Yeeeeah!
- Thread starter ryanoh
- Start date
What I do for sensitive fish is this:
I have the supplier pack them in a larger volume of water than they normally do. I also bring a small bag of my own (a ziplock type bag) to put a small sample of the tank's water in to test when I get home.
When I get them home, I put them in a two gallon bucket I have just for acclimation. It is dark and I keep it covered to reduce stress. It also has a heater in the bottom. In this bucket, I add some plant clippings (also to give the fish a sense of 'natural' environment to reduce stress).
I then quickly test the water sample and the tank's water they will be going into. Depending on how different the readings for pH, GH, and KH are, I start drip acclimation. I have a kit I use, but any airline tubing can work. I like the kit since you can adjust the flow very easily.
I start dripping the tank's water into the bucket until the volume is up near the top of the two gallon bucket. The more the two water samples differed, the slower I set the drip rate.
I then remove 50% of the water, then restart the dripping again.
I remove again 50% of the water, then restart the dripping again.
At this point, the fish are in water that is mostly tank water. I have a small glass jar I use to get the fish out of the bucket, as I've seen too many fish get caught on nets. I use a net to 'herd' the fish into the jar, then gently lower the jar into the new tank. The fish never leave water, which is less stressful than a ride in the air in a net.
Good luck with your fish. Post pics once they are settled!
I have the supplier pack them in a larger volume of water than they normally do. I also bring a small bag of my own (a ziplock type bag) to put a small sample of the tank's water in to test when I get home.
When I get them home, I put them in a two gallon bucket I have just for acclimation. It is dark and I keep it covered to reduce stress. It also has a heater in the bottom. In this bucket, I add some plant clippings (also to give the fish a sense of 'natural' environment to reduce stress).
I then quickly test the water sample and the tank's water they will be going into. Depending on how different the readings for pH, GH, and KH are, I start drip acclimation. I have a kit I use, but any airline tubing can work. I like the kit since you can adjust the flow very easily.
I start dripping the tank's water into the bucket until the volume is up near the top of the two gallon bucket. The more the two water samples differed, the slower I set the drip rate.
I then remove 50% of the water, then restart the dripping again.
I remove again 50% of the water, then restart the dripping again.
At this point, the fish are in water that is mostly tank water. I have a small glass jar I use to get the fish out of the bucket, as I've seen too many fish get caught on nets. I use a net to 'herd' the fish into the jar, then gently lower the jar into the new tank. The fish never leave water, which is less stressful than a ride in the air in a net.
Good luck with your fish. Post pics once they are settled!
Awesome, I picked them up (along with a khuli loach the guy at the store talked me into), drip acclimated them just fine with no major problems (except one with my filter that I'll probably post about elsewhere once its resolved), and they're swimming around in my tank right now. One is even starting to show some pretty nice color and already ate a bit.
Now, no to the fun part...
The guy at the pet store did his best guess at getting me one male and one female. That's a picture of both of them. The one of the left is the one that's sort of still acting skittish, so sorry for the bad picture. If we can't figure it out from this I'll try and get a better picture of it.
What do you guys think?
Now, no to the fun part...
The guy at the pet store did his best guess at getting me one male and one female. That's a picture of both of them. The one of the left is the one that's sort of still acting skittish, so sorry for the bad picture. If we can't figure it out from this I'll try and get a better picture of it.
What do you guys think?
