A shipped fish or one long in the bag exudes waste and co2 from bodily processes. This amounts to ammonium in the water and co2 in the bag. This is safe, so long as the bag stays closed.
The instant the bag is opened, the co2 escapes. This causes the ph of the water to start shifting. Within 30 minutes, the ammonium in the bag has undergone a chemical change (because of the ph) to deadly ammonia, which may not kill immediately, but will damage organs and cause mysterious death in the tank.
Best procedure is to avoid acclimation entirely: call the shipper and ask the salinity at which they ship. Or ask the store. Pre-set the salinity of the qt to match that. On receipt of the fish, float the bag(s) for 15 minutes to adjust temperature, then one by one, if multiple, open bag, TEST THE WATER with a refractometer to be sure, and if with .002 of a match, put the fish straight across into the qt, because acclimation is a procedure to match salinity, and .002 is an acceptable jump.
If you find a mismatch greater than .002, you must acclimate anyway, but hopefully it won't be too long: start removing water from the bag and adding an equal amount of destination water. The total acclimation must be finished before 30 minutes is up, and 5 minutes sooner is safer than down to the wire.
Understand that a rapid salinity DROP of several .00's is safe for a fish. A rapid salinity RISE is dangerous as in damaging, so that has to be handled by giving his tissues time to adjust. If you have a huge discrepancy to handle due to some massive mix-up, the only thing I can say is that ammonia is absolutely lethal and an iffy salinity jump may not be. But there is one more thing you can do to nix the ammonia and give you more time.
Having a bottle of Prime or Amquel handy, treat the bag water, to bind ammonia as it appears---the precise measurement of this is not critical: a guesstimate is pretty safe. This is something you should always have in the house anyway (in the event you have a dire water emergency and need to convert tapwater asap to something useable to make saltwater.)
Main thing is---avoid acclimation if at all possible, which is the roughest way to introduce a new fish to your system. Kindest is to slip the arriving fish into same-salinity water after a little temperature stabilization.
If you must acclimate, do it within 30 minutes, and have Prime or Amquel at hand. And here is where a refractometer is REAL helpful, so you are not sitting there whacking away at a swing-arm to get the last bubble off the arm to make it read right.
The instant the bag is opened, the co2 escapes. This causes the ph of the water to start shifting. Within 30 minutes, the ammonium in the bag has undergone a chemical change (because of the ph) to deadly ammonia, which may not kill immediately, but will damage organs and cause mysterious death in the tank.
Best procedure is to avoid acclimation entirely: call the shipper and ask the salinity at which they ship. Or ask the store. Pre-set the salinity of the qt to match that. On receipt of the fish, float the bag(s) for 15 minutes to adjust temperature, then one by one, if multiple, open bag, TEST THE WATER with a refractometer to be sure, and if with .002 of a match, put the fish straight across into the qt, because acclimation is a procedure to match salinity, and .002 is an acceptable jump.
If you find a mismatch greater than .002, you must acclimate anyway, but hopefully it won't be too long: start removing water from the bag and adding an equal amount of destination water. The total acclimation must be finished before 30 minutes is up, and 5 minutes sooner is safer than down to the wire.
Understand that a rapid salinity DROP of several .00's is safe for a fish. A rapid salinity RISE is dangerous as in damaging, so that has to be handled by giving his tissues time to adjust. If you have a huge discrepancy to handle due to some massive mix-up, the only thing I can say is that ammonia is absolutely lethal and an iffy salinity jump may not be. But there is one more thing you can do to nix the ammonia and give you more time.
Having a bottle of Prime or Amquel handy, treat the bag water, to bind ammonia as it appears---the precise measurement of this is not critical: a guesstimate is pretty safe. This is something you should always have in the house anyway (in the event you have a dire water emergency and need to convert tapwater asap to something useable to make saltwater.)
Main thing is---avoid acclimation if at all possible, which is the roughest way to introduce a new fish to your system. Kindest is to slip the arriving fish into same-salinity water after a little temperature stabilization.
If you must acclimate, do it within 30 minutes, and have Prime or Amquel at hand. And here is where a refractometer is REAL helpful, so you are not sitting there whacking away at a swing-arm to get the last bubble off the arm to make it read right.
