Drip Acclimation for shipped fish in cold temps?

[stunreefer]

Personally, I always float the bag (in the sump)...

I would encourage everyone to always float bags in the sump rather than their display... placing a freshly shipped/transported specimen in a clear bag where all the existing tankmates come up to investigate with nowhere for the new addition to hide (in a bag no less) surely stresses out the fish. Acclimation containers are different as your dealing with an already QT'd fish and are doing this for territorial reasons (or should be at least).

 

[Big E]

Imo, the drip acclimation method is ridiculous. I've never done it in 20 years & have never lost a fish shortly after acclimation. I want them in good water asap.

I take away & add water to the bag while it's floating in the QT tank for about an hour & that's it.

 

[sanchoy]

If you live in the frozen tundra I will advise not to order/ship fish at this time of the year. Many things can happen. They could be left on the dock in the cold, they could get lost, they could be left on your doorstep.

Really depends on the vendor though, if you are dealing with a good company, they should pack it nicely and guarantee arrival, living for a few days at least.

 

[snorvich]

If you live in the frozen tundra I will advise not to order/ship fish at this time of the year. Many things can happen. They could be left on the dock in the cold, they could get lost, they could be left on your doorstep.

Really depends on the vendor though, if you are dealing with a good company, they should pack it nicely and guarantee arrival, living for a few days at least.

they should guarantee for 14 days not just a few days.

 

[snorvich]

Imo, the drip acclimation method is ridiculous. I've never done it in 20 years & have never lost a fish shortly after acclimation. I want them in good water asap.

I take away & add water to the bag while it's floating in the QT tank for about an hour & that's it.

In effect you ARE drip acclimating by water exchange. Same difference at a cruder level.

 

[TRichardson79]

I would really like to get a yellow tang but I am in Iowa and the temps have been hovering around 0 during the day. Got down to -19 last night. So I think I will just wait.

 

[snorvich]

Maybe you can take the original posters yellow tang??? :spin2:

 

[greech]

Just wanted to say that she made it here and the bag water was 76.5 degrees. Floated her for about 15 minutes and dripped for just about an hours replacing half the water twice during the drip. Worked great and she seems to be settling in very well. Thank all for the help and advice.

BTW I ended up wrapping the acclimation bucket in towels and the temp never really strayed during the process.

 

[Big E]

In effect you ARE drip acclimating by water exchange. Same difference at a cruder level

The drip method time I've seen is 2-4 hours & the fish lingers in poor water longer. I believe the water is exhanged once in the drip method. I do it 4-5 times at smaller portions.......fresh good water faster in the acclimation bag & in the tank in an hour.

I also don't have to worry about the dilemma of keeping the drip bucket the correct temperature.

They AREN'T the same.......different method & TIME involved. It's about weighing whether you want the fish in good water faster or think it needs an excruciating looooong time to acclimate to the tank condidtions...........even though I've never heard or read of anyone losing a fish because they acclimated too quick.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

From an article I wrote for AA online magazine: (regarding misinformation aquarists may run into)

1. "I drip-acclimated my fish for XX hours just like I was told." XX can be anything from four to eight hours, sometimes more. There are only two specialized instances where acclimation times this lengthy are justified: when moving a fish from lower specific gravity to a tank that is much higher and in cases where the shipment time was in excess of 36 hours. In both of these instances, life support is maintained by aeration and keeping the temperature within range. In the case of lengthy shipments, the pH / ammonia issue must be dealt with.

Think about this - you have been outside without a coat, you are hypothermic, you are then given the choice of going inside and sitting by a space heater or moving into the garage to warm up just a little, and then an hour later, go into the house - your choice is? It is the same with fish and inverts - any temperature acclimation times of more than 15 minutes are useless. Temperature shock is a much rarer thing than you might think - many more fish die due to low dissolved oxygen or high ammonia while being acclimated too long for temperature (Hemdal 2006). Perhaps worry about photo-shock, pH change and specific gravity increases, but don't go overboard. Ultimately, ask yourself; what is more stressful to a fish - acclimating them in a bare Styrofoam box or bucket for five hours, or having the water parameters abruptly change, but then being able to hole up undercover in a dark cave inside a good quality aquarium to recuperate?

JHemdal

This isn't really a good comparison for s number of reasons. Primarily, we are warm blodded creatures so it's not our actual body temperature that is changing with the ambient temperature.

When you take a fish from 60 degree water and put it in 80 degree water, it's body temperature is changing from 60 to 80 degrees. If you take us at hypothermia and move us back to comfortable inside temperature, our body temperature only changes from somewhere in the low 90s up to 98.

It's not an issue of convenience or "want" for the fish. Sure, it wants to be in comfortable water. But there are certain physical and chemical things that happen with changes in temperature.

That said, I float the bag, add a cup of water every few minutes, and release within the hour. Another great use of a QT tank is that as you are acclimating the fish, you can alter the QT tank to meet halfway if the fish is far off (low salinity, low temperature, etc).

 

[L8 2 RISE]

The drip method time I've seen is 2-4 hours & the fish lingers in poor water longer. I believe the water is exhanged once in the drip method. I do it 4-5 times at smaller portions.......fresh good water faster in the acclimation bag & in the tank in an hour.

I also don't have to worry about the dilemma of keeping the drip bucket the correct temperature.

They AREN'T the same.......different method & TIME involved. It's about weighing whether you want the fish in good water faster or think it needs an excruciating looooong time to acclimate to the tank condidtions...........even though I've never heard or read of anyone losing a fish because they acclimated too quick.

You suggest there are rules set in stone as to how to drip acclimate a fish and there really aren't. I do a relatively fast drip of 4 or so per second, pouring water out as needed (usually 1/4-1/2 the water volume 1-2 times) and have the fish released within an hour. I also keep the container that I acclimate the fish in in the sump of my tank and have the drip line coming from the tank so that the temp stays constant.

*raises hand* on anyone losing a fish because they acclimated poorly. And it was using the method you described because I had a lot of new fish and didn't have enough airline tubing...

To each his/her own. Really, it's just whatever works.

 

[JHemdal]

Lobster,

The same thing applies to terrestrial ectotherms as well, I just used an endothermic "person" to make the point. There are no real studies, and almost no anecdotes that show that temperature "shock" in fishes is more detrimental than the long-term acclimation (drip) acclimation is. Fish are suprisingly reslient to temperature change. The case I always point out is the damselfish in the Galapagos that I saw which had laid its eggs right along the thermocline. Every time a wave passed, the temperature of the water flucuated 10 degrees, yet the fish and eggs were fine.
The physiological changes you alluded to can come into play, but usually only if/when the fish has been exposed to temperature extremes outside of survivable parameters - then certain processes either shut down or speed up, most of these are based on chemical reactions. Look at it from the other direction: you arrive home and discover that heater in your tank has stuck on and the fish are at 95 degrees. Are you going to slowly drip water into the tank to reduce it back down to 75 degrees, or just shut the heater off and let the temp drop naturally? No, you're going to either move the fish directly to a new tank, and change 50% of the water...and if you didn't exceed their physiological limit, they'll be fine.

People need to evaluate their water addition rates for acclimation. I just finished an article for TFH on this subject and discovered that almost without exception, people do this incorrectly. Assume that the goal is to create a consistent acclimation rate over time X to be the desired goal - nobody seems to take into account that subsequent additions of water (or the drip rate) MUST increase as the acclimation progresses, else the rate of change will slow to a crawl, not doing the fish any good. I also ran some "floating bag" temperature tests. The OP asked about floating the bag for 15 minutes and then drip acclimating the fish - well, don't bother doing that for temperature alone, because a 15 minute float will equlibriate a standard fish bag to the tank temperature.

Jay

 

[caad3]

I would definitely float the bag, before drip acclimating. Be suprised how resilient some fish can be.