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

[Peace River]

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

You just found the fish you have been looking for or maybe it was a fish at your local fish store (LFS) that caught your eye, and you couldn’t leave without it. Congratulations! Now what?!?! Maybe it arrived by mail from an online fish seller, or you brought it home from a store or from a frag swap, so now it needs to get transferred into your system. How do you add a fish to your tank? It is possible to take it out of the bag and drop it into your display tank or you could acclimate it for a period of time. It is also possible to set up a quarantine system, but even if that is the direction that you take, do you have an acclimation process as you move the fish into the quarantine system? Of course, you may not have a single solution and it may depend on how long the fish has been in the bag or on some other factor. Please let us know in the related discussion how you add fish to your tank and feel free to share tips and recommendation for the R2R community!

Photo by @NJDragonet; Orange Spotted Filefish


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[Dburr1014]

Short acclimation and into qt.
Even if I don't do the full qt, I definatly do observation period.

 

[Tactical Reefkeeping]

Short acclimation and into qt.
Even if I don't do the full qt, I definatly do observation period.

Yeah same just long enough to observe and see if they have anything wrong with them.

 

[apb03]

Once I feel my new fish is ready for the DT, I place it in an acclimation box for a few days.

 

[Reefer Matt]

It depends on if the fish is shipped or from store for me. If shipped, I acclimate to temp and salinity before adding to qt. If from lfs, it goes straight into qt from bag. I qt for flukes, ich and velvet for 6 weeks total before adding to tank.

 

[Cthulukelele]

I'm a add a fish quickly to the display and immediately feed the heck out of it and let it settle in person. I understand and respect the process of quarantine, but I lost a fair few more fish to the qt process than I do now. Since making the switch my fish are less stressed and I've only had one loss and it was to uronema

 

[Oiseaufeu]

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.

 

[Shaina Carey]

If it a sensitive fish like Cory cats, I will slow drip acclimate them. Tetras get clipped and I let them get used to the temperature. When I get my saltwater CUC and corals, I plan to slow drip. I even got a small kritter keeper to do it.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Fish? What fish?


I'll let you know as soon as I find one

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I acclimate the fish to temp and salinity then put them in my tank. Haven't done QT yet.

 

[Dee tre]

I usually buy my fish from one source and they keep itnfor 2 weeks before i bring it home. Then its acclimated for about 1 to 2 hours depending and placed in the display... 3 years 8 fish and 0 fatalities or diseases

 

[cdemoss01]

Float it for 15 half water change 10 minutes than release.

 

[vlangel]

I'm a add a fish quickly to the display and immediately feed the heck out of it and let it settle in person. I understand and respect the process of quarantine, but I lost a fair few more fish to the qt process than I do now. Since making the switch my fish are less stressed and I've only had one loss and it was to uronema

I also have lost too many fish in QT process and have had much better success floating in the bag 10-15 minutes, then release. I also feed heavy because when they eat, their chances of living a long life in my tank goes up about 95%.

 

[Gman83]

I voted other. All fish but 1, I have bought quarantined. I float them to temp acclimate and put them in a bucket to get salinity close (either through drip or doing a .25 cup tank every 10 minutes). If the QT person isn't Dr. Reef, I will do a ruby reef rally dip, then set them into DT. I just did my first full QT on my own, so that fish went in the QT tank.

 

[Shaina Carey]

I also have lost too many fish in QT process and have had much better success floating in the bag 10-15 minutes, then release. I also feed heavy because when they eat, their chances of living a long life in my tank goes up about 95%

I too feed fish when I get them in the tank. If they don't eat, I usually say "They will probably be dead by tomorrow." Made me start buying from my LFS because they are always healthy, unlike PetSmart or Petcoc

 

[Jay Hemdal]

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

 

[michealprater]

Short acclimation. Long acclimation is leaving the fish in poison. Most of time ammonia. Ammonia will kill a fish way faster than any other change (salinity, temp, etc)

 

[Grog]

There is only a Petco in my town and I'm likely their only consistent saltwater customer. If I see a fish I like, it is usually in their tanks for weeks. I use them as an offsite quarantine, and leave the fish there, and check in on it every few days. After a few weeks, I buy it and add to the family.

Their store is about 7 minutes from my house. Typically, when I bring fish home, and I float the bag to temp acclimate for about 15 minutes, and then transfer the fish to my DT. Seems to be working.

 

[steveschuerger]

I temp acclimate and put in the tank. A large majority of my fish are from a PetCo fairly near me. I think of 11 fish, only one was ordered online.
By the way the link works properly, but the sidebar has the wrong title

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

I also have lost too many fish in QT process and have had much better success floating in the bag 10-15 minutes, then release. I also feed heavy because when they eat, their chances of living a long life in my tank goes up about 95%.

The other benefit of feeding is that it distracts the fish that are already in the tank.