Acclimating LFS Discus

[redsoxjen]

hi all, what a great site/forum this is! i have lots of questions, most of which have been answered by searching the wealth of information here. there is one (well, for now) that i can't seem to find an answer to.

my bf and i will be picking up a discus from the lfs and my question is how to best acclimate the fish to our tank. from what i've read, the drop and plop method is preferred for shipped fish, a slower process is recommended for lfs fish that moves from a higher pH to a lower pH, but our lfs has a (much) lower pH. their pH is at 6.0 and ours is at 7.2 (and temp is about the same in both tanks). we'd love advice on how to best acclimate our new discus.

tia! :D

[target]

I am sure others will chime in here, but are the fish your LFS offers of the quality you can get from our sponsors? I haven't seen one discus in any store I have been into (with the exception of April's) that I would take home, let alone pay for.

[Daniella]

I hope you are going to quarantine that fish?

Do not put it without quarantine with other existing discus. during quarantine, it is easy to slowly acclimate the fish to live in other water parameters. I would at first try to match the LFS water parameters as much as possible.

Even if there are no other fish in your main tank, the LFS fish could be infested with flukes or other parasites and getting rid of that in a main tank can be a pain.



hi all, what a great site/forum this is! i have lots of questions, most of which have been answered by searching the wealth of information here. there is one (well, for now) that i can't seem to find an answer to.

my bf and i will be picking up a discus from the lfs and my question is how to best acclimate the fish to our tank. from what i've read, the drop and plop method is preferred for shipped fish, a slower process is recommended for lfs fish that moves from a higher pH to a lower pH, but our lfs has a (much) lower pH. their pH is at 6.0 and ours is at 7.2 (and temp is about the same in both tanks). we'd love advice on how to best acclimate our new discus.

tia! :D

[Chad Hughes]

Welcome!

To answer your question, due to the rather significant difference between your water and theirs, drip acclimation is best IMO. I'm not sure how they are achieving their low Ph, but if they are using RO water to do so, their TDS will be much lower as well. Sudden changes it TDS and Ph will cause immediate problems with new fish.

When you get the fish home, get a bucket set up with some airline tubing. Put the fish in the bucket with the LFS water. Start a siphon in the tubing from the tank to the bucket. You can tie a knot in the tubing to slow the flow or put a small inline air vavle to control the flow. Allow this to drip in to the bucket for an hour or more if possible. I like to double the volume of the original quantity of water at least twice. LIft the fish out by hand or net them carefully and place them in the tank. Since it's rather warm out, your temp shouldn't drop too much. You shouldn't have any problems after that.

Best wishes to you and your new additions!

[frenchie100]

That is a great explanation Chad :D!
I need to keep this one for future reference.

Welcome to Simply redsoxjen!

Julie :)

[Chad Hughes]

That is a great explanation Chad :D!
I need to keep this one for future reference.

Welcome to Simply redsoxjen!

Julie :)

I would never recommend anything that I don't do myself! ;) It's a tried and true method. It's easy too! LOL! :p

[Lytehouse]

Welcome!

To answer your question, due to the rather significant difference between your water and theirs, drip acclimation is best IMO. I'm not sure how they are achieving their low Ph, but if they are using RO water to do so, their TDS will be much lower as well. Sudden changes it TDS and Ph will cause immediate problems with new fish.

When you get the fish home, get a bucket set up with some airline tubing. Put the fish in the bucket with the LFS water. Start a siphon in the tubing from the tank to the bucket. You can tie a knot in the tubing to slow the flow or put a small inline air vavle to control the flow. Allow this to drip in to the bucket for an hour or more if possible. I like to double the volume of the original quantity of water at least twice. LIft the fish out by hand or net them carefully and place them in the tank. Since it's rather warm out, your temp shouldn't drop too much. You shouldn't have any problems after that.

Best wishes to you and your new additions!

Great advice....

Important information to pay attention to here from Chad is the TDS. That can really get you when getting fish from LFS.

Best of wishes

[Eddie]

Agree with Chad's method, I use an airline control valve to control the rate at which the water moves from the tank to the container housing the fish. Something else that I do that others may not is add an airstone to the container. ;)

Cheers

Eddie

[mmorris]

Are you from Boston, Jen? :)

[Apistomaster]

I just float them in their bags long enough to equalize the temps then "drop and plop" without allowing an of the bag water to go into your tank. Your Discus will be fine.

Unless it's already too late, I cannot emphasize too much how much better off you would be if you bought your Discus from one of the sponsors. Fish Shop Discus are almost always inferior in quality and stressed enough to permanently affect their full potential growth.
Fish shop Discus are best avoided at any cost.

[kaceyo]

I'm with Larry on this. Float for 5 mins and plop. Never had a problem doing it that way.

Kacey

[Moon]

This is interesting. Two different viewpoints. I've tried both methods and they work.

[lemondiscus]

This is interesting. Two different viewpoints. I've tried both methods and they work.

And I have done both too...

I prefer to open the bag they come in and pour them in a 5 gallon bucket with the water in the bag like the drip line method...

I just got tired of setting up the drip and use a cup to get water out of the future tank and pour it in the bucket.

I pour 1 cup (whatever size I grab... usually like a beer mug) of the water into the bucket every 5-8 minutes.... (I usually am drinking a few beers so after a few sips lol )

Once I triple or quadruple the water I started with I either net them out of the bucket or catch them with my hand and put them in the tank... (I prefer to use my hand IF they are not that skiddish. My fish are MUCH more afraid of the net than my hands... I have to see though and its case by case because its all about keeping the stress LOW on moving the fish. Some dont mind the net and other do.)

Either way the store water NEVER comes near my tank!

[Chad Hughes]

I have used both as well. It's not that one works better than the other, it's that you can't drip acclimate shipped fish. If you try it, they will suffer ammonia and Ph burn issues as soon as the shipping water Ph rises and the ammonia becomes lethal.

I like to drip acclimate ONLY if there are large differences in your water and the source water. If they are close, plop and drop! I dont often buy fish locally, so I do the drop and plop most of the time.

The OP stated that their LFS water was a lot lower in Ph than theirs. To be on the safe side, I would certainly drip acclimate.

Best wishes!

[Apistomaster]

Chad explained well the rationale for plop and drop. Many of us do buy Discus which miust be shipped to us. It hardly matters what ph the Discus are used too because after 24 hours in a bag the water will become acid and ammonia laden. The pH being acid is what prevents the ammonia from taking it's most toxic form but if you putter around acclimating them slowly the excess CO2 will blow off, pH will rise and then the ammonia begins to burn.

[Chad Hughes]

Chad explained well the rationale for plop and drop. Many of us do buy Discus which miust be shipped to us. It hardly matters what ph the Discus are used too because after 24 hours in a bag the water will become acid and ammonia laden. The pH being acid is what prevents the ammonia from taking it's most toxic form but if you putter around acclimating them slowly the excess CO2 will blow off, pH will rise and then the ammonia begins to burn.

Well said. That's why I would never recommend drip aclimating a shipped fish. If you buy locally (like 15 minutes from your house) and your Ph/TDS in close, then you have no worries. Drop and plop! If you buy local AND your water is VERY different, then drip acclimation can be a great stress reliever. I know LFS that keep their discus in TDS 500 and Ph in the 8s. If I bought those fish and put them in my water straight away (TDS 160, Ph 6.8) I may have problems. That is too much of a shift IMO. :D

[fishorama]

I only got shipped fish once but I put in a drop or 2 of Prime, then "drip" acclimated over 2-3 hours. The TDS was very much higher, almost 4x. I also raised the TDS of the quarantine tank but was afraid to try & get it as high as the shipping water. Small water changes & back to my usual water, no stress at all for fish.

[H82LOS3]

Great thread, helpful information!
Thanks