Best Way to Acclimate Fish And Invertebrate To Your Aquarium
All aquatic animals are sensitive to rapid changes in their environment. A sudden change can send them into shock and lead to death. We care about them so let’s do things the right way.
Floating bags from the store in your tank is not enough. Many people use this method but this is wrong! It does nothing to acclimate your fish! All it does is adjust the water temperature of the bag to that of your tank. It does nothing for other water parameters.
Whatever how long you float the bag, if the water in it has a pH of 7.6, that will be a big shock for your new friend if you pour it into a tank with a pH of 8.3. Lights can over heat the water in the bag.
The following procedures help new animals to adapt nice and slowly to new water conditions. :
You will need: A water bucket, an airline, a smaller container or net and an air valve.
Procedures:
1. As soon as you get home with new live stock, pour the bags in a water bucket. The bucket should be big enough so the new animal is reasonably covered with the water. Don’t use new water or water from your tank! Just use the water that came with the animal.
You may acclimate more than one animal in the same bucket. Any poisonous, toxic, or aggressive animals should be acclimate individually.
2. Now set the bucket on the floor next to the aquarium or quarantine tank.
3. Using a plastic airline tubing, set up and run a siphon drip line from the aquarium to the bucket.
4. This procedure must be really slow so we now need to adjust the flow. This is where the air valve comes into play. Using the air valve, adjust the water flow coming from the tank to the bucket (A loose “knot” tied in the airline would do). Water should go through the airline one drop at the time (one drip per second is good). This way, the water that came with your new friend will slowly adjust to the tank condition.
5. From here, things goes pretty much by them self. Let it dip for a good 30 min to 1 1/2 hours. Hardy fish should do well with shorter dip time while sensitive species might need more. Once this is done, test water in the bucket to see if water parameters match that of your tank water. If the answer is yes, the acclimation is complete.
6. Its now time to introduce your new friend in your tank or in a quarantine tank. Use the container that will submerge in the bucket and place the animal it. Then, remove the bowl with just a little water and your animal. Gently submerge the container into your tank or quarantine tank (do not throw or drop the fish from above the surface of the water).
Tip:
Try to avoid adding water from the shipping bag to your tank. You don’t know what’s in it. It may introduce diseases or other undesirable things in your tank. The best is to throw out the water in the bucket.
You may also turn off the lights and leave them off for 2-3 hours after the fish are introduced. This will help reduce stress.
That’s it!
Here is a little story to show you how effective acclimation can be:
I live in the Canadian arctic and there is a 24h drive between my home town and the next saltwater fish store. The only way for me to get new live stock up here is air cargo. Any other service won’t make it in time.
Last year, I bought a few new fish for Christmas. The plane arrived to late in town so I had to pick it up the morning after. When that happen, they the guy at the airport usually keep my boxes in his office so they don’t freeze but he forgot. I went to get my fish in the morning and found the box in a frozen warehouse. Water temperature in the bags was at 46F and all fish were dead.
I went home and decided to acclimate everything very slowly in case I could save something.
After 20 minutes, a clown fish started moving a little. Shock! Have you ever saw something coming back from death? Ok, that fish was certainly not dead but that was just like it. Then, an other moved a little, and an other, and an other….
After 45 minutes, most were saved. At this point, my bucket was almost full so I had to pour some water back into the tank (that was a 15 gallons tank so I had to save that water). Unfortunately, a fish managed to escape and jumped into the tank while I was pouring water back in zit. That poor fish almost died instantly.
After 1 1/2 hours, most of my fish were ready to be introduce into the quarantine tank.
I think I have been lucky here and believe most fish (if not all) should have die from that. Luck or not, this experience has proven me how effective this technique is.
Here is a little video showing this method
Article written by www.aquariumslife.com
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