It is my understanding that upon purchasing a new fish from LFS, it is customary to slowly acclimate the new fish to the water in the DT or QT, by slowly adding DT/QT water to the water from LFS. We do this to slowly change the chemistry and temp of the LFS water that the fish came with, to those of our DT/QT values..... all in an attempt to prevent stressing the new fish.
While the above practice makes perfect sense in theory, I cannot understand why the stresses associated with not properly acclimating the fish are considered to be so significant, when we often subject diseased (and arguably weakened) fish to fresh water dips, which are the ultimate change in chemistry conditions experienced by a fish going from saltwater to freshwater, without the fish dying from such practice?
So, my question is as follows: Assuming we match the temperature of water from LFS to the temperature of water in DT/QT, why is it necessary to also slowly match the salinity of LFS water to that of DT/QT water, when the DRASTIC change of water chemistry experienced by fresh water dips does not appear to be significantly stressful to the fish to discourage its practice?
While the above practice makes perfect sense in theory, I cannot understand why the stresses associated with not properly acclimating the fish are considered to be so significant, when we often subject diseased (and arguably weakened) fish to fresh water dips, which are the ultimate change in chemistry conditions experienced by a fish going from saltwater to freshwater, without the fish dying from such practice?
So, my question is as follows: Assuming we match the temperature of water from LFS to the temperature of water in DT/QT, why is it necessary to also slowly match the salinity of LFS water to that of DT/QT water, when the DRASTIC change of water chemistry experienced by fresh water dips does not appear to be significantly stressful to the fish to discourage its practice?
Last edited: