quarantine to display transition

townjas · Oct 17, 2017

Does anyone have a better way to trasition a fish from quarantine to the display besides the same drip acclimation used to get the fish into the quarantine tank?

LobsterOfJustice · Oct 17, 2017

My QT tanks are pretty small (10-20g) so I do a series of two 50% water changes on the QT with display water before moving the fish over without additional acclimation. I’ll do one change first thing in the morning and then the second maybe an hour or two later just before moving the fish. This way the fish gets to go straight from one tank to another, gets acclimated while still in the comfort of the QT tank, and the QT tank gets a reset with fresh unmedicated water for use with my next purchase...

townjas · Oct 17, 2017

LobsterOfJustice said:
My QT tanks are pretty small (10-20g) so I do a series of two 50% water changes on the QT with display water before moving the fish over without additional acclimation. I’ll do one change first thing in the morning and then the second maybe an hour or two later just before moving the fish. This way the fish gets to go straight from one tank to another, gets acclimated while still in the comfort of the QT tank, and the QT tank gets a reset with fresh unmedicated water for use with my next purchase...

I was thinking of something like that. Mine is a 10 gallon tank. Although I don't need the QT going since I will probably not add any new fish for a few months.

Susan Edwards · Oct 17, 2017

That is a great idea. I just moved fish out of qt by putting them in a bucket and adding tank water but I like this other method better.

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 17, 2017

I do the same as mentioned beforehand, water changes using water from DT. I also make sure they are the same temp and salinity and have the same water parameters. Once they match, I just scoop the fish out and put in an acclimation box in the new tank with the lights off, wait a couple of hours and check for stress. If all is good, the fish is usually let out of the acclimation box within a couple of hours and I keep a close eye on how it interacts with the other fish.