Acclimation

[Abercrombie6202]

I decided to have my mom take a IV bag and the Iv tubing thing and have this put water into a bucket where the fish will be at for acclimation is this okay?

[barron]

Hi

I put the fish right into the tank.

Make sure your ph is the same or higher then the senders.

Also I heat then at 86 degrees with 1 - 2 tables spoons of salt/10 gallons, for the first week.

Last, I first empty the bag water in a 5 gal pail catching the fish as I empty, then right into the tank. I use my hands and rubber surg. gloves. Never no whats in the bag.

Barron :)

[ronrca]

One of the most importants things you can do for your fish when you first receive them is properly acclimate them. There are various methods around however I have found 1 particular method that works very well.

Supplies need:
- A container: 5G pail or similar! Size does not really matter except if you get lots of discus in one order you may need more or larger containers
- Airline hose
- Airline valve
- Seachem Prime (or other ammonia neutralizing agent)

When first receiving your discus, most , if not all are shipped in plastic bags containing X number of discus! To start, measure the level of ammonia and add the necessary Prime dosage. Then, gently place the discus and water into the container from the bag. Connect the airline hose to the valve. Place one end of the airline hose in the tank that the discus are going to be calling home (other end will be connected to the valve). The other hose place into the container (Basicly, its a siphon setup). By siphoning the tank water into the container, you will slowly acclimate the discus to your tank parameters. The valves will enable you to adjust the flow rate. In the beginning, set the flow rate to only a drip until you roughly doubled the volume in the container. Then you can slowly increase the flow rate. Depending on the difference of water parameters, it will determine the lenght of acclimation. I would recommend nothing under 2 hours just to be cautious. I never use the plunk method even if water parameters are close. You may also want to add a heater once the container is half full. Once the container is full or you have added 5-10x the volume of water, net and place in your tank. If the container is full and you still need to add more water, just remove the water from the container via siphon or little container.

So far, this method has proven bullet proof and I prefer it over the float/add water/dump method.

[SNap0283]

ronrca, I had read somewhere something that made me wonder if this method is good. If there is some ammonia in the water from the bag the fish are shipped in and the pH is below 7 then it is relatively harmless. If your tank water is above 7 once you start adding it then the ammonia will become deadly. In this instant would you still use that method or modify it somehow?

Jef

[RandalB]

Sorry Ron,
I agree with Barron. Lights off, open the bag, dump into a net and right into the tank. Especially if they have traveled a long distance.

I've never had a problem using this method and have never lost a fish in shipping.

I also did this with a load of Cardinal tetras that was in the bags for over 24 hours and didn't loose 1...

RandalB

[Carol_Roberts]

I skip the net.
Open bag, dump out most of water, reach in, grasp discus gently in both hands, plop in tank. ;D

[brewmaster15]

Hi,
You will find that there are a lot of areas of disagreement in the discus Hobby. :) :) :).. acclimating fish is one of them. Many use the modified cut and dump method, especially if they have mail ordered the fish. Cut bag, scoop fish out and put in tank. The rationale they often use is the pH differences are not as important as the effect of any ammonia that has built up in the bag. Many use that to their great success.

I acclimate by opening the bag, adding a drop of ammo-lock.. and let the bag come to temp with the tank. Then out comes a cup of bag water(disposed of), and in goes a a cup of tank water. I do this over a 15 min period. I don't bring in massive amounts of fish, so I can afford the time to do this. It works well for me.

Everyone has their own way of doing these things.

hth,
al

[Miles]

I like the old fashion way. Open bag, grab fish and dump the fish into the tank.

8)

[ronrca]

LOL! I agree with Al! There are different methods, neither is the only way to do it and the posted are not 'wrong'! From my experience, I prefer the method I posted. I like the idea of 'easing' fish into the tank parameters rather than throwing them in. Just had some bad experiences with it!


If your tank water is above 7 once you start adding it then the ammonia will become deadly. Actually not for 2 reasons! The first thing I do when I open the bags is add Seachem Prime (I should add that to clarify) therefore any ammonia impact from travelling is rectified.

The second reason is that the tank water that is being added has no ammonia therefore if there is some ammonia in the bag water, it will slowly become diluted as the water from the tank is being siphoned into the container. So, with both these reasons, ammonia will not be a problem.

[snowfire]

Ronrca,

Just curious about any ill effects of the cut and dump approach. You mention having had problems with this method. What happened?

Anastasia

[ronrca]

ph, hardness and temperature differences basiclly! When I did the dump method, I found that the fish adapted over a longer period of time (they looked like they were going to die almost). Very discus, listless, skittish, etc! When I switched methods, I found the siphon method didnt have these pronounced symptons. It will depend on how big the difference is of course. But, these were my experiences. Others may not of had the same.

[Paulio]

I grab and dump. Most times the fish I get have spent AT LEAST a day in the box and this may be after several days in a bucket or less than optimum conditions otherwise. Since I switched to this method I lose less fish in the first week. Almost never actualy. A couple things that I do are:

Have the pH in the tank stable at 7.0. It can be slowly raised or lowered over a longer period from here.
Have the temp at 85f.
Have salt at one tbs to 10 in the tank.

This was worked wonderfully for years now. If I were bringing fish from one loaction to another localy I would probably acclimate as Al outlined. In my situation it is most important to get them into clean water as quickly as I can.


Paul