Acclimating a new fish

        Acclimating a new fish is by far the most important step you can do to help keep them healthy and disease free. Acclimating should never be avoided. If its bringing them home from your local pet shop, receiving them from an online company via overnight shipping, or even as simple as transferring a fish from one tank to another. They all require acclimating!.  Any kind of rapid change to a fishes environment, will put all sorts of extra stress on them. This extra stress can make them very susceptible to all sorts of diseases. A situation you don't want!. If the water changes are made gradually, letting a fish slowly adapt from one water chemistry to another. Then any extra stress put on a fish wont be as high and this in turn will help keep your fish healthy and disease free.

After your fish have arrived, open the shipping box in a dimmed area only!   This prevents light shock. (Light shock will cause your new fish extra stress that can lead to sickness or death). Inspect your new arrivals, if your new fish look healthy, maybe a little frighten from the stress of shipping, and then start acclimating. If your fish are gasping for air, start emergency acclimation procedure below, immediately!!!  Caution:  only if you are absolutely positive your new fish need to be acclimated quickly. We recommend quarantining your new angelfish in their own tank for about 14-21 days from the rest of your fish.   All hoses and nets should be kept clean and separated from any other equipment or tanks.  This not only protects your fish, but your new arrivals as well.  Never just float a bag without it opened! Either when receiving fish by mail or from your local pet shop, it is very unhealthy and can be very dangerous to your fish.  There are many ways to acclimate a new fish.  This way has worked for us, without experiencing any losses or diseases due to improper acclimating. The following instructions should be followed.

Acclimating Procedure

Complete each step, before moving to the next

1)     Open the shipping bag and roll down the top portion of the bag. (This will enable the bag to float)

2)     Float the opened bag in your aquarium for approximately 30 minutes so the water temperature in the bag will be equal to the temperature in your aquarium. (We recommend using a cycled quarantine tank)

3)     After the temperature equalizes, add ¼ cup of your aquarium water to the shipping bag every 15 minutes. Repeat this 5 times.

4)     Remove 1 cup of water from the shipping bag and discard.

5)     Add an additional ¼ cup of your aquarium water to the shipping bag every 10 minutes. Repeat 2 more times.

6)     Remove the shipping bag and pour the water and fish into a net over a clean pail. (Do this close to the floor, if a fish should jump, they won’t have far to go)

7)     Add the fish to your aquarium.

8)     Discard the water in the bucket. (Never add any shipping water to your aquarium!)

• Keep the Aquarium Lights off and don't feed your fish for 24 hours!
• Acclimating should take approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes. This is a long time, Please don’t forget about your fish!!! We recommend using a timer.

Discard acclimating water from bucket.  Never add any shipping or acclimating water to your tank.  Repeat above steps as necessary.  Keep the lights off for a few hours to allow the new fish to get familiar with there new surroundings.  Don’t worry about feeding your new fish for at least 3 hours.

Emergency Information

Most likely you’ll never need the emergency procedure, but I have included it just in case of any unforeseen problems during shipping. After inspecting the fish and if any appear to be gasping for air, Caution: only the bags of fish that contain the gasping fish.  The other bags acclimate using the acclimating procedure above.  Add one capful of Amquel or another ammonia remover, and a drop or two of 3% Hydrogen peroxide. Float the opened bags of fish in the intended aquarium. Begin acclimating procedure above.

Hydrogen peroxide can be used in emergency's to rapidly increase oxygen levels in shipping water. Under no circumstances should you ever give a second dose. Acclimate as soon as possible after stabilizing your sick fish. Hydrogen peroxide decomposes into water by releasing pure oxygen. Too much can actually burn the gills and skin on fish.

Caution! Never use more Hydrogen peroxide then a few drops. Too much can corrode the gills and skin on fish. This is only used in emergency's.

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