Acclimation new fishes

[Billyreef-ita]

Hi everybody,

I’ve just read on the internet site of company involved in aquaculture fishes that the acclimation procedure is usually run drop by drop in the shipping bag of the fish, is more aggressive than catching the fish with a net a dropping it in the tank.
The reason being the following:

“It's normal/expected for ammonium to build up in the shipping bag overnight. As the ammonium rises, the pH naturally drops. As pH drops, toxic ammonia is converted to the safer ammonium. When you introduce higher pH tank water to the shipping water, that causes the pH to rise which causes the ammonium to convert back into toxic ammonia. It's much less stressful for a fish to have a small osmotic change than acute ammonia poisoning which can cause damage to sensitive gill tissue, tissue atrophy, appetite loss, and death within hours or days”

Is this new type of approach developing?
Thanks

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

If you buy a fish at LFS 15 minutes from your home, then you can acclimate slowly.

But if the fish is shipped in a small bag over 1-2 days, then you just add it to the tank as described in your post.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi everybody,

I’ve just read on the internet site of company involved in aquaculture fishes that the acclimation procedure is usually run drop by drop in the shipping bag of the fish, is more aggressive than catching the fish with a net a dropping it in the tank.
The reason being the following:

“It's normal/expected for ammonium to build up in the shipping bag overnight. As the ammonium rises, the pH naturally drops. As pH drops, toxic ammonia is converted to the safer ammonium. When you introduce higher pH tank water to the shipping water, that causes the pH to rise which causes the ammonium to convert back into toxic ammonia. It's much less stressful for a fish to have a small osmotic change than acute ammonia poisoning which can cause damage to sensitive gill tissue, tissue atrophy, appetite loss, and death within hours or days”

Is this new type of approach developing?
Thanks

While that is true for fish shipped overnight, where the receiving tank has a similar salinity to that in the bag, some variations are needed depending on the circumstances. The biggest stressor is a RISE in salinity, fish don’t handle that well. Temperature and pH and even a drop in salinity are less stressful.

Here is an article I wrote on acclimation:

Acclimation Methods

Acclimating Animals to Aquariums Jay F. Hemdal c.2020 Introduction to acclimation techniques Most beginning aquarists hear that they must “acclimate” any new animals they add to their aquarium. Acclimation (sometimes termed...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[Doctorgori]

Adding to what Jay said and just my experience but I’ve found transferring a fish to a higher salinity is a lil harder than going from high salinity to lower…

Temperature is similar in that it “appears” to me you can acclimate a lil quicker if the tank water is warmer than the bag….. I do take some pains to equalize the temps regardless

Also I’d guess many folks sorta “cheat” as I’ve found that the faster outta the bag the better, so TBH I sorta do the one cup in, one cup out for 10 minutes and net the fish in….
Not endorsing that method but being honest

 

[twentyleagues]

Best case scenario if fish was shipped and in the bag longer than 24hrs is to have a qt ready, float bag to temp acclimate, check sg of bag, adjust qt to bag sg and put fish in qt minus bag water, slowly over a few days adjust qt sg to your dt parameters. Follow qt procedures. Typically fish are held at wholesalers at lower than typical reef sg so have qt water on the lower side to make it easier for you.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I do the float bag acclimation. Float the bag to match the temperature. Once I do this, I slowly cut open the top of the bag and clip it to the side of my tank. I then slowly begin pouring water into the bag, and slowly take out water from the bag. That way the tank water is matching the bag’s water.

 

[twentyleagues]

I do the float bag acclimation. Float the bag to match the temperature. Once I do this, I slowly cut open the top of the bag and clip it to the side of my tank. I then slowly begin pouring water into the bag, and slowly take out water from the bag. That way the tank water is matching the bag’s water.

If the fish is from an lfs that isnt an issue. If it was shipped to you depending on how long this could be exactly the issue op was talking about. By doing this you off gas any co2 and drive up ph causing ammonia in the bag to become toxic possibly harming the fish. With that said I have done both methods and have used a certain product to neutralize ammonia that I wont mention by name because its been shown to not work for that, in an lfs with trans-shipped fish and inverts. We did "think" we noticed a difference using said product maybe placebo effect..? For the fish plop and drop was much better for long term for survivability barring disease.

 

[TheStrangler]

As others have said, salinity is the big thing to acclimate for. What I'll do is mix up a gallon or two of saltwater in a small bucket at 1.026sg, heat and mix it the night before I have anything arriving. Then when my fish arrive, while its temp acclimating I'll check the salinity of the shipping water and adjust the fresh saltwater down as necessary. I receive a lot shipped in at 1.020 or so. In that case I'll dilute my acclimation water down to 1.022 or 1.023. Remove the fish from the bag and put it into the bucket. Let it acclimate a while, then move it into the tank so there's not a steep jump.