Why slow drip acclimation is needed?

[kimha]

Hello Experts,

Please help me understand the purpose of slow drip fish acclimation. I have been told to acclimate fish slowly before putting them into the quarantine tank. Dripping method was preferred to allow the fish to slowly adjust to the quarantine tank salinity, etc.

But I am not sure if it is necessary. I visited a family owned saltwater maintenance company in San Diego and saw how they fresh water dip their fish. They received the fish from a wholesale facility packaged individually in bags. They let the bags flow in a large RO/DI fresh water tank until the temperature of the water in the bags matched with the water in the tank. Then they took the fish out of the bag and dropped them right into the same fresh water tank. The fish sank to the bottom, landed side way and barely moving as if they were dying. Then 10 seconds later, they turned upright and started swimming normally. About 5 minutes later, they transferred the fish from the freshwater tank straight into the quarantine tanks @ 1.020 salinity. All the fish looked healthy and started eating shortly after.

It blew my mind. There was no time for the fish to adjust to the salinity from the bag to the fresh water tank, then onward to the quarantine tank. They called it fresh water dip to remove parasites and they have been doing this for almost 20 years with no problems. The only things they really care about are matching temperatures and PH during the entire process.

If fish can survive fresh water dip for 5 minutes (from 1.020 to freshwater then back to 1.020), then they should be easily survive from the fish store bag to our quarantine tank, as long as the temperature and PH are not too far apart. So is slow drip really necessary???

 

[lowbudget]

I never do. I worry more about temps. But some fish are more delicate then others

 

[flyhigh123]

some say when u open the bag, the ammonia builds up quick...

i just get temp the same, do a fw dip and drop in tank... no qt... lol... been lucky knock on wood...

 

[AdamSabina]

Ammonium changes to ammonia as the PH rises, inside the fish as well as the water. So if your buying it from a store it doesn't matter because you haven't left it in the bag for 15+ hours and allowed the ammonium to build up and the PH lowers.

Your first store is matching PH and thus not letting the ammonium change to ammonia and kill the fish.

Personally I drip acclimate fish that have been shipped and dip them after quarantine. If I buy at a fish store they get dipped then quarantined

 

[slief]

One of the key reasons one would do the dip acclimation method is to match salinity. Many places that supply fish keep their salinity very low. I got 4 new fish the day before yesterday and the supplier they came from keeps their fish holding system at 1.020. I keep my water at 1.024-1.025 so it made for a 4.5 hour acclimation. I've read that some facilities keep their salinity as low as 1.018. I use an acclimation box that drips water in from the tank and out of the box simultaneously so that water is slowly changed from bag water to tank water. To fast of a salinity change can be lethal for fish and can also cause other issues with them.

That said, the best way is to reduce or raise the QT tanks salinity to match the new fish's water and then just bring the fish's bag to the same temp as the QT by floating it. Mix a little bit of water in put them in the QT. The two biggest concerns are temp and salinity when it comes to acclimating fish. If you can match both, the fish are safe to be introduced. Once in QT, raise the salinity a little bit each day to match the tank

As mentioned, depending on how long the fish were in the bag, ammonia can be an issue. As such, some Amquel can be essential in insuring the fish don't die from toxic levels of ammonia assuming you are going to use a slow acclimation method which I always do.. Also an air stone can also be helpful in preventing hypoxia.

 

[Fallling]

I was recently reading up on this as I was getting some fish from DD, and their instructions say to drip acclimate. I've come to the conclusion that it can potentially do more harm than good and might explain why some people have inexplicitly lost fish (that seemed to be doing good) a day after long drip acclimation. At least for fish that have been shipped... fish coming straight from the lfs probably won't have this problem.

Ammonia will start building up as soon as the bag is opened and something like Amquel should be used, but most drip acclimation instructions don't mention that. Personally, I think a better alternative is to match your quarantine to the salinity that's already in the bag. That way, you can temp match and release into quarantine without needing to acclimate salinity. Since there's nothing else in the quarantine (at least I assume there's not), quickly bringing it up or down isn't a problem. From there, you slowly raise the salinity over a few days to match the DT.

 

[m0nkie]

I dont think you guys are reading the OP correctly.. we all know about the PH issue. The question here is why drip acclimate when fish can handle 5 min of fresh water shock. For example, buying a fish from lfs. Ph and temp all match. Salinity a little low. Why drip to match .01 worth of salinity swing when most of the fish can handle sw to fw.

I am curious as well..

 

[benjc]

My understanding is that fish can handle a drop in salinity much easier than an increase in salinity. The freshwater dips are meant to be long enough that the parasites drop off, but not long enough to damage the fish. Personally, I setup my qt at the same salinity as the fish store, float the bagged new fish in the water until they are the same temp, and then drop it in. I then let the salinity rise by using saltwater as the top off water. On a semi-related note, I'm not convinced that temp acclimation is all that important, especially for shallow water fish; in the ocean there is a thermocline 20-30 feet down where the water temp abruptly changes 3-4 degrees.