Ammo Lock for moving fish in sealed bags?

[webcricket]

I am re-homing some platies - they will be in sealed bags for a 30 to 45 minute drive - probably at most an hour before they start the acclimation process in their new home.

Would it be harmful to put some Ammo Lock in the travel water to prevent any toxicity during that time (the new owner will be told not to just dump the water into their tank due to this addition)? Or, is an hour nothing to worry about?

 

[nerdyguy83]

This is advice I got from someone else on basically the same subject. You should definitely use ammo lock in the bags. Don't feed the fish for a day (they won't starve) to keep them from producing excess waste while in the bags. Adding the ammo-lock will keep any waste in the bag from hurting them. Do a search on "moving fish" or something like that and you'll get my post (its pretty recent). There was a really good explanation of what to do in one of the replies.

 

[webcricket]

I found it, thank you!

 

[rrkss]

I've read scientific papers regarding ammo-lock and tested it myself with my live fish. Ammolock has been tested in controlled conditions and proven to prevent ammonia damage to fish cells. It has also been overdosed at 10x without any harmful effects on the fish in another test. I can vouch for both since this product kept my fish alive in ammonia concentrations exceding 16 ppm.

 

[mooman]

Absolutely NO NEED. Fish can survive for hours and hours and hours in bags with no problem. I have gotten fish at auction several times where they were in bags for 8-9 hours. I have also taken a bag of 10 neon tetras (not the hardiest fish in the worls) to another city and hd the fish in the bag for over 24hrs. EVERY single neon survived. True story.

 

[rrkss]

it might not be neccessary but stressed out fish (like fish in a bag) do secrete extra ammonia. It can't harm them using ammo-lock in a bag only help them.

 

[Z Man]

I'm with mooman on this one. I've kept fish in bags over 3 days at many conventions without adding anything but water.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I would suggest using amquel.

 

[Roan Art]

I've often had fish shipped from CA to VA overnight. The ammonia reading in the bag is anywhere from 2.0 to 4.0 on arrival.

And yes, I do measure it. I test NH3/4+, pH, GH and KH of the water fish are shipped in and then acclimate the fish to the same readings as the tank water.

For a 45 minute trip however, I wouldn't bother. When you get to your destination just open the bags and put a drop of Prime in them. That will neutralize any ammonia in the bag.

Roan