Areeflover
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How does everyone acclimate their fish?? I’m there are just a couple. But I’m just curious
Fish acclimation?
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Areeflover
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Let me ask you. Do you do this if you get them from the lfs, online, or both?
TangGang
Active Member
Varies depending on if the fish comes online or I get the fish in person. Online I just get salinity and temperature level and I move the fish to qt. If the fish is in person I use drip acclimation, and once it’s acclimated I “rinse” it multiple times and then transfer into qt. When a fish is going into the DT, I don’t rly need to acclimate since my qt tanks run the same as my DT, unless I run hyposalinity. For qt to DT, I do a drip acclimation just to ensure that any possible parameter gets acclimated to the fish, then I rinse multiple times and then put it into acclimation box if I need to.
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Areeflover
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Well think about this, let’s say. The fish was bagged. 4 hours in a small bag with pure oxygen. Prior to being shipped for 24hrs. Now it’s in a tiny bag of water. Breathing and Defecating. The ammonia is now rising slowly, but significantly. In the past if I get them online. I temp acclimated then acclimate for 15 minutes. Switching 100% of the water over that 15 minutes to get them out of the toxic water quickly. And I’ve never lost a fish.
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Areeflover
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But if I get a fish from a store I’ll do a 30 minute drip acclimate and a temp acclimation.
WIReefer
608 MOD SQUAD
Solid point I guess I have never thought about it since I haven’t purchased online before. I will have to keep this in mind if I ever do. Thanks for sharing and congrats on the fish success love hearing that!
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Areeflover
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Lol. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve lost fish just not from acclimation process. Sometimes. Fish just don’t ship well. And I’ll just suddenly lost that fish like 2 weeks later.. I believe some places in the world still use unethical ways of capture. And that puts a death sentence on them
On shipped fish, the ammonia in the water isn't toxic to the fish until it's exposed to fresh air. It's always best to get the fish out of the bag water ASAP.
LFS fish, are just temp acclimated(floated), and dumped into a salinity matched QT.
LFS fish, are just temp acclimated(floated), and dumped into a salinity matched QT.
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Areeflover
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Exactly. But depending on how tough the fish is. Once you open that bag. You gotta think about ammonia but also things like salinity. If you keep your salinity at 1.026 and wholesaler keeps it at 1.021. And you just throw that delicate fish in the water. You could put them in shock. Possibly losing them hours later. On shipped fish.. that’s why I give them 15minutes of 100% water change
FullSend
Active Member
Building on that here is an article. It's aimed at freshwater, but I'm confident CO2, Ph, and ammonia work similarly in marine conditions. Just be careful not to increase the salinity quickly.
The reasons for this are somewhat complex but on firm ground. The fish bag was filled with oxygen where it originated. Fish produce carbon dioxide and ammonia during shipping. The carbon dioxide dissolves into the water in the bag and produces carbonic acid, which lowers the pH considerably. This is exactly what the shipper of the fish wants.
Since the higher the pH the more toxic ammonia is, the low pH produced by the CO2 has protected the fish from ammonia poisoning. Water at a pH of 6.0 has only 10% of the poisonous free ammonia gas of water at a pH of 7.0.
Let’s say you have a bag of fish that has taken 48 hours to get to you. The fish is now in water filled with a large amount of harmless ammonium and a tiny amount of poisonous ammonia gas with a pH of 6.0 (carbon dioxide in the water lowers pH). Now you “acclimate” the fish by trading out half the water in the bag with water from your aquarium at a pH of 8.1.
Because of something called “buffering” this will give you water in the bag at a pH of roughly 8.0. This two-point increase in pH make the level of poisonous ammonia gas one hundred times greater in the water in the bag and severely stresses the fish.
aquariumscience.org
Since the higher the pH the more toxic ammonia is, the low pH produced by the CO2 has protected the fish from ammonia poisoning. Water at a pH of 6.0 has only 10% of the poisonous free ammonia gas of water at a pH of 7.0.
Let’s say you have a bag of fish that has taken 48 hours to get to you. The fish is now in water filled with a large amount of harmless ammonium and a tiny amount of poisonous ammonia gas with a pH of 6.0 (carbon dioxide in the water lowers pH). Now you “acclimate” the fish by trading out half the water in the bag with water from your aquarium at a pH of 8.1.
Because of something called “buffering” this will give you water in the bag at a pH of roughly 8.0. This two-point increase in pH make the level of poisonous ammonia gas one hundred times greater in the water in the bag and severely stresses the fish.
4.9. Un-bagging Fish
aquariumscience.org
Recap: The longer the fish is in the bag the more carbon dioxide they produce lowering the pH. As the pH gets lower ammonia becomes less toxic. Opening the bag will quickly change the pH and convert the ammonia back into a toxic form.
Edit: Added Recap
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Areeflover
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Btw. Great discussion everyone. Hopefully it will help a someone just getting in the hobby
This is why I typically set my QT to around 1.018, specially when I don't know the incoming salinity. I have never had an issue going lower in salinity, but do know there are issues if they are raised to fast.
Shipped fish are usually just plop and drop this way.
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