Do we really need to acclimate new fish?

It's really easy and gives me peace of mind to do deliberately careful introductions and qt periods. Here is my method:


i dump the fish from the bag into a bucket, run an airline tube siphon from the qt tank to the bucket and just let the time it takes to fill the bucket be my guide. The method is to be constanty bailing water out of the bucket with a cup until I've gone through what I can best perceive as two full buckets of water. Now the fish has been introduced to 100% destination water in less than 30mins and can just be poured right in. No netting means no chasing, no stress. And zero LFS water to be added.

I keep the qt tank at a higher temp than normal - around 87 or so. This way if there is ick, it will show itself sooner. I also make sure my qt tanks are small as possible in case I do have to treat outbreaks; less water = less cost for salt or meds. I also have no substrate in my qt tanks.

To add the fish to a main tank I actually drain the water from the qt and replace it with old water from the destination tank. Again, the changeover to 100% destination water. Then the fish go right in and make their new home. And i finish the weekly water change that comes along as a bonus.
 
I asked this over at Simplydiscus a while back, and was somewhat astounded at how many of the pros just match temperature, and then net them out of the bag and right into the QT tank. No bothering to match pH. The contention is that doing this once isn't too bad, as long as the pH doesn't continue to constantly change. Also, going from lower-to-higher pH isn't supposed to be a stressful as the other way.

There are also supposed to be some downsides to slow acclimation. Keeping the fish in the bag longer gives more chance for ammonia to build up. Plus, if you use drip acclimation which ends up raising the pH in the bag, you can change ammonia to the more toxic ammonium (or is it the other way around?), and greatly stress the fish, more so than the "net and plop" method.
 
A QT can be simple, just a rubbermaid tub...no need for a permanent set up..
 
In the end properly acclimating the fish you buy for your tank is always better on you and the fish. Less stress both ways.

Marinemom
 
you can certainly "Get away with" not acclimating, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
especially when you put so much time and effort and money into this hobby... why would you want to risk that?
 
rbishob, when you say a QT isn't permanent...may I ask what the point of it is then? My understanding is that a QT tank would be set up to watch the fish over a period of at least a week. I don't think breaking out a rubbermaid container, filter and heater every time you get a fish and running it for a week somewhere is really plausible for very many of us. If you mean to keep the fish in the rubbermaid for only a few hours...I really don't think that does much, considering not very many issues will manifest within a few hours, including ich, fungus, etc.

I'm not saying a QT tank is worthless, certainly not, in fact I applaud anyone who has the space to have a QT or hospital tank. I wish I had one, it takes the risk out of adding fish....but like I said, just no space, and putting them through the stress of moving them into a unfiltered bucket, then into my tank...not worth it IMO.
 
Most folks do not have a QT set up continuously. They get fish once in a while. Others, like me, are constantly getting fish.

If you are running your existing tank(s) with extra sponges or filter media, or additional filters, you can quickly set up a container for a 3-4 week QT period.
 
:iagree:

if you have not had the experience of adding sick or diseased fish.you have been lucky.

like rbishop I can at times handle a lot of fish.

I can tell you first hand that QT is an essential part of fish keeping.

I have had some pretty serious issues with fish..from a trusted source.

it cost me several expensive marine fish in one case and several angels in another.

since then I have saved myself major headaches ..

I keep a couple tanks aside from craigslist etc to set up as hospital qt tanks.
 
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