How do you acclimate your fish ?

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tcarswell

Polypterus
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Dec 6, 2008
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I for one use a 5 gallon bucket I pour the fish in there with his bag water. Then I use a piece of air line tubing with a knot in it to slowly (3 drops a second ) release the tank water in to the bucket. I turn the tank lights off and after the amount of water in the bucket (Which I keep covered during this) triples or quadruples I net the fish and put them in the tank with the lights out. Then 3-4 hours later turn the lights back on. The process of them acclimating takes about an hour.
Anyone got a better way or a way to improve mine or their own proven method??
 
I admit that when it comes to "not too commonly seen" fish, I'll use the drip method. If it's a fish that I've seen around or know that it's hardy...I float'em and dump'em.
 
The method you use seems a bit precautious, but better safe than sorry right? However, I noticed you didn't mention anything about temperature changes, which is a very important procedure to include when acclimating fish. This is the reason why I use the old bag-in-the-aquarium method, to gradually change the temperature from the bag to the temperature of the aquarium the fish will be residing in. After I let the temp equalize (about 1/2 hour) I add a little aquarium water. After about 15 min., I add a little more aquarium water. Finally, after another 15 min., I gently net the fish out of the bag, place the net into the aquarium, and let the fish swim out of the net on its own. Sometimes the fish will swim out instantly after placing the net in the aquarium, and on some occasions, it will take literally 15 minutes for the fish to swim out, making my arm sore but I try not to lose my patience. Of course, this procedure is done if I buy the fish from my LFS and it's not in the bag for more than 1 1/2 hours. If receiving the fish by means of shipping, it will be a little different (ie. adding an ammonia detoxifier/conditioner as soon as I open the bag).
 
benzjamin13;2882297; said:
I admit that when it comes to "not too commonly seen" fish, I'll use the drip method. If it's a fish that I've seen around or know that it's hardy...I float'em and dump'em.
Click to expand...
Yup, same here. If it's something rare/expensive, I take a bit more care and slowly acclimate them using the drip method. :popcorn:
 
If it's a big fish, i dump it straight in after using the hand thermometer method...
Small fish get to float for 10 minutes in the bag first.

Perhaps if it was a rare fish or one that cost $$$$ I might bother with the method listed above.
 
yes if its rare and takes you months to find, I drip them slowly. But if its your every day cichlid that can be found at walmart I just dump them in.
 
wow a lot of floater and dumpers im surprised.
 
I always do the float method for smaller fish and the drip system for bigger fish. Better to be safer than sorry right? If it's a bigger fish and more expensive fish, I actually test my water and the water the fish was in to see how big of a difference there is in PH, Nitrate, Nitrite, and Ammonia etc.... Then I add the amount of water needed to match the water the fish is in, to the water the fish is going into. I never really check the water temp but I'm assuming it should be the same, as this process usually takes me 20 minutes or less. Thus the temperature drop can only differ 1-3 degree. (My basement temp is around 70 degrees Fahrenheit).
 
yeah, I'm surprised at the amount of floaters and dumpers too.

Can I assume that you float and then dump them into a Quarantine Tank? Or just right into the DT?

Saltwater: I float for 20 minutes. Then I pour the fish and bag water into a SPECIMEN CONTAINER which I hang inside the tank... lights off of course. Every 10 minutes, I pour about 1/3rd cup into the container. After about an hour, I dump half the water and start over again.
If you have a sump, then hang the specimen container inside the sump while dripping from the DT. Increase the drip rate about every half hour.

Freshwater: Same as above, but I pour about a cup at a time and speed the process up. Whole thing takes me about an hour.
 
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