Did I make mistakes acclimating fish?

I got some fish my mail recently, and everything went fine when I acclimated them except for an angelfish.

I did my best to follow the advice from the breeder:

Acclimating Fish You Just Received

I added a drop of Prime to the shipping water and did the drip method for about 2 hours. The shipping water was 68 degrees, so I set the bucket next to a heat vent and cranked up the furnace, bringing the temp up to 80 in maybe half an hour.

I had some trouble with the syphon, at times adding water more quickly than I intended. After 2 hours I put the fish in a 55 gallon planted tank with a cycled filter, and things looked good, with the fish swimming about near the surface.

A few hours later, it was floating on it's side. After a while it resumed swimming. It continued to float around and swim alternately till I went to bed.

The next morning the fish was swimming around the tank just fine. I left the light off for the second day, and today when I turned on the light it was swimming around as if nothing had happened.

Is this common with angelfish? Did I cause extra stress by rising the temp too quickly or adding tank water too fast? I've bought other fish online and acclimated them with no problem, so I'm wondering if I should have done something differently.

 

I got some fish my mail recently, and everything went fine when I acclimated them except for an angelfish.

I did my best to follow the advice from the breeder:

Acclimating Fish You Just Received

I added a drop of Prime to the shipping water and did the drip method for about 2 hours. The shipping water was 68 degrees, so I set the bucket next to a heat vent and cranked up the furnace, bringing the temp up to 80 in maybe half an hour.

I had some trouble with the syphon, at times adding water more quickly than I intended. After 2 hours I put the fish in a 55 gallon planted tank with a cycled filter, and things looked good, with the fish swimming about near the surface.

A few hours later, it was floating on it's side. After a while it resumed swimming. It continued to float around and swim alternately till I went to bed.

The next morning the fish was swimming around the tank just fine. I left the light off for the second day, and today when I turned on the light it was swimming around as if nothing had happened.

Is this common with angelfish? Did I cause extra stress by rising the temp too quickly or adding tank water too fast? I've bought other fish online and acclimated them with no problem, so I'm wondering if I should have done something differently.

Not with me, but I've never had angels shipped, he was probably just recovering from shipping, shipping can be quite stressful on them.

Edit: He could also be getting used to deeper water, my angels were laying on the ground because of water pressure when first added after a few hours drive, but went back to normal.

 

Drip acclimation can be bad when fish get shipped. Basically, the rising temp and oxygen creates a super bad ammonia situation inside the bag. Most people that lose fish shortly after they get them shipped, that is why.

 

Drip acclimation can be bad when fish get shipped. Basically, the rising temp and oxygen creates a super bad ammonia situation inside the bag. Most people that lose fish shortly after they get them shipped, that is why.

I added a drop of Prime to counteract that. There doesn't seem to be consensus about drip method versus the quick way.

 

I added a drop of Prime to counteract that. There doesn't seem to be consensus about drip method versus the quick way.

I personally am a fan of drip acclimation, but after shipping, I don't think I would ever, because there is 2-3 days worth of fish poop in there.

 

Yeah drip acclimating is for fish you get from local store. Drop and plop is for shipped fish. Shipped fish are in a small amount of water for a long time. The ammonia from waste doesn’t become toxic till it gets air. So when you open the bag and air enters all the water becomes toxic. What I do is have 2small buckets. First empty second with enough to cover the fish. I pour water and fish into empty bucket and remove fish into tank water bucket. Let them sit for 5min than into qt tank. By letting them sit for 5 min most of that ammonia that is on them washes off. After in the qt tank 24hrs I change 50% water.