How to properly climatise new fish?

[cephei]

Hi guys,

Ive been looking around for some information on the 'right' way to climatise new fish but I cant find anything solid.

My reason for looking is I will soon get my first batch of rummys and I have heard they are difficult to acclimatise and I really dont want to lose any during this process if possible so I want to know the best way to acclimatise new fish..How long, how much tank water added at what stages etc etc...

Cheers :headbang2:

[jbradt]

I don't know if there's a concrete "right" way to acclimate new fish. There seem to be three methods.

1. dump the fish from the bag into the tank. This is not generally recommended.
2. Float the bag for 1/2 hour, then slowly add tank water to the bag. Generally, every 10 minutes or so, you add more tank water to the bag. After about an hour of this, you can net the fish from the bag and add them to the tank. This is more recommended than 1.
3. Drip acclimation. This is the slowest, but probably the easiest on the fish. This involves dripping water through an airline tube into the bag. Details can be found here. (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154736)

Hope this helps.

[cephei]

I don't know if there's a concrete "right" way to acclimate new fish. There seem to be three methods.

1. dump the fish from the bag into the tank. This is not generally recommended.
2. Float the bag for 1/2 hour, then slowly add tank water to the bag. Generally, every 10 minutes or so, you add more tank water to the bag. After about an hour of this, you can net the fish from the bag and add them to the tank. This is more recommended than 1.
3. Drip acclimation. This is the slowest, but probably the easiest on the fish. This involves dripping water through an airline tube into the bag. Details can be found here. (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154736)

Hope this helps.

thanks for that! That drip method seems like a whole lot of hassle... I might mix the 2nd and 3rd option together to create an acclimation more suitable to me. Test both water from tank and bag then proceed with option 2 but add water in smaller amounts (instead of drip) then retest every 30 mins or so.... somthing along those lines...

[bigwave]

I use option #2, but instead of trying to net the fish out of the bag, I set my net over a bucket, and dump the entire bag out through the net, then drop the fish in.

[cam191919]

i do 2 and 3, or some combination of them. 1 is much to harsh, and normally results in losses, IME