Shipped delhezi acclimation?

[SwampFins]

Hi I'm getting my new Delhezi in the mail today and I was wondering about the acclimation process since its coming through the mail instead of my lfs where I always get my fish from.

I normally float the bags for 20 minutes and then I net the fish to drop them straight in. (Same water parameters).

However this time around it's probably going to be different given that it's coming from California and I'm in Florida so I'm sure ph will be a little different.

Question is, should I do it like I always do as long as the temp matches and let it acclimate in the tank?

I'd be inclined to do drip acclimation but I recently heard that this could be worse that dropping them straight in ( only for shipped fish)

I guess the argument is that while the fish is in transport, ammonia starts accumulating in the bag and because the amount of oxygen is does not fluctuate it makes the ammonia not as harmful to the fish. However, once the bag is open, the rapid reintroduction of oxygen makes the ammonia spike and it also changes the ph of the water rapidly.

How do you guys usually approach this? I have never received fish in the mail

Thanks!

 

[fishhead0103666]

Whenever I get a fish in the mail I treat it like a normal fish I got from the store and drip acclimate it.

 

[SwampFins]

Whenever I get a fish in the mail I treat it like a normal fish I got from the store and drip acclimate it.

Cool so no problems there then?

The fish has been on the road for almost 40 hours I didn't know if that would have changed things.

I will go ahead an do the drip acclimation when I get it tonight.

Thanks for the input!

 

[fishhead0103666]

I've experienced no problems but I did read this person's little write up on his thoughts, observations, experience, and research. From what I recall and not going too detailed he had observed that once a fish has been shipped and arrived at its destination and the bag is opened, the ph or maybe it was ammonia, one of the water parameters, will immediately go up. I'll try to find it for you.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

I just gradually add tank water to aclimate

 

[kno4te]

All my polys have been temp acclimated and then dropped in. Add some prime in the bag once opened and drip acclimate some tank water as well. Either way should work.

 

[Hendre]

Prime is very important! The ammonia in the bag will very quickly become toxic. as the co2 leaves the water when the bag opens, the pH shoots up which increases ammonia toxicity. This killed off a lot of my shrimp and rasboras once, please be careful

 

[fishhead0103666]

Ahh, thank you hendre.

 

[SwampFins]

Hi everyone

Thank you for all the comments and advice
Just wanted to update and let you know everything went great last night and I had the new bichir eating within 10 minutes of putting it in the tank!

I was still debating on how to acclimate while I was opening the box but after seeing the water in which this little guy came in, I decided to no drip acclimate and just match the temp and drop in.

When I looked at the bag the water was super milky and had a lot of particulates floating around so I figured it would be best to simply transition him to cleaner water and not stress him out further with any upcoming swings once the bag got open.

He seems to have a lot of personality already, definitely not shy. He was a lot smaller that what I was expecting but I think it'll be ok. Hes like 2 inches smaller than my senegal but I don't think he could eat him if he tried; and so far hes shown no interest in him whatsoever. Hopefully I can get him growing to get him close in size to the senegal.

Here's some pics from this morning!
So far hes had shrimp and tilapia without any hesitation.

 

[SwampFins]

I also found this if anyone is interested.

I think this is what I had seen before that had me second guessing the acclimation process lol

Good info tho