Best Way To Acclimate Fish/snails?

[Nicole B]

If you were to purchase a fish how would you acclimate them?


Also same for a snail? Would you acclimate them the same or differently?


Would like to hear how everyone does it!

 

[AquaticJ]

With freshwater, floating them in the bag for 20 minutes is usually perfectly fine. However, if it's a more sensitive fish like Discus, it might be a good idea to drip acclimate. (Slowly adding your water to the old water the fish is in).

 

[Nicole B]

With freshwater, floating them in the bag for 20 minutes is usually perfectly fine. However, if it's a more sensitive fish like Discus, it might be a good idea to drip acclimate. (Slowly adding your water to the old water the fish is in).

Do you take the bag they are in and put a net over a bucket and dump them into the net and then into the tank? Or just take them out of the bag and put them in?

 

[AquaticJ]

Yes, the net and bucket is a good idea. NEVER add your lfs water to your tank, you never know what they might have.

 

[DuaneV]

99% of freshwater fish youre going to buy at the store can be dumped right in. No acclimation necessary. Drop & Plop is the only method I use. I take a bucket, put my aquarium net over it, dump the bag into it and take the net full of fish to the tank. Super simple.

 

[Mifuluhu]

I put new fish in Tupperware floating in the tank and use a syringe to add tank water slowly just in case water parameters are different.

Of course we should be doing quarantines before adding fish to tanks in a perfect world

 

[GuppyDazzle]

99% of freshwater fish youre going to buy at the store can be dumped right in. No acclimation necessary. Drop & Plop is the only method I use. I take a bucket, put my aquarium net over it, dump the bag into it and take the net full of fish to the tank. Super simple.

Wow. I have to disagree with the Drop and Plop method. Unless your temperature, pH, and hardness are identical to the fish store, it's going to stress your fish if you just dump them in.

I roll up the top of the bag kind of like a shirtsleeve, and it forms a little balloon rim. I let if float for a half hour, then add little bits of tank water every five or ten minutes for the next half hour. I do use the net over the bucket so I'm not adding a bunch of LFS water to my tanks.

 

[DuaneV]

Id wager the majority of people handling massive amounts of fish do it this way. Ive been doing it my whole life, never had an issue. If the temp & ph is close I think its far less stressful for the fish. And most fish arent as delicate as most people think. Personally, I want them in my clean QT water asap.

 

[AquaticJ]

Whenever we get a fish shipment in at the store, we float them. Last year we decided to try and save time by just dropping them in, and we lost a lot more fish that way. So in a large scale example, I've seen it personally. We receive around 500-1000 tropical fish a week.

 

[Hunter1]

Whenever we get a fish shipment in at the store, we float them. Last year we decided to try and save time by just dropping them in, and we lost a lot more fish that way. So in a large scale example, I've seen it personally. We receive around 500-1000 tropical fish a week.

If it’s a short trip from the fish store, less than 30 minutes, I float for 20 minutes and drain bag into net over bucket.

If longer I drop acclimate after the 20 minutes. Just add about 1/2 of cup, 3 or 4 times over 15-20 minutes.

 

[Lunnietic]

If I am getting it shipped in amd they have been in transit for over 12 hours, i do the drop and plop.

Anything less I do the float method.

 

[GuppyDazzle]

If I am getting it shipped in amd they have been in transit for over 12 hours, i do the drop and plop.

Anything less I do the float method.

I'm trying to learn. Why would you do the Drop and Plop only when fish have been in transit for over 12 hours?

 

[Nicole B]

Do any of you treat the pet stores water with prime too?

Id wager the majority of people handling massive amounts of fish do it this way. Ive been doing it my whole life, never had an issue. If the temp & ph is close I think its far less stressful for the fish. And most fish arent as delicate as most people think. Personally, I want them in my clean QT water asap.

See our angels died from the drop and plop.

 

[Ms rose]

I put new fish in Tupperware floating in the tank and use a syringe to add tank water slowly just in case water parameters are different.

Of course we should be doing quarantines before adding fish to tanks in a perfect world

this is what i do as well

Whenever we get a fish shipment in at the store, we float them. Last year we decided to try and save time by just dropping them in, and we lost a lot more fish that way. So in a large scale example, I've seen it personally. We receive around 500-1000 tropical fish a week.

oh wow hats rally cool, you have a fish store! do you ship fish? just curious

 

[dwarfpufferlover]

If I am getting it shipped in amd they have been in transit for over 12 hours, i do the drop and plop.

Anything less I do the float method.

+1 on that, I use this drip for anything local

 

[lilabug4545]

Wow. I have to disagree with the Drop and Plop method. Unless your temperature, pH, and hardness are identical to the fish store, it's going to stress your fish if you just dump them in.

I roll up the top of the bag kind of like a shirtsleeve, and it forms a little balloon rim. I let if float for a half hour, then add little bits of tank water every five or ten minutes for the next half hour. I do use the net over the bucket so I'm not adding a bunch of LFS water to my tanks.

I use plop n' drop when shipping, because I do not want my fish to be exposed to that much ammonia in such a short amount of time. For more delicate species, I would drip acclimate, but for almost every fish I have, the plop n' drop has gone perfectly for me. It might be different if I were, say, importing for Thailand, but I'm not.

 

[DuaneV]

I'm trying to learn. Why would you do the Drop and Plop only when fish have been in transit for over 12 hours?

Because the longer the fish are in the bag, a massive chemical swing takes place:

As the fish breath and poop theyre littering the water with ammonia and reducing oxygen. This causes the ammonia to convert to ammonium and the PH starts taking a massive dive. As soon as you open up that bag and introduce new oxygen, the PH shoots up and the ammonium converts back to ammonia. Leaving them in the bag to "acclimate" them will almost surely kill them. This is why most pet shops use the drop and plop method. Its way more safe for the fish. And again, most fish at the pet shop are WAY more hardy than people give them credit for and a small PH or temp swing isnt going to hurt them, especially when it means getting out of toxic water.

 

[GuppyDazzle]

Because the longer the fish are in the bag, a massive chemical swing takes place:

As the fish breath and poop theyre littering the water with ammonia and reducing oxygen. This causes the ammonia to convert to ammonium and the PH starts taking a massive dive. As soon as you open up that bag and introduce new oxygen, the PH shoots up and the ammonium converts back to ammonia. Leaving them in the bag to "acclimate" them will almost surely kill them. This is why most pet shops use the drop and plop method. Its way more safe for the fish. And again, most fish at the pet shop are WAY more hardy than people give them credit for and a small PH or temp swing isnt going to hurt them, especially when it means getting out of toxic water.

Before I started shipping fish, I did an experiment where I bagged up some fish, and just let them sit for three days, hoping to simulate what would happen with some kind of delay in shipping. I also coordinated with another person in a different part of the country where we traded fish, shipped them back and forth, and tested the water when the fish arrived.

The fish that were boxed for three days were fine (I was actually kind of surprised). I acclimated them, and they jumped right back into their healthy community with no visible signs of stress. The water tests both ways on the shipped fish showed a little ammonia buildup, but nothing drastic. Both sets were acclimated and the fish were great.

I just have a completely different experience with shipping fish in and out. I don't know how to account for your experience that "Leaving them in the bag to 'acclimate' them will almost surely kill them."

Have you done testing to confirm the rapid ammonia conversions and reconversions and the drastic pH shocks?