Acclimating & high tds?

[DavidH]

If I recieve fish with an incoming tds of 960 from the breeder. (The high tds is due to salt I think). My tds is about 100. Will this cause any problems with osmosic pressure for the fish? Should I raise my tank to match his?, or just acclimate like normal.

Thx Dave

[Carol_Roberts]

The pH is what you have to worry about. Test your tank water and the water the fish are in now. If your tank water is a bit higher in pH there will be no problem.

[kjmillerfw]

I stumbled across this article today that talks about this very subject. This article suggests that TDS changes may be detrimental...especially going from a high TDS to low. You guys check it out and see if you think it has merit.

http://www.intellweb.com/gcka/testkit1.html

Could someome elaborate a bit on what is said in the link:

http://www.intellweb.com/gcka/testkit1.html

Thanks Ronald

[Ardan]

This person claims that quick, high osmotic pressure changes are detrimental to the fish.
That means that water will go into the gill cells (because they now have the higher concentration of minerals compared to the lower tds tank water) and cause them to rupture. (supposedly they overfill with water).
This is according to the article. the cells do not have time to set up a barrier to this osmotic pressure difference.

His advice is to "drip acclimate", that is to slowly add water to the bag the fish are in to drop the tds by diluting it,
and to add salt to the new tank to bring up the mineral content, raising the tds, so the difference is not so great.

I think when you add water to the bag it can cause the ph to change and make the ammonia in the bag more harmful to the fish. I think there may be some merit to what he is saying, but I also think the ph change is important too. jmo

hth

Thanks Ardan,


Ronald

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
David, you have brought up one of my favorite subjects to research about..........Well, of course having to do with water that is ;D I have posted this link before and I believe it contains info on osmo-regulation in fish in regards to cell membrane pressures, transfer rates, etc. It looks very technical and intimidating, but is not too bad to understand, it's just long reading. HTH

http://www-heb.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/congress/2000/extreme/extreme.pdf


Steve

[Ardan]

WOw Steve!
That is quite a paper those people wrote! a lot of good info and research. I liked the global warming section also :)
thanks!

[DavidH]

Great article Steve

Thx Dave