How long in acclimation box

paphater · May 27, 2018

What is the longest you have kept a fish in an acclimation box?

mmw64 · May 27, 2018

As long as it takes until established fish quit acting aggressive toward them.

Carterfish · May 27, 2018

Usually should only take up to 2-3 days. Week at most. I️ have seen some fish in acclimation boxes at fish stores for over a week however to be more ethical and nice to the fish I️ would only leave I️t in there for a week tops. But make sure you feed inside the box. Maybe put pvc in there too for the fish to seek refuge at night. Just makes them more comfortable anyway. Why do you ask though?

eatbreakfast · May 27, 2018

I've had tangs in a large custom acclimation box for over a week.

ca1ore · May 27, 2018

A week. Even if you see no aggression, 3 days at a minimum. The fish do notice, even if they don't appear to have noticed.

paphater · May 27, 2018

First time using an acclimation box so I was just curious. My watanabei is circling my new bellus like a shark, but it's only been a day.

Hal3134 · May 27, 2018

3 days has worked for me.

mitch91175 · May 28, 2018

mmw64 said:
As long as it takes until established fish quit acting aggressive toward them.

I made the mistake of thinking 1 day was enough with a recent addition, a Chevron tang. I thought that everything was fine to put him in the tank, but that was a HUGE miscalculation. I have a purple, yellow, sailfin, 2 blue tangs in my tank. Also have a pigmy and flame angel. The one fish that brutalized the Chevron was the pigmy angel. Once that happened, the PT steps in and helped out. So now I am leaving the Chevron in the fish trap in the tank as long as it takes. I do feed it in the fish trap so now just have to wait it out. Will never add a smaller fish directly to my tank ever again. Not even a big one honestly.

I had/have ich in my system, but never is a major problem unless I introduce a new addition. I will always use acclimation box going forward. Was always a survival of the fittest type of guy, but I don't want to see expensive fish just get beat to hell and die on me either.

Jesterrace · May 28, 2018

paphater said:
What is the longest you have kept a fish in an acclimation box?

My coral beauty and tang set the record for me recently (5 days). Then again my acclimation boxes weren't exactly conventional:

mitch91175 · May 28, 2018

Anybody know of any good sized acclimation boxes? I want to acclimate my Achiles tang in a few weeks. Currently he is in my frag tank getting used to eating the stuff I feed to my DT. I am currently acclimating my Chevron using this fish trap (https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/aqua...6RrSkF69FyHmGz9wmK-Szl1HMsVbtBXBoCHygQAvD_BwE), but it isn't gonna be big enough for my Achilles. He is a good 4".

Jakepen · May 28, 2018

Octo aquatics

paphater · May 28, 2018

I built mine out of egg crate, zip ties, and a single piece of acrylic I got at Lowes. Basically built a box out of egg crate and the front panel is the acrylic.

eatbreakfast · May 29, 2018

The largest kritter keeper works.

paphater · May 31, 2018

While scraping the glass I accidentally knocked the lid open and my Bellus got out. I spent an hour trying to get either of them out but no luck. I thought I'd let them just figure it out on their own but their chasing spooked all of the other fish. My Quoyi almost jumped out so I got angry and turned the lets out for four hours. My wife turned the lights back on when she got home and they are now cool with each other. ;Bored

Baldguy · May 31, 2018

eatbreakfast said:
The largest kritter keeper works.

That's what I use.

Bkara · May 14, 2020

mitch91175 said:
I made the mistake of thinking 1 day was enough with a recent addition, a Chevron tang. I thought that everything was fine to put him in the tank, but that was a HUGE miscalculation. I have a purple, yellow, sailfin, 2 blue tangs in my tank. Also have a pigmy and flame angel. The one fish that brutalized the Chevron was the pigmy angel. Once that happened, the PT steps in and helped out. So now I am leaving the Chevron in the fish trap in the tank as long as it takes. I do feed it in the fish trap so now just have to wait it out. Will never add a smaller fish directly to my tank ever again. Not even a big one honestly.

I had/have ich in my system, but never is a major problem unless I introduce a new addition. I will always use acclimation box going forward. Was always a survival of the fittest type of guy, but I don't want to see expensive fish just get beat to hell and die on me either.

I had a small hippo tank , little bigger yellow tank and I added a purple tang. My small hippo tang started biting off the yellow tang and yellow ended up death.
my question ,I got a new yellow tang now and it’s even litter bigger than purple ,i added him to the tank and purple was so aggressive as well as my small size hippo, im keeping him in the acclimatization box ? Do you think any chance he will make it to do tank back ? Or should I return the yellow tang back to LFS?

mitch91175 · May 15, 2020

Bkara said:
I had a small hippo tank , little bigger yellow tank and I added a purple tang. My small hippo tang started biting off the yellow tang and yellow ended up death.
my question ,I got a new yellow tang now and it’s even litter bigger than purple ,i added him to the tank and purple was so aggressive as well as my small size hippo, im keeping him in the acclimatization box ? Do you think any chance he will make it to do tank back ? Or should I return the yellow tang back to LFS?

I think you should put a mirror on your fish tank if you haven't done so already when introducing a fish that can have some aggression towards another one. If that doesn't help them you will likely have to change the fish (every time I've tried it's always worked).

Gaspipe · Dec 20, 2021

Sorry to bring this thread back... but

I have 3 fish (Clown, Royal Grammer and a Starck Damsel) in a Waterbox MP 25. The Starck is being a real j/o. Constantly picking on the RG and even the Clown gets chased.

If I was to get a box, should I toss the Starck in the box or the RG who gets most of the attack?

Thanks!
Gaspare

homer1475 · Dec 20, 2021

The damsel for sure.

Wouldn't hurt to move a few rocks around either. You want to "scold" the aggressor, not "punish" the the one being bullied. Moving some rocks around might reestablish the damsels space too. Your other fish will be able to lay claim to some real estate before the bully gets put back in.

Damsels are damsels, they all get quite aggressive eventually IME.

You do realize your clowns are in the damsel family also? Kind of explains why they are so mean at times too.

i cant think · Dec 20, 2021

Gaspipe said:
Sorry to bring this thread back... but

I have 3 fish (Clown, Royal Grammer and a Starck Damsel) in a Waterbox MP 25. The Starck is being a real j/o. Constantly picking on the RG and even the Clown gets chased.

If I was to get a box, should I toss the Starck in the box or the RG who gets most of the attack?

Thanks!
Gaspare

I would go with the starcki in the box, rearrange the rocks whilst the damsel is in the box then let him free after a few days. I would be careful, eventually the clown will try nip at you when you try and work in the tank. Mine started this habit yesterday… never before had she nipped at me but yesterday when moving a rock around she went at me. If you have a venomous fish in the tank you may drop the rock in fear (I have a foxface in my tank so thought I was close to the spines - He was on the other side of the tank but I didn’t process that). This is because damsels and clownfish fall under the same family.