Acclimating new fish

[dmacch]

I just spoke to the breeder I am buying my discus from. His discus are in water with a ph of 6.4 - 6.5. My water, after aging is 8.0. How should I acclimate the discus when I bring them home? Will it be too much of a shock to them? Thanks

Dom

[kjmillerfw]

I was told to float the bag and add a cup of the tank water to the bag every 15 mins or so to slowly bring it up.

Others may have a better solution though.

[GulfCoastDiscus]

Welcome Dom,
Acclimating to a higher Ph is not so hard on discus as acclimating to a lower Ph. Get your tank ready with temp at 84. There are several ways to acclimate your new fish. You can do the drip method where you get an airline and put one end in your tank and the other in the bucket where you will temporarily hold your new fish. Tie a knot on the line and slowly drip your tank water into the bucket. Make sure to add an airstone in the bucket. Another method is to place your new fish in the bucket and add a cup of tank water every 15 min. Then there's the flop method. I don't suggest this unless the water parameters are almost equal.
Once you have the fish in their tank slowly increase the temp to 86-88 and add 1-2 tbsp. of salt per 10 gal.
Good luck.

Dan

[dmacch]

How many cups of water should I add before putting the fish in the tank?

[GulfCoastDiscus]

Until you equal or more the amount in the bucket. Make sure to put a heater in the bucket along with an airstone.

HTH
Dan

[Carol_Roberts]

How far are your fish coming from? If being shipped overnight, bags have ammonia. I would not start adding pH 8.0 water.

Why don't you buy 3 or 4 gallons of RO or distilled water from the grocery store for for one or two 5 gallon buckets. Warm to 86 degrees. Open bag, pour most of water down drain, reach in and gently grasp discus in both hands, place in bucket of RO water. Repeat until bags are empty.

Then you can drip or pour your tank water in the bucket at the rate of a cup every 10 minutes

[fcdiscus]

From a lower to a higher ph, I would just adjust for temp, and put the fish directly into the new water. I guess this is the plop method, LOL, Frank

[Nightowl]

dmacch, I would adjust my tank water to the 6.4-6.5 range. How long are the fish going to be in the bags? The PH in their bags will drop even lower the longer they are in there. Also, ammonium can build up, and as you add water that has a PH of 8 to the bag, the PH in the bag climbs above neutral and that ammonium will start to shift to ammonia, and your fish are in a bag of really bad water.
I would adjust tank PH, acclimate the fish to the Temp., mix small amounts of tank water into the bags every 5 min. until the volume of water is doubled, then net out the fish and put them in the tank. Discard the water in the bags........
This is my method for acclimating. Once the fish are settled in they should adjust to your water. If the ph goes back up, and it probably will, don't mess with it. But for acclimating them I would lower it.
Again, JMO good luck J.T.

[GulfCoastDiscus]

If you don't want to buy water you can also add "Prime" in the bucket. Prime will detox the ammonia.

Dan

[dmacch]

I'm getting the fish from a local breeder. It will take about one hour to get home once I get the fish so I don't think ammonia will be a factor. 'Ill probably use the drip method described by Dan above. Thanks for all the info.

[kjmillerfw]

My fish had about an hour drive and made it just fine by me adding about half a cup of water to the bag until I got the parameters close to the tank they were going into. If you have a pH tester, it's easy to keep up with your levels.

I believe in the "KISS" method (keeping things super simple) and with the exception of the "Flop" (LOL) method...this is pretty simple.

I would also suggest to take the fish from the bag once you get the water adjusted. Don't pour the water from the bag into the tank.

Good luck with your new fish!

~Kathy

[kjmillerfw]

If the bag has quite a bit of water to begin with, you might want to bump it up to a whole cup every 15 or 20 mins.

[Dave C]

Here's what I do. You take the bag, remove the rubber band and grab the fish in your hand and place it into your tank. Your tank should be prepared by getting the heat to 88ºF and adding 1 TbSp of salt per 10g. I've landed hundreds and hundreds of Discus this way and have never lost one as a result. I have also yet to hear from anyone that has tried this method and had a problem. It may seem stressful but it works and works well.

[kjmillerfw]

LOL, I believe we have a new definition of the "FLOP" method! ;D

[Smokey]

POST QUOTE FROM DMACCH -

___ "I just spoke to the breeder I am buying my discus from. His discus are in water with a ph of 6.4 - 6.5. My water, after aging is 8.0. How should I acclimate the discus when I bring them home? Will it be too much of a shock to them? Thanks
Dom " ___ "end quote."

Dom - Alot of advice has been offered -!

Anyway.........

After you have received your discus; and - and - aclimatized them to your tank .. I would; as many others would; - be very interested in your expierences.

Please post - your first hand results and thoughts.

Smokey.

[gump]

Dom, I use the flop method as well as per Dave C. method. Works great!! In fact I did it again last night. Fish arrived in water that was around 74 degrees(cold up here in Canada). My tanks were ready at around 89 degrees, PH in my tanks were at 7.1. A had a little better than 1 tbs/10gal. of salt in tank. Fish were taken directly out of bag with my hand & placed directly into tank. It's now been about seven hours & when I walked into the room both tanks of fish were active & doing the feed me dance!!
Pierre

[dmacch]

I see that your ph was 7.1. What was the ph of the water the discus arrived in. The fish I get will be going from ph 6.5 to ph 8.0. Are you sure the flop method won't shock them? The ph is my biggest concern. Thanks

Dom

[gump]

The ph that the fish arrived in was slightly lower, 6.8. Most shippers will ship their fish with acid water to avoid excessive ammonia burn. Find out what the ph of the water is when the fish will be shipped and adjust your water to have slightly higher ph value. As stated before when flopping into a higher PH it is not as critical. They will get very skittish when going into more acidic water.
Pierre