Is there a proper or best practice of introducing new fish to a tank?

[Reefacist]

Hello Reefers,

pharmacist reefer aka “Reefacist” here. Finally I put some fish in my tank. I bought everything to quarantine and medicate prior to dropping fish in the DT but ended up just observing. I bought a little more than I wanted or should have in my opinion. I bought 2 Picasso clowns, a diamond goby, and a flame Angel. I put them all in a 10gallon qt. During observing I lost the flame as it swam into the filter slot and got stuck. Then I decided not to qt and dumped the 3 remaining into my DT. Woke up next day to find one of my Picasso’s stuck in one of the rock holes. I had to reallly pull to get him out but he was dead.

so now I want to buy a new Picasso to pair with the existing one. He is very small still and was only “paired” for 6 days. Some say just buy another and put him in. Some say buy a bigger one so it’s clearly the dominant. Some say just leave him alone by himself. What is the best/most proper way to introduce a new percula?

also how about introducing fish in the future to a tank with fish. Do I just throw them in(of course after temp/salinity acclimating)? Or do I put them in a acclimation box for a couple days in the tank? What’s the proper way. I’m looking to buy 4-5 more fish in March so I want to be ready so I don’t kill more fish. Rip to my beloved flame and Picasso.

 

[ZoixDark]

Depends on the fish you have and the fish you want to add. You'll have to check the compatibility charts. For peaceful fish if you're adding a fish of a kind you don't have you can usually just add. Adding more of the same kind and of a non-schooling kind then a box would be a good idea. Like adding tangs to a tank with tangs already in the tank. Adding a goby when you just have clowns he can go right in. But it's all situation dependant.

 

[King Turkey]

I just temp and drip acclimation. 1 hour temp than I drip to double volume of the water in the bag. Dump in and call it a day.
On the clown situation. They have pretty good memories I have a schooling blue green chromis that schools with the clown they are great friends. I took the chromis out to observe what I thought was a parasite had him in qt for a few weeks to see it was a false alarm. When I reintroduce to tank clown swam right back up to him real excited to have his buddy back. Note clown was real depressed and just sat at bottom of tank the whole 2 weeks. Bsck to normal swimming now.

 

[Reefacist]

I see but with it be easy to just say...use acclimation box for all fish? Is there a reason not to? Would it have negative affects on a fish that technically doesn’t need it?

 

[King Turkey]

Hard to say I have never used one. Just saying what has worked for me

 

[jiffyjhn]

I keep a small acclimation box in new tanks for adding new fish. After dripping I put the fish in acclimation box for several days and observe aggression/interaction with other fish. It's also useful as a jail to isolate aggressive fish.