Tips for Pre-Acclimating Saltwater
Livestock
____________________________________
Both at the Fish Store and Before Beginning Acclimation
at Home
When it comes to bringing new
fish home for your saltwater aquarium, prior to going down to a local fish
store and buying anything you should already have an acclimation procedure
of choice picked out! No matter what method you decide on, aside from this
most important point, here are some other useful pre-acclimating tips for
planning ahead at the fish store and before beginning acclimation once
you arrive home.
At the Fish Store
- Before the fish store bags anything, ask if they add any type of ammonia buffer or destroyer to the packing water. When saltwater fish are confined to an area of water for even a short period of time without biological filtration, ammonia build up will most likely occur, and this can cause side effects in fish such as burnt gills and fins, which most often appears several days after getting them home.
- Most fish stores do not inject oxygen into the bags, but simply use ambient air instead. This will work fine for livestock in transit for short periods of time, say for several hours, but if at all possible, oxygen is a far better choice.
- You may want to consider putting a cardboard box, or in the dead of winter or the peak of summer, a styrofoam or plastic igloo type cooler in the car when you visit the fish store in case they do not have a spare sytrofoam box to place bag(s) into to keep them upright and insulated for the trip home.
- The issue of preventing the bag(s) from getting too cold or overheating is important, so the obvious thing to do is try and avoid bringing fish home during extreme weather conditions at any time of the year.
- No matter what acclimation method you choose to use, tt is especially important to ventilate (open) the bags as soon as possible, because even though a shipper may use an additive to reduce or eliminate ammonia build up in the bag water, CO2 (carbon dioxide) accumulates as well. If the shipper did not add any type of ammonia buffer to the packing water at the store, it doesn't hurt to add some as soon as the bag is open. Our peference is AmQuel, because it works immediately, takes just a few drops, and you cannot overdose with it.
- It is strongly recommended that any new fish be placed into a QT (quarantine tank) first! This allows them to recover from the stresses of transporting and shipping without having to deal with harrasment from other inhabitants already established in the main aquarium, and you can monitor any fish's health for several weeks to insure there are no diseases present.
- Water for acclimation will be removed from an aquarium you plan to place the new fish into, so top-off water will need to be adding when done. This is best performed an hour or so after you have introduced the fish into their new home.
- Fish that are brought home in any kind of container with a lid that allows no light exposure, since they may have been in the dark for some time, it is best to turn off the tank lights before beginning acclimation into the aquarium.
- You may want to perform tests on the pH, specific gravity and temperature of both the bag and your tank water before you start acclimation. This is not necessary, but if you are interested to see what the differences are between the two, this gives you an idea what you're working with. If the test comparisons are drastically different, this means you should take a little extra time to acclimate slower to let the levels adjust to each other.
- Your aquarium system's unique chemical properties will differ from that of the shipping water. Therefore, it is recommended to not allow any of the dealer's shipping water to get into your aquarium. If for some reason a bag is leaking, due to say a fish poking a hole in it, you can always slip another plastic bag around the outside of it before hanging it inside the tank to collect any water that may be leaking out.
- If any fish appears to be overly stressed, such as not swimming upright and is laying on the bottom of the bag gasping or gilling rapidly, this may be due to oxygen depletion. As soon as the bag is open, it doesn't hurt to aggetate the bag water or drop in an airstone for a couple of minutes to supply immediate relief.
- The only exception for bypassing proper acclimation procedures is during a critical situation, such as when a fish has poked a hole in the bag and almost all the water is gone or their is none, but the fish is still alive. The only thing you can do to remedy this situation is to immediately hang the bag in the tank, pour in tank water, insert an airstone to provide oxygen relief, and pray the fish doesn't go into shock. We have revived many a near death fish using this method, even a very delicate juvenile Regal Angelfish once. NEVER just dump a stressed fish in this type of situation into a tank where other established fish are present unless it can be seperated, because harassment is sure to occur and this lessens it changes for survivability.
- Fish and Critter Acclimation for Dummies: What Acclimate Means and Reasons for Acclimating
- Tips for Mail Ordering Livestock: Important Shipping and Packing Considerations Before Buying
- Acclimating Fish the Drip Line Way
- Acclimating Fish the Measuring Cup Way
- Acclimating Fish the Turkey Baster Way
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