Plop and drop acclimation question

[Discusdude7]

So a few months ago I bought a discus from hans and he told me to just plop and drop it in. Well this scared me but I listened to him anyways and it worked! The fish was looking for food within 5 mins of being in the tank. I have a lfs 45 mins away that buys their discus from Hans, and was wondering if I could use plop and drop acclimation on any discus I get from there. Also can I use plop and drop on any new fish I buy?

[Kal-El]

Yes. I use this method all the time for all overnight shipment... never once any issue... Of course I let the bag sit in the tank to get the temp to match (15mins) before taking the fish out an drop them in... If the bag is leaking it's best to take them out right away and drop them into the tank to give them fresh water and oxygen.

[Discusdude7]

Does the ph of the water in the bag have to be lower than the ph in your tank for this method to work safely?

[REC]

If the fish isn't coming directly from Hans I would QT for at least a week. Most LFS do a terrible job at taking care of Discus. I wouldn't risk the rest of my stock.

[MKD]

I have a lfs 45 mins away that buys their discus from Hans, and was wondering if I could use plop and drop acclimation on any discus I get from there. Also can I use plop and drop on any new fish I buy?

ask your LFS if they run separate system for discus only. I would still QT them if i were you.

[Kal-El]

Does the ph of the water in the bag have to be lower than the ph in your tank for this method to work safely?

Yes, PH in the bag should always be lower than your tank's PH. If it's lower in your tank than in the bag than you'll need to slow acclimate the fish in. Although I've never measure the PH in the bag as I already know my PH always stabilize at 8.0 and in order for a fish to survive shipping the PH in the bag should be about 6.0 (if I recall, correct me if I'm wrong) this prevents ammonia burn from fish waste during shipping.

[Discusdude7]

I think a lower ph makes ammonia into ammonium- a less toxic form

[Discusdude7]

So no plop and drop with fish bought from an lfs?

[MKD]

Yes i'll do plop and drop but not into main tank.

[Skip]

I have a lfs 45 mins away that buys their discus from Hans, and was wondering if I could use plop and drop acclimation on any discus I get from there.

NO!!!!!!!!!!! you are risking fish that are exposed to WHO KNOWS WHAT at LFS.. in to your tank.. THAT is not the same as buying from HANS himself..


Also can I use plop and drop on any new fish I buy?

yes.. but drop and plop in a QT tank, not you tank with EXISTING Discus

[Tazalanche]

I got burned too many times in the 1990s when I kept fish, so I guess I'm among the paranoid here. I always acclimate in a bucket before doing a plop & drop, plus we QT every fish for 6 weeks before it is placed into one of our community tanks.

Even the fish we received from sponsors were in QT for 6 weeks before being eligible to go into the community tank, or into the grow out tank if they were the smaller ones in the bunch.

[nwehrman]

I'm paranoid also -- but after much research - I now plop and drop on any fish .... Except salt .... Which I measure salinity .... And go from there.

Haven't had a problem with plop and drop -and temp within about 10 degrees.

Of course like everyone said -- plop and drop into QT...

[Ryan]

I do it with every fish I get. My water's pH is almost always higher so I've never really worried much about it. Usually shipping water is full of ammonia so I like to get them into clean, warm tank water ASAP.

[Discus-n00b]

I do the same Ryan. I've never lost a fish due to acclimation. Wild angels, discus, geos, anything you can think of. Want them out of that dirty water ASAP. If you have a good shipper and don't live in the arctic you shouldn't even need to temp acclimate as the box should arrive still warm. For example, on shipments from Kenny I literally cut open the box, snip the tops of the bags off and put the fish in the tank. Of course, I can always count on a call from Kenny interrupting the process as soon as I get my hands wet but thats usually what I do. :) Granted, I know I don't have super low pH or anything so like Ryan, not worried at all.

And I highly second Skip's comment. You have Hans right here on this board that you can personally talk to.....get them from the man himself and skip the LFS.

[yim11]

I do it with every fish I get. My water's pH is almost always higher so I've never really worried much about it. Usually shipping water is full of ammonia so I like to get them into clean, warm tank water ASAP.

+1

Most shippers will lower bag water pH a lil to make sure everything is ok.

[Discusdude7]

Thanks!

[hillbillyamber]

Great thread. I am now smarter than I was 10 minutes ago! lol