Fish in a bag

[ravedood]

How long can a fish survive in a bag after I just purchased it from the pet store. I left the bag floating in my tank because I didn't have time wait for the temperature to equalize. How long will it last in there? I plan to be home by 6 tonight.

 

[Chef Reef]

. umm. i would think its going to be dead when you get home. but fish are shipped in bags and stay in there for longer so it really should be fine. unless it heats up bad..

IMO

 

[racermike27]

I think the fish will be fine so long as the bag does not get too hot and the fish stays calm. Remember the water is hotter near the surface of the water. Water with warmer temperatures tend to be lower in O2 levels. This added in with the fishes respiration will increase oxygen consumption within the bag, thus lessening the time the fish can stay in the bag. It also depends on how much air is trapped in the bag as well. There is no real definitive answer to this question. Also remember when fish are shipped they are enclosed in a box with no light so this puts less load on the stress level of the fish thus decreasing O2 usage.

Good luck. I think it should be fine though.

-Mike-

 

[Kewlworm]

I had fishes last more than 10 hrs in the bag before. I didn't intend to do it, but couldn't get home to it. I always put the bag in my sump, so the bag won't get too hot and the fishes are less stressful. I now have an airstone rdy for those rare occasion where I can get to it soon enough. Good luck.

 

[Fish2reef]

12 hours here, placed the bag in the sump at 8 PM and forgot until the next morning before heading to work.

 

[ej797]

Was the bag filled with oxygen? It is after 6 did it survive?

 

[ravedood]

he is alive!!!!!

 

[RicksReefs]

yup, it should be fine, but the longer a fish stays in a bag, the more CO2 builds up and the lower the ph gets (check the pH the next time you have fish bagged for hours). at low pH, ammonia isn't very toxic ( there will be ammonia build up after a few hours). the danger is when you open the bag, the CO2 escapes, the O2 equalizes, the pH shoots up and the ammonia becomes toxic. (which is why you'll see some LFS's just dump new fish into the system). a little am-gaurd or other ammonia remover will do wonders to prevent ammo burn during acclimation of overnighted fish.