Acclimation advice needed quickly

ryewalk84 · Jun 30, 2020

I received a shipment from liveaquaria an hour ago and the bags have been floating to adjust to temp. While they have been floating I have been checking salinity. 6 of the bags are at 1.020. The 7th bag, which is a blue flasher wrasse is at 1.028. I have checked it 2x already. Going to check it a 3rd now. What should I do? Prime the bag and try to drip acclimate the blue flasher, dump it in the tank or no prime and drop acclimate? Thanks in advance.

andrewey · Jun 30, 2020

What is the salinity of your tank at?

ryewalk84 · Jun 30, 2020

andrewey said:
What is the salinity of your tank at?

I lowered the qt to 1.018 in hopes that the bags would come in at that. Bringing it back up to match the other 6 bags at the moment.

andrewey · Jun 30, 2020

Your other bags will be fine to do the temperature and dump method because of the ammonia toxicity you already know about.

I would drip acclimate the other bag because of the difference, provided you have something like prime on hand to neutralize the ammonia. If you don't and can't pick some up before opening the bag, I would worry more about the ammonia then the SG difference, although it's a pretty large swing, so it will be very dicey and you'll need to do a 30 minute acclimation (max).

This is just my opinion and based on some readings of what Humblefish has done in the past, but keep that in mind- it's just conjecture.

Uncle99 · Jun 30, 2020

Your target salinity is 1.018, which is lower than the bags and the wrasse.
Fish acclimate well when temp is matched and salinity is lower than where they came from.
Your QT is lower, so match the temp and drop them in.

its moving from lower salinity to higher which needs to be done slowly, say, max of 0.002 per day.

ryewalk84 · Jun 30, 2020

andrewey said:
Your other bags will be fine to do the temperature and dump method because of the ammonia toxicity you already know about.

I would drip acclimate the other bag because of the difference, provided you have something like prime on hand to neutralize the ammonia. If you don't and can't pick some up before opening the bag, I would worry more about the ammonia then the SG difference, although it's a pretty large swing, so it will be very dicey and you'll need to do a 30 minute acclimation (max).

This is just my opinion and based on some readings of what Humblefish has done in the past, but keep that in mind- it's just conjecture.

Thanks for the input. I do have prime on hand. My gut was saying prime and drip but then I worry about copper in the bag. The water appears clear. Im thinking I’ll squeeze water out of the pin prick and run a copper test with my Hanna. Prime if all is good and drip it.

andrewey · Jun 30, 2020

Yeah, I'm really sorry you're going through this. I think you have all the right ideas and you're in a bind here. I personally haven't played around with any copper absorbents in this situation because of the time factor, so you've certainly been dealt a rough hand- I think you're making the most of out it!

ryewalk84 · Jun 30, 2020

Checked salinity for a 3rd time on the blue flasher and still showing 1.028. Hanna high range checker came back at .01 copper so with margin it could be zero . Going to try prime And hope for the best.

ryewalk84 · Jun 30, 2020

Went a different route. I took a large container of tank water and mixed it to 1.028. Cut bag and put the wrasse into the container. The wrasse is now drip acclimating in that container to the tank water. Hopefully everything goes well. All the other fish are looking good so far. Thanks for the responses. Thought I had everything prepared for this batch of fish but I wasn’t thinking things through when I saw that one number.

Zionas · Jun 30, 2020

Drip acclimate the one with the largest salinity difference, the rest just put them in the tank rather than expose them to more ammonia.

Edit; I see you’ve already taken the right actions. Hope everything goes well. That’s a failure on their part.

ryewalk84 · Jun 30, 2020

Update on the fish. The 6 fish that were at 1.020 I dropped directly into the tank. Most are already eating or picking at pellets and actively swimming around the tank. The blue flasher wrasse was moved into the cup at 1.028 and dripped to the tank level for about an hour. It looked pretty lethargic when I moved it to the tank but is now out and actively swimming with the other wrasses. Flaring up and looking pretty good. Fingers crossed everyone finds a home and settles in. Thanks again everyone!