My Adf's Arrived This Morning

[minxfishy]

I took delivery of 4 teeny ADF's this morning, placed the bag in the tank to get to temp, opened it up, took some of the water to test the ph and ammonia to see what difference the bag ph was to mine. It was at 7, my ph is 7.6-7.8. The ammonia came back at 1 and rising quickly, so I took the decision to not spend long on acclimatizing to my ph as they are intolerant of ammonia and put them immediately into my tank.

Its not a huge jump up to my ph, but I thought the ph change was preferable to the ammonia poisoning. Did I do the right thing? They are currently swimming around quite happily, then rising to the surface to sit at the top of the filter intake pipe (wet/dry trickle filter) for air, then swimming back down again, does this sound normal behaviour?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes that's what i would have done, measure the risks and ammonia is a bigger risk than a few degrees pH change.

sounds quite normal to me, looking forward to pics!!

 

[minxfishy]

Thanks for the reassurance, had it been a fish, I wouldnt have thought twice about it and have done it many times, just with these little chaps being new to me, dont want to mess up for them.

I shall try and get some pics later, they are so tiny not sure how well they will come out, time to fiddle about with the macro function *which is way above my head*

 

[minxfishy]

Having now managed to get a closer look at them, one is missing his arm, he just has a stump! Poor little guy, is this an abormality or will it grow back if its been pulled off (not by me I might add).

He has been named Rick (Allen, Def Leppard Drummer - if you dont know, look it up )

He can swim really well considering and still gets to the top for air.

I have now turned off the filter, it was just too strong a flow for them, no matter how much I tried to slow it down and all they would do is sit at the top behind the power head. Now its off, they have come down and are exploring and eating and seem much happier without it, I shall just change 10L of water daily to be on the safe side.

Pics if anyone is interested:

 

[keithp]

I had an ADF missing half an arm when i got him/her, the others would try and bite at it and it couldnt swim so good I guess from pain, so I seperated it for a few weeks by itself to make sure no infection set in and so it could rest and gain its strength back and eat properly. I had a bare bottom, gravel may of hurt the arm more or scratched it. The arm healed and it eventually grew a whole new hand over a period of months. It looked 100% normal after and I was truly amazed!