Re: acclimating new fish

["Myongsu Kong" <mkong@brownwoodlaw.com>]

In the best of all possible worlds, the water in the bag would be the same
as the water in the tank, or failing that, you would have enough time,
patience and the facilities to slowly adjust the water in the bag (a large
10 gallon bag, let's say - with filter and heater) to equal the water
values in your target tank.   :)  In the real world, I've used the two
following methods to acclimate fish:

1) where the water values in the tank are similar to the water values in
the bag, then I acclimate in the typical fashion, i.e., equalize water
temperatures in bag and tank, add tank water slowly to the bag (1/4 of the
volume of the bag every 15 minutes or so), net fish from bag and place fish
in tank.

2) where the water values are very dissimilar, I do something similar to
Michael (with or without Amquel - which is used primarily to offset the
higher pH/ammonia effect - depending upon pH of tank water), which is to
net and dump without intermediary acclimation.

The theory is that while the first method is preferable, when acclimating
fish to very different water values, a one time acclimation is less
stressful than rapid acclimation to multiple intermediate water values.  In
other words (remember, pH is logarithmic) a jump from 5.5 to 7.5 is
stressful, but not as stressful as acclimating from 5.5 to 6.5 and then
shortly thereafter from 6.5 to 7.5 (watch the ammonia!).

Of course, too big of a jump and you kill the fish... yep... it's not
always easy....

-mk




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