acclimation techniques.

mes1234

mes1234

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Jan 25, 2010
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Well I just wanted to write a short thread to see what people thought. When I first started with fish keeping, I thought acclimation was basically a bunch of crap. For all my fish, I would just throw there bag into the tank for 10 mins to let the water temps raise or lower to the tanks temp. Well, this did work but 50% of the time, the fish would have a short heart attack moment for maybe 2 hours. What I mean by this is that the fish would cower in the corner for 2 hours breathing heavily. Well today I had to move my discus and angels from a 45 gallon to a 125 gallon that I bought. I thought, I have time today why not try a drip method for $@#$ and giggles. I bleeped it out for those of you who hate swearing. Needless to say, a small drip for 1 hour and the very sensitive discus entered their new home and started to swim around. All my fish that went through this, acted is if the transition never happened. I may not do this all the time, but for the more sensitive fish like discus and angels, I might now do it everytime. They ate food immediately after they got into their new home which is unheard of in my house. So all of this being said, acclimation the right way is well worth the hour wait.
 
Sound like a good plan.
 
I've wondered about this myself. Opinions on the subject seem to vary widely.

I have read that with shipped fish you have to be careful because opening the bag does something to the toxicity of the ammonia... something about CO2 off-gassing... and you're better off just floating, netting, and dumping. Is there any truth to that?
 
I dont know either. It would be nice if someone did a research topic about this. Send this to the Mythbusters.
 
This seems to be a fairly straightforward discussion of the subject, and a fairly simple way of dealing with it:

http://www.stingraysource.com/index.php?topic=9.0

...When a fish is shipped ... the pH has been driven down, the fish is lacking oxygen, and the water has been cooled slightly, all of these things making ammonia less toxic...

...Don't ever float the bag...

...Within 30-60 seconds of the bag being opened ... is a sudden increase in oxygen, which depletes co2 levels in the bag, thus making the pH make a sudden jump. With this sudden jump in pH, the ammonia immediately becomes more toxic...

...The key is to get the fish out of the bag water, ASAP. We often use scissors to cut open the bag, and immediately (within 3 seconds) squirt an undetermined amount of AmQuel (ammonia detoxifier), as well as NovAqua (water conditioner)....When you swiftly squirt a shot of AmQuel into the bag, it instantly detoxifies the ammonia by chemically binding it with a sulfur based solution. This allows you to net the fish, or strain the water out, in order to calmly place the fish into its new home...

...The key to temprature change in tropical fish is that they never take a sudden DROP in temprature. It is safe to acclimate a fish into a tank that is much warmer than the tank it is coming from. Tropical fish can often take a jump of 3-10 degrees with no problem, however a drop in temprature over 2-3 degrees can prove lethal....
Click to expand...

Of course, this would only apply to fish that have been in a sealed bag for some time, making the pH/ammonia situation more dangerous than the potential shock of temperature change, etc.

It does raise the question, though... if the pH drop actually protects the fish in transit, and breather bags would prevent this by allowing gas exchange, are breather bags actually more dangerous than regular bags?
 
I have done both depending on the situation. If you are getting more sensitive fish, try to find out the ph, gh, and kh they are coming from. If it is close to your water params - warm, plop, and drop. If they are coming from water that is very different than yours, drip acclimate. If the fish has been in the bag for a couple of hours, just put them in a container where the bag water is still deep enough for them and drip. If they have been shipped and need to be drip acclimated, add Prime the minute you open the bag, put in a container deep enough, then drip. Any fish or invert that has been shipped that needs to be drip acclimated, needs to be watched and moved out of the shipping water as soon as it shows any stress or gasping.
 
Big difference between moving a fish to a new tank in your house, to getting one from a different environment, especially if it's stressed from transport.

If you net a fish out of your own tank, and drop it into another, water parameters should be similar, no big change in pH, temp or hardness etc, the fish hardly notices.

Bring a new fish home it may be in a bag at a different temp, pH, hardness etc and already stressed. Some acclimatisation is certainly a good idea then. And interesting comments about the ammonia / CO2 buildup and how to treat it.

Last fish I bought was a fiesty little Oscar. Decided to do the right thing and hooked his bag over the side of the tank and let it float for a a while. 10mins later there is a spalsh, he's tipped the bag over and swum away. Didn't seem to affect him any as he was feeding an hour later and eating from my hand the next day.

I guess he just wanted OUT, NOW!

Ian
 
When I get fish from shipped, I drop in a couple drops of Prime on bag open, dump the water in a small bucket and drip acclimate. I mainly buy SA cichlids which can be far more sensitive to the acclimation process than some other fish. I am one of those consistant people who if it works every time without ever a loss, why change it for any fish. ;)

At $350 for 4 small fish, why risk it? Moving fish in my house from one tank to another, TOTALLY different story. All my tanks have near identical perams so in the 5 gall bucket they go, couple big cups of water about ever 10 minutes and 40 minutes later, they go in new tank...
 
For me, it depends on the fish and their sensitivity as to the method I use. But it's one of two:

1) I don't float the bag. I open the bag and put it in the tank securing it to the sides. Wait 15 minutes and begin adding 1/4 cup water every 15 minutes after that for ~ 2 hours. Net and release into main tank.

2) For sensitive species, get a large plastic or glass container/bowl/whatever works. Must be big enough for fish and a fair amount of water. Empty contents of bag into container. Remove just enough water which will allow the fish to still swim around. Start a drip line from the tank they will be going in to the bowl. I never really timed it but if I had to fathom a guess, I would say about 1 drop every 2-3 seconds. For the bowls I use, I will run this cycle twice. Net and release into main tank. This will take several hours.

And again...depending on the species you are acclimating...drop a small amount of feed in with them.

Long? yes. Worth it? absolutely.
 
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