Acclimation

Ok,

I have had some issues. I take care of three tanks, two of them are at doctors offices and one is mine.

I would like to hear everyones personal opinions on Acclimation and how they introduce thier new fish into a system.

I have been having issues with Ich for the first week when I place fish into a new tank. I have tried the following methods

1. Small 1 gallon bucket placing the fish in the bucket with the water from the store. I remove 1 coffee cup amount of water and replace with my tank water. I wait about 15 mins then do it agian until I am sure most of the water is my tank water. Then I place the fish in the tank.

2. Temp. float method for about 20 mins then just straight into the tank.

3. Straight from the bag into the tank.


Ok, Now I know the first is the best method but, I have had most if not all fish have issues after the fist 2-3 days in the tank.

I have had better success with just Temp floating them and droping in the tank or just from the bag into the tank.


What am I doing wrong? I have had die 3 out of the last 6 fish I have placed into tanks.

Do I just have a bad case of ich and do I need to kill it off first before adding more fish or is it merely bad luck and the fish I am getting are most likely dead from the get go?

TIA

 

This is what I do when I acclimate aquatic life into my tanks. After the fish has been quarantened and is healthy, I will then move it into the tank. I also do this when acclimating into the QT. In the QT, it will be in the bag from the LFS. When going into the main tank, it will be in a small bucket with enough water to maintain him. Anyhow...
I put the fish into a bucket that is below the display tank and drip acclimate the fish. I set the drip rate to about 2-3 drops per second. When the bucket gets full, I dump out half the water and continue to drip. I repeat this for 3 cycles and usually takes about 3 hours. Then I make sure the temp of the acclimation water is close to the tank water. If it is, then he will go into his new home. I will net the fish and put him into the tank. If I am working with a fish that has spines that can get caught in the net, I will use a large mug to scoop it out safely and dump him into the tank. I have had great success doing it like this. I have also used a scooped water method into the bag, but only use about 5cc of tank water every 15 mins and that has been a success as well. The key is going SLOW. A coffee cup of tank water into a 1G bucket is a heavy percentage, if that makes sense. You should be working with no more than 1/4 cup for a 1G bucket every 15-20mins.

Remember ich is not something that is introduced into a system. When a fish is stressed out it will develop ich, it won't really "catch it from another fish" unless it is stressed or ill. When ich pops up, there is usually an easy to find reason for it. Fish dumped into the tank too soon and gets water chemistry shock, SG is too high/low, elevated dissolved nutrient levels, elevated NH3/NO2/NO3/PO3 levels, another fish bullying him etc.
I hope this helps.

 

I like to drip or do cups like above. As long as PH, salinity , temp are very similar it probably doesn't matter too much, but I like to lessen any type of shock from sudden changes to be on the safe side. And it may lessen stress.

 

I just float the bag for a perido of time so that the water in the bag matches that of my tanks water then put the fish in the tank. Dripping is not very good in my opinion, because with the small bag and dripping small amounts of water into the bag from your tank, you are in essence, creating more of a problem with regards to alkalinity, pH, carbon dioxide and other factors. Over the long run, it is best to just add the fish to the water after both tank and bag water are the same.

 

Kinda my thought on it as well, I mean seriously I think it is more stress on the fish not being in a tank where they can hide and feel better about the whoel situation of the move. Sitting in a bucket for 3 hours does not seem to me like it would be 'less Stress" on the fish.

Reason why I am asking about it is when I do the slow method I lose more fish it seems to me.

 

+1. I just float, then add to the bag over a 20 minute period and I'm done.
To me, it sounds more like your just plain not getting very healthy fish to begin with. Were all the fish aquired from the same source? Ich is always in our system, laying dormant to find a host. Its only when the host is weakend and distressed is when it will succum to ich. The best way to think of ich is like it's the fish version of influenza. Everyone my get a slight bout of it every now and again. But if your normally healthy, it shouldn't be a big deal

 

In my humble opinion an acclimation is necessary. Most likely the fish ... depending hardiness of the particular fish it will be ok. But it still lessens stress with a proper acclimation and is recommended by most experts.
I put a towel over the bucket during acclimation so the bucket becomes the hiding place since it's completely dark.
Acclimating Your Fish

4. Just dump the fish in, no real acclimation. Not really recommended by anyone but Fenner, but he does this to shipments of hardier fish, and they are put into a medicated tub, and then into a holding tank. He dislikes retaining any of the shipping water (this is long distance shipping) since it contains a host of bad things (pathogens, pollutants, metabolites).

 

i am so glad to hear other people just float the bag too. It has worked so far for us, but i was worried....

 

I spoke with my LFS ower today.

She replaced my fish and asked me what my SG was. She told me that she runs 1.016 to 1.018 in her fish holding tanks because it will keep the ich off of them in the store if they get a little stressed.

I told her I run my SG at 1.023 to 1.024 and she told me that is for sure why I am having issues.

She told me I should basicly put about a shot glass in the bucket with the water from her store every 10 mins. and do this over a minimum of 1 hour.

I am currently doing what she told me with this fish and there are no signs on ich on it at all it looks like a perfectly healthly fish at this point.