Help. Dying fish.

[PirateLove]

Ordered a fish online and did not set my quarantine to match the salinity because I have never ordered a fish online. Started drip acclimation. Tested water and ammonia was sky high. Dropped a lot of prime in the bag and it is now zero. Salinity is 30 and the tank is 35ppm. What do I do!?

 

[jjwillia]

Just spit balling here since your on a timeline but what about removing a cup
or so of water from the tank and replacing it with rodi. Test, rinse and repeat until your close. Then you can bring it back up over time.

 

[lagatbezan]

get a bucket and put some water from you tank in it and mix it with some fresh water to get the salinity to 30 and take the fish and transfer it to the new water. and then slowly raise the salinity to match your tank.
Drop acclimation is worst thing you can do when you get a fish that has been in a bag for some hours. As soon as you open the bag up within 30 min the ph will change and ammonia will shoot up! you want to get the fish out of the bag and the water it came in as soon as you open up the bag.
you can add some prime to the water in the bag but you have to make sure that the place that shipped it doesnt have any copper in the water since prime or any ammonia reducers will react negatively with copper.
great read here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1959576

 

[PirateLove]

Thanks for all the help. I don't know if it was the right thing to do but I added a bunch of prime and super quickly acclimated him. It was about 10 drips per second. I have him in the low flow area of the sump and he is swimming next to my clown. He was sideways in the bag... hope he makes it. =(

I learned my lesson.

 

[lagatbezan]

good luck! hope it pulls through. What kind of fish is it?

 

[mcgyvr]

Next time just take a few minutes and simply adjust the salinity of the quarantine tank..

 

[ca1ore]

Most shipped fish will come in at 1.017-9. I set my QT to 1.018, and adjust down if needed once the newbie arrives. It's quite surprising how much RODI is required to drop from 1.015 to 1.018.

 

[ReeferNoob4ever]

Maybe I'm lucky but I just toss them in and let 'nature' take over. If the fish dies it wasn't strong enough. But FWIW I have also never lost a fish doing this. I have turned African cichlids into saltwater fish in the past over the course of a week or so. Some are a lot tougher than others. And I don't want your holier than thou comments =P

 

[PeteStarks]

Maybe I'm lucky but I just toss them in and let 'nature' take over. If the fish dies it wasn't strong enough. But FWIW I have also never lost a fish doing this. I have turned African cichlids into saltwater fish in the past over the course of a week or so. Some are a lot tougher than others. And I don't want your holier than thou comments =P

Well I guess if you have a ton of extra cash to replace live stock and enjoy some sort of torture sport inside a glass box? The thing to remember is that being "alive" is not really the gold standard here. Humans can live a somewhat normal life with failing organs until they can't. Best case the "tougher" ones just had years shaved off their lives by just tossing them in.

 

[ca1ore]

Eh, there's always one (sometimes more than one) :lol:

 

[mcgyvr]

Eh, there's always one (sometimes more than one) :lol:

<<-- this guy... :hmm6:

never quarantined.. only acclimated a fish once just because I wanted to feel special that day.. Normally I just float the bag to temp acclimate and go.
knock on my wooden leg but never had a problem (so far)

 

[avery155]

Russian roulette it will eventually get you, luck plays a good role I suppose.

 

[ReeferNoob4ever]

Pete Starks...what are you doing to stop global warming? All those reefs dying in the ocean is your fault too, but I digress. I have an African cichlid that is 16 yrs old and I had him in a 5 gallon tank for 3 years when I first got him. I think people are unaware how adaptable nature can be. I guess mcgyvr and I just live on the edge.