Fish acclimating "experts"....need help

[sikpupy]

My fish are croaking. I spent a little more then an hour dripping my fish and bringing them up to temp, then..........DEAD!

One blue damsel and one purple long thing. My clown was sick anyways, so, its now 3 to 6

Any frikin secrets to this acclimating thing? Amonia and nitrite params are 0, temp 78, salinity 1.023-4 ....... my paitiance and wallet "0" ..... grrrrrrrrrrrr....

[n.son29]

patience is key

[IslandCrow]

An hour should be more than sufficient to acclimate a fish, assuming you're doing it correctly. I wouldn't acclimate much longer, since it's rather stressful for the fish in that little bag. Do you compare the salinity between the tank water and the water in the bag before you add the fish (I always check before and after I acclimate)? Many fish stores keep their fish at low salinity to save money on salt. Some even keep them in hyposalinity (1.009-1.010 specific gravity), in which case I would spend a day or two bringing them up to my tank's salinity (in a quarantine tank, though, not in a bag).

Otherwise, it may be your source. Some stores just have a tendency to sell sick and/or overly stressed fish. If you think you're doing everything correctly, I'd suggest either asking other customers if they've had similar issues (though if they have, they may not be customers anymore) or finding another store.

[drew1]

You don't mention pH. pH is a biggie in acclimation. If they are dying that quickly there is something happening in the water. Fish that already live in the aquarium may have acclimated to a low (most likely) pH over time but trying to introduce new fish is too much of a shock.

[jubjub]

yeah 1hr should be more then enough time needed.... are you using rodi water or tap water..... first thing that comes to mind it might not be the ph or ammonia of the tank or what not but, maybe there is left over chlorine in the water if your not using a ro/di unit? is anything staying alive in your tank IE corals etc? also there isnt like a mantis is there? <--i know stupid question but never know


on a side note when i acclimate fish its worked well in the past for me, what you do is get a chip clip... clip the bag on the side of the tank.. let it float for 5-10mins put about 1/4cup of your water in the bag let it sit for another 5-7mins put another 1/4cup in....do this 5-6 times then what i do is pour about half the water in the bag out into a bucket (Not in the tank!!! never trust any other water then your own!!) and use a net or just palm the animal and put into your tank. then throw the rest of the water out... my old freshwater tank i had crash and i think it was from the LFS water in the bag

edit #2: i have never drip acclimated anything i really dont see it necessary, as long as the quality of water in your tank is good... i heard anemones have to be..i did the same process as stated above and its good.... also on a side note dont try damsels you will regret putting those in your tank chromies are cheap until you get this worked out.

[dclaghorn]

weird... i've never drip acclimated. 20-30 min in bag, a couple of additions of tank water, scoop fish out, and they're happy. of course, some have gotten eaten by my anemone or sucked into my Koralia power head... :-)

[IslandCrow]

For what it's worth, my acclimation procedure is almost exactly the same as what jubjubrsx does. PH was brought up, and it's a good point, but fish can adjust to changes in PH much easier than changes in salinity (assuming the PH is within reason on either end). Moving to a higher salinity is much more difficult for a fish than moving to a lower salinity. Invertebrates are a different story.

[Kannin]

How old and how big is your tank? Has it cycled? Do you have anything in it that has lived in it for a while?

[drew1]

The water parameters of the LFS water is very important. We always test the basics (Salinity, pH and nitrates) of both the tank water and the bag water prior to acclimating. I personally have never found a big salinity difference between LFS and my home aquarium but I have had a time when my pH was extremely low (old tank with too few water changes). Again only my experience, but I have found pH to be the most probable cause of death during acclimation.
When are they dying? While in the bag, just after release, or days later?

[sikpupy]

Well, I am not trying to make this a double post/thread to my other one I have, but, since you are all curious, I will copy what I already wrote in another post. Just so it I dont go double posting, just tell me your secrets to acclimating (especially those that have done a hundred fish) and I will tell you my secrets, lol. Here is mine..

20gal long
setup for 1.5-2 months
Perams - amon=0, nitrites=0
sal-1.024 (refractometer reading)
Ph - @ 1pm today= 8.3
aquaclear 20 filter with sponge and bag of charcol
recent Fluval 204 with one set of rectangle sponges, 2 bags of charcol and a box of ceramic disks
22lbs of live rock
""3x8"Lx4"D oval shower junk holder with suction cups full of cheato another shower thing half full of lettuce algea and the other half with that red tank salad algea (one is on the side of the tank and the other is on the back side)""
100w 55k? light saver floresent in a 11" aluminum dome shinning on the two things of algea
24" Aquaclear tube light (font part of tank)
18" tube reptile light (behind front light to the right)
*Lights are on a timmer. Tubes go from 8am to 11pm and the 55k go from 11am to 8pm*
Distilled water all the way
I/O salt reefcrystals for now (last 30 gallons of maybe 70 since I had the tank up and running)
feed a little heavy but that because no one will really eat. they all suck it up and spit it out, suck it up and spit it out like toys. The clown, who I have had for 2 weeks is starting to finally eat some stuff. Why he eats every 1 out of 3 peices he sees is beyond me!? I also vacume about every 3 days and clean the filters to keep the rotten food poisons down.

Fish that died - 1 clown that had stringy poop from the beginning but he was not in that tank. I tried to save him but he did not eat and lasted 1 week and a half. 1 blue damsel that developed a sist on the bottom of his bum near his tail. When it got a little big, I took him out and put him in a 2.5 to watch him. It got to the size of a small pea, split and was dead when I got home. He lasted 4 days. Okay, those 2 may not have been my fault. Another blue damsel from another store. Ate about 4 brine shrimp and croaked 4 days later. Last fish was a purple pseudochromis, didnt last the night, last night. 4 fish from 4 different stores, grrr...

Well miwoodar, for the record, this and the other post are two seperate threads. One is, whats wrong with my dead fish and the other is for succesful fish acclimaters to just tell me thier secrets.

Yea, I could use a bigger tank, but, as long as perams are okay, thats a little further on my list of things to get.

I now have a smaaaaaaall clown, lawnmower blenny, yellow damsel, blue damsel and another purple Pseudochromis in there. Sorry, missed the post about holding tight. Now, before anyone gets thier giblets in an up-roar about too many fish, I have another 10 gallon tank ready to go and I am watching my Amonia levels closely. If they start to get out of control, i will divide the tank, so, hold your flame throwers (I didnt say breath) on that one.


I have always checked salinity and made sure it matched. If mine was lower, which it has been, I just float and dump. If mine is higher, I drip. That and temp is all I have really been checking between the two.


So, what other secrets do you have?

[J.russell]

Its is easier for a fish to adjust to lower salinity than to a higher salinity. So if yours is lower and you just dump them in thats goign to stress em.

[stagefright13]

Go to saltwaterfish.com and hit the acclimation button on the left. That is how I do it. A few pics are worth a thousand words. I use a good quality six pack cooler to hold the temps stable. And I do a fairly quick drip for at least an hour. 2 hours for snails and stuff. Been working great for me.

Make sure you have a bucket of waterchange water ready to replenish your tanks losses. I use one of those cheap freshwater bubbler valves that clip on the cooler nicely to control the drip rate.

It's also good to make sure the fish have plenty of store water in the bag. Or it will get flushed too quickly dripping the new water in. My store uses fairly large bags with alot of water.

[sikpupy]

Originally posted by stagefright13
Go to saltwaterfish.com and hit the acclimation button on the left.

Thats where I got my original instructions too, which I was trying to do.