlation. My point was that I was shocked that they asked to not put ones display tank water into their bags (voided their warranty). This was new to me b/c up until now I had always acclimated as was described above. Really just pointing out something new to me on the subject.
 
I understand the correlation. My point was that I was shocked that they asked to not put ones display tank water into their bags (voided their warranty). This was new to me b/c up until now I had always acclimated as was described above. Really just pointing out something new to me on the subject.
Yes but being a prior LFS owner I noticed that more often than not people would buy fish and get them home. Then do the add some water every 5-10 minutes acclimation. That method works fine for freshwater and some saltwater that has been bagged for less than 30 minted or so. We tested a bag of tank water at my shop and 15 minutes in the ph dropped from 8.4 to 8.3 ( not too bad right?) well at the 30 minute mark ph tested at 8.1( still not the end of the world) after that it went to 7.7 and hung there for the rest of our test. (About 6 hours). We did not test it with livestock as I do not believe in testing or cycling with live animals so the ammonia buildup is anyone's guess. But that goes to show you why I decided to use the method I stated earlier in the post. Being that 90% of my high end fish came from California I had a pretty big curve to keep everything shipped to me alive. When I had a very large shipment I would actually have a bin of lower ph water to dilute the ammonia without spiking the toxicity. Then when normal levels were achieved if raise the ph to my store water. I still do that to an extend in my home aquariums since I have sold my store to my business partner and pursued other career options.
 
It's awesome you have such experience. Again, never said anything to debunk the method that most if us use (due to years if trial and error of hobbyists before us) just was pointing out something interesting in relation to the point. Here is a company that uses it's aquaculture practices to prepare its livestock for extreme shipping conditions. At no point did I say anything to undermine any of our known good practices. I hope I never came across as such
 
It's awesome you have such experience. Again, never said anything to debunk the method that most if us use (due to years if trial and error of hobbyists before us) just was pointing out something interesting in relation to the point. Here is a company that uses it's aquaculture practices to prepare its livestock for extreme shipping conditions. At no point did I say anything to undermine any of our known good practices. I hope I never came across as such

Maybe the theory is that of "Survival of the fittest." If the fittest survives these tests only the best quality livestock will reach the maybe more novice tank owners & will survive the acclimation. Makes sense. Sounds like extra work. But it's probably kinda like LFS's that quarantine before selling livestock. They make sure they're only selling quality animals & it's probably just downright a better way to do business.

But I also believe having the knowledge of appropriate acclimation. I knew inverts were sensitive & thought I was doing the right thing. Sucks that LFS's don't guarantee saltwater just pass the risk & cost to the customer who may just get frustrated, buy from another store or quit their tank all together.
 
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