I just bought a yellow tailed Damsel from petco today. I got home and I left the fish in the bag and I put the bag in my tank. The fish was fine for a few minutes but now it is like freaking out and trying to find a way out of the bag. Does this mean that my levels in my water are messed up or does the fish just say a bigger environment and want to get to it? Even if my levels are a bit off I thought Damsels were supposed to be hardy fish?
UPDATE: Fish is now fine. After about 5-7 minutes of freaking out, he is doing his own thing in the bag. How long do you guys suggest I keep him and his snail friends in the bag?
UPDATE: Fish is now fine. After about 5-7 minutes of freaking out, he is doing his own thing in the bag. How long do you guys suggest I keep him and his snail friends in the bag?
. I also would suggest it is impossible to advise you on acclimating without some more info. Most importantly how long was the fish in the bag, and how close were the PH and salinity of the bag water to your tanks water. A qt tank gives you an opportunity to match the tank to the bag so acclimation is easy, then you can slowly make the qt match the display over a few weeks. When bagged over 2 hours it sometimes makes sense to pull strait from the bag and put in ph and salinity matched clean water, as raising the ph of ammonia laden bag water can permanently damage gill tissues. For sure agree not to put the bag water in your tank, and you may want to investigate ph adjusted freshwater dips on the way into and out of qt.
