"Zero minute" acclimation method (myths thread related)

[RTR]

Chico - I have been dealing with the same LFS for >>20 years, and they do not follow the practice you describe, so do not kid yourself that what is done in one shop is universal practice. The minimum is the practice Dragon Lord Tia describes, but only for the hardiest fish, all more sensitive types get the acclimatization described for discus.

When fish are shipped they are rarely shipped in plain water, and are there for hours (from the distributor to the lFS) to days (from the collector to the importer). That water may well be heavily polluted. But I live 10 minutes from the LFS, there is hardy a pollution issue involved. But I do have different water from the LFS, and the osmotic differences are easily measured and real, just as they would be for SW fish. Therfore I adjust with care. I have never had a fish frantic in a bag - in fact I tend to use catch buckets, not the bag, and add plant cuttings for security, and have the tank lights off or all strips but one off - why should the fish panic? I have never had a fish damaged by my techniques, nor had any subsquent symptoms of ammonia burns to the gills. The nightmare straw men described are largely that, straw men, drawn by taking the extreme cases of multi-day shipping and applying that to brief uncrowded transport from the LFS home. A Halloween story to frighten the unthinking or inexperienced, IMHO & IME.

Your fish, your tanks, handle them as you wish. I will follow a bit more conservative practice for my fish.

 

[PumaWard]

we use to the the bag place bag in tank after 5 half empty bag fill bag with sypthoned tank water-10 minutes net fish discard bag and water place fish in tank etc

for discus net fish tip bag water into esky then place fish in esky with air filter and small filter slowly add water for tank 2 cups every 5 minutes till the esky was full(1 to 1.5 hours) then place fish in sectioned off part of tank for .5 of an hour then remove divider NEVER LOST A DISCUS ive heard of place takeing upto 5 hours to get the fish into tanks

Actually, a lot of more experienced discus keepers simply take the discus out and plop them in the tank. They just start the q-tank out at a slightly lower temperature (84F), catch them out of the bag (using their hands if possible, not a net!) and plop them in the tank... absolutely no acclimation.

Here's a direct quote from Carol (global mod..esp disease and newbie forums) over at simply.

I have tank at normal temp (84) with 1 or 2 tablespoons salt per 10 gallons.

Open box of fish. Pull out bag, place by tank. Cut off top and pour out most of water. Reach in bag, gently grasp discus and plop in tank. Repeat until box is empty. leave on low light. feed next day.

 

[Cearbhaill]

My methods of acclimation depend on several factors- species involved, time bagged, size of fish, and how far apart the water parameters are. The first thing I do when I get them home is test the bagwater to determine the extent of the differences.

The only time I felt the need to do a very rapid "grab and plop" was when I received 3 huge 7+ inch Goldfish from an online vendor. They had all been placed together in the same small bag, and even though shipped Overnight Priority had been delayed longer than reasonable. When I saw that they had all been crammed into the same bag I thought faster was better than slower, so I grabbed and plopped them. All came through just fine.

 

[CajunCC]

I've never liked the idea of putting the bag in the tank because who knows what's all over the outside of that bag. I don't wanna put that in my tank. What I do is I grab my water change bucket and empty the bag into there. Then I add tank water until it's about 50/50 mix and then net the sucker out into the tank. Seems to work pretty well for me so far.

 

[TKOS]

I have an old ice cream container that i empty my fish into with the store water and slwoly add cup fulls of my change water. I know that they adjust the water where I buy fish to try and reach some myhtical Ph of 7 with a specific hardness. Seems silly that they keep all of their fish (tetras, cichlids, mollies, gouramis) in the same type of water but they do so I know I have to let the new fish adjust to my conditions. It doesn't take much of my time and I haven't lost a fish yet so why change.

I also don't like floating the bag as I assume there is all sorts of nasty stuff on the outside of it.

 

[NatakuTseng]

personally I feel that the aclimation process needs to be done purely by how much time the fish have spent in the bag. Obviously a fish that has been in a bag for an hour or less because it was just bought at the LFS is not going to have anywhere near the ammonia in the water as one that has been shipped to a person's door. Thus the risk to the fish is much less and a longer aclimation period can take place. A fish however that has been in a bag for 24hrs is at a much higher risk to have health problems associated with ammonia levels, and may even have obvious ammonia burns to fins and burned gills, just simply because it has been in the bag longer, at this point it becomes much more critical to remove that fish from that water as soon as possible, and a long aclimation period just continues to cause damage and harm to the fish. I don't feel that aclimation periods should be dependant upon the species you have, but purely based on the time a fish has been in a bag. Another thing is obviously a smaller fish in a bag for a longer period of time will most likely produce much less ammonia than a larger fish, so the risk is decreaseds slightly, but ammonia will still be present in that water at a dangerous level. Sometimes the drip method is best, and sometimes the plop method is the best route to go. I will drip acclimate any fish that come from the LFS around here, but as an example a Checker Pigeon blood discus, about 6inches I won at an auction in march, and had been in the bag for 24 hours, already had obvious damage to fins due to ammonia and the water smelled of it, so the plop method was the wiser choice.

 

[Hans]

see what happens when you propose a point that goes against common practices? and you say i just spurt out BS.... IF not for people like me we would still be eating raw cows in the dark

 

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

and cows wouldnt be domesticated and called cows lol i say what works works some people might grab the bag throw it a few times then put the fish in if they dont die it was succesful lol

with that squirt method id say its just a idea to get their product to sell their are so many of those products on the shelves they need to make up something to get it selling IMO :soda:

 

[NatakuTseng]

Hmm, didn't think this discussion was about cooking beef or domesticating and naming cattle. Surprised I didn't see your two cents in here about how you acclimate your fish Hans. Since your such a pioneer, what unique method do you use? Btw I would love to see some pictures of that discus you have, if its still around.

 

[ChicoRaton]

I really don't understand the theory behind the squirt and dump method...sounds to me like a ploy to sell novaqua.

After reading this thread, I do agree that if the fish has been in the bag a short time, a long acclimation is best. However, if the fish has been in the bag a long time, when you open it the co2 will escape, the ph will begin to rise and more of the ammonium will turn into ammonia and harm the fish even more, in which case the plop/dunk method would be best.

I am not sure of the number of saltwater fish that came in our last order)I think it was around 100+), but we used the plop method for each and every one of them, and only lost one three stripe damsel, about a week after the fish were in the tanks. The only other losses were two shrimp which were dead on arrival. All the other fish were eating great 24 hours later. To me, this says that in the case of long transport/shipping times, it's certainly not harmful, and maybe even best to get the fish out of the bag water as soon as fresh air is introduced.