Fish Transportation/Introduction

[albirdy]

After coming from your LFS, or I suppose receiving it by delivery,
how do you introduce your fish to your (quarantine) tank?

This is what I do:
(I'm not sure if this is the most time-efficient way, and I've heard of better, but I was curious what you do)

1. Place bag in tank for an hour
2. Add same amount of water from my tank into the bag (thus doubling the water volume)
3. Then, wait half an hour before netting the fish and placing them into the tank (without adding any water from the bag).

Thanks

 

[Alan Russell]

My goal is not to keep fish in the bag for no more than 2 hours. since we live almoust an hour from the lfs I only put the bag in the tank for 30 minutes. Then, with the help of my wife. She hold a net over a bucket. I dump the fish into the net and she adds them to the tank. i do this because my water is perfect and I just can't stand the thought of putting lfs water in my tank.

 

[so cal nick]

I've heard the LFS say 15 minutes is suffucient, but i usually wait 30. I dont ever mix in the water from the tank.

 

[rmorse]

Mixing in the water is a good practice...

 

[salsa]

I drip about Till bag is at 150% volume.

 

[dmed]

IMHO "floating" the bag is not good practice - really does nothing for the fish but greatly prolong the time it is in the closed-up bag (which is bad). Also this gives any other fish in the tank a prolonged opportunity to commit suicide by jumping whlie the hood is open.

I like the drip (or gradual addition of tank water) method best. It will help equilibrate the temperatures which is presumably the goal of floating, though I'd like to point out that most fish in natural habitats swim within different strata of water within rivers and lakes and experience wide temp. swings with no ill effects.

MAINLY it guards against osmotic shock which is the #1 concern when moving fish from one environment to another. This is less of a concern when you buy fish from your LFS down the street than if fish were shipped to you but it CAN happen. Sudden changes in hardness and TDS can kill fish very quickly. It's best to add tank water slowly to the OPEN bag until it's about 200% volume. The safest way is to know your dGH before you buy and MAKE the seller test the water the fish is living in. BTW, pH differences are not really that important, it's hardness/TDS that matters.