First fish

[zelie_dad]

Last night I purchased 2 clowns. After an hour or so of floating them, I put them in. The whole time I was observing them, they were just staying near the surface of the water. I chalked it up to them just being transfered, and the new environment.

I went to bed, and this morning one of the fish was dead in my sump, and the other was still hanging out near the surface. I moved the other fish to the sump and checked my parameters, and other than my nirates being high, everything else was ok.

They seemed to be struggling with the flow in my DT, but they were always up near the surface where the flow is much less restricted.

I'm not sure if I should return the fish or what. This is my first fish purchase and so far it's not going great.

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[vcam]

While you were floating them, did you slowly add water to the bad every 5 minutes or so?

 

[zelie_dad]

While you were floating them, did you slowly add water to the bad every 5 minutes or so?

No,I just floated them in the bags, to equalize the water temp, and poured the water and fish through my net, and put them in the tank. No LFS water got mixed in with mine.

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[vcam]

You have the idea, but you missed a crucial step.

When you introduce anything to your tank, temperature is not the only thing you need to take into account.

They also need time to adjust to the salinity (lfs probably keeps it lower than you do) and ph. If not done the fish will go into shock and likely pass away from the extreme stress! imagine being added into a room where your lungs are burning (ph change) and it's hard to breath (salinity).

After floating the bag for 15-25 minutes closed for temp, add half a cup or so of your tank water to the bag and repeat 5-6 times or for 30 minutes. if the bad gets too full, empty half and continue. This will slowly introduce your water parameters to the new addition.

In regards to the surviving clown, if he has made it the night, he probably has adjusted. I'd move him back out of the sump in a day, let him continue to rest. If you'd like a pair of clowns add another one which is larger or smaller than the current inhabitant.

 

[zelie_dad]

Thanks. This being my first marine fish, I didn't think about that coming from FW.

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[Sweitz1972]

I personally like the drip method. Just put the fish in a bucket and get some airline tubing that is long enough to reach from your aquarium to the bucket. Get a siphon going and have a knot tied in the end if the airline tubing going into the bucket. the knot is to regulate how much water drips into the bucket. You want roughly about three drips a second is what I was told. Then just keep checking the salinity until it is fairly close to your aquariums salinity. I still float the bag for half an hour to get the temp right first though. this process could take two to three hours depending on how different your aquarium water is from your LFS.

 

[vcam]

I find the drip method to work extremely well for the ph and salinity issues, however, temp makes me always feel iffy.

2-3 hours in a bucket and the water slowly cools, i don't find the drip (at least in my cool basement) to keep the temp stable enough.

End of the day, both ways work. It's really personal preference, and whatever works for you !:spin1:

 

[Sweitz1972]

Yeah I agree, I do worry about the temp sometimes, but usually it dosent have to be for that long, I was just using an extreme case, I usually match my lfs water within an hour.