Best way to acclimate new clams?

[phishcrazee]

I'm getting 3 ultra croceas on Tuesday, they're being shipped overnight. What's the best way to acclimate them? I normally drip acclimate my corals/inverts for 1-2+ hours (depending on what I'm acclimating).

 

[a4twenty]

i drip as long as it takes to match params, sometimes over 4 hours.

 

[mbbuna]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=987725

 

[Krazy]

I drip mine for 2-3 hours or until the water matches

 

[RedEyeElf]

I drip until my cat starts trying to eat, then i move to the tank

 

[Giovanni]

First I match the temp with the bag closed by floating. I then put a container with twice the volume of the water the animal is in, inside a very large container. I then drip into the smaller container and allow it to do so with the water overflowing the smaller container into the large container until the parameters match. If you don't do it this way or remove some of the water from the smaller container you end up taking forever and using a ton of tank water to get the parameters to match. IME

 

[reefkoi]

Dang I guess I'm the only guy that just throws corals & clams in with no acclimation, I dont have any die that way. I buy locally though so maybe internet shipping since its such a long process would be different. BTW I have around 20 clams.

Light the flamethrowers, LOL

Note: I used to do the float, drip, all that stuff. Then I thought about it, how can they really acclimate in a few hours, if they have been living in different water for all their life I just figured an hour or 2 or 3 wouldnt really make a difference.

 

[Giovanni]

When you get in a very cold pool is a big shock to your system. If you get in slowly it does not seem a cool once you are in. Not as big of a shock to your system. Shock = stress. We are not talking about killing a healthy animal over even a sick one, we are just reducing stress. The less stress the faster the color returns and general health of the animal will get back to a normal state.

 

[prugs]

I use a 15-20 minute drip for all fish & clams.

Corals: If I do an iodine "dip" for 10-15 minutes, & then in the tank. If I don't dip them (coming from a friends tank) they go right in.

Starfish maybe get an hour drip.

 

[Ventralis321]

I drop them in. Never had an issue. If the clam is healthy it should be fine. Its the ones that are already dying that tend to go quicker.

 

[Ventralis321]

well i take that back. I first inspect them in a quaratine. And i like to fresh water dip them before i put them in my main tank. It kills off most of the hitchhikers.

 

[reefkoi]

"stress" is an arguable term for a clam, I don't really care if the clam is upset and ****ed at me LOL.
I just don't see what good 2 hours slowly dipping it into the cold pool does?
Chris

 

[Giovanni]

reefkoi,

The cold pool is for you. LOL The warm tank water is for the clam. I don't this anyone would argue that there is not mental stress for the new owner when the clam is showing signs of physiological stress.