Acclimatizing

LouRey

LouRey

AC Members
Feb 14, 2009
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I have a couple of questions concerning acclimatizing my fish. I've used the good old bag method and the day before yesterday I tried putting the fish in a bowl and adding water progressively. Honestly I really prefer the bag method. When I use the floating bag at least my fish do not turn ghost white and I haven't seen a difference in their life span.

So, my question is... what is acclimatizing exactly? Is the fact that they are stressed less important than the water chemistry? Is there some bit of info I'm missing?

Someone please explain!
 
Food for thought but is the purpose to cause less stress to the fish or get their little bodies used to the water?
 
LouRey said:
Food for thought but is the purpose to cause less stress to the fish or get their little bodies used to the water?
Click to expand...

Really both. The water they've been in is typically questionable because fish do not stop exuding wastes when they're bagged and many of them come from questionable water quality in the store. A sudden transition in TDS (some would say pH too, but I don't happen to believe that) or temp can easily kill a fish that is most likely already stressed from being shipped to your LFS.
 
Thanks for the info it really helps. So then I guess the PH is not that big an issue?
 
For me I worry most about TDS....don't bother to worry about pH.
 
Total disolved solids are a measure of all of the salts that are disolved into the water. In most water there is Ca, Mg, Na, Cl and CO3. Plus there are lots of things in lower concentrations like iron and other "trace" elements. The total of all of them is TDS.

I have not found it as useful as measuring all of the ions individually.
 
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