Welcoming fish to your home!!! How do you add a fish to your tank?

[Daniel@R2R]

I temp acclimate and put in the tank. A large majority of my fish are from a PetCo fairly near me. I think of 11 fish, only one was ordered online.
By the way the link works properly, but the sidebar has the wrong title

Fixed!

 

[LPS Bum]

I learned years ago to QT all of my fish first, after Velvet wiped out almost my entire tank. So everything goes into my QT tank before it either goes into my large FOWLR or my reef.

I always float the bag for 15 min to equalize temp. If it's a mail order fish, I'll do a quick and fast drip acclimation for 30-40 min, but not longer. If it's from the LFS, I'll do an even quicker 20 min acclimation (adding half a cup of QT water at a time, every 3-4 min). Either way, since my QT is in the basement, I have to be cognizant of the temp dropping too much.

And these days I always treat with copper power, whether I see disease or not. Just can't take the chance on another tank wipeout.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Many have their own methods and some merely " Plop and drop " their new purchase into the water.
For me:

I generally:
Float for 20-30 minutes
Transfer fish and water into a clean bucket
Then . . . .
Measure the Ph, salinity and temperature of the bag water. If you can, make up some water in a container that has exactly the same measurements as the bag readings and move the fish right over, then you can add a cup of tank water to bucket every 15 mins 6 times (almost 1.5 hours)
Then check salinity in bucket and compare to tank. If no match or very close, add a cup of water every few mins until ive reached salinity and trap the fish in same cup and pour off water and release into display. I Release under LOW light before lights out.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

The only LFS near me is a petco. not nocking the employees, but the tanks and coral frag tanks look bad. I QT and dip all fish and corals. The other source is a 3 hr drive from me. The store in bay county Florida is top notch but they do a lot of business . so I QT and dip as well. I am doing my best to keep my DT pest and disease free, I want my live stock to die from old age.

 

[excaliber]

Wow!! I'm really surprised by the results of this poll.
I've seen so many issues by people not quarantining their fish. Maybe it's different for saltwater but I'm not willing to chance it.

We quarantine all of our new Freshwater fish for up to 8 weeks. We are new to Saltwater but everything will go in quarantine to give us the ability to look them over several times a day and medicate if needed.

 

[Sump Crab]

I float the fish so it can see the new tank for about 5 minutes and then scoop it from the bag and put it straight into the tank. Most fish will feed almost immediately. I honestly believe most long acclimation regimes can do more harm than good.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

observe for a few days and QT if needed. after about a week or two they go into the display tank

 

[mig.]

Curiously I’ve had up to a dozen ‘fish’ tanks at any one time and no interest in actually putting fish in them. Inverts yes, photosynthesizing things for sure and neither get much chance of acclimatizing. Haven't lost a thing because of it

 

[Nemo&Friends]

Not sure what you call short or long acclimation. I take about 3 hours, and voted short. I buy my fish locally so travel in car is less than 1 hour. Just float the bag for temperature, and then slowly add some tank water in bag for about 3 hours, before dumping all in tank.

 

[MnFish1]

Agree with others - it depends on whether the fish are shipped or bought at an LFS. If from LFS - the fish are pre-quarantined so would just put in tank after a short acclimation. If shipped - would put in QT tank for 30 days

 

[Gatorpa]

Depends on the source.
I don’t buy online ever.
3 LFS all varies, one runs a pretty tight QT and are in 1.026 salinity those get floated for 15 or so and in the go. (no bag water into tank).

Another runs hypo so they get drip acclimated over about 90 minutes.

The third I only buy fish from their systems that are individually sectioned off with reef systems. Their fish only systems are iffy.


I often hold a fish for weeks at the shop, but not always as I know who I can trust.

Haven’t lost a fish due to illness in years doing it this way.

 

[Gatorpa]

Wow!! I'm really surprised by the results of this poll.
I've seen so many issues by people not quarantining their fish. Maybe it's different for saltwater but I'm not willing to chance it.

We quarantine all of our new Freshwater fish for up to 8 weeks. We are new to Saltwater but everything will go in quarantine to give us the ability to look them over several times a day and medicate if needed.

Often the extra effort having a QT tank is too much hassle. That and it can add stress to a fish already stressed.

 

[megtrax17]

Welcoming fish to your home!!! How do you add a fish to your tank?

You just found the fish you have been looking for or maybe it was a fish at your local fish store (LFS) that caught your eye, and you couldn’t leave without it. Congratulations! Now what?!?! Maybe it arrived by mail from an online fish seller, or you brought it home from a store or from a frag swap, so now it needs to get transferred into your system. How do you add a fish to your tank? It is possible to take it out of the bag and drop it into your display tank or you could acclimate it for a period of time. It is also possible to set up a quarantine system, but even if that is the direction that you take, do you have an acclimation process as you move the fish into the quarantine system? Of course, you may not have a single solution and it may depend on how long the fish has been in the bag or on some other factor. Please let us know in the related discussion how you add fish to your tank and feel free to share tips and recommendation for the R2R community!

Photo by @NJDragonet; Orange Spotted Filefish


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I usually get to temp, then acclimate with drip method for a good 2 hours. Then I get the fish out separate from the acclimation water and add him to the display then add some clean saltwater to make up for my lost saltwater. However I’m considering starting a quarantine. Recently got velvet or ick and it’s way too stressful! Currently treating my display that has lots of coral with rally and kick ick. Don’t wanna go through it again lol.

 

[marinesnow]

I buy pre-QT'd fish, drip acclimate them until salinity matches, then add them to the display.

 

[DHouse]

If purchasing on line (which rarely happens) and depending on the type of fish (Tangs and Clowns), I'll acclimate and put into my quarantine tank. If purchasing from my LFS, I'll acclimate for approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours then directly into my display tank (less stress on the fish). My LFS usually quarantines and dips all of their marine animals before they sell them for at least two weeks to ensure they are eating and have no unwanted hitchhikers. It is definitely a plus when you have an LFS that knows what they are doing and are dedicated to ensure that what they sell are in the best shape possible. They will not sell a product without explaining what the pros and cons are on what you are buying and they will ask what you have in your tank to ensure that there are no compatibility issues.

 

[GARRIGA]

Ignoring what I've done before. Might just buy from trusted sources that do full QT and preventive medication vs the expense and space needed to perform it myself. Alternative is perform the same actions myself or go Paul B.

Unless every rock, grain of sand or gravel and invert and coral and fish added is properly QT then one is exposing themselves to introducing pathogens/pests. Might just be that maintenance and proper diet allowing organism to fight off infections along with predators to eat what's left more sensible long-term for most because semi QT is nothing more than a placebo that might work until it doesn't. Nature has pathogens but they don't tend to overwhelm healthy organisms yet in a small box of water without additional aide such as UV and suitable micron filtration along with pest predators we are cramming life into more then they'd be exposed to on the reef. No perfect answer yet I know from experience that building immunity works and likely the best approach.

That being said, still developing a small tank for fish and one for inverts to perform some form of sterilization to reduce the bulk of the pathogens or removal of pests and chance for that just shipped to eat and gather it's strength while being observed for long enough duration to ensure even that acquired from trusted source won't wipe life out. Been there and no matter how much meds I added the tank was doomed. Learned my lesson the hard way and this was less than a decade ago yet been keeping since the early 70s. Doing stupid eventually catches up with all of us.

 

[ingchr1]

Wow!! I'm really surprised by the results of this poll.
I've seen so many issues by people not quarantining their fish. Maybe it's different for saltwater but I'm not willing to chance it.

We quarantine all of our new Freshwater fish for up to 8 weeks. We are new to Saltwater but everything will go in quarantine to give us the ability to look them over several times a day and medicate if needed.

I don't think it will change the results that much, but the poll does not cover all bases. It's difficult to setup a poll that does.

When I get quarantined fish or fish directly from ORA, I temperature acclimate and then directly into the tank. Which poll option is that? I selected "Move the fish from the bag and place it directly into the display tank".

 

[JC Reef]

1.) I like purchasing fish from LFS or online sellers who treat their fish with medication and have been quarantined. This reduces the chances of disease or introducing other pathogens into your tank.

2.) I like to float the bag so the internal water is at the same temperature as the tank.

3.) Slowly drip-acclimate with an air stone, which helps with extra oxygen. I drip-acclimate for no more than 30 minutes.

 

[Raven k]

My lfs does the quarantine for me and won’t let me take a fish they are not 100% happy with. I float for 20-30 minutes then drip until I’ve doubled the water volume twice then in they go

 

[SomeHappyFish]

Temp acclimate the bag 15-30min, empty 2/3 of the bags water into the sink, add 1/2 cup each 10min for 30min or less I then empty the bag with the fish of course.