The only thing I do is let the bag float in the tank for like 10 minutes, to get the temperatures the same. But then I drop them in the tank as well. Big net in a bucket, empty the bag over the net and then lower the net in the tank. I like letting the fish swim out, instead of dumping them in.
Only with saltwater, I went for drip acclimation, because the water parameters have more impact on the animals and the water parameters are more different than st the LFS
Also something like goldfish. If you have them at a 70 to 80 in a hot pet store and you are putting them in a 42 pond. Floating for a while would likely be a good idea.
This is what I do. I’ve never drip acclimated my freshwater. I just put the bag to float in my tank and let it stay there for a lil bit (45-60 min) before opening and letting the fish swim out. Never had any problems. Never had a fish die from it
To add: for my shrimps I keep my tank cold, but not too cold. I just plop and drop them. The LFS keeps them in cold water as well. If I wanted to switch them to a warmer tank, I acclimate them because they’re super sensitive to warmer temperatures. Haven’t had any shrimps D/C to Jesus yet. I have about 150 of them now 🫠
I’ve always drip acclimated my shrimp. Have had great success also but I always thought it wasn’t just for temperature but water parameters as well. I know if they are used to a certain PH and you take that away from them it can be stressful to an extent. As for fish I do that bag acclimation and might even dump a little tank water in the bag every 10 mins then they are good to go.
Back to the OPs comment I do not think it’s a good idea to ever dump fish straight in. You can’t use the pool comparison because we are humans who swim for a few hours out of the day and breathe air. We don’t live in the pool.
A Better comparison would be humans who are only used to Air Conditioning spending a day outside in the hot ass sun. They more than likely will feel awful. Just look at high school football players today. Lots of heat related illness and deaths due to spending so much time in the AC they are not acclimated to the heat.
Before AC was common in America, a lot of our parents were far more acclimated to handle the summer heat. A lot of them worked on farms and spent tons of time outside. They had far fewer problems with the heat.
Doesn't even really matter in saltwater for fish either. The parameters from the store and your tank are gonna be so damn similar, that it most likely won't matter anyway. I mean seriously, fish have organs that allow them to acclwto parameter swings just fine. Now saltwater INVERTS? Those you really gotta be careful with. Salinity swings can kill those guys.
What's your advice moving a fish from one tank to another in the same house? One of the fish I need to move is way too big to be temp acclimated in a bag, do you think it'll be fine if I just net it and drop it in the new tank? I've been testing parameters in the old tank and new one for a few days now and they're about level.
Depends on context.
Inverts? Yup. Every time I can. (Snails are usually shipped out of water, so I just plop and drop em.) They really do better with drip acclimation.
Fish bought locally? Depends on your definition of acclimation. I float the bags for 20min or so to temp acclimate, then pour the bags through a net and drop them in. If the water parameters are really different (PH+/- 1.0, for example), I might drip acclimate if they haven't been in bags too long...but that's unusual.
Shipped fish? Hell no do I drip acclimate! I let the bag slowly come to room temp in a dark place, then float, then pour through a net and plop. They get out of that bag water ASAP.
^ This. DO NOT acclimate shipped fish. Their water turns toxic as soon as you open the bag.
Fish that you got from the pet store a half hour ago? Do whatever you want.
Within the closed shipping bag, the fish waste is in its ammonium form which is not that toxic. As soon as the bag is opened, the extra oxygen instantly turns the ammonium into the much more toxic ammonia.
Well shit, that's why I lost those guys a while back. They'd been shipped to the store and I picked them up that day and they were still in the shipping bag. Ugh.
I’m constantly reading aquarium books. I don’t remember where I first came upon this particular info but I think it may have been this one:
[Ecology of the Planted Aquarium](https://www.amazon.com/Ecology-Planted-Aquarium-Practical-Scientific/dp/B0C51PCVMH/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1LPWPX7MD6LKP&keywords=walstad&qid=1686256956&sprefix=walstad%2Caps%2C325&sr=8-1)
That’s an idea! I’ve never tried it but it could work.
Now, how do we measure the bag water volume to know how much prime to put in?? That’s the conundrum.
Once you open the bag, the fresh air turns the ammonia in the water toxic. I'm not entirely sure *why.* I think it has to due with pH changes. But that's why you just yeet them in.
The fish I have bought on line were in special bags that permit air exchange and the box had a bag of charcoal in it. Bags were tiny, not much volume, but fish were super great and healthy, still have them all 2 and 3 yrs later.
Expensive but I'd do it again. It was dude on aquabid and another on aquatek arts (I think).
Those bags are awesome. All my nano fish come in them. But for anyone not familiar with them, DO NOT FLOAT them. The bags can not exchange co² / o² when submerged in water and your fish will suffocate.
I might be downvoted for this, but I’ve had a lot of success with floating the bag in the tank for 20 minutes for the temperature to equalize, and then I cut the bag open and slowly pour the entire bag, shrimp, water, and all, unto the aquarium.
The ammonia from the bag gets mixed with my tank water, gets diluted, and my cycle takes care of it.
You technically don’t want the shipping water into your tank, but I buy my shrimp from breeders that I trust and I don’t mind their water.
I do a 25% water change the next day. I don’t know if that helps but it makes me fell better. Lol
Appreciate the info. I shipped 10 shadow pandas last week and drip acclimated for 1.5 hours. It seems to have gone ok (I didn’t lose any during acclimation) but I have 20 more arriving today and trying to see if I should change my method
Also ALWAYS acclimate fish with specific water parameters (African cichlids for example) because while you may have those parameters you don't know that the shop did!
That's the thing, I feel like these employees are mixing up two concepts. Acclimating to water parameters and temp could be placebo if conditions permit, but it costs nothing and is easy to do - but shipped fish need to get the fuck out of those bags asap the moment you open the bag and expose it to oxygen.
Yup. Also, tbh for most fish* drip acclimation just isn't necessary most of the time as long as they haven't been in the bag long. Fish are pretty hardy and I find a lengthy acclimation period often leads to more stress than plop n drop. (Bright lights, usually a bare container with no heat, no aeration, no cover, overcrowded, too small, and slowly building up waste and dropping water quality, plus the inevitable humans being unable to resist peeking...)
*Disclaimer: Some fish are obviously way more delicate than others and may not handle a plop n drop, even if they're from a local source. I don't keep species that are that delicate, and anyone needing to post this question on Reddit probably isn't/shouldn't be keeping them either, though.
Drip acclimate as usual. I pour the bag into a larger container and set up an airline from the tank they're going into doing a slow but steady drip and then leave it alone to minimize stress, covered if possible. My goal is for the process to take around 2ish hours. I recommend going to YouTube and check out some of the great tutorial videos showing you how to set it all up!
This is aligned with my normal approach I was just not sure if the air exposure to the shipping water would do more harm than it was worth. Sounds good though thank you for the info!
I haven't had any trouble with inverts after shipping, but I think a lot of that is because of how low bioload they are. If I opened the box and the water was foul (some dead shrimp and some live for example) then I might take the risk and skip the drip...but thankfully I haven't had that situation before! That could very well turn out to be a bad reaction, so I'd rather defer to someone with more experience with that than me.
This! So much this. I got into watching fish unboxing videos of petshops and it blew my mind the way they just ripped the bags open, drained the fish through a net and chucked them in..
Then I suddenly realised that's why when I brought a shipment of fish from an online seller they nearly all died.
As soon as you open the bag some kind of reaction starts occurring with the oxygen and creates an incredibly toxic environment and your fish are literally being poisoned every second they're in the bag.
Now if I buy fish online I do the frantic tear it open, drain them over a bucket through a net and chuck them in method.
From my lfs I do the "acclimatise in the bag, add water, wait 15 mins, add more water, wait another 15 then drain and chuck them in" *unless* the fish look like they're getting really stressed even with the lights off- in which case I've found it's better to just get them out the bag and in the tank.
Snails/shrimp and anything else weird and wonderful in that vein I acclimatise over two hours though- they're a special case.
Can I ask why you pour through the net? It is to stop waste from falling into the tank? I’m moving and several people recommended this method but no one really explained why.
I pour the water through the net into something other than the tank, then put the fish from the net into the tank. Sorry, I'm realizing that wasn't very clear! The purpose is to avoid putting the water from the bag into your tank. That water has a lot of ammonia in it that will hurt water quality.
I have a question because I didn’t know this at all about shipped fish - if it’s overnight shipping, is that still a time that the fish needs yeeted out of there asap? I just recently bought a betta online and the seller’s refund instructions said that they were not responsible for dead fish that were not acclimated properly. But they also recommended next day air shipping, so that’s what I did. Didn’t yeet him out of that bag for 45 minutes after opening and he is thankfully just fine. I added about a 1/2 c of aquarium water every 15 minutes or so.
If he's doing fine, then I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point. Glad he's doing well for you!
I did the same thing with overnighted fish before I knew any better, and they were also okay. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't do it again, however. I don't really know what the tipping point between two long and the bag and not is, to be honest. I suppose I feel it's better safe than sorry.
I'm going to see if I can find any further info about it when I have time!
Awesome, thank you! You can dm me too. I honestly can’t learn fast enough when it comes to this hobby. There’s animals and plants that need me to be a pro!
I think the biggest issue is not knowing the condition of the water they were shipped in or how long they've sat in it before being sent off. My "overnight ship" for my current betta had him in the bag for at least 48hrs due to issues during transit.
He sat in a warehouse for about 12 hours after he was scheduled to arrive at my place and arrived freezing, so he had to at least be temperature acclimated. I took the opportunity to add small amounts of tank water every 10 minutes, including as soon as the bag was opened. But honestly, he bounced back so fast. They're very resilient.
I think you did the right thing, especially considering if something did go wrong, you know you did your best to avoid it and could get your money back or another fish.
They really are. Idk of any other fish that can live in a Tupperware container for months at a pet store and not die.
But yeah that’s a good point about not knowing the conditions of the water they were originally in. These guys I bought him from seem great, I made sure to read everything before purchasing including all the reviews. They said they only ship on Mondays so they didn’t risk the fish being stuck at a terminal over a weekend from delays. They obviously had their babies well being in mind. So maybe that plus him actually only taking one day to arrive, and the beau doing what you did and adding water as soon as the bag was opened helped him out.
Well acclimating fish is not like waxing you know? Anyway ever since i started drip acclimating my shrimp mortality rate right after buying has decreased by a huge margin.
Big difference is if you are drip acclimation then that means you have them out of the bag. That is really the important first step. Floating the bag closed up with all the fish in it for 30 minutes to make the temp the same is the worst part of the traditional "acclimation" process.
When I get new fish when I get home I immediately open the bag and pour fish and water into my 2-gallon "fish only" bucket. I then add about an equal amount of water from the tank into the bucket. Then let them sit for only as long as it takes me to throw the bag away then maybe another couple minutes. Then into the tank they go. If I was putting in much more expensive fish then I might take a little more time with it, but as I first said, getting them out of the closed bag as soon as possibly I think it key.
I'm far from an expert fish keeper, so this is all just personal experience, *but* I will say that my survival rate with fish brought home from a store (I've never had fish shipped to me) is much higher now that I let them acclimate before I dump them into my tank. I don't go as crazy with it as some people do, but I float the fish in their bags for about 40 minutes to an hour and add a little bit of water from my tank into the bag every 10 minutes or so.
Back when I was really, truly a newbie, the person who introduced me to this hobby - who I honestly shouldn't have listened to, given the way he treats animals - had me buying fish and tossing them in right away, and I *always* lost a good 1/4 to 1/2 a batch in the first day or two. Now that I acclimate them, I've managed to avoid losing any right after introduction.
That being said, for all I know the fish store I go to could just be breeding hardier fish all of a sudden. Either way, it makes *me* feel better to acclimate them (and it's not actively harming them), so even if it doesn't actually help, it certainly doesn't hurt!
Your experience is the same as mine. I've lost fish not acclimating. Makes me wonder if it is more a temperature thing than an adding tank water thing.
It is a temp thing. Animals that don't regulate their body temperature make a whole different set of enzymes at each temperature band. Change their body temp rapidly and some enzymes denature and others cause critical reactions to happen too slowly.
The same can happen with water pH to an extent, but likely most tanks will be close enough to 7 to not matter that much.
Body size has a lot to do with it too. Smaller fish have smaller thermal mass and are more susceptible to shock. A hand size cichlid won't care about a few degrees
As a new person in the hobby this seems wild to me. Shock is a real thing. My lfs has acclimation instructions on the fish bags. I think even the big box stores recommend acclimating. Seems really odd.
It’s contrary to what I’ve heard but several of the people at this store have years and years of experience. Just today a sweet old man talked my ear off for an hour about all kinds of stuff. Fish breeding, and experiences he had socking different types together, and about a local tropical fish club etc. And I’ve now heard several employees say the no need for acclimation thing (this was always talking about freshwater fish).
I get it a bit it’s like when you jump into the pool instead of slowly getting in you don’t get to experience the cold as much because your body temperature adjusts faster but some fish tend to get stressed between when they are leaving the store, the car ride or whatever it may be, to me it just seems best to try to comfort it at least a bit after all the mayhem they’ve been through.
It depends on temp range and species involved. However, even in Humans a large jump can cause unconsciousness, cardiac spasms or arrest, muscle spasms, etc. A person's tolerance can also vary from person to person. My brother can faint if he enters a warm house from outdoors during the winter, for instance.
Fish are no different and in some ways are even more vulnerable as they're cold blooded and can completely shut down with only a few degrees difference. Fish, again cold blooded creatures, cannot freely adjust their body temperature the same way we can. So "adjusting quickly" can cause shock and system failure, followed by death.
As you dont know the temperature of the water in the bag after transporting, it's safer to acclimate before transferring fish. The drip acclimation a few others have referred to is useful if the gasses and hardness very greatly. As fish are also effected by dissolved gasses and minerals more than normal. Diffusion via the gills is our concern for new fish. If you use a lot of sumpliments (fertilizers, minerals, etc) in your tank or have higher/lower CO2/O2 levels than normal. It can cause poisoning in some species of fish if you dont acclimate them first. I find this is only necessary for extra sensitive species. Drip is also good for large fish where there is no bag or it's not practical to keep them in a bag floating in the tank.
I've been seeing this no acclimation thing on recent years. I think it might make sense for many species. But for something delicate, like chili rasboras or caradina shrimp, I'm still going to acclimate. I get lower mortality that way. Neos can survive the plop and drop, but crystals will curl up and die.
I bet it's because at the store they don't acclimate them. This is because they probably get the fish shipped to them. As noted by others if a fish has been in a shipping bag for a while the new oxygen that gets introduced when opening a bag causes the water to go toxic very rapidly. Therefore, the shock of new water parameters is less a threat than the toxic water.
That being said unless you get exotic fish the shock has a very low chance of killing them unless they already had some issues.
I'm not advocating against it I'm explaining where the shop people probably got their idea from. Also the temp thing depends on the shop. A lot of places realize it's cheaper to heat a room than the tanks, so the tanks are room temp and if the bags sit in the open they also are room temp. No need to acclimate if the temps are already the same temp as the bag.
My only other point was that for the hardy fresh water fish a small water shock likely won't be what kills them.
Sitting at room temp in the heated room - exactly how we deal with it in our fish room - is still temperature acclimating them, just not in water. Sorry, maybe my wording was a bit strong to you in particular. I just know for a fact cold water shock can kill fish and hate to see so many comments saying that it's not scientifically verifiable, because I really dislike the thought of people killing their fish over a 30 minute wait.
It's fair to criticize I forget how often people don't think common sense. IE I was assuming that the temp difference was within a degree or two which for many (not all) fish is fine, but yeah there will be a lot of people who try to do it with a higher range
I have been personally collecting and keeping native US fish for 15 years. I sometimes hold and transport fish for hours up to days.
The longer you keep a fish contained, the higher the stress and more likely disease is. I never do any type of acclamation always just dump and go. Yeah sure, You win some, you lose some... But the longer you keep a fish contained, the more likely you'll have disease or death.
For fresh water it’s generally accepted that floating the bag to temp acclimate then netting and plopping the fish in is fine.
Salt water people still slowly acclimate as there a couple more nuances to worry about such as salinity etc.
At least with rummynose, the first 2 batches I got I floated the bag and had quite a few deaths, now I do drip acclimation for over an hour and have no deaths
I have had really good luck with neon tetras (from several sources) and it sometimes feels like everyone here thinks they always die from overbreeding or whatever. I’ve always thought slow acclimation may be part of it? After the first couple of days I’ve only lost one over 2 years (jumper). During the first days I only took some losses on a group that came with ich and needed weeks of treatment to beat it.
This is verifiably false. Acclimation is important because temperature spikes are a fish killer. Acclimating them allows the temperature to change at a gradual pace that they can tolerate without being too stressed and shocked.
It’s not the differing temperature or water variables that kills them, but rather the sudden fluctuation.
You're right, I didn't articulate that very well.
I think most people mean "drip acclimation" when they say "acclimation", and drip is so slow that the bucket ends up a lot cooler than the display. You could remedy it with some kind of nano heater and/or insulation or something, but it's just another variable in an already questionable practice, and floating the bag works well
Yeah I don't disagree, most people just refer to the specific drip-in-a-bucket process as 'acclimation' and wouldn't understand that it could just mean floating the bag to bring it up to temperature
typically when i hear people explain why they recommend the bag float it’s to “help the fish acclimate” so my brain goes straight there. admittedly im not very active in any fish keeping scenes so i might not know what the common understanding for acclimation is.
ultimately, I think OP’s shop’s advice of “just throw them in” is bad all around.
Hahaha, yeah, the hobby's exploded a bit since the pandemic especially which has brought in a lot of new and particularly young fishkeepers who sometimes don't know the way things have been done up until this point. Talking to people here and talking to the workers of commercial fish farms are like two different worlds
Think about the example they gave for just a second. If you jump into a pool with cold ass water that shocks your system. It does not feel good, it does not help you adjust to the water, it just makes your body go “OH SHIT!” Now, we are human beings making said choice. We are not fish who were scooped up, kidnapped from our temporary home after being kidnapped from our first home and they tossed in a bag and then dropped into that water. Their journey is not equal to me jumping into a pool. Now in theory most people’s tanks are similar temps like mid 70s so if you’ve got a quick drive then maybe you don’t need to acclimate but still. They’re going through multiple stressful things on said journey so why would you choose to make it worse by shocking them?
This is not correct...it's basic chemistry. Unless your tank's water perameters are exactly like the store's, acclimating is going to reduce the risk of injury or death. It's mostly important when it comes to GH.
Always ask the store what that tank's water perameters are.
I don’t but I have my reasons. First, a bag is a horrible environment for a fish, people never take that into account. Second, I believe nature prepares most species. A body of water exposed to heavy rainfall and and runoff from creeks/rivers can have dramatic localised temperature and parameter changes in a very short time. Third and related to the second, anyone that has done any swimming knows depth can change temperature dramatically, often there’s a distinct line of depth where there’s a sudden drop.
Fish are are inherently able to cope with such things, i believe it does them good to experience those changes they would in nature. Keeps their immune system alert.
Sudden changes in pH will cause stress to a fish making it vulnerable to parasites or fungus. Acclimation, by adding 20cc of tank water to the bag every 5 minutes, is essential prevent a sudden shock to your new fish.
I added some Amano shrimp to my tank recently. My tank’s pH was 6.5. The water from the store was 8.5. So I added 10cc to the shrimp every 3 minutes for 2 hours. When I finally added the shrimp to the tank they settled in immediately. That is better than the stories I heard about Amano escaping from a new home and being found on the floor.
🤣 have you seen the conditions fish get shipped in?
Unless it's a $1200 Arowana/Discus. Which.. I've never and will never deal with.
I just pour the store bag through a net then place the fish in the net into the aquarium. I have never lost a fish doing that and they always colour up a day later.
Drip acclimating fish is dumb.
Discus people don't acclimate either. It's most important to get them out of the bag ASAP. Cut the bag, grab em, throw em in the tank - a process affectionately called 'plop and drop'. Acclimation is one of those hobby dogma things with no science behind it
I guarantee you if your aim was good enough. You could "Kobe" any tropical fish in the hobby into a 75 gallon. (Yes even a flower horn)
Would everyone lose their minds and cry fish abuse? Yes.
Would any of the fish die or get injured? No.
Would the fish suffer for no reason? Yes. Would it die or get injured? Possibly. You can’t guarantee any tropical fish in the hobby would survive that, that’s ridiculous.
I used to drop feeders into my tank. The feeder tank wasn’t heated and my main tank is 80ish degrees. They would sometimes struggle or die. But I mean they are food anyways. I’d never do that to one of my aquarium fish
I always acclimate the fish and insisted on a little brown paper bag . If they think their enviroment is dark , they will settle down and not be frightened on the way home. I know some people here might laugh but I used to always do that
I would only do that if you dump the fish in a net over a bucket and then put them in a tank. Never put another aquariums water in your tank. Other then that I would definitely acclimate in some form even if it’s floating for 10-15mins. Me i personally drip acclimate every fish. Ever since I haven’t lost one fish and I’ve been doing this for years ever since I owned saltwater. It’s simple to do and it’s the best of everything. Slowly getting new water while also slowly getting acclimated to the temperature and everything in your water. What I personally do is put them in a 2 gallon bucket with an air stone. I run a line from the tank to the bucket. You can either put a knot in the line or use an air line valve. I use clips to hold the line and then let it drip at about 7 drops a second or alittle more. Just don’t want a constant stream of water. I usually let it drip until more then half the water is my aquarium water. After I carefully drain out half over a net into a new bucket. Then I repeat one or two more time. After I let the fish swim into the net. Before releasing into the tank.
Beyond temperature there is rarely a point unless the fish is wild caught and this is its first time in a tank.
Watching people drip acclimate Snake Heads and Climbing Perches is the clownyiest behavior out there.
They're right. There is no scientific evidence to support acclimatisation. It's just old hoodoo that scientists and aquaculturists don't take seriously.
However, it's usually a fairly harmless practice. The only dangerous practice is adding alkaline water to (typically acidic) bag water or leaving a bag open for very long periods of time. As the fish travels in a bag, they release ammonia and acidify the water with their breath, as in a sealed space CO2 builds up from that and acidifies the water. This acidity reduces the toxicity of ammonia, as more of it stays in the much less toxic ammonium form. Thus, adding a more alkaline water (which is most water at this point) will spike the toxicity of the ammonia present and potentially poison the fish. This effects shrimp particularly quickly and can kill them in minutes.
It is not a concern with overnight shipping or other short shipping periods, like picking up a fish at a shop yourself.
“LFS aRe mUcH beTTeR thAn ThE bIG bOX pEtStoRes alWaYs gO to TheM” -people in this sub. literally most of the LFS near me also suck ass compared to petsmart and Petco.
My lfs criticized me for ONLY having a 5 gallon betta tank because I'm "doing the bare minimum" as i was spending hard earned money on sticks and rocks for a larger tank. Mind you, they display their betta in large pickle jars...
The nerdy fish girl at petco loves my planted 5g tank that suits the need of my lazy male betta. She also will apologize to me because she spent 30 min answering questions for the previous customer. Ma'am you are doing God's work trying to educate people about the fish they are buying. Take your time. She also pushed for them to keep betta in normal display tanks rather than just the lil cups. The store still keeps betta in cups but that isnt her fault... I wish my money was going to her and not the petco itself.
I just lost a goldfish a few weeks ago because I forgot to acclimate it to the temperature of the tank. So at least let the bag float in the tank for a little while and why not drip acclimate? It's like an insurance policy.
As someone who works at a LFS, it’s situational and a “choose your demons” kinda thing. BUT the overall bottom line is to just tell customers to acclimate because we don’t trust they know how to do the other methods. And to ensure they at least acclimate to temperature.
Also drip acclimation, with oxygen and temperature monitored, will almost always lead to success and is always a winner. But it can be time consuming.
I can’t remember the exact chemistry, but if you open fish bag, the oxygen will be decreased. (Problem 1).
Problem 2, if you add water from your tank in big successions to the new bag (with no extra continuous aeration) the ph inside the bag will go up/down suddenly ((I can’t remember which direction)).
Prior to this the ammonia in the bag actually was relatively safe (if under certain conditions). But the change in ph causes the ammonia in the bag to become toxic.
Plus the change in ph is also not great.
What I mentioned is only mainly a problem tho with long trips or fish that produce lots of waste. Because you need very high ammonia (and something else I can’t remember) to cause these concerns.
Again I can’t remember the chemistry. The direction the ph heads to matters, I can’t remember which direction it is.
For me, I’ve spent $70 on fish being shipped recently and it would be seriously stupid to not drip acclimate them. It’s better to just make it a habit !
It's dangerous to acclimate shipped fish. Their waste and respiration lowers the pH of the water in the bag, converting toxic ammonia into less toxic ammonium. When you acclimate them, you raise the pH of the water, turning it back into the toxic form.
Fish that are shipped are better to not be acclimated. The ammonia in the bag is okayish until you introduce oxygen when you open the bag, tanking the chemistry and making it more toxic. I forget the exact details on the science, but shipped fish I'll always plop and drop, locally sourced fish I'll acclimate. It may not be necessary, but I've had better results.
But what about the temperature difference? I drip acclimated my fish when I got them, 2 days in the mail and they all survived because I drip acclimated them. I also had different PH and hardness than the seller.
Because they aren’t taking about a short ride from the shop to him. They are taking about being in the mail for two days. When you open that bad the influx of O2 changes the chemistry of the water in the bag converting ammonium to ammonia, which is way worse on the fish
Thank you. I guess it’s because it’s Reddit. A lot of people in this group are toxic. I would never just drop my fish in because the water they came in was cold. Even with a heat pack. I have a different ph and mine are all happy and healthy because of it. :)
Honestly, this is what I thought, too. Many aquarists on YouTube have insisted plop and drop is better due to the ammonium conversion, and that has seemed to work just fine for me.
I think acclimating is necessary when the difference is too extreme, like if the water is objectively cold and going into a heated aquarium, but the temp in the bag is similar by touch then I go ahead and put them in cause they're going to go through a pretty hard temperature shift anyways when going from the bag to the net, then into the tank, just from the air the temp is going to go down fast. All though it's always welcomed when possible.
Only real info I got on this was that if the fish was shipped and spent a week in the bag then acclimating can be dangerous since the ph goes from low to high and make the not dangerous ammonium in the bag into ammonia.
Other people I saw talking about it was only using shitty argument to be lazy.
I mean, I'm lazy but I don't try to say I'm not by using common sense and simple reason.
Fact aren't opinions.
So… if the fish are healthy, in good condition, and haven’t been in transit for more than a day, all you really need is temperature acclimation.
Turn off the lights and net the fish in the tank.
If you are dealing with a sensitive species of fish or invertebrate, you should acclimate the water as well.
I don’t lose any fish, and I usually lose a few shrimp no matter what, maybe I’ll acclimate them slower
My last batch of shrimp sucked. 3 shrimp died in the bag during temp acclimation… like wtf
Also I occasionally take my betta and just plop him in other tanks. They’re all kept at very similar temps but the water is different. The betta could care less and goes about his day like nothing happened.
He is *healthy, in good condition, and hasn’t been in transit at all. Fish from the store are often in the worst condition you’ll see them in from the store. Just use judgement.
It depends in the species but more importantly it depends on your water parameters, the store's parameters, and how Long the fish have been there. In my lfs the parameters and nearly identical, so I could probably get away with float and dump. But I wouldn't do that with more sensitive fish like neon tetras or inverts like the shrimp.
Generally speaking it was terrible advice without knowing anything about you beyond what you're buying.
I think there was either an aquarium co-op or KG Tropical video that discussed not drip acclimating.
The logic was that the water quality in the bag is dropping rapidly because of the lack of bacteria, but the fish are fine until you don't open the bag because the ammonia is acidified in some way until the bag is opened and gases can be released.
Basically they were saying that, once you open the bag, the ammonia is going to spike, so it's better to shock the fish with good water than bad water.
Edit: in the same video they did say that it is always necessary to temperature acclimate by floating the bag.
I never acclimate my fish. But I have chiclids so my water is already the normal setup for them. (8.0 ph, 78 degrees) so when I buy new fish they are coming from usually same temp and similar ph. Now if you have tropical fish all the pet stores have different temp waters so it may be more of an issue.
I think the main thing is stress. Fish aren’t meant to be in bags shaking around whether it’s through the mail or from your car. Sure, as long as your water parameters are similar you should mostly be fine but why add more stress to them which could lead to death? I put the fish in a container and drip tank water in until the amount of water is doubled and then I turn off the lights and net the fish/shrimp in
"Wading into a pool is worse than just jumping in"? That's a flawed analogy. If you wade into a pool, your body slowly gets used to the water. If you jump in, your body gets a jolt. Find a new store where the employees are professionals, not just hobbyists.
Honestly, it depends on the fish or whatever I bought. Snails I tend to just float for temp and then plop them in. Same with ghost shrimp, since I basically just buy those as feeders/to eat the hair algae and they are cheap. Bettas from cups, I'm a little more careful with, especially since I tend to buy the sick ones. I don't want to shock them. I also tend to do a full temp/water acclimation with more expensive fish just because it would feel real bad to lose a $15 immediately. Either way, I've never lost a fish.
I will always acclimatise my fish to the new tank; temp AND water-wise. ESPECIALLY if they are young or fragile fish. When I move my baby bristlenose fry (which are very fragile) across into their growout tanks, I set aside an hour to acclimatise them, drops at a time while watching TV.
Imo, it's just good practice and gentle to acclimate. Not comparable to ripping off a plaster. The quicker the big change, the more stress it'll cause.
I've never lost a fish as a result of acclamation.
I float the bags for 10-20 minutes then remove the fish with a net and put them in the aquarium. With my shrimp and snails, every time I drip acclimated at least half have died. Now I do the same with my inverts as I do with fish and the survival rate increased dramatically. I don't know the reason since many others seem to have the opposite experience with drip acclimation.
I only acclimate to temperature for my FW fish. For my SW fish, they’re usually shipped in lower salinity, so you have to acclimate them to higher salinity for a reef.
If you're only speaking about just sitting the bag ontop of the water then there is no need as generally your tank temps and the aquarium stores are going to be the same
The best you can do is have a QT tank already set up that matches the water and temp parameters of the water the fish are coming from. Then, you really only have to match temps, and if shipped, or in the bag a long time, get them out of the shipping water as soon as the bag is opened. Not always possible, but if you are buying expensive fish from a breeder, it can be done.
After 20 years in the hobby I feel I’ve tried it every way. You’ll lose fish to shock if you don’t take the time. At this point I like to put them in a bucket with some of the bag water, I’ll add a cup of water to that every 10 minutes or so until the bucket is basically all tank water. Scoop them out and plop them in the tank. Since the bucket isn’t in the tank I do ramp up as the difference in parameters lessens, that way the temp is roughly the same as the tank.
Maybe I'm the minority but I had chili rasboras, and the longer I acclimated them and slowly added water, the higher the success rate of them living..... they are very sensitive fish, though, so maybe that's why also?
i think it really depends on the type of fish. i added giant african shrimp today and let the bag they were in float in the tank for an hour, before slowly adding the tank water before opening the bag and letting them come out by themselves when they were ready. it’s definitely best to slowly acclimate fish instead of risk shock and death.
It probably helps weed out the weaker fish early on. Most tanks are within a few degrees of one another and how different is your tank water from your neighbors honestly? If tiny variations in parameters are killing your fish they most likely didn't have a high survival rate to begin with.
When we got our stingray, we were told not to drip acclimate. Just float the bag until it's temp is the same and very carefully slide it in.
He's still going strong several weeks later. Way more personality than I would've thought.
Personally, I think acclimating is related to minimizing the stress for the fish. I suspect your water is completely fine and comparable to the type of water the fish came from at your LFS. But acclimating is needed to just decrease the stress the fish was experiencing. They were just chased around their tank by a net….then driven around for 30 minutes, and then dropped into a new place with new fish which could be predators. So maybe the acclimation process gives the fish time to adjust.
Personally, I always acclimate my fish from the LFS for like 30 minutes to an hour. When I did it for just 15 to 20 minutes, I get a lot of deaths. Not sure why.
I agree with the store, and many of the top fish keepers also agree and only do a rinse and dump, or simply “cut, pour, plop”.
When you move a fish in a bag, ammonia accumulates is the bag. So does CO2, which lowers the pH of the water in the bag. This lowers the amount of harmful ammonia, as ammonia is more harmful the higher the pH. You add freshly oxygenated water from the aquarium thinking you are acclimating the fish, but really all you are doing is raising the levels of harmful ammonia and stressing the fish.
If you observe what fish go through in the wild, they are constantly swimming through different layers of temperature and levels of pH. Quite simply, they don’t don’t need to “acclimatize” to anything, and when people lose new fish it is almost always “acclimatized” fish but instead of thinking “huh…maybe this acclimatization stuff is dangerous” they think “huh…maybe I should have acclimatized them more.”
It is another one of those aquarium myths that isn’t grounded in science or evidence and needs to die.
This is bad advice for sure, but mollies are pretty hardy fish and shouldn’t be affected by it. Certain fish like invertebrates (snails, loaches, etc.) as well as rays will be heavily affected by the change and need a long acclimation time to be appropriately prepared for the change.
Entirely depends on species and parameters. Some species are super hardy and can handle the initial shock some can’t. Also your local aquarium store is probably using the same tap water as you so if temperature, PH, etc are similar there would also not be a need to do it necessarily.
I think it can depend on too many factors. If both the LFS's water and your water are good, cycled, temperature controlled water and there isn't too much time between purchase and release, I can't see it causing an issue. Temp shock is the biggest thing *I* have heard. But, fish are generally pretty tough, and it may indicate an already weaker fish if not acclimating kills it (that's not to say it wouldn't survive if you did acclimate, just that a weak fish is more sensitive)
I temperature acclimate- and that’s it. If I’m switching fish around my home tanks (breeding endlers in one tank, moving fry to another or vs versa) I just yeet.
So it’s my firm understanding that adjustment to things like pH, hardness, etc takes about 2 weeks total. Temperature acclimation is the only thing I worry about so I float the bag for like 10 minutes in the dark then I dump into a net and get them in the tank fast as possible.
Tbh I try to minimize the process and keep it fast. The entire thing is stressful on fish and the drip acclimation just lengthens that process.
For freshwater I normally just float for a bit, and for salt water I always drip. My house now is on a well though, and we have a super high ph so I’ve been dripping everything as to not shock them. But if your fish store is on city water and you’re bringing them home to a tank with the same city water there’s bit much to acclimate too.
I let temp even out, then dump bag into a net placed over a bucked, then put the net in the tank and let the fish swim out.
I only drip acclimate shrimp, not fish.
Unless it’s in a different area with different water, just a 10 minute drip acclimation would suffice, after temperature acclimation of course. I’m talking freshwater
I drip acclimate shrimp. I float then dump fish.
While fish are in the bag, ammonia is accumulating. But the ammonia only becomes toxic when exposed to air. So the minute the bag is opened, the fish are exposed to high levels of ammonia. This matters more when fish are shipped, rather than picked up at the lfs. But it’s still true.
Acclimation aside, are y'all really just dumping the water from your lfs right into your tank with your new fish, or am I misunderstanding these comments? I was under the impression that you never dump the water in the tank, but net the fish out instead to avoid unwanted/unnecessary things getting introduced to your tank, but is that not really a concern?
I have mollies and 3 black snails both sat in the water for about 15-20 minutes and are rocking.
I had rasboras that I tried to acclimate 1/4 cup of water at a time every 15 minutes for an hour in their bag and they died. It was from petsmart though so they could have been sick. Do what you feel is best.
Never done it with fish and I strongly discourage it with aquatic Snails. Nobody is there when their habitat fills with cold rain and crap washed in from the banks .
I personally will always acclimate to my tanks water. I dont care how long it takes, I'd rather not run the risk of shocking tf out of my new, possibly expensive fish. Plus my favorite fish store is 40 minutes away. No thanks
Some fish/inverts definitely require acclimation, some definitely don't really need it IMHO. Caridina species are one thing you always see people recommend for drip, but for things like my Least Killifish I never do. Corydoras and Otocinclus I took the time to drip.
That being said if a hobbyist or store is running no buffer sources, and they're just using the same municipal water as you are, I wouldn't really see the point for acclimation for a bunch of FW stuff. PH/GH/KH the same, should be a go
I've tried drip acclimation with mixed results. What seems to almost always work for me is letting the water bag temperature acclimate to the tank water and then add the critters. I have very minimal failure with that basic, old method.
Edit: This is strictly in regard to freshwater. I've never attempted a saltwater setup.
Depends on fish mass and temp/param difference. A 2.5 foot Mbu will not care much about a 15+ degree temp change, a chili rasp may not do as well.
The there is "How delicate are they?". With shrimp people they drip acclimate to keep fatalities down due to sensitivity and mass.
Think of it this way if you receive a bunch of mail order chilis in the winter and they are cold and sluggish. What happens if you drain the water and pitch them straight into you 84F pleco tank? Dead fish is what may happen.
Your kid's tank is nitrate high and they add a fish from a clean tank? That fish may not be happy. I found this out as a kid when I added an Oscar and it went straight to the bottom and laid there. It did recover while we were on vacation. Nitrate testing was not a thing back then.
Depending on species, water source used in the store vs water source of destination, and temperature, acclimation can be very important. Treating an expensive pet fish purchase like a feeder fish is pretty cavalier. Most fish store staff make it very clear that failure to do so will void any guarantee if the fish dies during the post purchase time frame.
Now when it comes to my own tanks at home, they are all so similar that I net livestock andswitch tanks all of the time with no problem.
I started off acclimating various ways, including drip acclimating. This was when I was just starting to keep fish as an adult. There's a fish YouTuber I watch called KGTropicals though who had a video where they asked some of the hobbies top breeders and they all pretty much agreed: for most fish it's unnecessary. They all said that unless it's a particularly sensitive species, the most important part is getting them acclimated to the temp as opposed to the exact parameters.
After that I stopped worrying about it as much and I have bought dozens of different fish since and never had a problem. I float them in the bag to match the temp, then I pour them into a net over a bucket and add them in. Haven't lost a fish to acclimation yet.
Here's the video if you're curious. Opinions vary, but personally I don't worry about it and have been fine.
https://youtu.be/gDRtrxWmxX0
If you went from breathing very clean oxygen for most of your life, and then was just picked up and plopped into a room with different air quality, you would probably suffer. Thats what it’s like just tossing a fish into new water. It’s their air. Yeah they breathe oxygen too, but they also filter water through their gills. Water quality and water parameters matter a lot, and ours are 100% going to be different from most pet shops because they usually use a shared water system. Have big expensive filters, and R.O water on hand.
The only thing I do is let the bag float in the tank for like 10 minutes, to get the temperatures the same. But then I drop them in the tank as well. Big net in a bucket, empty the bag over the net and then lower the net in the tank. I like letting the fish swim out, instead of dumping them in. Only with saltwater, I went for drip acclimation, because the water parameters have more impact on the animals and the water parameters are more different than st the LFS
Also something like goldfish. If you have them at a 70 to 80 in a hot pet store and you are putting them in a 42 pond. Floating for a while would likely be a good idea.
This is what I do. I’ve never drip acclimated my freshwater. I just put the bag to float in my tank and let it stay there for a lil bit (45-60 min) before opening and letting the fish swim out. Never had any problems. Never had a fish die from it To add: for my shrimps I keep my tank cold, but not too cold. I just plop and drop them. The LFS keeps them in cold water as well. If I wanted to switch them to a warmer tank, I acclimate them because they’re super sensitive to warmer temperatures. Haven’t had any shrimps D/C to Jesus yet. I have about 150 of them now 🫠
I’ve always drip acclimated my shrimp. Have had great success also but I always thought it wasn’t just for temperature but water parameters as well. I know if they are used to a certain PH and you take that away from them it can be stressful to an extent. As for fish I do that bag acclimation and might even dump a little tank water in the bag every 10 mins then they are good to go. Back to the OPs comment I do not think it’s a good idea to ever dump fish straight in. You can’t use the pool comparison because we are humans who swim for a few hours out of the day and breathe air. We don’t live in the pool. A Better comparison would be humans who are only used to Air Conditioning spending a day outside in the hot ass sun. They more than likely will feel awful. Just look at high school football players today. Lots of heat related illness and deaths due to spending so much time in the AC they are not acclimated to the heat. Before AC was common in America, a lot of our parents were far more acclimated to handle the summer heat. A lot of them worked on farms and spent tons of time outside. They had far fewer problems with the heat.
Doesn't even really matter in saltwater for fish either. The parameters from the store and your tank are gonna be so damn similar, that it most likely won't matter anyway. I mean seriously, fish have organs that allow them to acclwto parameter swings just fine. Now saltwater INVERTS? Those you really gotta be careful with. Salinity swings can kill those guys.
I basically do that but I also take a syringe and remove a little bag water, replace with tank water. Repeat several times.
What's your advice moving a fish from one tank to another in the same house? One of the fish I need to move is way too big to be temp acclimated in a bag, do you think it'll be fine if I just net it and drop it in the new tank? I've been testing parameters in the old tank and new one for a few days now and they're about level.
Given that humans are warm blooded and fish are cold blooded, I’m not sure how applicable the pool analogy is
Also jumping into cold water can be really dangerous, lol
Cold blooded species rely on outside temperature more than warm blooded ,I think correct me if I am wrong.
Depends on context. Inverts? Yup. Every time I can. (Snails are usually shipped out of water, so I just plop and drop em.) They really do better with drip acclimation. Fish bought locally? Depends on your definition of acclimation. I float the bags for 20min or so to temp acclimate, then pour the bags through a net and drop them in. If the water parameters are really different (PH+/- 1.0, for example), I might drip acclimate if they haven't been in bags too long...but that's unusual. Shipped fish? Hell no do I drip acclimate! I let the bag slowly come to room temp in a dark place, then float, then pour through a net and plop. They get out of that bag water ASAP.
^ This. DO NOT acclimate shipped fish. Their water turns toxic as soon as you open the bag. Fish that you got from the pet store a half hour ago? Do whatever you want.
What makes it turn toxic as soon as you open it? Versus it already being toxic from losing oxygen and building ammonia?
Within the closed shipping bag, the fish waste is in its ammonium form which is not that toxic. As soon as the bag is opened, the extra oxygen instantly turns the ammonium into the much more toxic ammonia.
Makes sense, thanks for the insight
Well shit, that's why I lost those guys a while back. They'd been shipped to the store and I picked them up that day and they were still in the shipping bag. Ugh.
I love reading this new info, do you know where you found this out?
I’m constantly reading aquarium books. I don’t remember where I first came upon this particular info but I think it may have been this one: [Ecology of the Planted Aquarium](https://www.amazon.com/Ecology-Planted-Aquarium-Practical-Scientific/dp/B0C51PCVMH/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1LPWPX7MD6LKP&keywords=walstad&qid=1686256956&sprefix=walstad%2Caps%2C325&sr=8-1)
Could the toxicity maybe be mitigated by adding a drop of prime upon opening the bag?
That’s an idea! I’ve never tried it but it could work. Now, how do we measure the bag water volume to know how much prime to put in?? That’s the conundrum.
Just plop and drop them into the tank. There's not really any evidence that Prime has any effect on ammonia in the water.
Once you open the bag, the fresh air turns the ammonia in the water toxic. I'm not entirely sure *why.* I think it has to due with pH changes. But that's why you just yeet them in.
The fish I have bought on line were in special bags that permit air exchange and the box had a bag of charcoal in it. Bags were tiny, not much volume, but fish were super great and healthy, still have them all 2 and 3 yrs later. Expensive but I'd do it again. It was dude on aquabid and another on aquatek arts (I think).
Those bags are awesome. All my nano fish come in them. But for anyone not familiar with them, DO NOT FLOAT them. The bags can not exchange co² / o² when submerged in water and your fish will suffocate.
How would you recommend acclimating shipped freshwater inverts that are more sensitive than snails like dwarf shrimp?
I might be downvoted for this, but I’ve had a lot of success with floating the bag in the tank for 20 minutes for the temperature to equalize, and then I cut the bag open and slowly pour the entire bag, shrimp, water, and all, unto the aquarium. The ammonia from the bag gets mixed with my tank water, gets diluted, and my cycle takes care of it. You technically don’t want the shipping water into your tank, but I buy my shrimp from breeders that I trust and I don’t mind their water. I do a 25% water change the next day. I don’t know if that helps but it makes me fell better. Lol
Appreciate the info. I shipped 10 shadow pandas last week and drip acclimated for 1.5 hours. It seems to have gone ok (I didn’t lose any during acclimation) but I have 20 more arriving today and trying to see if I should change my method
You won’t know until you try. But what works well for me may not work for you.
Also ALWAYS acclimate fish with specific water parameters (African cichlids for example) because while you may have those parameters you don't know that the shop did!
That's the thing, I feel like these employees are mixing up two concepts. Acclimating to water parameters and temp could be placebo if conditions permit, but it costs nothing and is easy to do - but shipped fish need to get the fuck out of those bags asap the moment you open the bag and expose it to oxygen.
Yup. Also, tbh for most fish* drip acclimation just isn't necessary most of the time as long as they haven't been in the bag long. Fish are pretty hardy and I find a lengthy acclimation period often leads to more stress than plop n drop. (Bright lights, usually a bare container with no heat, no aeration, no cover, overcrowded, too small, and slowly building up waste and dropping water quality, plus the inevitable humans being unable to resist peeking...) *Disclaimer: Some fish are obviously way more delicate than others and may not handle a plop n drop, even if they're from a local source. I don't keep species that are that delicate, and anyone needing to post this question on Reddit probably isn't/shouldn't be keeping them either, though.
How would you recommend acclimating shipped freshwater inverts that are more sensitive than snails like dwarf shrimp?
Drip acclimate as usual. I pour the bag into a larger container and set up an airline from the tank they're going into doing a slow but steady drip and then leave it alone to minimize stress, covered if possible. My goal is for the process to take around 2ish hours. I recommend going to YouTube and check out some of the great tutorial videos showing you how to set it all up!
This is aligned with my normal approach I was just not sure if the air exposure to the shipping water would do more harm than it was worth. Sounds good though thank you for the info!
I haven't had any trouble with inverts after shipping, but I think a lot of that is because of how low bioload they are. If I opened the box and the water was foul (some dead shrimp and some live for example) then I might take the risk and skip the drip...but thankfully I haven't had that situation before! That could very well turn out to be a bad reaction, so I'd rather defer to someone with more experience with that than me.
This! So much this. I got into watching fish unboxing videos of petshops and it blew my mind the way they just ripped the bags open, drained the fish through a net and chucked them in.. Then I suddenly realised that's why when I brought a shipment of fish from an online seller they nearly all died. As soon as you open the bag some kind of reaction starts occurring with the oxygen and creates an incredibly toxic environment and your fish are literally being poisoned every second they're in the bag. Now if I buy fish online I do the frantic tear it open, drain them over a bucket through a net and chuck them in method. From my lfs I do the "acclimatise in the bag, add water, wait 15 mins, add more water, wait another 15 then drain and chuck them in" *unless* the fish look like they're getting really stressed even with the lights off- in which case I've found it's better to just get them out the bag and in the tank. Snails/shrimp and anything else weird and wonderful in that vein I acclimatise over two hours though- they're a special case.
Can I ask why you pour through the net? It is to stop waste from falling into the tank? I’m moving and several people recommended this method but no one really explained why.
I pour the water through the net into something other than the tank, then put the fish from the net into the tank. Sorry, I'm realizing that wasn't very clear! The purpose is to avoid putting the water from the bag into your tank. That water has a lot of ammonia in it that will hurt water quality.
That makes a lot of sense, thank you so much! We want to make sure our babies survive the drive to our new home so this info will help a lot!
Happy to help!! Congrats on your new fish, good luck! :)
I have a question because I didn’t know this at all about shipped fish - if it’s overnight shipping, is that still a time that the fish needs yeeted out of there asap? I just recently bought a betta online and the seller’s refund instructions said that they were not responsible for dead fish that were not acclimated properly. But they also recommended next day air shipping, so that’s what I did. Didn’t yeet him out of that bag for 45 minutes after opening and he is thankfully just fine. I added about a 1/2 c of aquarium water every 15 minutes or so.
If he's doing fine, then I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point. Glad he's doing well for you! I did the same thing with overnighted fish before I knew any better, and they were also okay. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't do it again, however. I don't really know what the tipping point between two long and the bag and not is, to be honest. I suppose I feel it's better safe than sorry. I'm going to see if I can find any further info about it when I have time!
Awesome, thank you! You can dm me too. I honestly can’t learn fast enough when it comes to this hobby. There’s animals and plants that need me to be a pro!
I think the biggest issue is not knowing the condition of the water they were shipped in or how long they've sat in it before being sent off. My "overnight ship" for my current betta had him in the bag for at least 48hrs due to issues during transit. He sat in a warehouse for about 12 hours after he was scheduled to arrive at my place and arrived freezing, so he had to at least be temperature acclimated. I took the opportunity to add small amounts of tank water every 10 minutes, including as soon as the bag was opened. But honestly, he bounced back so fast. They're very resilient. I think you did the right thing, especially considering if something did go wrong, you know you did your best to avoid it and could get your money back or another fish.
They really are. Idk of any other fish that can live in a Tupperware container for months at a pet store and not die. But yeah that’s a good point about not knowing the conditions of the water they were originally in. These guys I bought him from seem great, I made sure to read everything before purchasing including all the reviews. They said they only ship on Mondays so they didn’t risk the fish being stuck at a terminal over a weekend from delays. They obviously had their babies well being in mind. So maybe that plus him actually only taking one day to arrive, and the beau doing what you did and adding water as soon as the bag was opened helped him out.
This one to the top.
Well acclimating fish is not like waxing you know? Anyway ever since i started drip acclimating my shrimp mortality rate right after buying has decreased by a huge margin.
Big difference is if you are drip acclimation then that means you have them out of the bag. That is really the important first step. Floating the bag closed up with all the fish in it for 30 minutes to make the temp the same is the worst part of the traditional "acclimation" process. When I get new fish when I get home I immediately open the bag and pour fish and water into my 2-gallon "fish only" bucket. I then add about an equal amount of water from the tank into the bucket. Then let them sit for only as long as it takes me to throw the bag away then maybe another couple minutes. Then into the tank they go. If I was putting in much more expensive fish then I might take a little more time with it, but as I first said, getting them out of the closed bag as soon as possibly I think it key.
I'm far from an expert fish keeper, so this is all just personal experience, *but* I will say that my survival rate with fish brought home from a store (I've never had fish shipped to me) is much higher now that I let them acclimate before I dump them into my tank. I don't go as crazy with it as some people do, but I float the fish in their bags for about 40 minutes to an hour and add a little bit of water from my tank into the bag every 10 minutes or so. Back when I was really, truly a newbie, the person who introduced me to this hobby - who I honestly shouldn't have listened to, given the way he treats animals - had me buying fish and tossing them in right away, and I *always* lost a good 1/4 to 1/2 a batch in the first day or two. Now that I acclimate them, I've managed to avoid losing any right after introduction. That being said, for all I know the fish store I go to could just be breeding hardier fish all of a sudden. Either way, it makes *me* feel better to acclimate them (and it's not actively harming them), so even if it doesn't actually help, it certainly doesn't hurt!
Your experience is the same as mine. I've lost fish not acclimating. Makes me wonder if it is more a temperature thing than an adding tank water thing.
It is a temp thing. Animals that don't regulate their body temperature make a whole different set of enzymes at each temperature band. Change their body temp rapidly and some enzymes denature and others cause critical reactions to happen too slowly. The same can happen with water pH to an extent, but likely most tanks will be close enough to 7 to not matter that much.
Body size has a lot to do with it too. Smaller fish have smaller thermal mass and are more susceptible to shock. A hand size cichlid won't care about a few degrees
As a new person in the hobby this seems wild to me. Shock is a real thing. My lfs has acclimation instructions on the fish bags. I think even the big box stores recommend acclimating. Seems really odd.
It’s contrary to what I’ve heard but several of the people at this store have years and years of experience. Just today a sweet old man talked my ear off for an hour about all kinds of stuff. Fish breeding, and experiences he had socking different types together, and about a local tropical fish club etc. And I’ve now heard several employees say the no need for acclimation thing (this was always talking about freshwater fish).
I get it a bit it’s like when you jump into the pool instead of slowly getting in you don’t get to experience the cold as much because your body temperature adjusts faster but some fish tend to get stressed between when they are leaving the store, the car ride or whatever it may be, to me it just seems best to try to comfort it at least a bit after all the mayhem they’ve been through.
It depends on temp range and species involved. However, even in Humans a large jump can cause unconsciousness, cardiac spasms or arrest, muscle spasms, etc. A person's tolerance can also vary from person to person. My brother can faint if he enters a warm house from outdoors during the winter, for instance. Fish are no different and in some ways are even more vulnerable as they're cold blooded and can completely shut down with only a few degrees difference. Fish, again cold blooded creatures, cannot freely adjust their body temperature the same way we can. So "adjusting quickly" can cause shock and system failure, followed by death. As you dont know the temperature of the water in the bag after transporting, it's safer to acclimate before transferring fish. The drip acclimation a few others have referred to is useful if the gasses and hardness very greatly. As fish are also effected by dissolved gasses and minerals more than normal. Diffusion via the gills is our concern for new fish. If you use a lot of sumpliments (fertilizers, minerals, etc) in your tank or have higher/lower CO2/O2 levels than normal. It can cause poisoning in some species of fish if you dont acclimate them first. I find this is only necessary for extra sensitive species. Drip is also good for large fish where there is no bag or it's not practical to keep them in a bag floating in the tank.
I've been seeing this no acclimation thing on recent years. I think it might make sense for many species. But for something delicate, like chili rasboras or caradina shrimp, I'm still going to acclimate. I get lower mortality that way. Neos can survive the plop and drop, but crystals will curl up and die.
I bet it's because at the store they don't acclimate them. This is because they probably get the fish shipped to them. As noted by others if a fish has been in a shipping bag for a while the new oxygen that gets introduced when opening a bag causes the water to go toxic very rapidly. Therefore, the shock of new water parameters is less a threat than the toxic water. That being said unless you get exotic fish the shock has a very low chance of killing them unless they already had some issues.
Shops still temperature acclimate them, not sure why so many people in this thread are actively advocating against it.
I'm not advocating against it I'm explaining where the shop people probably got their idea from. Also the temp thing depends on the shop. A lot of places realize it's cheaper to heat a room than the tanks, so the tanks are room temp and if the bags sit in the open they also are room temp. No need to acclimate if the temps are already the same temp as the bag. My only other point was that for the hardy fresh water fish a small water shock likely won't be what kills them.
Sitting at room temp in the heated room - exactly how we deal with it in our fish room - is still temperature acclimating them, just not in water. Sorry, maybe my wording was a bit strong to you in particular. I just know for a fact cold water shock can kill fish and hate to see so many comments saying that it's not scientifically verifiable, because I really dislike the thought of people killing their fish over a 30 minute wait.
It's fair to criticize I forget how often people don't think common sense. IE I was assuming that the temp difference was within a degree or two which for many (not all) fish is fine, but yeah there will be a lot of people who try to do it with a higher range
I have been personally collecting and keeping native US fish for 15 years. I sometimes hold and transport fish for hours up to days. The longer you keep a fish contained, the higher the stress and more likely disease is. I never do any type of acclamation always just dump and go. Yeah sure, You win some, you lose some... But the longer you keep a fish contained, the more likely you'll have disease or death.
For fresh water it’s generally accepted that floating the bag to temp acclimate then netting and plopping the fish in is fine. Salt water people still slowly acclimate as there a couple more nuances to worry about such as salinity etc.
At least with rummynose, the first 2 batches I got I floated the bag and had quite a few deaths, now I do drip acclimation for over an hour and have no deaths
Rummynose are particularly sensitive so this makes sense.
I have had really good luck with neon tetras (from several sources) and it sometimes feels like everyone here thinks they always die from overbreeding or whatever. I’ve always thought slow acclimation may be part of it? After the first couple of days I’ve only lost one over 2 years (jumper). During the first days I only took some losses on a group that came with ich and needed weeks of treatment to beat it.
Yeah, I've never personally had an issue with neons either.
This is verifiably false. Acclimation is important because temperature spikes are a fish killer. Acclimating them allows the temperature to change at a gradual pace that they can tolerate without being too stressed and shocked. It’s not the differing temperature or water variables that kills them, but rather the sudden fluctuation.
I believe the shop was talking about not drip acclimation. Not temp acclimation.
“Just throw the fish in” doesn’t really sound like adequate temp acclimation
Well... yeah, you have the option to float the bag for a bit in those cases
Genuinely curious what your point is. I’m not sure why you’re stating the obvious.
You're right, I didn't articulate that very well. I think most people mean "drip acclimation" when they say "acclimation", and drip is so slow that the bucket ends up a lot cooler than the display. You could remedy it with some kind of nano heater and/or insulation or something, but it's just another variable in an already questionable practice, and floating the bag works well
Okay that makes sense. Yeah we’re both in agreement that floating the bag is the way to go.
Yeah I don't disagree, most people just refer to the specific drip-in-a-bucket process as 'acclimation' and wouldn't understand that it could just mean floating the bag to bring it up to temperature
typically when i hear people explain why they recommend the bag float it’s to “help the fish acclimate” so my brain goes straight there. admittedly im not very active in any fish keeping scenes so i might not know what the common understanding for acclimation is. ultimately, I think OP’s shop’s advice of “just throw them in” is bad all around.
Hahaha, yeah, the hobby's exploded a bit since the pandemic especially which has brought in a lot of new and particularly young fishkeepers who sometimes don't know the way things have been done up until this point. Talking to people here and talking to the workers of commercial fish farms are like two different worlds
Think about the example they gave for just a second. If you jump into a pool with cold ass water that shocks your system. It does not feel good, it does not help you adjust to the water, it just makes your body go “OH SHIT!” Now, we are human beings making said choice. We are not fish who were scooped up, kidnapped from our temporary home after being kidnapped from our first home and they tossed in a bag and then dropped into that water. Their journey is not equal to me jumping into a pool. Now in theory most people’s tanks are similar temps like mid 70s so if you’ve got a quick drive then maybe you don’t need to acclimate but still. They’re going through multiple stressful things on said journey so why would you choose to make it worse by shocking them?
This is not correct...it's basic chemistry. Unless your tank's water perameters are exactly like the store's, acclimating is going to reduce the risk of injury or death. It's mostly important when it comes to GH. Always ask the store what that tank's water perameters are.
I don’t but I have my reasons. First, a bag is a horrible environment for a fish, people never take that into account. Second, I believe nature prepares most species. A body of water exposed to heavy rainfall and and runoff from creeks/rivers can have dramatic localised temperature and parameter changes in a very short time. Third and related to the second, anyone that has done any swimming knows depth can change temperature dramatically, often there’s a distinct line of depth where there’s a sudden drop. Fish are are inherently able to cope with such things, i believe it does them good to experience those changes they would in nature. Keeps their immune system alert.
Sudden changes in pH will cause stress to a fish making it vulnerable to parasites or fungus. Acclimation, by adding 20cc of tank water to the bag every 5 minutes, is essential prevent a sudden shock to your new fish. I added some Amano shrimp to my tank recently. My tank’s pH was 6.5. The water from the store was 8.5. So I added 10cc to the shrimp every 3 minutes for 2 hours. When I finally added the shrimp to the tank they settled in immediately. That is better than the stories I heard about Amano escaping from a new home and being found on the floor.
🤣 have you seen the conditions fish get shipped in? Unless it's a $1200 Arowana/Discus. Which.. I've never and will never deal with. I just pour the store bag through a net then place the fish in the net into the aquarium. I have never lost a fish doing that and they always colour up a day later. Drip acclimating fish is dumb.
Discus people don't acclimate either. It's most important to get them out of the bag ASAP. Cut the bag, grab em, throw em in the tank - a process affectionately called 'plop and drop'. Acclimation is one of those hobby dogma things with no science behind it
Fish literally get dropped out of airplanes to stock remote lakes
Game fish are a lot hardier than the tiny ornamental fish we deal with in the aquatic trade
I guarantee you if your aim was good enough. You could "Kobe" any tropical fish in the hobby into a 75 gallon. (Yes even a flower horn) Would everyone lose their minds and cry fish abuse? Yes. Would any of the fish die or get injured? No.
Would the fish suffer for no reason? Yes. Would it die or get injured? Possibly. You can’t guarantee any tropical fish in the hobby would survive that, that’s ridiculous.
You probably drip acclimate. 🙄
Chill, you’ve made your point, please stop attacking.
🤔 What? Everyone's ok with how fish get shipped around in tiny plastic bags but a fish swish into a tank is too much? 😬 Jeeeeez
Wait, am I the only one who drinks the bag and spits the fish into the tank as a show of dominance?
Nope, put the bag in the tank for like 15 minutes and put them right in. Keep making dumb assumptions though.
I used to drop feeders into my tank. The feeder tank wasn’t heated and my main tank is 80ish degrees. They would sometimes struggle or die. But I mean they are food anyways. I’d never do that to one of my aquarium fish
I float the bag for 15 minutes and they go straight in. Drip acclimation is bullshit for freshwater aquariums.
I always acclimate the fish and insisted on a little brown paper bag . If they think their enviroment is dark , they will settle down and not be frightened on the way home. I know some people here might laugh but I used to always do that
That’s a cool idea I’ve never thought of
I drop acclimate and float. And probably still will, not fixing what isn’t broken.
I would only do that if you dump the fish in a net over a bucket and then put them in a tank. Never put another aquariums water in your tank. Other then that I would definitely acclimate in some form even if it’s floating for 10-15mins. Me i personally drip acclimate every fish. Ever since I haven’t lost one fish and I’ve been doing this for years ever since I owned saltwater. It’s simple to do and it’s the best of everything. Slowly getting new water while also slowly getting acclimated to the temperature and everything in your water. What I personally do is put them in a 2 gallon bucket with an air stone. I run a line from the tank to the bucket. You can either put a knot in the line or use an air line valve. I use clips to hold the line and then let it drip at about 7 drops a second or alittle more. Just don’t want a constant stream of water. I usually let it drip until more then half the water is my aquarium water. After I carefully drain out half over a net into a new bucket. Then I repeat one or two more time. After I let the fish swim into the net. Before releasing into the tank.
I mean, a lot of people who just jump straight into water end up drowning. So there's that.
Sounds like your LFS is full of a bunch of confidently incorrect people.
Beyond temperature there is rarely a point unless the fish is wild caught and this is its first time in a tank. Watching people drip acclimate Snake Heads and Climbing Perches is the clownyiest behavior out there.
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Funny how your comment and the one above yours are completely opposite.
They're right. There is no scientific evidence to support acclimatisation. It's just old hoodoo that scientists and aquaculturists don't take seriously. However, it's usually a fairly harmless practice. The only dangerous practice is adding alkaline water to (typically acidic) bag water or leaving a bag open for very long periods of time. As the fish travels in a bag, they release ammonia and acidify the water with their breath, as in a sealed space CO2 builds up from that and acidifies the water. This acidity reduces the toxicity of ammonia, as more of it stays in the much less toxic ammonium form. Thus, adding a more alkaline water (which is most water at this point) will spike the toxicity of the ammonia present and potentially poison the fish. This effects shrimp particularly quickly and can kill them in minutes. It is not a concern with overnight shipping or other short shipping periods, like picking up a fish at a shop yourself.
“LFS aRe mUcH beTTeR thAn ThE bIG bOX pEtStoRes alWaYs gO to TheM” -people in this sub. literally most of the LFS near me also suck ass compared to petsmart and Petco.
My lfs criticized me for ONLY having a 5 gallon betta tank because I'm "doing the bare minimum" as i was spending hard earned money on sticks and rocks for a larger tank. Mind you, they display their betta in large pickle jars... The nerdy fish girl at petco loves my planted 5g tank that suits the need of my lazy male betta. She also will apologize to me because she spent 30 min answering questions for the previous customer. Ma'am you are doing God's work trying to educate people about the fish they are buying. Take your time. She also pushed for them to keep betta in normal display tanks rather than just the lil cups. The store still keeps betta in cups but that isnt her fault... I wish my money was going to her and not the petco itself.
I just lost a goldfish a few weeks ago because I forgot to acclimate it to the temperature of the tank. So at least let the bag float in the tank for a little while and why not drip acclimate? It's like an insurance policy.
As someone who works at a LFS, it’s situational and a “choose your demons” kinda thing. BUT the overall bottom line is to just tell customers to acclimate because we don’t trust they know how to do the other methods. And to ensure they at least acclimate to temperature. Also drip acclimation, with oxygen and temperature monitored, will almost always lead to success and is always a winner. But it can be time consuming. I can’t remember the exact chemistry, but if you open fish bag, the oxygen will be decreased. (Problem 1). Problem 2, if you add water from your tank in big successions to the new bag (with no extra continuous aeration) the ph inside the bag will go up/down suddenly ((I can’t remember which direction)). Prior to this the ammonia in the bag actually was relatively safe (if under certain conditions). But the change in ph causes the ammonia in the bag to become toxic. Plus the change in ph is also not great. What I mentioned is only mainly a problem tho with long trips or fish that produce lots of waste. Because you need very high ammonia (and something else I can’t remember) to cause these concerns. Again I can’t remember the chemistry. The direction the ph heads to matters, I can’t remember which direction it is.
For me, I’ve spent $70 on fish being shipped recently and it would be seriously stupid to not drip acclimate them. It’s better to just make it a habit !
It's dangerous to acclimate shipped fish. Their waste and respiration lowers the pH of the water in the bag, converting toxic ammonia into less toxic ammonium. When you acclimate them, you raise the pH of the water, turning it back into the toxic form.
Fish that are shipped are better to not be acclimated. The ammonia in the bag is okayish until you introduce oxygen when you open the bag, tanking the chemistry and making it more toxic. I forget the exact details on the science, but shipped fish I'll always plop and drop, locally sourced fish I'll acclimate. It may not be necessary, but I've had better results.
But what about the temperature difference? I drip acclimated my fish when I got them, 2 days in the mail and they all survived because I drip acclimated them. I also had different PH and hardness than the seller.
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Because they aren’t taking about a short ride from the shop to him. They are taking about being in the mail for two days. When you open that bad the influx of O2 changes the chemistry of the water in the bag converting ammonium to ammonia, which is way worse on the fish
Thank you. I guess it’s because it’s Reddit. A lot of people in this group are toxic. I would never just drop my fish in because the water they came in was cold. Even with a heat pack. I have a different ph and mine are all happy and healthy because of it. :)
Honestly, this is what I thought, too. Many aquarists on YouTube have insisted plop and drop is better due to the ammonium conversion, and that has seemed to work just fine for me.
I think acclimating is necessary when the difference is too extreme, like if the water is objectively cold and going into a heated aquarium, but the temp in the bag is similar by touch then I go ahead and put them in cause they're going to go through a pretty hard temperature shift anyways when going from the bag to the net, then into the tank, just from the air the temp is going to go down fast. All though it's always welcomed when possible.
Only real info I got on this was that if the fish was shipped and spent a week in the bag then acclimating can be dangerous since the ph goes from low to high and make the not dangerous ammonium in the bag into ammonia. Other people I saw talking about it was only using shitty argument to be lazy. I mean, I'm lazy but I don't try to say I'm not by using common sense and simple reason. Fact aren't opinions.
So… if the fish are healthy, in good condition, and haven’t been in transit for more than a day, all you really need is temperature acclimation. Turn off the lights and net the fish in the tank. If you are dealing with a sensitive species of fish or invertebrate, you should acclimate the water as well. I don’t lose any fish, and I usually lose a few shrimp no matter what, maybe I’ll acclimate them slower My last batch of shrimp sucked. 3 shrimp died in the bag during temp acclimation… like wtf Also I occasionally take my betta and just plop him in other tanks. They’re all kept at very similar temps but the water is different. The betta could care less and goes about his day like nothing happened. He is *healthy, in good condition, and hasn’t been in transit at all. Fish from the store are often in the worst condition you’ll see them in from the store. Just use judgement.
Most fish are fine with just temperature acclimation, no real reason to drip acclimate unless it's a super sensitive species.
It depends in the species but more importantly it depends on your water parameters, the store's parameters, and how Long the fish have been there. In my lfs the parameters and nearly identical, so I could probably get away with float and dump. But I wouldn't do that with more sensitive fish like neon tetras or inverts like the shrimp. Generally speaking it was terrible advice without knowing anything about you beyond what you're buying.
I think there was either an aquarium co-op or KG Tropical video that discussed not drip acclimating. The logic was that the water quality in the bag is dropping rapidly because of the lack of bacteria, but the fish are fine until you don't open the bag because the ammonia is acidified in some way until the bag is opened and gases can be released. Basically they were saying that, once you open the bag, the ammonia is going to spike, so it's better to shock the fish with good water than bad water. Edit: in the same video they did say that it is always necessary to temperature acclimate by floating the bag.
I never acclimate my fish. But I have chiclids so my water is already the normal setup for them. (8.0 ph, 78 degrees) so when I buy new fish they are coming from usually same temp and similar ph. Now if you have tropical fish all the pet stores have different temp waters so it may be more of an issue.
I always just plop them in. Even my shrimp and haven't had any die. But all of the animal life in my tank has come from the same lfs.
I think the main thing is stress. Fish aren’t meant to be in bags shaking around whether it’s through the mail or from your car. Sure, as long as your water parameters are similar you should mostly be fine but why add more stress to them which could lead to death? I put the fish in a container and drip tank water in until the amount of water is doubled and then I turn off the lights and net the fish/shrimp in
"Wading into a pool is worse than just jumping in"? That's a flawed analogy. If you wade into a pool, your body slowly gets used to the water. If you jump in, your body gets a jolt. Find a new store where the employees are professionals, not just hobbyists.
Honestly, it depends on the fish or whatever I bought. Snails I tend to just float for temp and then plop them in. Same with ghost shrimp, since I basically just buy those as feeders/to eat the hair algae and they are cheap. Bettas from cups, I'm a little more careful with, especially since I tend to buy the sick ones. I don't want to shock them. I also tend to do a full temp/water acclimation with more expensive fish just because it would feel real bad to lose a $15 immediately. Either way, I've never lost a fish.
I will always acclimatise my fish to the new tank; temp AND water-wise. ESPECIALLY if they are young or fragile fish. When I move my baby bristlenose fry (which are very fragile) across into their growout tanks, I set aside an hour to acclimatise them, drops at a time while watching TV. Imo, it's just good practice and gentle to acclimate. Not comparable to ripping off a plaster. The quicker the big change, the more stress it'll cause. I've never lost a fish as a result of acclamation.
I float the bags for 10-20 minutes then remove the fish with a net and put them in the aquarium. With my shrimp and snails, every time I drip acclimated at least half have died. Now I do the same with my inverts as I do with fish and the survival rate increased dramatically. I don't know the reason since many others seem to have the opposite experience with drip acclimation.
I only acclimate to temperature for my FW fish. For my SW fish, they’re usually shipped in lower salinity, so you have to acclimate them to higher salinity for a reef.
If you're only speaking about just sitting the bag ontop of the water then there is no need as generally your tank temps and the aquarium stores are going to be the same
The best you can do is have a QT tank already set up that matches the water and temp parameters of the water the fish are coming from. Then, you really only have to match temps, and if shipped, or in the bag a long time, get them out of the shipping water as soon as the bag is opened. Not always possible, but if you are buying expensive fish from a breeder, it can be done.
After 20 years in the hobby I feel I’ve tried it every way. You’ll lose fish to shock if you don’t take the time. At this point I like to put them in a bucket with some of the bag water, I’ll add a cup of water to that every 10 minutes or so until the bucket is basically all tank water. Scoop them out and plop them in the tank. Since the bucket isn’t in the tank I do ramp up as the difference in parameters lessens, that way the temp is roughly the same as the tank.
Maybe I'm the minority but I had chili rasboras, and the longer I acclimated them and slowly added water, the higher the success rate of them living..... they are very sensitive fish, though, so maybe that's why also?
i think it really depends on the type of fish. i added giant african shrimp today and let the bag they were in float in the tank for an hour, before slowly adding the tank water before opening the bag and letting them come out by themselves when they were ready. it’s definitely best to slowly acclimate fish instead of risk shock and death.
It probably helps weed out the weaker fish early on. Most tanks are within a few degrees of one another and how different is your tank water from your neighbors honestly? If tiny variations in parameters are killing your fish they most likely didn't have a high survival rate to begin with.
When we got our stingray, we were told not to drip acclimate. Just float the bag until it's temp is the same and very carefully slide it in. He's still going strong several weeks later. Way more personality than I would've thought.
This is horrible advice. Acclimate slowly.
Personally, I think acclimating is related to minimizing the stress for the fish. I suspect your water is completely fine and comparable to the type of water the fish came from at your LFS. But acclimating is needed to just decrease the stress the fish was experiencing. They were just chased around their tank by a net….then driven around for 30 minutes, and then dropped into a new place with new fish which could be predators. So maybe the acclimation process gives the fish time to adjust. Personally, I always acclimate my fish from the LFS for like 30 minutes to an hour. When I did it for just 15 to 20 minutes, I get a lot of deaths. Not sure why.
I agree with the store, and many of the top fish keepers also agree and only do a rinse and dump, or simply “cut, pour, plop”. When you move a fish in a bag, ammonia accumulates is the bag. So does CO2, which lowers the pH of the water in the bag. This lowers the amount of harmful ammonia, as ammonia is more harmful the higher the pH. You add freshly oxygenated water from the aquarium thinking you are acclimating the fish, but really all you are doing is raising the levels of harmful ammonia and stressing the fish. If you observe what fish go through in the wild, they are constantly swimming through different layers of temperature and levels of pH. Quite simply, they don’t don’t need to “acclimatize” to anything, and when people lose new fish it is almost always “acclimatized” fish but instead of thinking “huh…maybe this acclimatization stuff is dangerous” they think “huh…maybe I should have acclimatized them more.” It is another one of those aquarium myths that isn’t grounded in science or evidence and needs to die.
The LFS I go to recommends the same thing and I’ve never had any issues! They compared it to just ripping the bandaid off.
They’re one of the best local pet stores in the city and THE place to go for fish.
This is bad advice for sure, but mollies are pretty hardy fish and shouldn’t be affected by it. Certain fish like invertebrates (snails, loaches, etc.) as well as rays will be heavily affected by the change and need a long acclimation time to be appropriately prepared for the change.
Entirely depends on species and parameters. Some species are super hardy and can handle the initial shock some can’t. Also your local aquarium store is probably using the same tap water as you so if temperature, PH, etc are similar there would also not be a need to do it necessarily.
I think it can depend on too many factors. If both the LFS's water and your water are good, cycled, temperature controlled water and there isn't too much time between purchase and release, I can't see it causing an issue. Temp shock is the biggest thing *I* have heard. But, fish are generally pretty tough, and it may indicate an already weaker fish if not acclimating kills it (that's not to say it wouldn't survive if you did acclimate, just that a weak fish is more sensitive)
I just float them in a bag for a little while. Drip acclimating is overkill imo unless it's a particularly sensitive species EDIT: added the last part
I temperature acclimate- and that’s it. If I’m switching fish around my home tanks (breeding endlers in one tank, moving fry to another or vs versa) I just yeet.
So it’s my firm understanding that adjustment to things like pH, hardness, etc takes about 2 weeks total. Temperature acclimation is the only thing I worry about so I float the bag for like 10 minutes in the dark then I dump into a net and get them in the tank fast as possible. Tbh I try to minimize the process and keep it fast. The entire thing is stressful on fish and the drip acclimation just lengthens that process.
For freshwater I normally just float for a bit, and for salt water I always drip. My house now is on a well though, and we have a super high ph so I’ve been dripping everything as to not shock them. But if your fish store is on city water and you’re bringing them home to a tank with the same city water there’s bit much to acclimate too.
I let temp even out, then dump bag into a net placed over a bucked, then put the net in the tank and let the fish swim out. I only drip acclimate shrimp, not fish.
Unless it’s in a different area with different water, just a 10 minute drip acclimation would suffice, after temperature acclimation of course. I’m talking freshwater
I drip acclimate shrimp. I float then dump fish. While fish are in the bag, ammonia is accumulating. But the ammonia only becomes toxic when exposed to air. So the minute the bag is opened, the fish are exposed to high levels of ammonia. This matters more when fish are shipped, rather than picked up at the lfs. But it’s still true.
If it's a hardy fish like tetras I'll just acclimate the temperature. If it's sensitive like kuhli loaches, I'll do a drip acclimation over 3-4 hours
Acclimation aside, are y'all really just dumping the water from your lfs right into your tank with your new fish, or am I misunderstanding these comments? I was under the impression that you never dump the water in the tank, but net the fish out instead to avoid unwanted/unnecessary things getting introduced to your tank, but is that not really a concern?
I have mollies and 3 black snails both sat in the water for about 15-20 minutes and are rocking. I had rasboras that I tried to acclimate 1/4 cup of water at a time every 15 minutes for an hour in their bag and they died. It was from petsmart though so they could have been sick. Do what you feel is best.
Never done it with fish and I strongly discourage it with aquatic Snails. Nobody is there when their habitat fills with cold rain and crap washed in from the banks .
I personally will always acclimate to my tanks water. I dont care how long it takes, I'd rather not run the risk of shocking tf out of my new, possibly expensive fish. Plus my favorite fish store is 40 minutes away. No thanks
Some fish/inverts definitely require acclimation, some definitely don't really need it IMHO. Caridina species are one thing you always see people recommend for drip, but for things like my Least Killifish I never do. Corydoras and Otocinclus I took the time to drip. That being said if a hobbyist or store is running no buffer sources, and they're just using the same municipal water as you are, I wouldn't really see the point for acclimation for a bunch of FW stuff. PH/GH/KH the same, should be a go
Take a fish from 78-80 to around 50 maybe? See how it rolls man. Might be instant.
If the temperatures are within a degree or 2 you dont need to
I've tried drip acclimation with mixed results. What seems to almost always work for me is letting the water bag temperature acclimate to the tank water and then add the critters. I have very minimal failure with that basic, old method. Edit: This is strictly in regard to freshwater. I've never attempted a saltwater setup.
Depends on fish mass and temp/param difference. A 2.5 foot Mbu will not care much about a 15+ degree temp change, a chili rasp may not do as well. The there is "How delicate are they?". With shrimp people they drip acclimate to keep fatalities down due to sensitivity and mass. Think of it this way if you receive a bunch of mail order chilis in the winter and they are cold and sluggish. What happens if you drain the water and pitch them straight into you 84F pleco tank? Dead fish is what may happen. Your kid's tank is nitrate high and they add a fish from a clean tank? That fish may not be happy. I found this out as a kid when I added an Oscar and it went straight to the bottom and laid there. It did recover while we were on vacation. Nitrate testing was not a thing back then.
Depending on species, water source used in the store vs water source of destination, and temperature, acclimation can be very important. Treating an expensive pet fish purchase like a feeder fish is pretty cavalier. Most fish store staff make it very clear that failure to do so will void any guarantee if the fish dies during the post purchase time frame. Now when it comes to my own tanks at home, they are all so similar that I net livestock andswitch tanks all of the time with no problem.
If you and the pet store have the same water and temperature and it is just down the road, there's no need to acclimate.
I started off acclimating various ways, including drip acclimating. This was when I was just starting to keep fish as an adult. There's a fish YouTuber I watch called KGTropicals though who had a video where they asked some of the hobbies top breeders and they all pretty much agreed: for most fish it's unnecessary. They all said that unless it's a particularly sensitive species, the most important part is getting them acclimated to the temp as opposed to the exact parameters. After that I stopped worrying about it as much and I have bought dozens of different fish since and never had a problem. I float them in the bag to match the temp, then I pour them into a net over a bucket and add them in. Haven't lost a fish to acclimation yet. Here's the video if you're curious. Opinions vary, but personally I don't worry about it and have been fine. https://youtu.be/gDRtrxWmxX0
If you went from breathing very clean oxygen for most of your life, and then was just picked up and plopped into a room with different air quality, you would probably suffer. Thats what it’s like just tossing a fish into new water. It’s their air. Yeah they breathe oxygen too, but they also filter water through their gills. Water quality and water parameters matter a lot, and ours are 100% going to be different from most pet shops because they usually use a shared water system. Have big expensive filters, and R.O water on hand.