Losing fish in QT

[Frtdrmrose7]

To be clear, I used the amquel in the bag upon opening it. None of the amquel and copper should have mixed but thanks for watching out!

99.9% of all LFS have some level of copper in their tanks which comes in the bag with the fish. That may have been the beginning of the end for them. I’m sorry

 

[MnFish1]

99.9% of all LFS have some level of copper in their tanks which comes in the bag with the fish. That may have been the beginning of the end for them. I’m sorry

My LFS has no copper in their water - and a SG of 1.025. But if what you're saying is adding amquel to a shipping bag is not a good idea - ++++++++++ on that

 

[AaronFReef]

My stores don’t have copper either as they have inverts in their fish systems. I had read on here that it’s good to add amquel to neutralize the ammonia before upping the pH by acclimating. So much for that advice though!

So before I had to swap all my water out I wanted to try another batch of firefish. Called my LFS (different on than last), asked what salinity which I hear 1.024, matched my tank to it, and a few hours later went off to get three.

I add the air stone and start floating them. I check their salinity at the end of the float and it’s 1.030!!!!! I call the store up who thanks me for catching their mistake so they can fix their system, and I begin frantically trying to acclimate them. I up the salinity of my tank to 1.028 and drip them to it over forty five mins. While they’re dripping I have the specimen container in a bowl full of 85 degree water and I check every two minutes to keep the temp of the fish at 78 like my display. At the end when salinity matches, I give them a ten minute hydroplex dip in their water while still floating in the warm bath keeping the temp right. Then I scoop them out and rinse them quickly in tank water and drop them in the tank.

If this crazy level of prep doesn’t work, I don’t know what will. They seemed healthier going into the system so we will see what happens now. [emoji1696]

 

[AaronFReef]

 

[AaronFReef]

Is this too much flow?

 

[MnFish1]

My stores don’t have copper either as they have inverts in their fish systems. I had read on here that it’s good to add amquel to neutralize the ammonia before upping the pH by acclimating. So much for that advice though!

So before I had to swap all my water out I wanted to try another batch of firefish. Called my LFS (different on than last), asked what salinity which I hear 1.024, matched my tank to it, and a few hours later went off to get three.

I add the air stone and start floating them. I check their salinity at the end of the float and it’s 1.030!!!!! I call the store up who thanks me for catching their mistake so they can fix their system, and I begin frantically trying to acclimate them. I up the salinity of my tank to 1.028 and drip them to it over forty five mins. While they’re dripping I have the specimen container in a bowl full of 85 degree water and I check every two minutes to keep the temp of the fish at 78 like my display. At the end when salinity matches, I give them a ten minute hydroplex dip in their water while still floating in the warm bath keeping the temp right. Then I scoop them out and rinse them quickly in tank water and drop them in the tank.

If this crazy level of prep doesn’t work, I don’t know what will. They seemed healthier going into the system so we will see what happens now. [emoji1696]

I dont do any acclimating except temperature if I buy something from the LFS. There isn't enough ammonia anyway - its more if its shipped overnight/longer (IMHO)

 

[AaronFReef]

I dont do any acclimating except temperature if I buy something from the LFS. There isn't enough ammonia anyway - its more if its shipped overnight/longer (IMHO)

What if the salinity is different?

 

[MnFish1]

What if the salinity is different?

I have never checked it. If its an 'overnight' shipment - I do as instructed. I do not try to match anything. Have not had any immediate problems. My opinion (KEY WORD OPINION) - when it rains on the reef (lets say a monsoon) - the salinity changes quickly - there are not mass die offs (at least I dont think so)

 

[MnFish1]

My stores don’t have copper either as they have inverts in their fish systems. I had read on here that it’s good to add amquel to neutralize the ammonia before upping the pH by acclimating. So much for that advice though!

So before I had to swap all my water out I wanted to try another batch of firefish. Called my LFS (different on than last), asked what salinity which I hear 1.024, matched my tank to it, and a few hours later went off to get three.

I add the air stone and start floating them. I check their salinity at the end of the float and it’s 1.030!!!!! I call the store up who thanks me for catching their mistake so they can fix their system, and I begin frantically trying to acclimate them. I up the salinity of my tank to 1.028 and drip them to it over forty five mins. While they’re dripping I have the specimen container in a bowl full of 85 degree water and I check every two minutes to keep the temp of the fish at 78 like my display. At the end when salinity matches, I give them a ten minute hydroplex dip in their water while still floating in the warm bath keeping the temp right. Then I scoop them out and rinse them quickly in tank water and drop them in the tank.

If this crazy level of prep doesn’t work, I don’t know what will. They seemed healthier going into the system so we will see what happens now. [emoji1696]

curious - why put the water at 85 degrees???? thats way too warm?

 

[AaronFReef]

curious - why put the water at 85 degrees???? thats way too warm?

I know, right? But it worked to keep the temp of the fish at 78. I’m wondering if dripping through the IV fish acclimation tube doesn’t cool the water drastically.

 

[MnFish1]

I know, right? But it worked to keep the temp of the fish at 78. I’m wondering if dripping through the IV fish acclimation tube doesn’t cool the water drastically.

dunno - never thought of it. it could be that it warmed it too much?

 

[AaronFReef]

dunno - never thought of it. it could be that it warmed it too much?

No. It was fine. I kept checking the fish water. Constant 78.

 

[Flexin]

Am I missing something, you have the heater set at 85? If the heater is set at 85 and the water is at 78, you need a new heater. No guarantee it's not spiking.

I don't do drip acclimation, I agree with others, you don't want to go too long. 10 mins float the bag, a small container of tank water in the bag, wait 10 mins, again, and again, then introduce the fish to the tank.

Also, it takes time to truly cycle a tank and you may just need to do more frequent water changes. If you use an additive, like stability, measure and stay on top of water changes until your QT is done. How did you cycle your DT?

 

[ngoodermuth]

Yep, I wouldn’t have dripped either. I would have bumped my QT to maybe 1.026-1.027 and then plopped them in. Remember that going down is much easier than going up

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Large facilities like Quality Marine used drip acclimation years ago due to the large volume of fish and inverts they were receiving each day. It allowed one tech to acclimate hundreds of specimens at a time. In fact they had both acclimation tables and mold injected cubes that allowed a sort of pump and dump before introduction to the main holding systems. So they would just open the bags and dump the fish into the cube and turn on water supply coming from the main system and allow the internal overflows to dump the overflow down the drain.

Not sure what the large operations do today but there fish loss was very small during the process and subsequent holding times.

I have practiced all the outlined acclimation techniques mentioned here and certain fish do better with temp acclimation and salinity match and then release depending on how long they are in the bag. Long term in the bag means you have to match PH as well to prevent fish loss. The later is the reason for the slow drip pump and dump system the wholesalers use. There are other techniques that match the average PH in the bags to a large tank with Co2 injection to lower PH to match the PH in the bags. Then the techs release all the fish into a common tank and allow the PH to rise over the next 24 hours by reducing the Co2 injection. Then transfer to holding systems or treatment tanks as necessary.

 

[AaronFReef]

Thanks everyone for the help. As usual, there’s lots of ways to skin a cat it seems which makes sense considering all the trade offs.

Good news: my three new residents are settling in and have a good appetite. They ate some mysis shrimp which I vacuumed up when they were done just a minute ago.

I’ll probably do pellets next since it’s easier to see if you miss any of them then the mysis.