Just Got 4 Cherry Barbs From Lfs

celaeno · Feb 25, 2008

i just got 4 cherry barbs from an lfs i don't usually buy from. good thing i tested the pH in the bag before doing anything, because it reads 6.0 (and is probably lower). i used a non-expired api liquid pH test kit.

my tank's pH is 7.0. how should i acclimate them to my much higher pH?

bountyhunter3423 · Feb 25, 2008

celaeno said:
i just got 4 cherry barbs from an lfs i don't usually buy from. good thing i tested the pH in the bag before doing anything, because it reads 6.0 (and is probably lower). i used a non-expired api liquid pH test kit.

my tank's pH is 7.0. how should i acclimate them to my much higher pH?

i had the same delema i had gotten about 6 of them at one point and the ph in the bag was about 6.2 and my tank was 7 i had taken the chance and they all had ajusted to the ph change i was expecting them to have a problem but they lived for a cople months then 2 died but i still have 3 of them and its been about 5 1 year so they ajusted quite well for the ph difference. also if they are younger they may not ajust as well, the 2 that died were smaller than the others so i may lower the ph a little bit if they are younger.

BigC · Feb 25, 2008

I cant believe your LFS is keeping his tank/s as low a pH6.0.without going into a chemistry lesson you will have to acclimatise your new fish very slowly.
Regards
BigC

Bignose · Feb 25, 2008

cel, a more important question is what are the two hardnesses? If you have the test kits, both GH and KH would be great.

Sometimes is it not bad to change a full pH unit, sometimes it can be deadly. A lot depends on if there is a large jump in hardness, too.

celaeno · Feb 25, 2008

i put the 4 cherry barbs into my 10g 3 hours ago, but i never bothered to test the GH/KH of the lfs water. i figured it'd be about the same as mine (GH~4, KH~3), as the lfs is quite close to me. but the pH of 6.0 really shocked me.

this is probably the last time i buy fish from that store. too bad they have a lot of the types i want (expensive though).

Bignose · Feb 25, 2008

If the hardnesses are pretty close, I wouldn't even worry about it. A lot of times what is called "pH shock" is really hardness shock.

See this old thread http

/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/20...-Home-Aquarium/

I posted a lot of evidence that a fish can change it's internal pH over 4 units per hour if the environment demands it, but large changes in the hardness really stress a fish out. Usually, water with different pHs also have different hardnesses, which is why it has been long called pH shock, but much more often than not it is the hardness shock that is the real killer.

rdd1952 · Feb 25, 2008

From my experience, it seems that the pH in the bag drops once the bag is sealed up. The bag pH always seems to be about 6, or the lowest reading on my chart. I know all of the fish stores near me have roughly the same water as me and aren't keeping all their fish in water with a pH of 6 or below.

Bignose · Feb 26, 2008

rdd1952 said:
From my experience, it seems that the pH in the bag drops once the bag is sealed up. The bag pH always seems to be about 6, or the lowest reading on my chart. I know all of the fish stores near me have roughly the same water as me and aren't keeping all their fish in water with a pH of 6 or below.

Given a small sealed bag, and freaked out fish that are respiring rapidly -- the amount of CO2 the fish expels is going to be high, I can believe that the CO2 helps change the pH of the bag water pretty quick. The extra CO2 wouldn't change the GH,either, so even though the pH may be lower, you shouldn't get a hardness shock if the shop water and your water came from the same source.

rdd1952 · Feb 26, 2008

I have read that some people use the plop method of acclimating fish they have ordered online for that reason. Th pH has dropped because of the CO2 in the bag water but once it is opened, the CO2 can escape and the pH rises pretty quickly. From the articles, the pH rise isn't so much of an issue as is the fact that all the ammonia that is also in the water becomes so much more toxic at the new high pH.

Bignose · Feb 26, 2008

The biggest thing to me is that fish in nature experience large changes in pH very quickly. Rainwater usually is very different than the body of water the fish lives in, but fish don't die during a sudden downpour of rain. I've seen ponds with fish living in them more than triple in size with a good summer afternoon downpour, and they don't all end up as floaters. The pH of bodies of water with aquatic plants can change thrughout the day as the sun comes out or behind clouds. The plant activity, consuming CO2 is probably the big one, can change the pH more than a full unit over the course of a day. The sun's heating the pond also changes the pH via temperature effects. If the body of water is large, like the Rift Lakes in Africa, there are significant pH gradients in the water.

pH is usually far, far too worried about in this hobby, I think. I don't quite know why this misconception is so hard to shake. Maybe because the test for pH is significantly easier to perform than the hardness ones? Maybe because we all remember testing various liquid with a fistful of litmus strips in grade school -- and hearing how a pH of 7 is neutral. I just don't know why pH is so stressed and by comparison hardness is neglected.