Biota's "Float & Drop" Acclimation Instructions

[dmsc2fs]

I thought about doing this for my next shipment. I’ve had really bad luck and lost two tominis and a watchman goby from Dr. Reef. (Not really his fault or mine, but now I’m super gun shy about any hiccoughs during acclimation because I can’t ask him to replace anymore fish-this will be the third Tomini he’s sending me.)

My only problem would be needing multiple heaters…. How do you control the temp in the buckets? Or you just pull tank water and dilute with RODI hoping it’s close enough to tank water?

I have one heater for acclimation, but having multiple buckets ready at specific temps and salinity is challenging.

I don’t control the bucket temp. I temp acclimate the bag to the bucket and drop. From there I drip acclimate from DT until SG and temp match. If I hit SG but temp is quite a bit off I’ll start pulling water from the bucket and adding DT water with a container or multiple drippers fully open.

 

[trevorhiller]

@Biota_Marine feel like chiming in since a bunch of folks here are doing a lot of speculating? Its always funny to me that with all the resources and sponsors we have here at R2R its rare that people don't just reach out to the vendor for an explanation.

Good call. I feel like a lot of people speculate and have their own theories based on reading and personal experiences. However, I can tell you I spent 4 hours trying to slowly acclimate a fish that came in with low specific gravity and lethargy after shipping. I was trying to make sure to get it out of the shipping water by matching salinity and temp and then doing a methylene blue bath and it still perished. I couldn’t help but think this process was so complicated that there’s no way a LFS could dedicate that much time to it.

It got me thinking and reading everything I can on acclimation and treating sick fish and fish shipping and there is so much conflicting information out there.

Ive also seen petco float new arrivals, but never drip acclimate and while their fish aren’t the model of health in the hobby, they do have fish that are alive and all of my specimens from them have been healthy.

Maybe this is truly a case of less is more. Get them in quick and reduce stress…

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Good call. I feel like a lot of people speculate and have their own theories based on reading and personal experiences. However, I can tell you I spent 4 hours trying to slowly acclimate a fish that came in with low specific gravity and lethargy after shipping. I was trying to make sure to get it out of the shipping water by matching salinity and temp and then doing a methylene blue bath and it still perished. I couldn’t help but think this process was so complicated that there’s no way a LFS could dedicate that much time to it.

It got me thinking and reading everything I can on acclimation and treating sick fish and fish shipping and there is so much conflicting information out there.

Ive also seen petco float new arrivals, but never drip acclimate and while their fish aren’t the model of health in the hobby, they do have fish that are alive and all of my specimens from them have been healthy.

Maybe this is truly a case of less is more. Get them in quick and reduce stress…

I used to work at an LFS that would get 10-15 boxes of fish a week, we would just float and release. It's more important to get them out of their shipping water than it is to exactly match temp and salinity, they just have to be ballpark.

Think about swimming in the ocean and how many warm and cool pockets of water you hit, not too mention potential haloclines or other swings in salinity we are not actually measuring. Reef fish are good at regulating salinity and temp swings to a degree, but they're extremely sensitive to ammonia which can quickly harm/kill them. The bagged water (and long acclimation when not absolutely necessary) is much more dangerous than a temp or salinity change.

 

[i cant think]

Thats how I do it and haven't had an issue... drip acclamation seems overkill for fish.

+1 to this, I’ve done this way for the past two years for fish and the only times I drip acclimate are if I have other things that need drip acclimating to the tank. For example SPS acclimating with a fish I’d drip acclimate.

 

[Jeffcb]

+1 to this, I’ve done this way for the past two years for fish and the only times I drip acclimate are if I have other things that need drip acclimating to the tank. For example SPS acclimating with a fish I’d drip acclimate.

Even WWC coral acclimation instructions say to plop/float and drop because of shipping stress. They state if you want to dip them, wait a few days to do so. I guess shipping is very stressful on all animals.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I feel like inverts like starfish and probably most fish as well are a lot more tolerant to salinity fluctuations than we give them credit for. I'd attribute death to other factors before assuming salinity any day. I just acclimated 3 starfish considered delicate and didn't go nearly as slowly as recommended. They seem just fine.

 

[Jeffcb]

I feel like inverts like starfish and probably most fish as well are a lot more tolerant to salinity fluctuations than we give them credit for. I'd attribute death to other factors before assuming salinity any day. I just acclimated 3 starfish considered delicate and didn't go nearly as slowly as recommended. They seem just fine.

Inverts are probably the most sensitive.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Inverts are probably the most sensitive.

That's what I'd say too which is why I wanted to share my anecdote...btw they came from 3 separate sores and 1 or 2 were being kept at salinities which I'm sure weren't very close to natural. That's why I say I think they're less sensitive than we may think.

 

[i cant think]

Inverts are probably the most sensitive.

Coral is also a species of invert, so going by that theory, coral should be much more sensitive as well.

 

[trevorhiller]

Inverts are probably the most sensitive.

Ironically reef cleaners recommends the temperature acclimation and dump in method. No dripping. I’ve done this with 4 shipments from them and never lost an invert. Urchins, shrimp, snails, conches, cowries, it seems to work for all of them. The only thing I haven’t ordered are starfish. For some reason in my mind I’m ok with that, but fish I get concerned about.

Coral is also a species of invert, so going by that theory, coral should be much more sensitive as well.

And I’ve never drip acclimated a coral. I dip them in Bayer and add them right to the tank. Just did this with an Oregon tort, jf fox flame, Ora red planet, montipora, etc. so even SPS seem fine without acclimation.

I know Jake Adams from reef builders is a big proponent of coral “self acclimating” and never adjusts temp or salinity and says he’s never lost one during the process.

I probably should have made this a poll since we are having a lot of good discussion.

 

[Jeffcb]

Coral is also a species of invert, so going by that theory, coral should be much more sensitive as well.

I am thinking of a little higher on the animal ladder... Shrimp, crabs, stars ,snails, urchins and such. As I stated earlier #WWC instructions say to temp acclimate coral and drop asap.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Getting back to the starfish salinity fluctuations tolerance, I just wanted to share that of the 3, one was being held at around 31.2, one at 32.7, and the other at 35.7 according to my probe. Each was bought the same day from a separate shop. Not only did I acclimate them to 35 fairly quickly, but I highly doubt the shops put near as much time it effort into it as I did and they likely were just in the ocean very recently...just one of a few interesting observations I've made so far about them...of course I would personally advocate for a slow acclimation regardless.

 

[Biota_Marine]

@Biota_Marine feel like chiming in since a bunch of folks here are doing a lot of speculating? Its always funny to me that with all the resources and sponsors we have here at R2R its rare that people don't just reach out to the vendor for an explanation.

Hey Tony,

Thanks for tagging us in this. Yes, we highly recommend the float and drop method over any other method out there. The reason being because we do use pure oxygen and and additive (I promise it's not magic and it does exist).

Many of you were pretty on the nose but the biggest aspect here is while the fish respires in the bag they're producing CO2 which lowers the pH in the water. When the pH is lower the levels of available toxic ammonia is much lower than at higher pH level.

The second that bag is opened higher oxygen in the atmosphere make their way into the water and this is rapidly intensified when aquarists add air stones to oxygenate. Dripping water from your aquarium also increases the oxygen level and pH which then rapidly causes that non-toxic ammonia to convert into highly toxic ammonia. Even low levels of ammonia can cause significant issues for fish because it burns the gills and hinders their ability to get oxygen into their blood (this can cause a spiral effect on organs and overall health).

Also when you drip acclimate you dilute our water which has that additive making it no longer active which can now unbind any dangerous ammonia as well as stress out the fish.

Fish are able to osmoregulate in various salinities and adapt well to different environments but temperature is one factor they don't like rapidly changed. We also don't recommend immediate prophylactic treatment with our fish but instead a monitoring period to let them adjust to their new surroundings and recover from shipping before subjecting them to stressful treatment.

By following these methods I've had entire shipments delayed up to 7 days have 100% survival rate. Since making this the requirement to claim our animals our DOA/DAA has dropped significantly. So I highly recommend it.

 

[trevorhiller]

Hey Tony,

Thanks for tagging us in this. Yes, we highly recommend the float and drop method over any other method out there. The reason being because we do use pure oxygen and and additive (I promise it's not magic and it does exist).

Many of you were pretty on the nose but the biggest aspect here is while the fish respires in the bag they're producing CO2 which lowers the pH in the water. When the pH is lower the levels of available toxic ammonia is much lower than at higher pH level.

The second that bag is opened higher oxygen in the atmosphere make their way into the water and this is rapidly intensified when aquarists add air stones to oxygenate. Dripping water from your aquarium also increases the oxygen level and pH which then rapidly causes that non-toxic ammonia to convert into highly toxic ammonia. Even low levels of ammonia can cause significant issues for fish because it burns the gills and hinders their ability to get oxygen into their blood (this can cause a spiral effect on organs and overall health).

Also when you drip acclimate you dilute our water which has that additive making it no longer active which can now unbind any dangerous ammonia as well as stress out the fish.

Fish are able to osmoregulate in various salinities and adapt well to different environments but temperature is one factor they don't like rapidly changed. We also don't recommend immediate prophylactic treatment with our fish but instead a monitoring period to let them adjust to their new surroundings and recover from shipping before subjecting them to stressful treatment.

By following these methods I've had entire shipments delayed up to 7 days have 100% survival rate. Since making this the requirement to claim our animals our DOA/DAA has dropped significantly. So I highly recommend it.

Thank you for chiming in. I appreciate it and all the fish do as well!

I think I may just have to try this method.

I wonder if we could do an observational study thread on acclimation success here on the forums to gather data and analyze survivability of temperature only acclimation versus full blown drip acclimation. Short of doing a randomized controlled trial, we won’t definitively know, but an acclimation success mega thread would be really interesting to read for trends.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

I have only temp acclimated for 20 or more years, it’s works, my opinion people acclimate to slow and long.

 

[Biota_Marine]

Thank you for chiming in. I appreciate it and all the fish do as well!

I think I may just have to try this method.

I wonder if we could do an observational study thread on acclimation success here on the forums to gather data and analyze survivability of temperature only acclimation versus full blown drip acclimation. Short of doing a randomized controlled trial, we won’t definitively know, but an acclimation success mega thread would be really interesting to read for trends.

It also heavily depends on the source as well. Time in transit matters quite a bit with this method, I'm sure if you're just taking a fish from your local fish store to your tank they aren't producing as much ammonia in that trip than the 24+ hours through a courier service so a drip method may be fine there. Typically, you'd like to get them out of shipping water as fast as possible though.

 

[i cant think]

I wonder if we could do an observational study thread on acclimation success here on the forums to gather data and analyze survivability of temperature only acclimation versus full blown drip acclimation. Short of doing a randomized controlled trial, we won’t definitively know, but an acclimation success mega thread would be really interesting to read for trends.

Just put up a thread as I’m also intrigued in this

 

[lulubap]

+1 to this, I’ve done this way for the past two years for fish and the only times I drip acclimate are if I have other things that need drip acclimating to the tank. For example SPS acclimating with a fish I’d drip acclimate.

This is an eye-opening thread for me. Does overkill still mean it's still safe for the fish? Or is there harm done to non-shipped fish with drip acclimation? (i.e LFS fish)

 

[Thales]

Thank you for chiming in. I appreciate it and all the fish do as well!

I think I may just have to try this method.

I wonder if we could do an observational study thread on acclimation success here on the forums to gather data and analyze survivability of temperature only acclimation versus full blown drip acclimation. Short of doing a randomized controlled trial, we won’t definitively know, but an acclimation success mega thread would be really interesting to read for trends.

The observations are there and have been for a long time. It is hard to fight against 'common wisdom' that isn't all that common.
Sorry, I have a link to an article from 2011 that covers this stuff, but I am not sure if it is allowed, so I am leaving it off.

 

[LgTas]

What would you drip acclimate?

I've drip acclimated urchins, starfish, and nems (admittedly not as slow as recommended) as the body of knowledge on the impact parameter seems pretty clear on the need. I've also had two times where a bag has ruptured during transport and I've had to just dump the urchin straight in, without incident.