What salinity reduction are comfortable with for a fish?

[Tft12]

I've always kept all my systems at 35 ppt but I know it's common for people to run quarantine systems or retail/wholesale systems significantly lower. I know that there's always caution about raising fish up from lower salinity, but what about the rate when going down into lower salinity, which most people believe is easier on the fish? What amount of salinity reduction are you comfortable with without taking extra precautions or prolonged acclimation?

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

1.026 to 1.023 I just drop in for the most part. Anything past that I will add take about 5 minutes to add 1/2 the volume of shipping water to account for salinity. Not a science tho.

 

[JumboShrimp]

For example, I’ve never seen dropping a DT from 1.025 down to 1.023 to have any negative effect in a FOWLER. Nor 1.023 down to 1.021.

 

[terraincognita]

I've always kept all my systems at 35 ppt but I know it's common for people to run quarantine systems or retail/wholesale systems significantly lower. I know that there's always caution about raising fish up from lower salinity, but what about the rate when going down into lower salinity, which most people believe is easier on the fish? What amount of salinity reduction are you comfortable with without taking extra precautions or prolonged acclimation?

Going down is never a problem.

it’s always going up.

from what I know, you could put a fish in 1.025 into 1.018 within 1 hour of acclimation and it would be just fine.

for QT systems a lot of people keep their salinity at 1.020 or 1.021

the purpose of the “drop” is that inverts do not take kindly to drops in Salinity and a lot of external parasites on fish I guess are inverts?? And so by putting them into a reduced salinity you’re making them weaker/possibly killing some.

what’re you trying to accomplish that has you asking this Q?

I’m not 100% sure about everything I’ve just said lolllll but like 92%

IMO whether the salinties are 1.025 to 1.021 or 1.025 to 1.024 you should always acclimate.

it takes .90cents of airline tubing, and literally any container. You’re always risking fish stress without it.

why not do it?

 

[Tft12]

Going down is never a problem.

it’s always going up.

from what I know, you could put a fish in 1.025 into 1.018 within 1 hour of acclimation and it would be just fine.

for QT systems a lot of people keep their salinity at 1.020 or 1.021

the purpose of the “drop” is that inverts do not take kindly to drops in Salinity and a lot of external parasites on fish I guess are inverts?? And so by putting them into a reduced salinity you’re making them weaker/possibly killing some.

what’re you trying to accomplish that has you asking this Q?

I’m not 100% sure about everything I’ve just said lolllll but like 92%

I was asking because I often receive fish into my QT system with the fish coming from different sources. Some arrive in 25 ppt water (1.019) some arrive in 35 ppt water (1.026). I don't like doing a prolonged drip so I was planning to just run my qt close to lower end of salinity that the mixed batch arrives at (around 27 ppt), and then just adjust salinity in QT slowly up to 35 ppt over the course of about 1 week, but I didn't want to stress the fish that arrived in 35 ppt bags and are now going into a 27 ppt QT system. I've never preferred hypo as a treatment so I don't have personal experience working with salinities and changes in salinities in these ranges.

 

[terraincognita]

I was asking because I often receive fish into my QT system with the fish coming from different sources. Some arrive in 25 ppt water (1.019) some arrive in 35 ppt water (1.026). I don't like doing a prolonged drip so I was planning to just run my qt close to lower end of salinity that the mixed batch arrives at (around 27 ppt), and then just adjust salinity in QT slowly up to 35 ppt over the course of about 1 week, but I didn't want to stress the fish that arrived in 35 ppt bags and are now going into a 27 ppt QT system. I've never preferred hypo as a treatment so I don't have personal experience working with salinities and changes in salinities in these ranges.

Ah gotcha,

Yeah just run the QT lower then raise it. Smart idea. That's the best solution for it.

Again you could probably bring a fish from 1.025 down to 1.020 pretty quickly. Just always super slow on the way up. like 1PPT a day up, but you I'd say even 1.025 to 1.020 you could just "dump em" and probably have no mortality (if salinty is the only factor being concerned)

 

[Jaden9933]

I've always kept all my systems at 35 ppt but I know it's common for people to run quarantine systems or retail/wholesale systems significantly lower. I know that there's always caution about raising fish up from lower salinity, but what about the rate when going down into lower salinity, which most people believe is easier on the fish? What amount of salinity reduction are you comfortable with without taking extra precautions or prolonged acclimation?

I acclimated my clown from 1.035SG to 1.025SG over a period of 10hours. I drip acclimated by hand with a small water dropper that came with one of my tests.

 

[terraincognita]

I acclimated my clown from 1.035SG to 1.025SG over a period of 10hours. I drip acclimated by hand with a small water dropper that came with one of my tests.

I think you meant 35PPT to 25PPT

which is basically 1.026 to 1.018.

So now you know OP someone did it in 10 hours.

I’m almost sure you could do a .008 drop like that in less than 5 hours.

 

[Jaden9933]

I think you meant 35PPT to 25PPT

which is basically 1.026 to 1.018.

So now you know OP someone did it in 10 hours.

I’m almost sure you could do a .008 drop like that in less than 5 hours.

No it was 1.035 to 1.025 on my refractometer measured in specific gravity. I’m not sure how to measure in PPT. The water was extremely salty due to a faulty refractometer. The fish did survive though and is still alive and healthy today.

 

[srobertb]

Going down is never a problem.

it’s always going up.

from what I know, you could put a fish in 1.025 into 1.018 within 1 hour of acclimation and it would be just fine.

for QT systems a lot of people keep their salinity at 1.020 or 1.021

the purpose of the “drop” is that inverts do not take kindly to drops in Salinity and a lot of external parasites on fish I guess are inverts?? And so by putting them into a reduced salinity you’re making them weaker/possibly killing some.

what’re you trying to accomplish that has you asking this Q?

I’m not 100% sure about everything I’ve just said lolllll but like 92%

IMO whether the salinties are 1.025 to 1.021 or 1.025 to 1.024 you should always acclimate.

it takes .90cents of airline tubing, and literally any container. You’re always risking fish stress without it.

why not do it?

Because I have a fish in a bag that just spent 30 hours on an airplane and in a truck and the moment I open that bag and O2 hits the water it becomes a pretty bag of glass cleaner.

I could see having saltwater prepped at the SG of wherever you are ordering from but once that bag opens, the fish needs out of that water.

 

[terraincognita]

No it was 1.035 to 1.025 on my refractometer measured in specific gravity. I’m not sure how to measure in PPT. The water was extremely salty due to a faulty refractometer. The fish did survive though and is still alive and healthy today.

Oh wow,

yeah! 1.035 is very very high hahaha, conversion says 47PPT :X