Acclimation - Plop Method

by Paul Velasco

NOTE: This is a thread pulled from the CAAS web forum. Find the original topic on the CAAS Forum

This is my method. Not an original method, but this is one I got many years ago searching for fish information. This may not work in all situations, but is a method I have been doing for a long time. My experience is mostly with South American fish - discus, angels, apistos - and may not work with other fish (Rift Lake, Salt water, reef).

So here goes the method:

Materials:

1. Correct size net (Bigger fish bigger net )
2. Five gallon bucket
3. Novaqua Amquel

Procedure:

1. Take net and hang over bucket.
2. Squirt Amquel into fish tank and bag (Exact amount is not necessary, just a nice big squirt).
3. Dump fish and water into net.
4. Take fish and plop in fish tank.

It really is that easy. I have done this for years with Wild and Domestic Discus and angels. Have never lost one to acclimation problems. The Novaqua or Amquel ties up any ammonia that is in the bag or water. Fish are only in the nasty shipping/transport water for a brief time.

I know I know, everyone says to make the bag temp the same. Add water to bag slowly over a period of time. blah blah blah. Personally, get the fish out of the bag as soon as possible.

Just to give you some things to think about:

What is on that bag?

You never know where that bag the fish are in has been. You want to get that into your system? You will spend more money curing the fish (3x -10x the cost) by contaminating your fish tanks with whatever bug is on the bag.

Must match pH with what is in the bag...

The pH - Most likely very low in the bag. This is great! At low ph Ammonia is less toxic. Now add your tank water, most likely higher pH, and you have made the water toxic to the fish (Raise pH, raise Ammonia level). I would never add water to the shipping bag.

Temperature?

Takes a few weeks for the fish to acclimate. The 1+ hrs left in the bag will do them nothing. Get them in the right water temperature as quickly as possible. This will save you lots of headaches!

Over the years I have found a few instances where I could not get away from the traditional acclimation process.

1. Very different temperatures. Going from cold to hot is not a problem, use the above method. Going from hot to cold will kill fish immediately. In this case I was acclimating some native fish to aquarium life. They were coming from a very hot pool (90+°F) to my fish room (78°F). Thought they would be ok. Dead in a matter of hours.
2. Salt in the aquarium. This is mostly from LFS bought fish. Never knew that my favortie LFS used salt in all the tanks. Wondered why my fish seemed to die after a few days. Ah ha, salt! Going from a salted fish tank to an unsalted fish tank is hard. Again, I would use the traditional method.