Acclimation for fish getting shipped to me

[connorlindeman]

I ordered some Clown Killifish that are being shipped to me from across the country.(Washington to New Jersey)

This is quite a long trip for them, so I was wondering what the proper procedure is for acclimating these fish? Will it just be the same as acclimating when I get them from the LFS?

 

[connorlindeman]

I found another thread on this so no need to respond. The thread could probably just be deleted.

 

[Lynnzer]

Deleted or not, I sometimes wonder about this acclimation business.
For instance, every time we do a water change, the new water is always different from that replaced. The temperature is almost never the same. I used to stand 5 ltr bottles of water in a tub with hot water and let the bottled water reach the required temperature. It took forever.
Nowadays I just add hot and cold straight into a bucket and if it feels OK it just gets added. It may be under or over by a fair amount but it never seems to bother the fish.
Also the other water parameters change at the same time. The pH is more than likely quite different, as would be the GH and KH.
I can honestly say that I have never had casualties because of it.

 

[GaryE]

I have dealt with annulatus that took longer trips then that, from Guinea to here!

I never drip acclimate. You want the fish out of the shipping bag ammonia as quickly as you can. I have soft water, and they come from softwater. When the temp is equal or if they are cooler than the target tank, I pour them through a net so the shipping water doesn't get in, and dipnet them into their home.

I have never lost a fish to acclimation.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

GaryE got it absolutely correct.

Two things happen to a fish in transit for a day or two. They mostly deal with breathing. Oxygen gets used up and CO2 and ammonia get created. If the fish were not fasted, they may also poop in the bag wich also makes ammonia.

However, the CO2 in the water creates a small amount of acid and this in turn drops the pH. The lower the pH is the more of the ammonia that will be in the much less toxic form- ammonium. So even though the ammonia is going up, it is not doing harm when the pH goes down.

Now the fish arrive at you places and as soon as you open the bag two things happen air goe in which brins more oxygen bit also the CO2 goes out, When that happens the pH rises and the ammonia that was not harmful, becomes so.

People who import fish or regularly have them shipped in will tell you the same thing, we plop and drop. That is get the fish out of the bag water ASAP. I do not float bags either unless I get several bags and the fish are ending up in different tanks and I have a reason for not doing quarantine. Often this is because there are two or three empty tanks waiting for the fish to arrive.

What I may do is to open the bag and I have a bucket of new water at temp. waiting, I will our the water and the fish into a net over the sink or an empty bucket and then drop the fish in the new bucket of water. I do this when the fish need to end up in different spaces or get rebagged in smaller numbers for other folks.

Here is the thing about actual acclimation of fish, it takes about two weeks to see all the pshysiological changes that will gappen inside the fish as it adapts. 15 minutes or a few hours wont matter. Read any research paper about fish and you will see they often acclimate then fish for a month before they start the "experiment."

 

[AbbeysDad]

I always use the 'Plop and Drop' method. Ackimate for temperature only then pour through a net into a waste bucket and drop the fish in the tank.

 

[Lynnzer]

Well that confirms my suspicions for sure. Thanks for your input guys.
Plop and drop. Maybe I should use that as one of my profile quotes.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I do a variation on plop and drop....once fish arrives I get a jug of water from the aquarium, wrap it in a towel to keep it warm (and the daylight turned down since a fish in a bag in a box will not be overly impressed with sudden brightness)

I get a dark sided tub, balance the net over it and gently pour the bag out through the net, once fish is in the net, transfer to darkened warm aquarium water in the jug and then to the aquarium, leaving the aquarium lights off til the next morning to allow travel fatigue & stress to wear off slowly and let the fish explore & settle into its new home in peace.

Sounds long winded when written down but from opening the box to being snug in the new home takes around 5-10 minutes depending on how much wrapping there is in the box

 

[itiwhetu]

Only ever " Plop and Drop" fish. Temperature the same then " Plop and Drop"

 

[GaryE]

There's only one twist on this though. If you have a hard water evolved fish and your water is soft, you have to prepare the water the fish will get plopped into beforehand. Softwater can go to hard, but the reverse will often cause the 'shimmies', a neurological response to a lack of minerals in the water. 5 minutes of reading about the fish you're receiving will answer all questions about that.

 

[connorlindeman]

Y

There's only one twist on this though. If you have a hard water evolved fish and your water is soft, you have to prepare the water the fish will get plopped into beforehand. Softwater can go to hard, but the reverse will often cause the 'shimmies', a neurological response to a lack of minerals in the water. 5 minutes of reading about the fish you're receiving will answer all questions about that.

Yep. I researched all that already so they should be fine. Interesting that softwater can go to hard but hard cant go to soft. Never heard that before. That's good to know!

 

[Lynnzer]

Y

Yep. I researched all that already so they should be fine. Interesting that softwater can go to hard but hard cant go to soft. Never heard that before. That's good to know!

I think that was a mistake. I believe what was meant to be said was that softwater fish can go into hard water but not the other way around.

 

[connorlindeman]

I think that was a mistake. I believe what was meant to be said was that softwater fish can go into hard water but not the other way around.

isnt that what i said?

 

[Boundava]

I have dealt with annulatus that took longer trips then that, from Guinea to here!

I never drip acclimate. You want the fish out of the shipping bag ammonia as quickly as you can. I have soft water, and they come from softwater. When the temp is equal or if they are cooler than the target tank, I pour them through a net so the shipping water doesn't get in, and dipnet them into their home.

I have never lost a fish to acclimation.

Agree 100%. I do plop-n-drop with all my new fish. Remove as much water from the bag, (I just pinch the end of the bag and pornonto a buckt just in case I have an escape) then pour the rest off into a net to get the fish(es) and plop it/them in the tank.

Getting the fish out of that water ASAP is he best.

 

[AbbeysDad]

I always use the 'Plop and Drop' method. Ackimate for temperature only then pour through a net into a waste bucket and drop the fish in the tank.

'Plop 'n Drop' was developed by fish importers decades ago. Fish in bags for any period of time, water becomes somewhat acidic so ammonia becomes fairly harmless ammonium. If one was to drip acclimate, that ammonium would convert back to ammonia and likely kill the fish. Oh and drip acclimation is relatively pointless anyway since it takes fish many days or even weeks to adjust to different water chemistry.
In any case, floating the bag(s) to adjust the temperature then putting them into the new water was found to be the most successful way to handle shipped fish. And why pour through a net into a waste bucket?...you don't want any 'nasty' water dumped into your tank!
Note: the method works just as well for locally obtained fish!