# Acclimating own fish



## Majsa (20 Aug 2018)

Just wondering, how do you acclimate your fish and shrimp between your own tanks? Plop and drop to drip method? Or even changing water between tanks?

I have started the slow move to the new CPD tank, from no- and low-CO2 plain gravel tanks to CO2 soil tank (lower PH and KH). ±15 minute (<30 min for shrimp) standard acclimation in the morning or at lights out has worked out well so far, but maybe it's not needed?


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## Aqua360 (20 Aug 2018)

Better safe than sorry


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## oscarlloydjohn (20 Aug 2018)

I think you should if the parameters are quite different, but usually it's just temperature shock with fish people worry about.

Shrimp should be acclimated regardless as they are much more sensitive.


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## tam (20 Aug 2018)

If the values are the same then I usually float for 15/20 minutes and add a bit of water half way. Might not be necessary, but it's 20 minutes so no hassle to do and I always turn the lights off and add some plants to the bowl they are floating in to minimise stress. 

With CO2 though you might want to turn it down/off and then back up gradually. If the harness/TDS is different I would acclimate more carefully.


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## BubblingUnder (21 Aug 2018)

Float bag for an hour in a dark tank, add water at regular intervals, drain water in bag & release fish.


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## DutchMuch (21 Aug 2018)

Drip acclimation method.


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## rebel (21 Aug 2018)

I used to drip acclimate but I don't anymore.

Have a look at what Rachel Leary and Joey DIY King does. They keep all sorts of advanced fish and they just float the bag.

I do match TDS and temperature of the tanks prior though.


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## Edvet (21 Aug 2018)

All acclimatization is done the same: fish and water in a 10 liter bucket, drip bucket full with new tank water, almost empty bucket in sink, drip full again, empty bucket in tank.


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## zozo (21 Aug 2018)

In my younger days i did a lot of swimming and since i dislike swimming in small swimming pools at public hours bumping into grandma and grandpa which i respect very much i decided to get out of their way and switch to natural waters.

And swimming in natural waters it surprised me how often i swam through rather huge temperature differences. If you look at a lake and stick a finger in the water you might think you feel the temperature of the entire lake. But nothing is further from the truth. Water with different temp has also different density and they actualy dont realy like to mix that easy, they rather create boundries and reject eachother and mix very slowly at the edges of this boundry. I had a watch with a build in thermometer and there were streams flowing in the lake that were darn cold and swam through sudden rather high temp differences sometimes with 10 degrees difference in hot summer days. There is one lake not far behing my house where i often went for a swim. There i noticed the streams with the temp difference were rather stationary always the same spot. Probably a subterranian outflow from groundwater feeding the lake with significant chilly water and left and right of that stream was somewhat more stagnant water heated by the sun and not realy mixing up with the cold stream going through.

Standing on the lake shore on windless suny days i could see shools of fish swimming the same route as i did..  Crossing tthe same cold streams and i realy couldnt notice them beeing affected by it.. But i was, it sometimes toke my breath away, you actualy need to be prepared and rather fit to swim natural waters for longer distance.  If you're not it can be dangerous.

But also beeing an aqaurium anthousiast it kinda made me think.. Aren't we over reacting a bit with acclimatizing fish, they are more and beter evolved in this invironment that we are.. In nature vast Temp and parameters swings occure more often that you think, you just can't see them.. I bet fish evolved in this medium probably are eveolved to withstand these vast swings as if nothing happens. If something does happen, i guess there will be something else seriously wrong with the fish..


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## Edvet (21 Aug 2018)

I don't do it for the temperature, just for getting used to the waterchemistry. I will hapilly throw the gardenhose in my tank and run it for a few hours every few months, thus changing almost all water and dropping the temperature up to 10 degrees.


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## zozo (21 Aug 2018)

Edvet said:


> I don't do it for the temperature, just for getting used to the waterchemistry. I will hapilly throw the gardenhose in my tank and run it for a few hours every few months, thus changing almost all water and dropping the temperature up to 10 degrees.



And than after that you add all the ferts again?.. Aint that the same thing? A rather sudden complete change of water chemistry without any negative effect.
I do the same sometimes up to 80% water change depending on the mess i created before the water change. Never ever experienced any ill effect on the fish.

And this practice is absolutely contradictive on fiddling around conserning bagged new fish.And than a week later drop the bom on them with a water change..

New fish are in my tank within a few minutes.. As long as it takes to fill a bucket 1 on 1 with the volume of the bag. Get them out of it and out of the bucket as soon as possible..


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## Edvet (21 Aug 2018)

Not all the ferts, just the regular dose. Considering it's a 1500 liter tank the changes are gradual, it takes at least 30 min's in the bucket, and a few hours in the tank.


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## zozo (21 Aug 2018)

In my 110 litre it aint that gradual and every week they get a 50% water change within the hour.. And after that i mix a bottle with all the Macros and magnesium to desired level, shake it and drop it in the tank. Tap water has a 1 inut pH difference as in the tank it drops a bit more as 0.6 after the change. Temp changes differ, depends on the season and what comes from the tap.

I drop this weekly bom on them for years and never have any ill effect. That are quite some sudden parameter changes in temp, ph and ec and probaly accumulated waste products they were in.


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## doylecolmdoyle (21 Aug 2018)

Plop and drop, usually float a bag for about 15 minutes then open bag drain fish / shrimp into a net, disposing of water and put the fish/shrimp in the tank. Have not had issues since i started doing this method, I use to drip but it takes to long and probably stresses the fish more.


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## tam (21 Aug 2018)

rebel said:


> Have a look at what Rachel Leary and Joey DIY King does. They keep all sorts of advanced fish and they just float the bag.



Keep in mind they are generally doing that for shipped fish that have been in bags for days so the water quality is poor and ammonia is a issue (you open a bag and add oxygen and the ph rises and ammonia becomes toxic). In those circumstances you either remove the fish quickly from the water or need to add something like prime to neutralise it or ammonia burn is a bigger issue than unmatched water parameters. 

If you read the video comments there are also a few small print additions e.g. don't do it going from hard water to soft - because of osmotc shock. Some US areas can have very soft water, Rachel O'Leary uses soft well water for example. Here some areas have very hard water - if you do anything in your tank eg use RO to soften water that can make a big difference in water values. 

On the other hand if you and your LFS keep up on water changes and use the same tap water, then plop and drop would work fine for you because you are moving fish between the same water.

A lot of fish or even plant related things work perfectly for some people but not others - it's easy to forget how different two tanks can be even if they appear superficially the same. Make sure you understand what's happening and why before assuming it will work for you.


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## Majsa (21 Aug 2018)

This morning I was able to catch only one fish, the last ones are so quick...the poor little one seemed so stressed that I thought acclimating her on her own would not do much good, so I just dropped her in the tank. Soon she was swimming with the others so I guess it worked out. I have had these fish for 1,5 years and they seem very fit, I don't think I would have done that with any new fish.



tam said:


> Make sure you understand what's happening and why before assuming it will work for you.



A good point tam. Plop and drop sounds reasonable, and I am a little worried about the stress acclimating causes fish, but then again we don't all have fresh well water, and tanks can be very different.

Now I have 1 out of 15 CPD's left in the old tank which I just cannot catch! I feel sorry for him...A bottle trap didn't work out, the fish were able to swim out of it just as easily... I might try removing some gravel at the front. I was thinking of leaving this tank as a planted QT/holding tank, but if catching fish is this hard...


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## Oldguy (8 Sep 2018)

Tank water into black bucket. Float opened bag and add tank water to bag while making & drinking a cup of tea. Tip the now full bag into a net and transfer critters to tank without any bag water. Most shoaling/schooling fish will be eating within the hour. Discus can be a dilemma as can fish with spines.


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## Edvet (8 Sep 2018)

Oldguy said:


> Discus can be a dilemma


We used to tranfer them with our bare hands (between flat hands), worked a charm.


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## john dory (8 Sep 2018)

I only live 5 mins away from wharf aquatics,so plop and drop for me.


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## sciencefiction (8 Sep 2018)

I used to drip acclimate newly bought fish with pretty much 100% success rate

Latest additions, however, went in straight away. No bag floating either, plop and drop method.  I just poured the contents with the fish in a net to catch the fish and into the tank. One of the latest fish went trough a dramatic event, got dropped on the floor and took the shop assistant quite a while to catch it back as it was a hillstream loach that got stuck on the tiles belly down. He peeled the colour of its tail and skin trying to get it back. And then it also survived the plop and drop method, now completely recovered happy little loach 

In between my own tanks I never ever acclimate anyway. Catch and carry, plop and drop  I catch them with a jug where possible and try not to take them out of the water or catch them with the net but I place the net in the jug under the water. The fish don't even know they're moved 

The worse success I've had was when I floated bags in the tanks. I think its something to do with the small surface area for oxygen and I suffocated the fish. When I drip acclimate I use a dark covered bucket which made all the difference.


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## a1Matt (8 Sep 2018)

I'm 5 min away from an excellent LFS too (Abacus Aquatics). Makes acclimating so so much easier. 

Only thing I can add to the thread is that as well as a dark bucket, I drape a towel over the top. And chuck some plants in if I have any loose.

Its very satisfying putting pasty coloured fish in a bucket, dripping water on them for an afternoon without needing to pay any attention, just set and forget.

Then come back and see the colours nice and strong


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (8 Sep 2018)

If fish have been in a bag a long time and you open it when you get home, the air reacts with the water and the ammonia turning it into the toxic form for the fish. This is why I prefer the method others are suggesting, as soon as the bag is open pour through the net and put the fish into the tank. The only thing that I let worry me is the temperature. I set the temperature in my car to 24 degrees when I am transporting fish so minimise any temperature change for them when I get home... maybe I'm weird but that's my tactic!


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## Zeus. (8 Sep 2018)

Swapping tank catch it then plop it in. From LFS 15mins bag floating then plop. Though post 30mins then plop. All pre CO2 OFC.
Like Zozo says temps in rivers and lakes vary quite a bit, having fished and waded in to land some of catches there are some pretty big temp changes they have to cope with in nature, same for nutrients from a slow flowing stream full of decaying vegetation when it hits a faster deeper flowing main part of river.


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