Introducing New Fish To Tank

[sannesley]

What's the best way of introducing new fish to a tropical tank?

I make sure that they're intoduced with the lights off in the tank. I suspend the bag with the fish in it in the tank for 20 minutes to allow the water in the bag slowly come up to tank temperature.

Then I net the fish out of the bag and deposit them into the tank. I never pour in the water in the bag from the pet shop as I can never be sure if it contains disease or not. I'm sure that it doesn't but I don't want to take the chance

I know that some folk will introduce some of the tank water to the bag from the pet shop to allow the fish to adjust to the different water chemistry of the tank?

What way do you guys introduce your fish?

 

[dthoffsett]

I do the same think you do. There have been many discussions over whether or not adding tank water to the petstore bag is beneficial. I've read several places that it actually takes fish a month or more to adjust to different PH levels. I've haven't lost a fish yet when adding them, so I must be doing something right.

 

[Ripley]

I usually let the bag sit in the tank for about 15-20 minutes so the temps are the same ( as you do ); then I'll introduce some water into the bag and let it sit agian for 15-20 minutes. But this process really depends on what your putting in the tank. For example, some fish stores have their african cichlids at a pH of 7 when you're tank is at a pH of 7.8-8.2 or so. ( which is perfect for most african cichlids). So just keep in mind what type of fish your putting in and what they perfer, so if you have a huge pH differnce you can just add small amounts of water over a span of an hour.