Shipped Fish - Cold!!

I just got an order of Apistos in. The bag was very cold. I thought the male was dead but when I started to float the bag, I see weak signs of life. The female looks rough too. I’m assuming I should just let them acclimate to temp then add them? The female is breathing hard... I’m worried about O2. This is my first experience with shipping and I’m not sure!!

 

You're doing the right thing; let the bag rest in the water until the temperatures are equalized; opening the bag and folding the top over, trapping air and making a float, is perfectly fine. After 3o minutes or so, remove a little of the water from the bag (dump in the sink or toilet - DO NOT put this water into your aquarium) and replace it with water from the tank.

At this point I wait 10 minutes, then repeat.

When the total volume of the bag has been replaced (30 or 40 minutes), I remove the fish from the bag and allow it to swim free in the tank.

Discard the water!!!

If you think that the PH of the transport water and your tank are REALLY dissimilar, spend 2 hours replacing the water.

If you've a "drip acclimation" system, 6 hours provides incredible results.

 

Sorry but yu should NOT do the changing of the water it will most likely kill the fish. Assuming they’re cold they are stressed out and should be acclimated. When they get as cold as hey have hey get lethargic and may not move. You just want to temp acclimate and then dumb them through a net and just add the fish. When fish are shipped the oxygen slowly gets converted into co2 and lowers the ph. When the ph is lowered it converts ammonia into ammonium. This is not deadly to the fish. However when you open it and expose the water to oxygen it raises the ph and therefore makes the ammonia deadly again. Stressed and cold fish would not be able to handle this, so the best course would be to temp acclimate then add them, and make sure not to add any bag water into your tank.

 

Ugh.. he looks dead again. 15 min temp acclimation should be fine, right? I can then add some Prime to the bag...

I haven’t opened the bag yet because I know once it’s opened, the pH change will occur. I’ve acclimated fish before just not shipped ones... I had a plan and now I’m panicking a bit!

 

Ugh.. he looks dead again. 15 min temp acclimation should be fine, right? I can then add some Prime to the bag...

Don’t add anything to the bag you’re best off just temp acclimating 20 - 30 minutes and then moving them into the tank with a net. You need the least amount of stress on them and as soon as hey can hide and move a bit more they’ll be happy. As I said when they’re cold they may not move. It may also be stress.

 

As the fish have been in shipping I would not do your typical acclimation process as I find it stresses the fish out and you shouldnt open the bag while floating, look up the fish acclimation videos by solid gold aquatics, king of diy or Rachel O'leary as they all explain why acclimation is different when fish have been shipped.

 

I haven’t opened the bag yet because I know once it’s opened, the pH change will occur. I’ve acclimated fish before just not shipped ones... I had a plan and now I’m panicking a bit!

You don’t need to panic. Unfortunately shipping fish isn’t exactly the best but it happens. Warming them up and eating them in some clean water will do them lots of good

 

I have to humbly disagree on the ammonium to ammonia conversion ph and temperature theory killing fish.

By and large, it's not "PH shock" that kills fish, it's TDS shock; one should ALWAYS acclimate the fish in the bag to the TDS of the quarantine tank that they're going into.

I don't have a Ph.D. in chemistry; I was simply and Engineer in the Army, wherein I did lots of qualitative and quantitative analysis; I'm not a trained chemist, mind you, just an engineer tasked with many functions that a chemist would normally undertake.

I would absolutely LOVE to learn more about the conversion of ammonium to ammonia, if you've the time to educate me (I mean that, seriously).

 

I have to humbly disagree on the ammonium to ammonia conversion ph and temperature theory killing fish.

By and large, it's not "PH shock" that kills fish, it's TDS shock; one should ALWAYS acclimate the fish in the bag to the TDS of the quarantine tank that they're going into.

I don't have a Ph.D. in chemistry; I was simply and Engineer in the Army, wherein I did lots of qualitative and quantitative analysis; I'm not a trained chemist, mind you, just an engineer tasked with many functions that a chemist would normally undertake.

I would absolutely LOVE to learn more about the conversion of ammonium to ammonia, if you've the time to educate me (I mean that, seriously).

There are plenty of videos online about it. I don’t know the exact science but I know that it’s true. People such as the king of diy, Rachel O’Leary, and others do amazing videos on why to not drip acclimate shipped fish. Also I don’t know a ton about tds but that shouldn’t generally be a problem. Hats more to do with shrimp from what I’ve heard and just because you know the tds doesn’t mean a whole lot because things such as fertilizers can raise it. This is also just general knowledge from Cory speaking about it. I’d recommend watching he videos if you have the time.

 

Acclimation is tough - I’ve watched the Rachel Leary videos. I’ve also read about TDS, and how people use CO2 to try to lower their pH to raise different fish aren’t really helping, as it’s the TDS that’s the issue. Aquaria can be confusing.

Regardless, they’re in QT and are seeming okay... not really active but still moving. I tested the bag pH and it’s similar to mine, which is awesome.

On the plus side, my shrimp arrived looking great!

 

I believe in scientific method.

I also believe in "mother's wisdom." lol

Not looking to argue; just looking for empirical truth.

To CelestialGirl (curious as to the origin of the name): What shrimp? Which substrate (I LOVE Fluval Stratum).

 

I believe in scientific method.

I also believe in "mother's wisdom." lol

Not looking to argue; just looking for empirical truth.

To CelestialGirl (curious as to the origin of the name): What shrimp? Which substrate (I LOVE Fluval Stratum).

I got some fire red neocaridinas! I’m excited about them and think they’ll Pop against my green plants and black substrate. I can see some tiny babies in there too! I just have black sand substrate (with Tropica substrate underneath).

Edit - My middle name is Celeste. I’m probably too old to call myself “girl” but Celestialwoman doesn’t quite have the same ring... lol

 

I've always loved the neocardinia!!! They're just kind of... elegant, I guess is the word I'd use.

They really love soft water; I use Stratum and RODI with my shrimp, though, I'm just breeding ghost shrimp to feed my other critters. Some Amano and Flower shrimp have found their way in, along with some bumble-bee shrimp. No bloody clue where they came from.

 

I've always loved the neocardinia!!! They're just kind of... elegant, I guess is the word I'd use.

They really love soft water; I use Stratum and RODI with my shrimp, though, I'm just breeding ghost shrimp to feed my other critters. Some Amano and Flower shrimp have found their way in, along with some bumble-bee shrimp. No bloody clue where they came from.

Yeah, I have high pH and hard water, so we’ll see how they do. I’m drip acclimating them.

Bumblebee shrimp are beautiful. That’s a lovely accident.

 

Good on you!

 

When fish go cold, they enter a sort of hibernation that looks like death, though that's not really what it is. Slow warming can often bring them back.

A few years ago I had a box of fish delivered on one of the coldest days of the year, and the delivery person left it sitting in the garage, which is not at all heated. The fish all were belly up, I thought the whole box was dead - and then I saw a gill move. Took all of them to the fishroom, floated the bags - unopened - in the tanks they were going into. Half an hour later all but one of 8 fish were breathing and sitting upright, though not swimming. I opened and dumped the bags into the tanks - these were prepared tanks for these specific fish with preaged sponge filters - and within a few hours all but the one were up and swimming, though they were pretty ragged looking. Two pairs spawned within the month, and the others, which were young, grew up and I got another pair that eventually spawned.

The lesson is never give up until you have exhausted all possibilities. And then try something new.

 

When fish go cold, they enter a sort of hibernation that looks like death, though that's not really what it is. Slow warming can often bring them back.

A few years ago I had a box of fish delivered on one of the coldest days of the year, and the delivery person left it sitting in the garage, which is not at all heated. The fish all were belly up, I thought the whole box was dead - and then I saw a gill move. Took all of them to the fishroom, floated the bags - unopened - in the tanks they were going into. Half an hour later all but one of 8 fish were breathing and sitting upright, though not swimming. I opened and dumped the bags into the tanks - these were prepared tanks for these specific fish with preaged sponge filters - and within a few hours all but the one were up and swimming, though they were pretty ragged looking. Two pairs spawned within the month, and the others, which were young, grew up and I got another pair that eventually spawned.

The lesson is never give up until you have exhausted all possibilities. And then try something new.

I totally thought the male was dead and only floated the bag because I saw the female move. Very interesting how they can recover!