What else can I add?

[dougall]

common livebearers are frequently kept in water with significant amounts of salt (NaCl, not marine); if you put them into regular water without shock, it could cause osmotic shock and far shortened lifespans.

How closely do your water parameters match those of the water where you purchase the fish?

 

[GuppyKeeper32]

Never had an issue with all other fish, besides the Swordtails, Guppys, and Platys. I don't put water from the bags into the tank. I've tried dripping, but always lost fish that way. I can move fish from one tank to another with no issue, both tanks stay at the same temp.

Do you float them? With gups, I do about 1-2 hours for complete acclimation, but for platys and swordtails 45 minutes to 1 hour will suffice. What's your water temp and ammonia level? Guppies are not the hardiest fish, but swordtails and platys shouldn't be dying so easily.

Gk

 

[Vincenia]

I float them anywhere from 30-45 mins, I do add water from the tank into the bag with a cup in small amounts in that time frame. But I still lose them.

 

[GuppyKeeper32]

I float them anywhere from 30-45 mins, I do add water from the tank into the bag with a cup in small amounts in that time frame. But I still lose them.

I usually don't try to add water, because you have to open the bag, and that releases oxygen. I would also be cautious with how much you feed them. They are very prone to being overfed. Hope you have better luck!

Gk

 

[Vincenia]

Feed both tanks once a day, just enough for all fish to get food. The mollys eat it all up a bit faster then the angel, but they all get food.

 

[Tifftastic]

There's some recent suggestions to actually not float fish at all and there's good logic behind it. When you float fish all you are acclimating them to is temperature. However, unless the temp in the bag is drastically different than the temp in the tank, this isn't really necessary. There's research that suggests it actually takes fish DAYS to acclimate to a change in temperature, so floating them for an hour or two doesn't allow for that. Additionally, there is a negative to keeping the fish in the bag. Ammonia exposure. The fish are likely under stress during transportation and that will increase their respiration which increases ammonia production. Bags are small and have little water as the oxygen is more important. This means the ammonia levels in the bag can rise fairly high. The longer the fish are in the bag the longer they are exposed to those levels of ammonia. The better way is to drip acclimate them. This slowly changes the temperature to that of the tank, so if you're worried about temperature it still covers it. This also will lower the ammonia levels and slowly introduce the tank environment to the fish. You don't have to do it on a drip line, you could also add a little bit of tank water every half hour or so to the bag or to a container in which you have transferred the fish and its travel water to.

 

[Vincenia]

The temp at the store and my tanks are the same sometimes a degree off. But the mollys are doing better then the other livebearers I've kept. Where my 55g is I have an A/C running, so if I did a drip, the water in the bucket would be colder then the tank.

 

[dougall]

IMO, the bigger reason behind acclimating isn't the temperature, but to handle changes in water chemistry, pH, TDS etc...

ammonia should hopefully not be too big of an issue if you are buying fish locally, having them shipped to you is another matter; the big thing is that the water will have a lower pH in the bag, and once open the ammonia will become more toxic.

you can handle ammonia with a drop of prime or a small cube of polyfill, But adapting fish to live in differing water conditions can take more time and be more difficult.


For me the big difference is going to be how long the fish were in the bag.


But, ultimately it is what works for you, if it currently isn;t working, then trying something different would be an idea.

 

[Vincenia]

I mostly get them locally in which they aren't in the bag for to long. I also keep an eye on the new fish.

 

[GuppyKeeper32]

I like to float them briefly because my local fish stores keep them in lower temps then my tank is at, by quite a bit. Many of the livebearers can tolerate relatively low temperatures, but I've found they prefer a nice tropical tank and start eating a lot faster. (mollies do best in brackish, but usually this isn't an option for people.)

Gk