To my knowledge, there has been considerable debate on proper
acclimation procedures for fish over the years. That which I posted
has proven the most successful method for a thriving tropical fish and
goldfish hatchery operated by my family during the last forty years.
Life underwater can be a stressful excerise. Many freshwater fish are
evolved to adjust to wide changes in pH, temperature, dissolved
oxygen, and other water quaility parameters in every 24 hour period:
these parameters are rarely stable in nature and fish must be able to
adjust as changes occur. Harm occurs to fish in transport when
tolerance limits are exceeded (e.g. ammonia buildup and oxygen
depletion in a bag) or when change occurs too rapidly (e.g. dumping a
bag of water and fish at pH 6.8 into a pond at pH 8.1). The key is to
get the fish out of the bag as soon as possible, but to not expose
them to completely new conditions too rapidly.

If you have a quarantine tank, by all means use it when you bring home
new fish. You must still acclimate fish from the tank to the pond
when quarantine is over.

wrote:

no, if fish have been in the bag for more than 1/2 and hour the water now has ammonia
but the CO2 blown off by the fish pushes the pH down making the ammonia less toxic.
open the bag and the CO2 is blown off, pH rises and ammonia is more toxic. adding
pond water to the bucket for some reason releases other toxins as well. the minute
the bag is opened the fish gotta be moved.
changes in pH up to 7.0 or down to 7.0 wont hurt fish, up past 7.0, it takes 24 hours
to acclimate to 0.2 pH units. so if the fish is coming from acidic waters (ask when
you buy them) and going into alkaline water, "acclimating" over an hour isnt going to
do anything. better is to pH that quarantine tank down to 7.0 and over the next weeks
bring it up to the alkaline pH. high jump in alkalinity can bring on dropsy.
temp is not a problem if it goes up, but no more than a 4oF drop over 24 hours. so
dropping temp in an hour isnt going to do anything for the fish. drops in temp bring
on ich and dropsy. better to gradually lower the temp in a quarantine tank over
several days. Ingrid

When fish are transported in bags,
it is best to pour the contents into an open container, add an
airstone to replenish lost dissolved oxygen, and over a five or ten
minute period add destination water (pond, tank, etc) at least equal
in volume to the transport water. This gives fish time to adjust to
water chemistry. Follow up with temperature acclimation (add more
destination water until temperatures are similar) and release the
fish.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.