Osmosis shock?

[bcurlacher54]

have any of you ever heard of osmosis shock? i read that most fish loss that is believed to be ph shock is actually osmosis shock. being that i am a newb to fish keeping i figured i would ask. oh yeah and how do you avoid or control this?

 

[Rosenweiss]

You can avoid or control any type of shock by a patient, slow acclimation.

 

[bcurlacher54]

yeah im slowly starting to see that a poor acclimation may have been what killed most of my new stock..guess i learned the hard way.

 

[Rosenweiss]

I'm sorry to hear that...

Have you read up on proper techniques?

 

[bcurlacher54]

yeah i was given a nice link and it seems pretty easy...

 

[Rosenweiss]

Yeah, it's not too bad, personally, I would open the bag and clip it to the inside of the tank and let it float there for 15 minutes, then add tank water a little every 15, and then when it's full start replacing that water with tank water until it's been a couple hours, then net and release.

The reason I would open the bag immediately is to oxygenate the water more. Of course, if you have a drip system set up, then that works great too.

 

[bcurlacher54]

i think ill go with the drip method.

 

[Rosenweiss]

Cool. =]

 

[toddnbecka]

Osmotic shock is liable to happen if the hardness of the water (and usually the pH as well, which is why many folks think it's pH shock) you're moving the fish or shrimp into is lower than they're accustomed to. Oddly enough, moving them into harder (and usually higher pH) isn't nearly as likely to cause them any real problems.