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Acclimating. Which way is really best?

central tanks

Active Member
Messages
109
Location
Dallas, Tx
So i am getting my trio of metallic blue double red A.Agazi next week and have been looking into best way to acclimate fish bought online.

Normally i do a drip, however i have never bought online and figured i would look into it.

Im seeing lots of people including Ted Judy (big on youtube for his fish channel and apisto breeding) say that the plop and drop is best. Acclimate to temp then cut bag and drain into a net and plop them in new tank. They say do to the carbon dioxide gassed off in the bag the second the bag opens O2 replenishes in the water rising PH and toxicity of ammonia. They say drip can work but you should add ammonia detoxifier to the bag the second you cut it.
However it takes fish weeks to properly adapt to new water so is drip really for the best?

What do you guys think? Super interested in what yalls opinions and experience are.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
I like to get the fish out of the transport bag and into the tank pretty promptly.

I turn the tank lights off.

Then I usually pour most of the water out of the transport bag (through a net in case any of the fish escape) and then submerge the bag in the tank water, allowing the tank water to flow into the bag. If the fish haven't swum out of their own accord after a couple of minutes I slowly raise the end of the bag until they slide out into the tank. I'm not worried about a small volume of transport water ending up in the tank. My "quarantine" tank is heavily planted, I just have one tank normal planted, but without any permanent fish.

Any fish that end up in the net I put straight into the tank. If the bag water smells of ammonia I slide the fish into the net, and they go straight into the tank water.

I have a container with a small volume of tank water by the sink, and then I put the fish straight into this, to avoid jumpers and reduce the time they are out of the water to a minimum.

cheers Darrel
 

Linus_Cello

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
276
Location
Washington DC
I think "it depends."
If the water quality in the bag is terrible, plop and drop is best.
If I remember Hans' (of Discus Hans) talk a few years ago properly, it the pH if the water is close enough, plop and drop is ok. If the pH is about 1 degree apart or more, plop and drop is ok in going from acid to alkaline water, but not the other way around.
 

Jeremy Anderson

New Member
Messages
24
Hi all,
I like to get the fish out of the transport bag and into the tank pretty promptly.

I turn the tank lights off.

Then I usually pour most of the water out of the transport bag (through a net in case any of the fish escape) and then submerge the bag in the tank water, allowing the tank water to flow into the bag. If the fish haven't swum out of their own accord after a couple of minutes I slowly raise the end of the bag until they slide out into the tank. I'm not worried about a small volume of transport water ending up in the tank. My "quarantine" tank is heavily planted, I just have one tank normal planted, but without any permanent fish.

Any fish that end up in the net I put straight into the tank. If the bag water smells of ammonia I slide the fish into the net, and they go straight into the tank water.

I have a container with a small volume of tank water by the sink, and then I put the fish straight into this, to avoid jumpers and reduce the time they are out of the water to a minimum.

cheers Darrel
I instinctively agree with you, even though all of the steps that one reads in the standard procedures popularly published in "the hobby" seem to be counter to this. I don't really know anything, just saying what my inclination is.
 

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