Acclimating two types of fish

[danas90]

I have a 10 gallon tank, which has been running for about 2 months, with three glowlite tetras for about two or three weeks. I just went to the fish store and got three more glowlites and two platys. I am currently floating the bags, and will soon being the adding-water-to-the-bags process. What I am wondering is: Should I put in the glowlites first, give them like 15 minutes in the tank, then add the platys, or do it the other way around, or put them all in at once? What would be the least stressful for all? I appreciate your help,

Dana

[danas90]

Now, for a new question. After the new fish had been in the tank for about an hour or two, I turned on the aquarium light. For a while, everyone seemed happy, with the platys sticking close together and the 6 glowlights schooling. However, after a while, the glowlights all kind of huddled together in the corner where they were blocked from the tank light by a (plastic) plant. They just stayed there, not doing much, for a while - until I turned the light off a few minutes ago, at which time they began swimming about the tank. The platys have been swimming around constantly, not seeming to mind the light at all.

Now, my three glowlights that I had previous to today didn't seem to like the light any more than they, along with the additions, did tonight.

So, my question: What should I do? Should I put the light on a timer so that it's on for like two hours per day for a few days, then continually increase the time over the next month or two to around 8 hours, or what? I really want them to be happy, even when the light is on!

[Slappy*McFish]

Just leave them alone, the newcomers are just stressed and scared. Give them a couple of days and they'll be out swimming around again.

[danas90]

Just leave them alone, the newcomers are just stressed and scared. Give them a couple of days and they'll be out swimming around again.

I understand your thought on that, it's exactly what I believed before. However, my glowlights that i've had for two weeks still aren't used to the light, they were cowering under cover with the others. I dunno... lets just hope that they'll be fine like you said!

:dog:

[ParadoxLiz]

Danas,

It's safe to assume that the fish who were used to the light are now stressed because A) there's strange new fishies falling from the sky! and B) Said fishies are scared and stressed!

FWIW, here's what I've been doing (I'm a newbie, and this may be overkill, but it's working for me; feel free to take others' advice over mine, I won't mind.):

1. I get the fish in the evening. At this time of year, that means their drive home is dark. I try to make sure the drive home keeps them nice and warm.

2. When I get home, rather than the "float the bag" thing, I get a small bucket (used specially for this purpose), take the rubber band off their bag, carefully and slowly tip the bag upside down so the twisted opening is down and against the bottom of the bucket. Then I slowly lift the bag, allowing the opening to unravel and the water lowers slowly until the water and the fishies are in the bucket - you have to be very careful and take it slow, but this has worked beautifully for me.

3. Depending on the amount of water in the bag, I either use a small heater or I put a heating pad under the bucket and use a spare thermometer to make sure the bucket water temp stays or ajusts slowly toward my tank temp.

4. I use an airline hose with a regulator valve on one end to slowly drip water from the tank into the bucket. I let this take about an hour and try to get it so that by the time we're done, they've got more water from my tank than from their bag. Depending on the details, this might take more than an hour. (I figure better safe than sorry, and I'd adjust based on differences between your water and the fish store's water - doesn't hurt to ask about their temps and pH levels.)

5. I put a sort of hollow plastic mountain ornament in the bucket to allow fishies to hide while they acclimate and cover the bucket with a towel to help keep the temp stable and the environment dark. I also keep the room lights as low as possible from the time I get home until the next day.

6. As my tank is a community tank and the fish are all pretty passive, I don't worry about feeding before adding the newcomers, but I've done it both ways - feed first, feed after. As I understand it, if the tank has agressive fish, you should feed them first and add the newbies in a nice dark corner that is NOT where you feed.

7. Once the acclimating's done, I turn off the tank light (if the timer hasn't done that already), remove the towel and ornament, double check temperature to be sure it's right (I do this every 10 minutes or so during acclimation) then net the fishies and add them to the tank. I leave the lights off until morning.

This seems to work well for me and my fishes.

FWIW,

Liz

[danas90]

I appreciate you response. The slow-drip method- I've heard of it, but as I don't have an extra bucket, heater, thermometer, airline hose, etc., I haven't tried it. I do keep all the lights out during the acclimation process and don't bother with the feeding (even though this was the first time acclimating fish when there were already some inhabitants of the tank). Though, after several hours I did turn on the light as I mentioned, only because all the fishies seemed happy and were all together and swimming freely around.

And as far as the old fish being scared and thus hiding, I can understand that. But what I was saying was that even last night, when they were all alone without giant bags floating over their heads, they didn't like the light... and I find it odd, since even when the Platys (or platies? "ies" seems to be correct english, but I see "ys" just about everywhere...) had only been in the tank for a little while and the light was turned on, they were very active. I guess it just depends on the type of fish. :dive2:

Thanks again - I may try the drip method next time, when I get perhaps a couple community-gouramies or a shark... we'll see.

Good luck in your future fishy endvours!

[ParadoxLiz]

I think it does depend on the type of fish. As I understand it, the tetras come from darker areas anyway, so they may be more sensitive to light. I'd say give them no light for the rest of the night and see how they like morning (and actually, I wouldn't worry about it after tonight - just run the lights on your normal schedule).

Good luck with the new fishies.

Liz

[indiginess]

i acclimate fish in this manner (assuming i'm not planning a quarantine, i'm picky about stores)...

float the bag as per usual.

poke really small hole in bag (really small, ususally use a framing nail or something).

15 min or so later, make the hole larger and 15 minutes later.. and so on.

usually this works double duty... the small hole allows for a little water mixing (pH, TDS content). it also allows the fish to actually swim out into the new tank and seems less stressful than a dump of any kind.

:cool:

[phanmc]

Glo-lites are schooling fish so when the new fishes are huddling under the fake plants, the original ones are going "what the heck, I'll join 'em". They'll eventually get used to it.

As far as acclimation process, we can debate that until we're blue in the face. I'm a proponent of the drip method for fishes that comes from an unknown or different water source. If I know the water source from the LFS is the same as mine, the fishes are going right in without being floated. Floating by itself (so not counting punching holes into the bags) serves little purpose to the acclimation process.

[danas90]

i acclimate fish in this manner (assuming i'm not planning a quarantine, i'm picky about stores)...

float the bag as per usual.

poke really small hole in bag (really small, ususally use a framing nail or something).

15 min or so later, make the hole larger and 15 minutes later.. and so on.

usually this works double duty... the small hole allows for a little water mixing (pH, TDS content). it also allows the fish to actually swim out into the new tank and seems less stressful than a dump of any kind.

:cool:

Hmm... I like that idea, but I really don't want any of the LFS water to get in with mine, I'm not sure the exact water quality - but I know it's not very bad at all.


Glo-lites are schooling fish so when the new fishes are huddling under the fake plants, the original ones are going "what the heck, I'll join 'em". They'll eventually get used to it.

Makes sense, except that the old glowlights always did that, every time I turned the light on. But hey, maybe they just haven't been acclimated enough either... I dunno...

I think that I'm just going to wait a while longer, but if after a couple weeks the glowlights aren't out and swimming around, I may think about getting a different, dimmer lightbulb or something...


Floating by itself (so not counting punching holes into the bags) serves little purpose to the acclimation process.

I thought that floating the bags was supposed to help equalize the temperture between the water in the bag and the water in the tank... no?

[danas90]

Hmm.. feeding time definitely got the glowlights going, they were up and about, scrambling for food. And now with it all gone, they're still swimming around quite a bit. Hmm...

[indiginess]

Hmm... I like that idea, but I really don't want any of the LFS water to get in with mine, I'm not sure the exact water quality - but I know it's not very bad at all.



very understandable... like i said, i'm very picky about stores, and i will only do this if i trust the source. i usually visit the store on consecutive days, sometimes three in a row, if i'm considering a purchase... also helps curb the impulse bug. otherwise, i QT for a few days, or use my method in a bucket or spare small tank with the main tank's water, and net them from place to place. pathogens are not likely to gain a foothold in my tanks (knock on wood).

yeah, floating the bag is mainly for temp equalization, and i believe that's important, particularly in these midwestern winters...

but as phanmc said, we could continue this discussion for days on end.

:cool:

[phanmc]

I thought that floating the bags was supposed to help equalize the temperture between the water in the bag and the water in the tank... no?

The difference in temperature between your tank water and the bag water shouldn't be that big, probably a 5-10 degree F difference at most. Unless the fish is already in poor health, they can tolerate the temperature change. A temperature change now and then won't harm a fish, it's frequent temperature fuctuations that are hazardous.

The downside to floating a bag is that you are keeping the fish in a small amount of liquid with a continually increasing amount of ammonia. This is compounded by the fact that the fishes' stress level is way up as they try to swim to what appears to be open waters but can't.

[indiginess]

sounds like things are on the mend... good

[danas90]

Just got home today, to find one of the platys dead on the bottom of the tank. It does not appear that it has come to any physical harm. All the other fish, including the other platy, seem to be doing fine. I just removed the dead platy and will return it to the store later. But I'm just wondering, what could have caused the sudden death? I just tested the water last night, and everything seemed fine - pH was ~7.4, ammonia was at 0.5 ppm, and nitrate/nitrite were at 0 ppm.
I should mention that the last several times that I have fed the fish, one of the platys has gulped up a large portion of the food before the other platy or any of the glowlights even ntice the food. The second platy did eat a little, but I'm not sure how much. Unfortunately, I'm not sure which of these was the untimely one, so I'm not sure whether or not over/under-eating would have caused it. But, with only 4 or 5 feedings since they were introduced into the tank, I doubt that it would be either of those. However, if the one was sick already, before I even aquired it, then that could have been why it rarely ate - but hey, I don't know that much about fish, so I'm really not sure. When I feed them later tonight I'll let you know if the remaining platy chows down incredibly on the flakes or not.

So, does anybody have any ideas of what may have happened to him (I just checked, and I believe that the remaining one is female, and I know that I got one of each), and is there anything that I should do to prevent the same thing from happening to the others?

[phanmc]

It's probably the ammonia, high levels are fatal but even low levels can harm a fish that may not be in full health. It sounds like the bio filtration in the tank hasn't caught up to the extra fishload yet, or your ammonia level should be 0. Do water changes lower your ammonia level until it goes away by itself.

[danas90]

Okay - I was wondering about those ammonia levels. I'm just doing a new ammonia test now, to make sure that the levels didn't spike somehow during the day. I'll also do a water change in a little while.

[danas90]

Yea, so the pH is somewhere around 0.75 ppm now, I guess it increased a little bit since yesterday. I'm going to go ahead and do a small water change (would 10% be good for now?)

[pwrflpills]

Hey Danas90,
Don't beat yourself up. Fish keeping is tricky, especially in the beginning. All fish are different. From reading your entries it seems to me like you're looking for answers to situations that don't really have an answer or the answer is right in front of you, i.e. fish being stressed when you bring them home (naturally), one fish being a bigger eater than another, the perfect way to acclimate many different types of fish, considering their feelings, high ammonia (do a water change), etc. Personally, it sounds like you're overdoing certain things. I'm sure you're doing everything just fine. Just know your basics, use common sense, and you'll learn along the way. You can ask questions on here until you're blue in the face, but experience is key. So I'd say relax and take it in stride. This is supposed to be fun, right? Take care of the tank like you know how and everything will work out. :rant2: :thm: :o

[phanmc]

Did you mean the ammonia level is at .75ppm? A 10% water change won't impact it very much, I'd recommend a 25-50% water change to really drop it low.

If you meant pH, don't worry about it. Minor changes in pH won't affect your fishes.

[danas90]

Did you mean the ammonia level is at .75ppm? A 10% water change won't impact it very much, I'd recommend a 25-50% water change to really drop it low.

If you meant pH, don't worry about it. Minor changes in pH won't affect your fishes.

Ahahah yea, I meant ammonia. Sorry - I'm so overwhelmed with homework right now, I can barely think... hehe

[RockabillyChick]

when i first put my glowlights in my 10 gallon, they would swim around normally when the lights were off, but if i turned the light on they would all fall to the bottom or hide in the corner or behind the seashells.