Well this seller is opinionated….

They are correct. Drip acclimation can be fatal if the fish have been bagged too long. Fish die and guess who gets blamed? The seller.

BTW… I never have drip acclimated… but I have gotten fish from one seller that tells you you must drip… I didn’t, and my fish were still fine…

Magnum Man said:

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Basically, their argument is that a long shipping time for fish can have a large concentration of NH4 in the bag caused by a low pH from high CO2. By drip acclimation, introducing a higher pH of water into that existing water will cause NH3 to form, thus killing fish.

This is a new eternal debate.

It gets passionate and swings to extremes. I don't drip acclimate, and I don't let bag water into the tank. I've never lost fish to acclimation.

If I were an online seller, I'd like cards like that. They'd save you so much trouble with freshwater fish.

It was was a sticker, stuck to the center of the insulation wrap, in a position, that it was the 1st thing you see, when opening the box…

I wear a special pair of shoes that protect me from being killed by a heard of rampaging City dwelling elephants and I have yet to be killed by multiple elephants. Never lost my life to an elephant yet

AJ356 said:

I wear a special pair of shoes that protect me from being killed by a heard of rampaging City dwelling elephants and I have yet to be killed by multiple elephants. Never lost my life to an elephant yet

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You must be wearing the new TANK SHOES.

I do not drip acclimate my fish. However I do drip acclimate my neocaridina. It may be another aquatic myth, but all my shrimp did well with drip acclimation. I think there is more agreement about drip acclimation in shrimp vs fish.

Newby but after much reading that resulted in more confusion than I started with I place the bagged fish in the tank to acclimate to temperature. Then I empty the bag into a bowl complete with fish, net the fish and place in tank. Bag water goes down the drain.

I know our water. I do not know the foreign water.

I drip acclimate shrimps. For fish I just matches the temperature. I net the fish and put it in the tank... Then I test the water it came in. then compare to my water parameters. It gives a good idea of the kind of shock the fish will take.

Plop and dropper here

Based on the various successful methods reported here my guess is the process is more about the quality of the tank’s water combined with the underlying health of the new fish. If both are of quality several methods seem acceptable.

Again, just a newby, but a pretty fair observer.

I think there are two issues here

1. Acclimatisation when purchasing fish online
2. Acclimatisation from elsewhere, when the fish has not been in transit for long.

If they have not been in transit for long, perhaps less than an hour or two in the bag, the drip method is probably fine, and in my book, preferable.

I personally believe it makes a lot of difference in how long the fish have been in the bag, and how different your home aquarium water is from the tank water the fish came from… if there is a huge Ph, or hardness difference… and we would like to think the fish were coming from water parameters that they find natural, and that our water at home is the right parameters , but often neither is true… then slowly adjusting may be needed for a fishes survival…

I typically prepare everything needed, before I cut the bag open, and as soon as I open the bag, I add as much tank water the fish is going into, as I can to the bag, to blend temperature differences and water parameters… I do this in a dedicated dish pan, I freshly pre rinse the net for that tank, and after a minute or two of acclimation, only the fish goes into the tank… the blended bag water goes from the dishpan to the toilet… I can say, that I’ve rarely lost a fish, that wasn’t doa, due to acclimation issues, since I got my home tank water straightened out