Acclimating shipped fish

[logansmomma1228]

I know myself and a couple others will be receiving awesome shipped fish this week. I have heard different ideas on the art of acclimating them to the tank. What is the best way? I am not good at drip acclimating, have tried it a couple times. -_-

 

[mgamer20o0]

it depends on the fish and how fast it got there. the thing with shipped fish.... more so with them being in the bag 2 more days is the co2 levels start to build up and the ph drops. as the ph level drops ammonia becomes less toxic. when you open the bag up the ph raises back up where ammonia becomes toxic. first thing i do is add some prime to the bag. many people i know just float and dump meaning they match the temp of the water and dump them out. i like to acclimate them a little more by removing as much of the old water as possible and add a cup of water at a time. every 2 cups i add i take one out.

 

[krap101]

Normally I would just acclimate temperature, net them out and put them in the tank, but I think the best way to drip acclimate (for some people) is to get a specimen container, put the fish in there, and drip into the container rather than the bag.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I pour the bags into a bucket or 1g container and drip acclimate. I've been drip acclimating my shipped fish for over a year now (many many fish) and I've had great results with this. I usually drip acclimate for an hour.

I'm sure the method MG suggested above would work too..replacing the bag water with tank water.

 

[mgamer20o0]

yea you can use the bag or another container. again it really depends on what you are getting in.

 

[JustOneMore20]

And how long it took to get there. I do use Prime in the buckets each time...makes me feel better.

 

[logansmomma1228]

Okay,, put prime in with them. Check.
I am getting Golden White Clouds
I don't know what they will be in, they are from severum mama. They will take 2 days to get here.

 

[JasonC]

Something else that everyone else is not mentioning, though, is that if you have any fish in your existing tank that are even remotely important to you... Quarantine, Quarantine, Quarantine!!!

Learned that one the hard way...

 

[MartinBlank]

LiveAquaria.com has a couple recommended acclimation methods for when you order from them:

Acclimation Procedure for Aquatic Life: Welcoming Home New Arrivals

There is a floating method and a drip method listed. You could take a look and take anything from there that you think might help

 

[logansmomma1228]

Lucky for me the fishies were already QT'd before being shipped! Can they get sick during shipment though? I also don't have anything else in the tank

 

[krap101]

If there was something present in the water, and the fishes' immune system was fighting it off, the move might have stressed them and left them vulnerable to disease.

 

[logansmomma1228]

I doubt there will be anything funky in the water. But if I add new fish I will still QT JIC. If I can keep a QT tank lol. I can't just sit there and see an empty tank,.... must... fill... it

 

[Aquarium1]

it wouldn't be empty if it's qting fish lol

 

[HUKIT]

Lucky for me the fishies were already QT'd before being shipped! Can they get sick during shipment though? I also don't have anything else in the tank

When fish are stressed they become open to diseases. I would never add a fish that was just shipped to my tank without the qt process.