Welcoming fish to your home!!! How do you add a fish to your tank?

[Enad]

I typically only buy from my trusted LFS, or Biota if I'm buying online so I just temp acclimate for 15-30 mins and then put them in an acclimation box for a few days just to make sure they're eating. After they start eating a good bit, they can go into the display tank proper.

If find that the acclimation box doesn't really do much for the other fish in terms of 'getting to know' the new fish. They still get angry once it's released, and that first day or two is usually very stressful for me as I hate to see the new fish getting bullied.

 

[fishkat]

It entirely depends on the situation - how long the fish has been in the bag, how far off the bag water is from the tank, etc. Here is an article I posted on acclimation:

Acclimation Methods

Acclimating Animals to Aquariums Jay F. Hemdal c.2020 Introduction to acclimation techniques Most beginning aquarists hear that they must “acclimate” any new animals they add to their aquarium. Acclimation (sometimes termed...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

great article Jay!
I don't understand what "add 25% tank water to the bag means! how do you dilute the tank water?
also, would adding a product like "ammoquel" help to bind the ammonia in the acclimating bag?
thanks
fishkat

 

[Singspot]

I have detailed approach for fish - have learnt hard way

1. Buy healthy eating fish from good LFS or hobbyist
2. Short drip acclimate
3. Dip with fresh RO water
4. QT
5. Add to main tank with divider
6. Remove divider

 

[Jay Hemdal]

great article Jay!
I don't understand what "add 25% tank water to the bag means! how do you dilute the tank water?
also, would adding a product like "ammoquel" help to bind the ammonia in the acclimating bag?
thanks
fishkat

"25%" just means the volume of the bag. So, if the bag holds 100 ml of water, add 25 ml of tank water to it at that time.

Amquel does bind with ammonia. Shippers often use it when they pack the fish up. You can use it during acclimation. My concern though, that there are other "ammonia removers" on the market that do not work as well as Amquel, and people might use those instead. Also, ammonia removers also lower dissolved oxygen, so you would need to aerate the water in the bag if using them.

Jay

 

[CKW]

I do long acclimation : the first part is floating the bag. The second part is drip acclimation while the bag floats. When the fish is in the tank, I let it settle for 24h before feeding it. I don’t want to strees my mew fish out with food in the first day in my tank.

Agreed! Float, drip, dark tank, wait on feeding.