what is the best way to acclimate shipped fish?

[Big Ben]

If all goes well these bad boys http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwapisto&1188662899 will be sent to me next week. I have acclimated fish at my work a few times but we mainly carry hardy fish and I don't feel confident about acclimating this fish. I mean i dont usually lose any at work but I dont take credit for it. THis is waht I plan to do, all advice and tips would be greatly appreciated. Ok let me know if somethings bad here:

-pour fish and water out of bag into ice cream pail. the room will be dark and the pail covered with a towel , so it will be dark.

-I have wardleys 3 in 1 conditioner that detoxifies ammonia, buffers ph to 7.0 and removes chlorine/chloramine. I plan on adding this or ace or amquel to the pail immediately. Im just not sure if the ph buffer will be bad for the fish...im thinking i should test the ph of the water the fish comes in and if its off from 7 it should be avoided.

-add half a cup of water to the ice cream pail every 5 mins until it gets high .

-drain the pail a bit then repeat process.

-net fish into tank and discard water.


Ive heard taht floating the bag is a bad idea. Ive also heard that its actually less stressfull and better to just put the fish in the tank immediately asap, as letting it sit in the water longer during acclimation just puts into more stress and they will be more likely to survive if you get them right away.

thanks, ben.

 

[triazole]

i'd suggest a drip method instead of the cup one. i use the latter for store-bought fish, and the former for shipped fish, and more sensitive fish.

 

[black hills tj]

I drip acclimated my GBR's for...ready? 3 hours! I only did it this long because A. that's how long it took the 1g ice cream bucket to fill up and B. I was sick of losing them from other acclimation processes. I tried the bucket in the water, add a cup every 10 minutes, proccess and lost 2 separate pairs due to this before. But this time my GBR's are gorgeous and have been healthy for about a month now.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I suggest the drip acclimation method also. Floating of the bag is not stressful. The purpose is to equalize the temp between the tank and the bag. The extra hour that it takes to acclimate will not cause extra stress to the fish. If you just dump it into the tank, you're more likely to kill the new arrival. In regards to the pH, it is probably going to be different than yours, hence the reason to drip acclimate. I wouldn't add any of the chemicals. Especially not a pH additive. The water that you add from the tank to the bucket is enough to saturate any ammonia that would be in the bag. You don't need anything for pH change or for removing chlorine/chloramines.

 

[7Enigma]

Depending on the amount of water in the bag I will pour some out until there is maybe 2 cups left. Then I float the bag. This is probably the best way to slowly acclimate temps, with the end result being that you have the bag at exactly the same temp as the tank (since its in the tank).

Depending on how long the fish have been in transit I would probably use a diluted amount of dechlor to avoid longer exposure in the most likely ammonia-ridden water.

I've never dealt with severely fragile fish before and so use the shot glass method every 5-10 minutes to add in tank water. Never had a loss or seen stress in adding new fish (several days later yes, but not from initial shock).

Oh and those pictures look INCREDIBLE. I want one!

 

[rich311k]

Ben, I got my apistos from aquabid as well. They were in a DHL box for 3 days do to the seller not being able to read emails. Anyway, I acclimated them by the drip method for a few hours and the pair is doing just great. Good luck with them they are personable and pretty little fish.

 

[rkilling1]

And just a FYI, if you receive fish in breather bags, DON'T float those in your tank. You will have to transfer them into another bag first. Or atleast remove some of the water from the breather bag.

 

[Big Ben]

Thank you everyone for all the quick responses. I like all of your ideas. Ive read a little about the drip method. Do you just take a peice of airline tubing, attach a check valve and get it syphon like a gravel vac? Just to be safe id rather try this method first. If i can't figure it out that shot glass method is probably what ill go with.

I no longer will use the wardley 3 in 1. I was going to use it just to get rid of some of the ammonia that will be in the water that the fish come in. I was thinking to use some diluted conditioner that doesn't buffer the water ph but will neutralize ammonia. Is that going to help in anyway? Ive heard people use novaqua to get rid of even more stress, any one tried that? I know the last 2 things i mentioned are a little excessive, im just being worried because with the shipping added these are going to be the most expensive fish Ive bought . it sounds like the drip method has worked great for u all so thats reassuring.

I hope they live and turn out as nice as the pictures. Your little mishap rich is reassuring to me that everything will turn out good. What species did u get off aquabid? I was tempted to get theis bundle the guy is offering where you get 4 pairs of different apistos. I just don't have the tanks for them though.

Thanks rkilling1 for the tip, I will remember that one. I am getting exited now that I am more confident . Thanks again to everyone.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

The only chemical I use in my water is Prime. You could try using a drop of that but it goes a LONG way. I wouldn't even bother with it honestly. As soon as you start the drip acclimation the ammonia that is in the water will begin to be diluted anyway.

After they have settled in, be sure to post pics. They look like BEAUTIFUL fish.

 

[7Enigma]

I no longer will use the wardley 3 in 1. I was going to use it just to get rid of some of the ammonia that will be in the water that the fish come in. I was thinking to use some diluted conditioner that doesn't buffer the water ph but will neutralize ammonia. Is that going to help in anyway? Ive heard people use novaqua to get rid of even more stress, any one tried that? I know the last 2 things i mentioned are a little excessive, im just being worried because with the shipping added these are going to be the most expensive fish Ive bought . it sounds like the drip method has worked great for u all so thats reassuring.
.

I would just get a bottle of Prime (its what I and many on here use). It simply detoxifies ammonia and heavy metals and lasts a long time. But because it is so concentrated I would realy dilute it out (say a drop of Prime into a shot glass of tank water and then only adding a couple ml to the bag). But since a drip acclimation is so slow I think it would help.

 

[JeffreyL]

Okay, first, a disclaimer. I have never recieved fish thru the mail, so I have to use the experience of others ......

One of the concerns I have heard for drip acclimation is that as the pH (and temp, also) rises, ammonia becomes more toxic. So if you recieve a bag of fish, if the pH has dropped due to a build up of organic waste, the ammonia present will be less toxic. As you slowly drip acclimate, the pH will likely rise and the ammonia will become more toxic.

Now does the dillution offset the rise in toxicity? I don't know and suspect it could vary quite a bit, depending on initial pH, time in the bag, did the seller fast his fish before shipping, use Poly Filter or dechlorinater, um, the phase of the moon and if it an el Nino or la Nina year.

Perhaps toss some Poly Filter in the bucket to remove the ammonia and other nasties? Or dose the whole tank with Prime and let the treated tank water detoxify the ammonia?

I know 2 very experienced people and one premium lfs that dump fish from bag to tank due to concers of pH vs ammonia.

FWIW, I would favor both of the above ideas and slow drip acclimate.

Anyway, good luck with your new apistos!!!!!! They are a wonderful, pint sized cichlid!!!

 

[plecoperson]

I just got a "Box-O-Pistos" yesterday from the same seller, and they are very, very nice. Well-packed and healthy fish.

I drip acclimate them too. I spliced a ball valve into a piece of airline tubing. I let them drip for maybe 45 minutes-no losses yet from this process. I use the tubing to do water changes on my smaller tanks, too, to slow down the process when refilling. You can also tie a knot in the tubing and adjust the tightness of the knot to control the drip.

I hope you win the cacatuoides-fingers crossed.

 

[Lance M.]

I've never had fish shipped to me so I dont know the best way, but I've also heard what JeffreyL says about the pH and ammonia becoming toxic if you drip them. I don't know how true this is but it's what I've heard and whenever my lfs gets shipments, they always float the bags for 30-45 minutes for temperature and then slice the bag open with a razor, pour the fish into a net and then put it into the tank so none of the bag water gets into the tank. They don't lose fish doing this, except sometimes a firefish but they say they are delicate when they are shipped. Just what I've heard.

 

[7Enigma]

I think drip (or shot glass ) acclimation is the best way to acclimate fish to a new tank. The temperature is important for the initial shock of the introduction, but its the hardness, salinity, dissolved organics, etc. that really can stress the fish out. The low pH/ammonia issue is valid for long transit shipping, but I cannot see how adding a small amount of water conditioner to the bag prior to drip acclimation is not superior to just dumping the fish in after temp acclimation.

We know Prime and other conditioners detoxify nitrogen toxins, so it doesn't matter if the pH rises during acclimation, its damaging properties are already eliminated if treated.

Just my 3 cents.

 

[Lance M.]

I was looking at LiveAquaria.com and they say to drip acclimate or at the least use the cup method.

If it was so much better then why doesn't the lfs do it? Idk just thinking.

And I've heard bad stories about overdosing with those chemicals.

Idk dripping seems to be the best? maybe a combo of the dripping and cup methods. like drip for two hours and while doing that every 25-30 minutes adding a cup of tank water to the bucket your dripping in?

 

[7Enigma]

If it was so much better then why doesn't the lfs do it? Idk just thinking.

And I've heard bad stories about overdosing with those chemicals.

Because they get huge shipments in with many fish and don't plan on having those fish for very long. It would be very time consuming to do a drip acclimation. It's easy for us since its usually only a couple fish we are dealing with.

At least with Prime it is pretty difficult to cause problems. Again I would use a pre-diluted amount of a conditioner, not just a drop or two of a concentrated formula (Prime is 1 ml per 10 gallons, so you really need to dilute it first).

 

[fishb0ne]

+1 to drip method over 1-3 hours, depeding on pH/hardness difference from LFS to home.
PRIME can be used in large overdoses with no ill effects.

 

[Big Ben]

I would agree with 7enigmas conclusion as to why the lfs uses that method. A store near me uses that method as well.

Fish came yesterday , i used the drip method and it took about 1 1/2 hours. I used the prime to detoxify the shipping water after pouring some of it out to begin with. The fish are doing overall ok so far. I only say ok because the females haven't really been eating. I saw them eat a brine shrimp or 2 but the males are doing great and eating well. Theyre probably still getting used to the tank so at this point im not too worried. I will post some pics in the cichlid forum tomorow. I aint gonna lie the colors of these fish are amazing, even the females.

I also just wanted to thank you all for all the different perspectives on this topic.