The Introduction Of New Fish Into Your Tank..

[The Taffy Apple]

Morning all, hope this thread finds you all well.

I added 3 x Albino Corydoras yesterday to the 110L tank. Done it as i've always introduced new fish into my tank and everything seems to be ok.. but it got me wondering... how stressful can this process be to fish? I mean, we're guaranteed this is AT LEAST the second tank they've been in, and there's no chance they were born and bred in the tank at the L.F.S...

So how many tanks, do you think, these fish from our L.F.S's have seen in their relatively short existence? The lad at my local store takes great pride in telling me how they do things..buying from a respected wholeseller who breeds fish, from there they go into one his dozen or so QT tanks out the back of his shop, then depending if you've contacted him about what fish you want then they either go from there straight into a bag to your tank or into the sales tank at the front of his shop... so there's 3 at the very leaset..

Any comments, facts or opinions?

Terry.

 

[moochy13]

i think maybe its less stressful than we might think, within reason. i have to be honest, i dont bother with the whole drop adding thing. i float the bag in the tank for, well however long until i remember/get round to emptying it, then net the fish out and put them in the tank. the only time ive ever lost fish within a week of adding them like this is when i recently put some neons in my tank. however not only are they notoriously weak, it was also a bit of a risk as i have an angel that i thought was borderline too small to eat them, and i think i was wrong. i only found 2 bodies.

generally i think if i add fish like i do and they survive a week, if they die after that its not because of how i added them to the tank. i think maybe it would be more stressful if they get put in bare tanks ? certainly the first thing any of my new fish do is hide for a little while.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

i think maybe its less stressful than we might think, within reason. i have to be honest, i dont bother with the whole drop adding thing. i float the bag in the tank for, well however long until i remember/get round to emptying it, then net the fish out and put them in the tank. the only time ive ever lost fish within a week of adding them like this is when i recently put some neons in my tank. however not only are they notoriously weak, it was also a bit of a risk as i have an angel that i thought was borderline too small to eat them, and i think i was wrong. i only found 2 bodies.

generally i think if i add fish like i do and they survive a week, if they die after that its not because of how i added them to the tank. i think maybe it would be more stressful if they get put in bare tanks ? certainly the first thing any of my new fish do is hide for a little while.

Indeed. I mean, you go into 'less reputable' L.F.S's and there maybe something like 30/40 Mollies/Guppys/Tetra in a 19L tank...how can that not be stressful to them? "Ah, but they're not in the tank longer than 3/4 days see...". Doesn't matter IMHO.

Terry.

 

[moochy13]

i think we have to consider that its not practical for most LFS to keep tanks that we would deem big enough to hold the number of fish a shop will stock. also, to consider what the filtration is like. i would imagine the setups 'behind the scenes' are pretty monumental. also thinking about what the stock turnover actually is. shops wont order more than they think they can sell, and i assume order based on past sales figures. certain fish like guppies, neons, bronze cores, common fish like that i would guess have a much higher turnover than more expensive/rare/specialised fish.

for example a tank might contain 50 neons. somebody could easily buy a quarter of them in one go. you wont see a small tank with 50 baby hopolos in though, because generally they arent as commonly brought, and dont get purchased in as large groups. i think its a lot mroe involved than it looks from our point of view.

 

[Tizer]

i dont go mad with the dripping water in the bag either, i float it, bosh in a cup of tank water, fiddle around then net them out and plop them in usually within 20 min. I dont think its a particularly stressful event, but to be honest, none of us will ever know.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

For more hardy fish, floating the bag for 20mins or so and adding a bit of water is fine, however for more sensitive fish i always recommend you drip acclimatise, just put the fish and water in a bucket, tie a knot in some airline and siphon from your tank to the bucket for an hour or two, depending on the fish

 

[willowstwin]

I was told to float the bag for 20+ minutes, open it, let in a bit oof tank water, wait another 5 - 10 minutes and then slowly an gently tilt the bag so they can swim out themselves

 

[lilfishie]

i float them for 15-20 min, then open the bag and let the water go in by itself, the bag will then tip and the fish swim out when there ready, usually within 5 min, never had any problems doing it this way

 

[eaglesaquarium]

There are dangers when adding the LFS tank water to your tank, and there are reasons that a slower acclimatization process is worth the effort.


If you are dealing with sensitive fish, or if the water the fish are coming from is drastically different, the slower the acclimatization, the better in my opinion. As I see, I would rather spend a little extra time and fuss for all fish added to my tank, than to take my chances that some are more sensitive than others. Also, I want to limit the risk of any potential disease vectors that enter my tank. There is no good reason to add someone else's tank water to an established tank. That is like playing Russian roulette. Sure, the odds may be long that a problem may occur, but why chance it?