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Thank you for your reply. I had no idea that this is the correct way to acclimate and went of what my local store told me. I agree that the drip acclimation method is more complicated after reading up. Thanks for your help.
I agree with eagles procedure, and basically do the same myself as far as mixing the water and netting out the fish. But not everyone agrees.
There are some very knowledgeable aquarists and biologists who only equate the temperature in the bag with the tank, then net the fish out without any mixing of waters. Their reasoning is that fish cannot possibly acclimate to substantially different water in the space of a few hours, it takes days and weeks. So while I still do the water mixing, I do so with the understanding that it may not do any good. Still I do it.
Thank you for your reply and useful information.I'm going against everyone here
Fish adsorb/ absorb (which one is it Byron) water through their skin via osmosis. This happens very quickly, within minutes. Adding tank water to a bag of fish allows the fish to absorb some of the tank water into their body and to get use to the conditions of the new tank water.
For fish bought from a local store and that have only been in the bag for 30-60 minutes, I recommend the following acclimation.
Float the bag of fish in the tank for about 30 minutes.
5 minutes after you start floating the bag you add half a cup of tank water to the bag. Every 5 minutes after that you add another half a cup of tank water to the bag.
Over the 30 minute acclimation period, you want to double the amount of water in the bag.
After about 30 minutes you pour the fish into the tank.
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The plop n drop method is used for fish that have been in bags for a really long time (more than 12 hours).
When fish are in a bag of water for a long time, they produce ammonia and it builds up in the bag of water. If the ammonia goes up really high and you pour this ammonia water into the tank, you can get an ammonia spike in the tank and kill the fish. This is more of an issue in tanks with a pH above 7.0.
In this situation, you float the bag in the tank for about 15-30 minutes.
After 10 minutes, add some tank water to the bag to help dilute the ammonia in the bag. Do this a couple of times while the bag is floating. You want to double the amount of water in the bag.
Then get a bucket and put a net in the bucket. Carefully pour the bag of water and fish into the net that is in the bucket. Then put the fish in the tank and tip the dirty ammonia water onto the lawn.
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If you are getting fish shipped to your house and the fish are going to be in the bag for a long time, you should find out what the pH, GH and temperature is at the suppliers, before you get the fish. Make sure your tank water is similar to the supplier's tank water so there is less stress on the fish.
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There is no need to float bags for more than 30 minutes because the temperatures match up quite quickly, usually within 15 minutes. If the fish is in a very large bag of water (10 litres or more), then you can float it for longer. However, the average fish is in 1 litre of water and that will match the tank water temperature pretty quickly.
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You should quarantine all new fish and this prevents unwanted diseases getting into the main display tank when you pour the bag of fish into the tank.
I can answer that. Adsorb is where something attaches to the surface only, eg medication sticks to the surface of carbon. Absorb is where it penetrates inside so fish absorb water through their skin.
