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FISH TONIC

merlin

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
210
Location
Dundee,Scotland
When putting new Apisto's in a tank after a long journey do you recommend adding any tonic to help the fish recover from the trauma.

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Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
I'll drink to that! Don't know if it will help the fish, but it'll help you!:D Seriously, I just make sure that the water is of good quality and close to the fish's preferred water values. I treat the fish only if they show some problem after an hour or so.
 

Adoketa

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
51
Location
Malaysia
i find that soft aged water slightly stained with catappa is an almost foolproof way of getting them acclimatized, but I'm speaking from my experience and it is really limited. :)
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
It really depends on how the fish were shipped. When I worked at a fish wholesaler, we would drain the the water from the bags through a net and add the fish to a tank of clean water. Fish in these bags were shipped 'heavy' so the water in the bags was high in ammonia and other pollutants. The sooner the fish were 'out of the soup' the better. If your fish are shipped 'light' (1 - 6 fish in a suitable size bag) then I acclimate in a large specimen cup. I add the fish with some shipping water to the cup and add about 10-20% aquarium water to the cup every 5-10 minutes. I pour off water as it fills. After 30 minutes, most of the water in the cup is tank water. I then pour the cup water and fish through a net and add the fish to the quarantine tank. It works for most fish shipped in bags for <5 days. If the fish show distress, then I 'drain and dump' right away without any acclimation period.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
Do you drip acclimate or release in to tank ASAP?
I turn the lights off and release straight away, as far as I'm concerned the advantages of getting the fish into clean water out-weigh the disadvantages.

After release I just concentrate on really clean water and a lot of live food. I also like complex tanks even for quarantine, again I think the advantage in giving the fish a non-stressful environment out-weighs the advantages of being able to keep a careful watch on their condition in an emptier tank. I'm now using a very thin sand substrate with a lot of "structural leaves" like Magnolia grandiflora and Eriobotrya japonica together with a lot of floating plants for quarantine tanks, the reason is 2 fold, the leaves offer a lot of "caves" and add some tannins and the floaters reduce the light and mop up any nitrates.

I still keep Mike's bits of piping in the top corner of the tanks, and if any fish is using them I take it out and put it in another smaller quarantine tank, where I can keep a closer look at it.

cheers Darrel
 

Gwendal

Member
Messages
193
To acclimate the fish i use a dropper. 1 drip every second.
I use to have them 1 o 2 hours, that is the best mode.

Think that the fish, every number of pH is 1 hour of acclimatization.






1 saludo
 

viejo

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
330
Location
La Verkin, UT
I totally agree with the method proposed by Mike & DW1305. IMHO, there is nothing to be gained by exposing the fish to 'slow poisoning' aka drip acclimation. I have imported & tanked thousands of WC fish over the last 50+ years & have found it results in a much better survival rate. I even won a sizable bet with another importer a number of years ago comparing net & dump with drip method on neon tetras from the Far East. The results were essentially a landslide victory for my side.
 

hedylogus

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
48
Location
PGH, PA
I even won a sizable bet with another importer a number of years ago comparing net & dump with drip method on neon tetras from the Far East. The results were essentially a landslide victory for my side.

Interesting.....care to share the gritty details? Sample size? Drip method used? Incoming and outgoing water parameters? Exact results? I tend to agree, but would like to know more.
 

viejo

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
330
Location
La Verkin, UT
Well, Mike pretty well described the 'net & dump' process. Insuring that the temperatures are in the same ballpark is a good caveat but otherwise it ain't rocket science. It's been some 40 years since the wager but the acclimation procedure consisted of slowly adding water over a period of time. As far as water parameters= water in the shipping bags is going to be acidic from CO2, etc. & have a raised level of ammonia. Ammonia at a lower pH is in the ammonium form & is relatively non-toxic. Adding water with a higher pH is going to tend to make the ammonium become ammonia which is, as we all know, very dangerous to fishes. This is my reasoning in referring to drip-acclimation as 'slow-poisoning' in my post above.
 

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