new clown murdered :(

Oh goodness i didnt even think about salinity shock.

if you cant get a drip for any reason then you can always do this. temp acclimate for 15 minutes then open the bag and add half a cup of water every 3ish minutes. do this for like 30 minutes tops to prevent ammonia build up. i used to do it that way and it never hurt anything. i use drip acclimating now too though

That's what I do. Haven't lost anything yet except 2 shrimp years ago & all the other shrimp that went in at the same time those 2 times were fine.
 
clowns are not that sensitive to salinity. so i doubt it was rom you dropping them into the tank. i would guess they were not healthy when you got them and from buying them and putting them into your tank stressed them to the point of them dying. did you notice any marks on the clowns or cloudiness of the skin or eyes? seen any signs of other disease in your tank like ich?

i keep my clowns at 18 - 20ppm or i think is around 1.015 or so. i use a digital refrac and only use the ppm cause its easier for me.
 
We're not talking about what salinity they live in, rather quick changes to salinity. If the LFS salinity is greatly different from yours & you just toss something in, even a clown, it's going to be a shock to their system, often to the point of death. All critters are sensitive to fast salinity changes.
 
clowns are not that sensitive to salinity. so i doubt it was rom you dropping them into the tank. i would guess they were not healthy when you got them and from buying them and putting them into your tank stressed them to the point of them dying. did you notice any marks on the clowns or cloudiness of the skin or eyes? seen any signs of other disease in your tank like ich?

i keep my clowns at 18 - 20ppm or i think is around 1.015 or so. i use a digital refrac and only use the ppm cause its easier for me.



are you kidding me!!!! i would be willing to bet the reason they died in such a short time is salinity shock... ALL MARINE animals are sensitive to drastic increases or decreases in salinity..... they can be kept in lower salinity water but they need to be acclimated... not temp acclimated then just dropped in....
 
Years and years ago beforeI knew the proper way to acclimate fish, I would also just float the bag and then dump them in.

Not anymore I don'tdo that. float, open the bag and like stated pour 1/2 -1 cup water from my tank every 5 mins.

But I have all of my fish from over 4 years ago still living from just float & go. I think also some fish are stronger than others are.
 
are you kidding me!!!! i would be willing to bet the reason they died in such a short time is salinity shock... ALL MARINE animals are sensitive to drastic increases or decreases in salinity..... they can be kept in lower salinity water but they need to be acclimated... not temp acclimated then just dropped in....

Thats not true, there is a lot of marine fish that swim from salt water to fresh water, and sometimes over a very short time. While this is obviously not the same as an instant salinity change it shows somewhat that some fish are very resistant to changes in salinity, even rapid changes.

Pretty much every LFS I have in my area keeps their fish tanks (not coral) at around 1.022 or 1.023, it is cheaper for them to use less salt and is better for higher oxygen levels in the water. If that is the case with the fish in question than even an instant drop in salinity of only .002 should not have been the cause of the fish deaths.

Now none of this is to say his Hydrometer is not significantly off and his actualy salinity is far lower (although he stated he has corals like frogspawn). I would guess his actual salinity is slightly higher than his hydrometer shows.

Again all of this is speculation and something the op should check into. Take your hydrometer into the LFS when you have your water tested and verify its accuracy against their calibrated refractometer.
 
I bought my first fish yesterday, and I did a 1 and a half hour to 45 min. slow drip acculamation. My lfs salinity was 1.022 , mine was 1.025. After an hour I checked my salinity in the bucket ,it was 1.024 so I chose to go another a little longer and checked once more and got a match. Then I put him in.I have wanted a clownfish forever, I don't want him to die cause of me being impaitent . It's real hard not to rush, worse than waiting for christmas day when I was a kid.I have had to look at an empty 75 gallon tank for almost 4 months.Ask many questions if unsure and watch big chain petstores, they have crap info.
 
Good idea I'll bring my hyrdrometer to lfs next visit. All the clowns looked great at shop..no damage or disease that I could see. And my goby has been healthy, besides him there's been no other fish. Just liverock and adding frag/polyp here and there. I'll find out what they keep their tanks at. Also I was in no rush to add, I've had tank set up for months with just rock. It was just ignorance on my part for not doing a drip, and not knowing why we do drip acclimation. Thanks for the info and suggestions everyone.
 
Thats not true, there is a lot of marine fish that swim from salt water to fresh water, and sometimes over a very short time. While this is obviously not the same as an instant salinity change it shows somewhat that some fish are very resistant to changes in salinity, even rapid changes.

Pretty much every LFS I have in my area keeps their fish tanks (not coral) at around 1.022 or 1.023, it is cheaper for them to use less salt and is better for higher oxygen levels in the water. If that is the case with the fish in question than even an instant drop in salinity of only .002 should not have been the cause of the fish deaths.

Now none of this is to say his Hydrometer is not significantly off and his actualy salinity is far lower (although he stated he has corals like frogspawn). I would guess his actual salinity is slightly higher than his hydrometer shows.

Again all of this is speculation and something the op should check into. Take your hydrometer into the LFS when you have your water tested and verify its accuracy against their calibrated refractometer.



do you mean from salt to brackish??? big diff between fresh and brackish... and these fish usually go into a brackish system when its high tide and the salinity is at its highest
 
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